Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Textiles, Santosh Gangwar, at the annual conference of State textiles ministers held yesterday announced that the Textile Ministry plans to launch a venture capital fund with an initial corpus of Rs.35 crore in association with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to support start-up entrepreneurs in the sector.

Tex-Venture Capital Fund to be introduced in association with SIDBI, to provide equity to start-up entrepreneurs. It will be start with initial capital of Rs.35 crore and will be scaled up further. The Ministry has also decided to release fresh advertisements for sanctioning more integrated textile parks and has called for participation by States.

Gangwar said that proposals from the State Governments are invited to enable the Centre to sanction textile parks in each State.

The Ministry provides support for 40 percent of the project cost subject to a ceiling of Rs.40 crore. State Government agencies, such as Infrastructure/Industrial Development Corporations, may also participate in the process by way of subscribing to the equity to special purpose vehicle or by providing grants, he said.

A new scheme to help the textile industry by providing environment-friendly processing technology has also been announced. The Integrated Processing Development Scheme would set up new processing parks as well as support upgradation of existing processing clusters specifically in the area of water and waste water management.

Under the scheme, the Centre will provide financial support of up to 50 percent of the project cost with a maximum ceiling of Rs.75 crore in case of zero liquid discharge units and Rs.10 crore in case of common effluent treatment plant. States will provide 25 percent of the project cost and the remaining will be mobilised by the SPV.

The textile ministry at the annual conference announced various schemes supporting the textile industry as it promises to march ahead in 2014. Textile is one of the oldest, largest and significant industrial sectors and an important contributor to the GDP, employment, industrial output and exports of India.