Need to focus on man-made textile ecosystem and attract world’s biggest textile cos to India

India is the third-largest textile exporter in the world after China and the European Union, but is a distant third with China exporting 10 times what India does. However, in the more lucrative apparel exports, India is a distant sixth having been overtaken by Vietnam and Bangladesh.

The production-linked incentive scheme, or PLI, for textiles, seeks to rectify some disadvantages that India suffers vis-à-vis countries upcoming countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh by way of costlier power and labour. Last week, the Indian government selected 61 companies from a list of 67 applicants who are eligible to get incentives, if they bring in one scheme, at least Rs 300 crore of investment and achieve Rs 600 crore of turnover by the first year of performance, which is FY25.

To understand more about the government’s intention and its goals, CNBC-TV18’s Latha Venkatesh spoke to Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, and Arvind Singhal, Chairman of Technopak Advisors.