The Expenditure Finance Committee of India on September 27th approved the Technology Mission on Technical Textiles (TMTT). This was revealed to Seshadri Ramkumar of Texas Tech University by a senior Government of India official of the Ministry of Textiles.
Four new Centers of Excellence (CoE) will be created in addition to the existing four centers. The eight centers will have investment in tune of $40 million. The four new centers will be created with an investment of $22.2 million. One center exclusively for nonwovens and one for composite materials are planned.
The four existing centers that focus on geo textiles, medical textiles, protective textiles and agro textiles have so far received $9.8 million. Additional investment of $8 million will be disbursed to these four centers to enhance their R & D capabilities.
The major thrust of the TMTT is to boost the growth of technical textiles industry which includes, industrial fabrics, coating, nonwovens and converting sectors. The TMTT will assist entrepreneurs and researchers to enhance process, product and marketing know how in technical textiles. India's technical textiles sector is estimated to grow at an annual rate of 11%.
Reported by Dr Seshadri Ramkumar
marketing@alchempro.com
