44th foundation day of APEC

Speaking at the 44th Foundation Day of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Singh said, “Apparel and garmenting is not very investment centric but it is very important from an employment point of view. Perhaps, there is a need for backward integration and more of you can get into integrated value-chain like spinning and weaving.”

The Indian apparel industry must focus on vertical integration to increase its scale and size and to benefit from the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, said Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles. 

Speaking at the 44th Foundation Day of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Singh said, “Apparel and garmenting is not very investment centric but it is very important from an employment point of view. Perhaps, there is a need for backward integration and more of you can get into integrated value-chain like spinning and weaving.”

Virtually addressing foundation day, the textiles secretary said that along with the PLI scheme, the government is committed to making the Prime Minister Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) scheme a success. The idea is not just to have a world-class infrastructure but also a thriving industry there, he said.

“There are a lot of big opportunities. The demand continues to be robust and China plus one sourcing strategy by the west is certainly a great opportunity for us,” he said.

Singh added that it all depended on how good, efficient and integrated the Indian apparel industry is and how it increases its size and scale. “AEPC has a big role to play. Let us not get into just the macro figure, let us get into the micro-level. Let us go product by product and country by country,” he said.

“We should be in a position to breach $20 billion apparel exports by next fiscal or the year after that,” Singh said, adding that the country’s textile exports can increase from the current $40 billion to $100 billion in the next five years.