What progress has the committee on technical textiles made?
We haven t made much progress, because unlike in conventional textiles, there is not much information available, and not readily at that. The activities here are quite disorganised, and there is absolutely no information. Our first task is to establish a nodal agency, based on a peripheral suggestion in the National Textile Policy, for which SASMIRA has been identified. We will first concentrate on geotextiles, as a number of road projects are coming up, and these products will find an immediate domestic market. But at a later stage, other areas such as automotive textiles, medical textiles, etc, will also be taken up. At this stage, one nodal agency may not be enough, and we may have to set up a nodal agency for each sector, and also on a regional basis. But this will happen much later. To fill up the information gap on knowledge and database, we are commissioning a survey on technical textiles, which will cover all aspects. Negotiations are on with various agencies for conducting the
