The State Government has decided to take a series of steps to boost apparel manufacturing in the State. Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati in a high-level meeting here has directed officials to harness its potential through comprehensive action plans and policy interventions.
Secretary Small medium and Micro Enterprises Panchanana Dash has been asked to work out an explicit action plan for scaling up the micro textile and handloom units to small and medium units, while Handloom and Textiles Secretary Chithra Arumugam was asked to prepare a detailed action plan for developing SHG federations to manufacturing units and linking the handloom and textile units to weavers service center and corporate bodies for marketing support.
It was also decided that one incubation center will be set up in the NIFT campus of Bhubaneswar in the first phase and a Textile Park will be developed during the current plan period to provide common services and facilities required for textile and handloom producers. Pati directed CMD IDCO Vishal Dev to identify suitable land for development of garment industry clusters and parks. It was also decided that the allocation of land and extension of other concessions to such units will be considered on the basis of actual employment opportunity that they create.
Participating in the meeting, the Union Textiles Secretary said since Odisha has created a distinct institutional base of primary Weavers Cooperative Societies, those can be reoriented to new schemes and assistances available under the handloom sector.
At present, the available schemes being implemented jointly by the State and Central Governments include subsidised credit for technological upgradation of existing units, scheme of integrated textile park for development of H & T Parks, integrated skill development scheme for skill enhancement of unskilled workforce and integrated processing development scheme for resolving the issues faced by textile processing units. It was decided in the meeting that handicraft shops will be opened in common utility centers of the tourist places for creating marketing support for these products.
Pati advised the department to standardise various handicraft and handloom products and ensure their quality for linking them to corporate bodies like Fit Fat through the Union Ministry of Textiles for wider marketing support.
A Central Team led by the Union Textile Secretary was explained about the handloom and textile potential of Odisha. The discussions reveal that Odisha has a good number of trained manpower in this sector who are trained both in traditional and modern forms of handloom and textiles. Odisha has also around 26 million people in the age group of 15 to 60 years who can be profitably engaged in the sector. Odisha has also developed other infrastructural facilities like power, connectivity, ports and highways.
Available data shows this sector employs more than 50,600 people with the investment of only Rs134 crore. The investment creates more employment opportunity in comparison to other downstream sectors.
It is estimated that investment of only Rs 1 lakh in apparel industry creates around 6 to 7 jobs. It has also been identified by the experts that 1 kg of cotton gives a price of Rs100 whereas 1kg of garment yields Rs1, 500. This sector has vast potential for value addition and processing units.