India is in a win win situation

Tag : Nonwoven Base
2008-07-21 10:34:51 'India is in a win-win situation'
Dr Ramkumar Seshadri did pioneering research on how India couldachieve double-digit growth rate in technical textiles, based onWorld Bank gross domestic product growth data. An assistantprofessor at Nonwoven and Advanced Materials Laboratory at theInstitute of Environmental and Human Health, Texas Tech University,he was assisted by Appachi Arunachalam. Dr Ramkumar is also theorganiser of the ATNT 2008 conference to he held at Coimbatore fromJuly 14-16. In a chat with Commodity Market, he explains thesignificance of tech textiles for India.

What made you take up the potential of India's technical textileindustry for the study considering the fact that it is a nascentindustry?
• Non-wovens and technical textiles sectors are part of thetextile industry at large. Even in developed economies, thesesectors are growing at a rate of 7-8%. As the products of thesesectors are life improving and enhancing, with the increase indisposable incomes, there is a great opportunity for the sectors togrow. Therefore, with India's GDP expected to grow indouble-digits, it is hoped that India's non-woven & technicaltextiles industry will grow. Therefore, there was a need to studythe effect of GDP growth on the development of India's technicaltextiles industry.

More importantly, commodity Indian textile sector which wasdependent on export market was not doing well in 2007. Thisprompted interest and need to promote the development of non-wovensand technical textiles sector in India. With the consumer awarenessgrowing slowly, non-woven products find applications in wipes,automobiles, etc. Therefore, there is a good domestic market andIndia will not be dependent only on foreign market, which is apositive aspect of non-woven and technical textiles.

Right timing, the need to have value-addition to textile industryand the growth opportunities in non-wovens and technical textileindustry in India prompted me to initiate a study on theopportunities of non-wovens and technical textiles in India. Thiscoincided with my ongoing efforts for past four years to promoteIndia as a growth platform to the international community throughmy annual, 'Advances in Textiles, Non-wovens & TechnicalTextiles-ATNT Conference', held in Coimbatore.

How can be technical textiles be defined? And what all comes underits purview?
• In general, non-commodity textiles that have value-addedapplications can be defined as technical textiles. Technicaltextiles can be: A) durable ones such as geotextiles, buildingproducts and 2) disposables such as hygiene products, diapers,wipes, etc. Other products include fibre composites, protectivetextiles, etc.

What factors do you think will help India become a textile techmajor?
• India is in a bright situation compared to China when itstarted growing in technical textiles. We are in better situationto get technologies from West as well as East. And, moreimportantly India can learn from the mistakes of the West and East.For India to go on high gear, there needs to be activecollaboration among all stake holders: 1) Government; 2) Industryand 3) Academia/research infrastructure. If all stakeholders worktogether with mission linked research and policy initiatives, itwill be a win-win situation. Initiative by parties concerned inisolation will not be helpful. Collaboration among allstake-holders will enable exponential growth in India.

Could you throw some light on major players in the tech textiles inIndia?
• The major players in India are: Techfab India(Geogrids/geotextiles), Supreme Nonwovens: Needle-punched non-wovenproducts, SRF Ltd, Industrial yarns, Ginni Filaments: Wipe productsand Unimin India Ltd: Early pioneers in spun-bonded products inIndia.

What all issues are on the agenda for ATNT 2008?
• Texas Tech University will organize the fifth annualAdvances in Textiles, Machinery Non-woven and Technical TextilesATNT 2008 conference, from July 14-16 in Coimbatore. The conferencefosters relationships between the textile industry of developedeconomies and India. India has been having goodacademic/theoretical knowledge on non-wovens and technical textilesdue to research efforts in academic institutions such as IIT-Delhiand Research Associations such as BTRA and SASMIRA for some time.

However, greater awareness on these sectors was not widelyprevalent in the textile industry per se. More importantly, Indialacked practical knowledge, marketing know-how and machineryknowledge. In 2004, I was thinking of creating an internationalplatform in South India where all interested parties can interactwith international players. This is how ATNT started. Subsequently,world bodies such as USA-based Association of the Non-woven FabricsIndustry and AATCC started seeing the potential of India andstarted supporting the event.

An important aspect of this year will be this ATNT will be thefirst event where USA-based Industrial Fabrics AssociationInternational will be participating. The main agenda for ATNT is toprovide an international platform where international players intechnical textiles field, policy makers, industry and researchinstitutions can participate to build technical textiles industrialbase in India. Many global companies will attend ATNT 2008, whichis already creating opportunities for joint ventures. •

This interview published in COMMODITY MARKET , India’s No 1 news magazine on commodities.
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