To meet the challenges and opportunities arisen due to outbreak of Carona Virus in China, a symposium on ‘Emerging Opportunities for Indian Textiles and Crafts’ was organised by Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts under the aegis of Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India at New Delhi.
Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani, Hon’ble Union Minister of Textiles was the Chief Guest. Shri Ravi Capoor, Secretary [Textiles] was the Guest of Honour. Shri Shantmanu, Development Commissioner [Handicrafts], Shri Sanjay Rastogi, DC [Handlooms] were also present in the symposium. Shri Ravi Capoor, Secretary [Textiles] delivered the key note address to the stalwarts exporters belonging to handicrafts, handloom, textiles, carpet, Synthetic along with Buying agents association. Shri Capoor, Secretary Textiles said the whole world knows that the global value chain has been adversely impacted due to situation in our neighbourhood i.e China. He said that every crisis has an opportunity and Indian industry could leverage the bold moves made by Govt. of India around man-made fibers. Further, the Government support through a dedicated mission around technical textiles should be used to catapult India into the global stage. Hon’ble Minister of Textiles Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani said that some of the new areas which the Government would like to encourage are technical textiles, support to MSME and Government would like to see Industry responding by positioning India not only as a sourcing hub but also as an end to end leader in Textiles sector.
Shri Rakesh Kumar, Director General – EPCH while speaking on the occasion made some innovative and bold steps around “Namaste India” to attract overseas buyers towards Indian fairs and thereby to look at India as a compliant and safe hub. Some of suggestions were MAI grant for the buyers from developed countries, long term visas, involving embassies and consulates in aggressive marketing and finally assisting foreign buyers to set up dedicated joint ventures with Indian manufactures.
During symposium various issues pertaining to Government support with respect to nodal officer in Embassies for export facilitation and nodal officer in Ministry of Textiles for trade facilitation, issuance of phyto-sanitary certification, support for RoDTEP scheme were raised to which while responding in the end, Secretary Textiles Shri Capoor assured all possible help and appreciated the idea of “Namaste India” campaign to be undertaken by all EPCs in the next two months to project India as sourcing hub destination and encourage maximum visitors to the shows in India. He assured setting up of help desk in the Ministry for facilitating exports and issues pertaining to exports.
The event was well attended by many EPCs, key exporters, officials from different ministries, and buying agents.
