Sri Gokul Chandra Pati presiding over a high level meeting held in the special circuit house last Saturday has directed to focus on growth potentials of apparel manufacturing utilizing both comprehensive action plans and policy interventions to boost apparel manufacturing in Odisha wherein Sri Sanjay Kumar Panda and Secretary, Ministry of Textiles Govt of India assured the support of the Ministry for harnessing the textile potentials of the State.

Secretary Employment Training & Technical Education Dr C.S. Kumar, Senior Officers from Weaver Service Center, Govt of India, Silk Board Govt of India, Department of Industry, Handloom & Textiles Govt of Odisha, training providers, entrepreneurs and experts participated in the discussions.

Secretary Small medium and Micro Enterprises Sri Panchanana Dash has been asked to workout explicit action plan for scaling up the micro textile & handloom units to small and medium units. While, Secretary Handloom & Textiles Smt Chithra Arumugam has been directed to prepare detailed action plan for developing SHG federations to manufacturing units and linking the handloom & textile units to weavers service center and corporate bodies for marketing support.

It has been decided in the meeting that one incubation center will be set up in the NIFT campus of Bhubaneswar in the first phase and Textile Park will be developed during the current plan period to provide common services and facilities required for textile and handloom producers.

Chief Secretary Sri Pati has also directed CMD IDCO Sri Vishal Dev present in the meeting to identify suitable land for development of garment industry clusters and parks. It has also been 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.

According to Sri Panda, Secretary Textiles Govt of India, since Odisha has created a distinct institutional base of primary Weavers Cooperative Societies, those can be reoriented to new schemes and assistances available under handloom sector.

At present the available schemes being implemented jointly by State and Central Govt include subsidized 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 has also been 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. Chief Secretary Sri Pati has advised the department to standardize various handicraft & handloom product and ensure their quality for linking them to corporate bodies like Fit Fat through Ministry of Textiles, Govt of India for wider marketing support.

The Central Team led by Secretary Sri Panda has been explained about the handloom and textile potential of Odisha. The discussions reveal that Odisha has a good number of trained manpower in this sector that is trained both in traditional and modern forms of handloom & Textiles.

Odisha has also around 26 million people in the age group of 15 to 60 years from among which many can be profitably engaged in this sector. Odisha has also developed other infrastructural facilities like power, connectivity, ports and high ways. Govt has settled principles of land and water allocation to the textiles & handloom units.

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 Rs.100/- where as 1kg of garment yields Rs.1500/- This sector has vast potential for value addition and processing units.

Available data shows this sector employs more than 50,600 people with the investment of only Rs.134 cr. The investment in this sector creates more employment opportunity in comparison to other downstream sectors like food & allied, engineering &metal based, repairing & services, glass & ceramics, chemical & allied and miscellaneous manufacturing.