Felicitating the awardees, managing director of Thiagarajar Mills Karumuthu T Kannan said there was an immediate need for an institute to train textile managers, as the industry was not getting textile graduates who preferred other jobs.

Industrial bodies like Confederation of Indian Industry, Southern India Mills Association and South India Textile Research Association should take measures to start such an institute, he said.

In his address, president of Tirupur Exporters Association Raja M Shanmugham said Tirupur, the knitwear hub of the country, struggled over the last few years to make Rs 45,000-crore business, both exports and domestic, last year and aimed to touch Rs one lakh crore by 2022, if not the targeted 2020.

Two people in the textile industry were honoured by the Textile Association of India (TAI) Saturday for their contribution to the growth of the industry.

The awardees were chairman of Premier Mills R Jagadish Chandran and chairman and managing director of Lakshmi Machine Works Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu.

Chandran was presented with the life-time achievement award for service in the industry while Jayavarthanavelu got the industrial excellence award for his contribution to the field of machinery.

Presenting the award during the two-day 74th All India Textile Conference on ‘Global Textiles, the Way Forward’, president of TAI T K Sengupta said the association aimed at promoting the use of scientific knowledge in the field ranging from fibre to garment and implementing programmes of continued education in the textile technology management.