The Secretary (Textiles) chaired the 10th Empowered Programme Committee (EPC) meeting under the National Technical Textiles Mission, at Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi. The committee has approved 04 Start-Ups with a grant of approx. INR 50 Lakhs, each, under the ‘Grant for Research & Entrepreneurship across Aspiring Innovators in Technical Textiles (GREAT)’ scheme. The approved Start-Up projects are focused on key strategic areas of Medical Textiles, Industrial Textiles and Protective Textiles.
Source: PIB
England: Nonwoven fabricates company Nonwoven has announced ambitious plans targeting substantial revenue growth in the oral pouch delivery market, estimated to be worth $5.5 billion globally, with an annual growth rate of 30 percent. The ambitious target follows an extensive £13 million business transformation program which has included significant self-funded capex investment in manufacturing, plant and equipment, an end-to-end operational efficiency program and an enhancement in R&D and innovation capability, to enable the servicing of growing order volumes.
Source: Textile World
Launches App and website for Bharat Tex 2025
Building on the success of its inaugural edition in 2024, Bharat Tex 2025 aims to further elevate its stature by attracting over 5,000 exhibitors, 6,000 international buyers from over 120 countries, and more than 1,20,000 visitors. The event will feature comprehensive pavilions, showcasing the entire textile value chain under one roof.
Union Textiles Secretary, Mrs. Neelam Shami Rao applauded textile industry bodies for their proactive efforts in organizing Bharat Tex 2025. Describing it as the largest and most comprehensive textiles event ever, she commended the commitment of textile Export Promotion Councils and other industry bodies for their relentless efforts and dedication in bringing the entire value chain of textiles under the Bharat Tex umbrella.
The Secretary was speaking on the occasion of the unveiling of the Bharat Tex 2025 app and website at Udyog Bhawan. Bharat Tex 2025, organized by 11 major textile industry bodies and supported by the Ministry of Textiles, promises to be a landmark event showcasing the diversity, scale, and capability of India’s textile sector.
The Bharat Tex app is a part of the overall technology platform designed to facilitate seamless engagement, networking, and information dissemination for this largest global textile event. Designed to enhance user convenience by offering exhibitor profiles, session details, and interactive maps, it is a comprehensive tool for buyers, exhibitors, and visitors to explore the vast scale and diversity of India’s textile ecosystem, connect with global stakeholders, and stay informed about key events during and after the expo.
Source: PIB
DPIIT is set to release guidelines shortly for sharing specific data and maps from the PM Gati Shakti portal with the private sector. This initiative aims to enhance project planning and logistics management by providing access to essential data layers. Fees for accessing this data are yet to be determined. The government has announced to provide certain data and maps from the PM Gati Shakti portal to the private sector, a decision which could help them optimize last-mile delivery services and develop infrastructure-based applications. Using these data layers like track length details, railway stations, DFC (Dedicated Freight Corridor), Good Sheds, national and state highways/ district layers, MMLPs (Multi Modal Logistics Parks), warehouses, existing airports from different ministries will help private sector to optimize last mile delivery services, developing infrastructure-based apps, smart city solutions and tech-driven logistics management and also enable them for informed decision and better planning in healthcare sector, disaster management, agriculture sector, and food distribution.
Source: The Economic Times
The trade war between the US and China is anticipated to boost Indian exports to the American market, driven by the imposition of higher tariffs on Chinese goods. Significant export gains for Indian sectors such as electrical machinery, auto components, mobile, pharma, chemicals, and apparel are expected, contingent on India's production capacity and competitiveness. During April-November 2024-25, the US was the second-largest trading partner of India with USD 82.52 billion bilateral trade in goods (USD 52.89 billion worth of exports, USD 29.63 billion of imports and USD 23.26 billion trade surplus). In 2021-24, America was the largest trading partner of India.
Source: The Economic Times
The government is developing schemes for MSME exporters to provide easy credit, enhance factoring services, and help tackle non-tariff measures. These initiatives, part of the Export Promotion Mission with a budget of Rs 2,250 crore, aim to boost India's exports. These schemes are being formulated under the export promotion mission, announced in the Union Budget for 2025-26. Export factoring services, a widely used financing instrument globally, have low adoption in India due to high factoring costs involving higher rates of interest, higher risk premiums and lack of parity with subvention schemes.
Source: The Economic Times
The government plans to set up Bharat Trade Net, a unified platform for trade documentation and financing solutions similar to UPI. This ambitious project aims to digitize trade documentation, streamline interactions among various agencies, and enhance access to export credits. The initiative may take 2-3 years to be fully operational.
The Bharat Trade Net would enable the digitisation of over 30 trade documents, such as Bills of Lading, Promissory Notes, for secure electronic issuance, transfer, and storage, where required. Exporters and importers would be major beneficiaries as the platform would help in getting faster clearances and export credit access. It will help convert critical trade documents like Bills of Lading, Letters of Credit, and Customs Declarations into secure digital formats; ensure real-time, secure data sharing between exporters, banks, regulatory authorities, and global trade networks; and help MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and exporters access loans and credit by integrating financial institutions into the system. Besides, it would help automate compliance with global standards like UNCITRAL MLETR (United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records), and UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission for Europe).
Source: The Economic Times
In a recent interactive session held in Dhaka, Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Pranay Verma, emphasised the vital cooperation between India and Bangladesh in the readymade garments (RMG) and textile sector, highlighting it as a reflection of the interdependence and mutual benefits shared by the two nations. The session, organised by the Indian High Commission, brought together prominent business leaders and representatives from Bangladesh’s textile industry. It was conducted in anticipation of the Bharat Tex 2025, a global textile exhibition set to take place in New Delhi from 14th-17th February 2025. According to the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), Bangladesh imported 1.215 million tonnes of yarn last year, primarily cotton yarn, marking an impressive 31.45 per cent increase from 924,000 tonnes in 2023.
Source: Apparel Resource
The downturn in Germany's manufacturing sector softened in January, with goods producers reporting the slowest declines in both output and new orders for eight months, according to the latest Hamburg Commercial Bank (HCOB) purchasing managers’ index (PMI) survey. Weak demand conditions once again weighed on manufacturers' pricing power as the year began. The headline HCOB Germany manufacturing PMI read 45 in January, up from 42.5 in December and the highest since May last year. Slower falls in both output and new orders were the main factors behind this rise.
Export sales were down again, albeit falling at the slowest rate for eight months.
Source: Fibre2fashion
