Kavita Gupta, Textile Commissioner, at the inauguration of the joint technological conference of textile research associations on Wednesday said that the Union Government has allocated Rs.17.40 crore this financial year for setting up incubation centres for technical textiles.

The incubation centres will have plug and play facilities and all the eight Centres of Excellence for technical textiles have established the centres. The Ministry has allocated Rs.152 crore under the Technology Mission for Technical Textiles for the eight centres of excellence and 76 per cent of the funds have been utilised. “Funds are not a constraint,” she said.

The Centres have facilities for research and development, testing, standardising products and commercial production at the incubation facilities.

Technical textiles are products manufactured for non-aesthetic purposes. This could include protective clothing and textiles used in applications such as automotive and medical.

Ms. Gupta later told presspersons that cotton production in 2015-2016 (October to September) is expected to be 365 lakh bales as against 380 lakh bales. The yield has improve although there is a decline in area covered under cotton.

As far as textile exports is concern due to the global slowdown, there is a marginal decline seen so far this year compared to the same period last year.