The ninth edition of Texfair, an exhibition of textile machinery spares and accessories, and the second edition of Farm to Finish, an exhibition of textile products started off at the Codissia Trade Fair Complex organized by Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA). The event is on for four days from January 9.

At the inaugural of Texfair 2015, Prem Malik, chairman of Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, said that one of the main areas that the Indian textile industry needs to focus on is diversifying to man-made fibre-based textile products.

As the share of man-made fibres in the Indian textile sector was 30 percent as against 70 percent in the global markets. The man-made fibre segment needs to grow to meet the targets set by the industry and the Government for the next 10 years. The Government has to reduce the duties on man-made fibre, he said.

Allocation of funds for the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme for the XII Plan period is almost completely used and the Government will have to supplement the allocation to continue the scheme for the entire plan period.

While the industry should give an urgent attention to scaling up, the Government will have to liberalize labour laws and introduce the Goods and Services Tax.

S. Dinakaran, chairman of the event, said that the exhibition has 180 participants and 240 stalls. Exhibitors had come from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Haryana besides Tamil Nadu and from China, Germany and Switzerland.

Seminars would be held on shuttleless looms, harmonics, man-made fibres, energy conservation, and solar energy.

P. Nataraj, vice-chairman of the association, spoke about the association and its activities.

According to T. Rajkumar, chairman of SIMA, the government should announce the fibre policy soon to ensure stability in cotton prices. The Government should also allocate Rs. 3000 crore, as already requested by the Union Textile Ministry, to meet the pending disbursement of subsidy under the TUF scheme.

The association has signed an agreement with Cheshire Homes, Coimbatore, to create job opportunities for the differently abled.

M. Sankar, vice-president-marketing of Lakshmi Machine Works, one of the participants at the exhibition said that the company has gone online for sale of spares and accessories and it has displayed the details at the expo. Also range of retrofits that it offers for speciality yarn production and combers are on display. According to them automation is also catching on in a big way in spinning mills. Presently about 95 percent of its sale of spare parts and components is online now.