Indian textiles and clothing industry is one of the largest contributors to the country’s exports. Textile exports have shown steady growth over the last few years and are likely to grow by more than 15% during the FY15.

As Indian textiles industry is capable of producing a wide variety of fibres, from cotton to manmade, wool, silk, jute, and multiple blends due to which it can meet different demands and needs of companies. This is possible due to availability of raw material such as cotton, silk, jute or wool in large quantity, moreover it has skilled workforce and quality of the products has made India a popular destination for many of big global companies. All this show, India’s potential to increase its textile and apparel share in world trade.

During FY14, exports registered a growth of 12.27%. In FY15, the exports are expected to grow by 15.75% given the growth in textile exports due to the investment inflows to this sector to expand the capacity in the entire value chain. However, major growth in FY15 would be seen in the Mill segment (17.5%), followed by powerloom and handloom.

The working group constituted by the Planning Commission has estimated the overall growth for exports at 15% with an export target of US $ 65 bn by end of Twelfth Five Year Plan (FY17).

During Twelfth Five Year Plan as the textile sector is one of the largest employment provider, the major concern that would hamper the growth of the industry is the non-availability of the quality and skilled labour and also inadequate training facilities in the country. To avoid this from happening, about 1.5 mn trainees are expected to be benefitted from the Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS).

The ISDS scheme was introduced as a pilot with an outlay of Rs 2.72 bn which included central government’s contribution of Rs.2.3 bn with a physical target of 2.56 lakh persons in the last two financial years of the Eleventh Five year Plan

The objective of ISDS is to build the capabilities of those institutions that currently provide training and skill development programmes in the textile and apparel sectors.