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forms. It has also recommended the in- jection in the last baseline study with Zubin Irani, participated in the plenary
clusion of state government nominee in regard to the projections for the 2020- session of the event which was attended
SITP Project Scrutiny Committee and in 21, taking into account the current trend by heads of states and heads of interna-
Board of Directors of the Park. Then the of growth and various initiatives of the tional organisations. WTO hosted the
Scheme should be amended to improve Government, domestic market size of the event at the request of the Cotton — 4
the ease of doing business and improve technical textiles is expected to cross 2 countries, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and
investment attractiveness by reducing lakh crores by the year 2020-21. Mali to celebrate their official applica-
the minimum number of promoters The ministry claimed that the usage tion for the recognition of 7th October as
required, removing the requirement to of Agro textiles in the North East Region World Cotton Day by the United Nations.
submit bank appraisal report along with has led to average increase in farmers’ World Cotton Day celebrated the many
the proposal, modifying Technical Evalu- income by 67 per cent to 75 per cent. In- advantages of cotton, from its qualities
ation Criteria to remove weightage for crease in intensity of crop cycles by 3 to as a natural fibre, to the benefits people
State IDC involvement etc. 4 crops in a year is seen as there is cul- obtain from its production, transforma-
tivation throughout the year. It has led tion, trade and consumption. World Cot-
n the meanwhile, the Ministry of to reduced water consumption by 30 ton Day also served to shed light on the
Textiles in its annual report released per cent-45 per cent and has prevented challenges faced by cotton economies
I on December 27, 2019 claimed that damages to crops due to birds and hail- around the world because cotton is im-
the technical textiles is the harbinger stone. Use of Geotextiles in infrastruc- portant to least developed, developing
of many new age applications covering and developed economies worldwide.
almost all walks of life, and having im- Between 2011 and 2018, India imple-
mense potential for bringing in higher One of the key driving mented a Cotton Technical Assistance
level of productivity, efficiency, cost eco- factors for industrial Programme (Cotton TAP-I) of about USD
nomics; and offering innovative solu- 2.85 million for seven African countries
tions to many engineering and general transformation is the namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and
applications. In addition to their com- promotion of industrial Chad and also Uganda, Malawi and Ni-
mercial use, technical textiles have been geria. The technical assistance focused
identified for mandatory use across vari- clusters, geographical on improving the competitiveness of the
ous important missions, programmes cotton and cotton-based textiles and ap-
and schemes of the Government of India. agglomerations of firms parel industry in these countries through
Some of these are National Health and hubs of production, a series of interventions which had sig-
Mission, Jal Jivan Mission, National Hor- nificant outcomes leading to a demand
ticulture Mission and infrastructure which is a viable solution for a follow on project.
development of highways, railways and for economic growth and At the Partners Conference in Ge-
ports. To boost a rapid growth of the neva, Textiles Minister announced that
technical textile segment in the country, competitiveness India will launch the second phase of the
207 technical textiles items have been Cotton Technical Assistance Programme
brought under separate head in the Har- (TAP) for Africa. In the five year long sec-
monised System of Nomenclature (HSN) ture projects has led to improvement of ond phase, the programme will be scaled
code under the Foreign Trade Policy. serviceability of the infrastructure and up in size and coverage and will be intro-
With a view to derive the benefits of increased maintenance intervals for in- duced in five additional countries, name-
technical textiles in various fields of ap- frastructure such as roads and hill slopes. ly Mali, Ghana, Togo, Zambia and Tanza-
plications, currently 92 application areas The Government of India, partici- nia. The Cotton TAP programme will now
have been identified for mandatory use pated in World Cotton Day celebrations cover 11 African countries including the
across 10 Central Ministries. The Bureau observed from 7th October to 11th Oc- C4 (Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali).
of Indian Standards (BIS) has developed tober 2019 at the World Trade Organi- The ministry’s view is that cotton is
standards for 348 technical textiles sation (WTO) in Geneva. The WTO or- a global commodity that is produced all
products. On request from the Industry, ganized the World Cotton Day event in over the world and a single tonne of cot-
Ministry of Textiles has included 6 ad- collaboration with the Secretariats of ton provides year-round employment
ditional courses for technical textiles in the United Nations Food and Agriculture for five people on average. Cotton is a
its Skill Development Programme called Organization (FAO), the United Nations drought — resistant crop ideal for arid
Samarth. Conference on Trade and Development climates, it occupies just 2.1 per cent of
In terms of the projections of the last (UNCTAD), the International Trade Cen- the world’s arable land, yet it meets 27
baseline survey on technical textiles, tre (ITC) and the International Cotton per cent of the world’s textiles need. In
the market size in India is projected as Advisory Committee (ICAC). addition to its fibre used in textiles and
1,16,217 crores. Although, there is no pro- Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti apparel, food products are also derived

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