Government approves 18 R&D projects of technical textiles worth Rs. 46.74 crore (US$ 5.62 million)

According to an official statement, Union Minister Mr. Piyush Goyal presided over the 7th meeting of the Mission Steering Group of the National Technical Textiles Mission, which authorised 18 R&D projects worth Rs. 46.74 crore (US$ 5.62 million).

Projects approved include those in the Geotech, Protech, Indutech, Sustainable Textiles, Sportech, Smart E-Textiles, and Meditech categories. According to the textiles minister, the industry's proactive and aggressive engagement is critical for India's indigenous development of technical textiles.

Mr. Goyal also discussed the status of various components of the National Technical Textiles Mission, such as the review of sanctioned R&D products, R&D projects in Mission mode, the formation of a committee for Startups in Technical Textiles under guidelines, and certain outreach activities and events.

Apart from import-dependent technical textiles products and specialty fibres in India, Goyal added that the emphasis should be on R&D for globally heavily imported technological textiles products.

The minister also reviewed the progress made in the areas of education, training, and skill development. As a result, 26 applications totalling Rs. 151.02 crore (US$ 18.16 million) from 15 public and 11 private institutions were approved for the introduction of papers, the purchase of laboratory infrastructure, and the training of trainers in a variety of technical textile application areas.

There are 14 high-value initiatives, three prototype grant projects, and one ideation grant project among the 18 R&D projects. The projects covering various application areas of technical textiles, including one from Geotech, two from Protech, two from Indutech, two from Sportech, five from Sustainable Textiles, three from Meditech, three from Smart & E-Textiles, and one from Geotextiles, were authorised.

The authorised projects were led by institutes and research agencies such as BTRA, ATIRA, IIT Delhi, IIT Jammu, NIT Jalandhar, IIT Kharagpur, CSIR New Delhi, and IIT Madras, among others.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.