Indian Textile industry is the second oldest and largest only to Agriculture. Textiles has been tied not only to the economics of the country, but also emotions, patriotism and symbolizes Indianness in all respects. The earliest trade from our country with the world was textile items only. It was the skill and finish of our textiles which attracted the aggressors from various countries to attack on us. Textiles of India was our pride and neighbours' envy. That is why every aggressor targeted the skilled weavers and designers of our country during their rule over India . Muslim kings, East India company and other European rulers worked to destroy the textile base of our country.

Textiles sector now contribute 40% of our country's GDP from the manufacturing sector and provides employment over 20 million persons accounting for 35% of population engaged in manufacturing. The export earnings from the textiles is Rs. 48000 Crores (US $9.5 Billion) accounting for 40% of the total exports. The total collection of central excise from the textile articles is Rs 5500 crores.

This industry is the most globalised in the sense of being linked to global markets next only to soft ware industry. This is the largest employment provider employing over 20 million people, and next only to agriculture. This is being opened for global competition from 2004. But this industry is least prepared for global competition because it has been turned into a highly unorganized one just by the taxation policies of the government. Unless it is organized by linking the unorganized segments of the Industry with the organized and turn them technologically sound, this industry will not be able to face competition successfully. Textile is not to be regarded as a revenue-yielding, but as an employment and export-intensive industry.

To make the context for this mission paper clear, it is important to know certain statistics that will reveal a lot more

Total Installed spindlage of the textile industry is 37.08 million spindles in 2771 mills out of which 285 are composite mills. Total installed looms are 128390 out of which 8000 are shuttleless. The major spinning mills are located as below:

• Tamil Nadu 12.5 million spindles and 4700 looms
  


• Maharashtra 5 million spindles and 33535 looms
  


• Gujarat 4 million spindles and 42582 looms
  


• Andhra Pradesh 2 million spindles and 1246 looms
  


• Uttar Pradesh 2 million spindles and 10835 looms

Small spinning mill is an unique feature of Tamil Nadu, in the sense ,out of 19.82 lakh spindles in the country 17.30 lakh spindles are in Tamil Nadu and out of 921 small spinning units in the country 745 are in Tamil Nadu.

Average capacity utilization in the mill sector is 78% and in the looms is 22%.

Out of total production of yarn by mills of 3046 million kgs., cotton yarn accounts for 2204 million kgs and blended yarn for 621 million kgs, polyester yarn 221 million kgs.

Out of production of cotton yarn the product mix is as under:

Count % of total production

1s   - 10s  23%
11s - 20s  23%
21s - 30s  21%
31s - 40s  24%
41s - 60s  6%
61s - 80s  2%
above 80s 2%

Major production of yarn in India is distributed as below:

Cotton Yarn
Total 2204 million kgs

• 904 million kgs - Tamil Nadu
  


• 272 million kgs - Maharashtra
  


• 189 million kgs - Punjab
  


• 183 million kgs - Gujarat
  


• 124 million kgs - Haryana
  


• 124 million kgs - Madhya pradesh

Blended yarn segment
Total 620 million kgs

• 128 million kgs - Rajasthan
  


• 107 million kgs - Tamil Nadu
  


• 81 million kgs - Maharashtra
  


• 67 million kgs - Madhya pradesh

Number of mills closed and the capacity is idle:

• In January 1985, 41 spinning mills and 29 composite mills accounting for 1.69 million spindles were closed and idle.
  


• In January 1997, 109 spinning mills and 92 composite mills totaling to 5.37 million spindles were closed.
  


• In December 2000, 265 spinning mills and 117 composite mills totaling for 8.91 million spindles were closed and idle.

Major exports of textile sector is as below: They have shown on an average 10% growth on annual basis.

I. Cotton:

• Mill made fabric Rs.2,129 crores
  


• Powerloom fabric Rs. 2,338 crores
  


• Mill made made-ups Rs.1,482 crores
  


• Powerloom made-ups Rs.2,840 crores
  


• Handloom made-ups Rs.1,685 crores
  


• Yarn Rs.6,678 crores ( Doubled in last 5 years)
  


• Woven Garments Rs. 9,832 crores
  


• Knitted garments Rs.7,438 crores ( Doubled in last 5 years)
  


• Total cotton exports Rs. 34,518 crores

II. Rayon/Synthetics :

• Fabrics Rs. 2,111 crores
  


• Spun yarn Rs.1,143 crores
  


• Made-ups Rs. 1,005 crores ( trebled in last 5 years)
  


• Total Rayon/synthetics Rs 4,771 crores

III. Woollen :

• Made-ups Rs. 505 crores ( trebled in last 5 years)
  


• Total woolen Rs.590 crores

In yarn exports, counts below 40s account for 80% of the export value. Counts between 41s to 60s and 61s and above account for 10% each, even though their share of production in the total yarn is only 6% and 4% respectively.

Total amount of central excise collected from all textile articles excluding jute is Rs.5,402 crores.

Textile Machinery sector's total production was Rs. 1,111 crores and value of imported machineries being Rs. Rs. 1,676 crores. Export of Textile machineries accounted for Rs. 258 crores.

The International textile capacities in the major textile producing countries are :

Details of consumption of Raw materials will give a greater insight into the operations of our country's textile industry

The cotton crop yield in select countries is as below:

The world trade of textiles is patterned as below by the major players: