Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Union Budget 2014-15 on Thursday said that the government would be setting up six more textile clusters to develop and preserve textiles in India.

The six textile clusters would be coming up in Rae Bareli, Lucknow, Surat, Kutch, Bhagalpur and in Tamil Nadu. For this purpose, the government has allocated Rs200 crore, Jaitley said while presenting the budget for 2014-15.

Jaitley also announced the development of Hastkala Academy in Delhi based on public private partnership mode for the revival and documentation of textiles in India. He has allocated fund of Rs30 crore for the academy.

Jaitley said that fund of Rs50 crore has been allocated for pashmina production programme and a programme for the development of other crafts in Jammu and Kashmir.

He also proposed to provide Rs. 50 crore to set-up a Trade Facilitation Centre and a Crafts Museum to develop and promote handloom products and carry forward the rich tradition of handlooms of Varanasi.

The Textile industry, which plays a key role in the economic life of India, also majorly contributes to industrial output, employment generation and the export earnings of the country. It contributes about 14% to the industrial production, 4% to the GDP and 11% to the country’s export earnings.