Textiles 2017, to be India's first mega trade event in the sector with 15,000 participants from all over the world. It is aimed at significantly uplifting India's textile industry, which employs more than 45 million people directly, contributes to 10% of manufacturing production, 2% of India's GDP and 13% of the country's export earnings.

The event will be inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar on 30 June to convey the importance given to the textile industry which has tremendous job generation potential.

Besides, chief ministers of the three partner states -Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Maharashtra -are keen on textile development and tapping investor and manufacturer connects. To promote India as the top global destination for textiles, it is linked with ministries of commerce, skilling and urban development.

The event’s linkage, collaborative synergies and promotion has all the facets of Make in India. It ropes in weavers, designers, manufacturers, buyers, exporters, suppliers from handloom to technical textiles and organic produce to man-made fibres, even educational institutes and live demos from national awardee craftspeople all under one roof.

Twenty six round tables will be hosted by the industry and not just big names. The programme has attracted Japanese exhibitors, Korean and Chinese buyers as well as enquiries from the Fashion Institute of Technology , New York. There is one round table only with female entrepreneurs--a first of its kind industry attempt.

There are 40 lakh-odd weavers in India, once they register under the India Handloom Brand, they get an IHB tag, which is hallmark of quality , with details of their background, contacts and creations in a completely transparent exchange. This will give them a signature and enhance their visibility for interested manufacturers. It depends on a particular weaver or weaver group how best they can make best use of this trade event.

Assuming that this event is tilted towards fashion is being unfair to the entire industry which sweeps from home textiles to medical fabrics; from technical textiles used by the Indian Army for parachuting gear to other performance fabrics. One of the biggest participants at this event is the Swedish home textiles giant Hemtex. So being overawed by or partial to fashion it is not the goal here.

The idea behind the trade event is to create opportunities. Indian states from the North Eastern, especially Assam are keen to exhibit the extraordinary potential of textiles also other states like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra are also on the top. These are closely followed by Karnataka, Jharkhand and Telangana. They have left their doors open for everyone to leverage the opportunity. Artisans from all over the country will be present here.

The event will provide facilitation, opportunity and exposure equally for all kinds of products and fabrics. Every manufacturer or investor will find whatever interests them from India's holistic textile value chain.