ITMA 2015, the biggest international textile machinery exhibition which recently concluded at Milan, witnessed a footfall of around 1.23 lakh visitors from world over. Among them were from India, Trident group, Chairman, Rajinder Gupta representing Ludhiana at this exhibition.

In today's scenario, with the world's focus shifting towards the usage of green energy and environment conservation and less labour-intensive machinery to cope with competition from other nations and ITMA was one such place where all such solutions were displayed.

The stalls at ITMA 2015 displayed equipment for recycling, waste reduction and pollution prevention were thronged by a large number of visitors. It was very interesting to see the latest breakthroughs and innovations in all the sections, whether it was machinery for spinning preparation or software for design and data monitoring.

By visiting such events, one can keep himself abreast of the latest and the best aspects of the industry and it is heartening to see that participation of city industrialists in such events is on the rise. Now, they are looking forward to the next edition of ITMA, which is scheduled to take place in Barcelona, Spain in June 2019.

According to Rajinder Gupta, as far as the future of Indian textile industry is concerned in the next 5 years everyone's focus is going to be and should be on lesser input costs, less wastage and, most importantly, on the usage of less labour-intensive machinery. Without these essentials, Indian textile industry won't be able to move forward.

Twenty years ago, Indian textile industry required 1,000 to 1,200 workers for 25,000 spindles but now it requires only 600 people for 2 lakh spindles. In order to further uplift and modernize the textile sector, especially the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), new schemes and incentives need to be introduced along with the existing Technology upgradation fund scheme (TUF), which can make purchase of high-quality machinery easy and affordable for the businessmen.

All these are wonders of less labour-intensive machinery is perhaps the only way to solve the problem of labour shortage, which is ever-increasing in Punjab, especially Ludhiana.