The new Textile Policy 2013-18 recently announced by the Karnataka state government aims to attract investment worth over Rs 10,000 crore in the sector during the five-year policy period but a growth close to three times over the previous policy period, create jobs for about half a million during the new Textile Policy period with majority of jobs in the rural areas and also make the State a preferred textile destination, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said.

Chief Minister speaking at the Textile Investors’ Meet organised by the government here at the weekend said that a mega textile park has been planned in the next five years in Yadgir district. Over 1,000 acres has been reserved for this purpose. The state government has taken several bold steps in its new Textile Policy to boost the confidence of the textile industry. They have specially focused on backward regions to attract investment.

There are investment bracket-wise incentives to ensure proper spread of incentives; special focus for development of backward areas by providing more support for parks in such zones; supporting existing industry by providing key common infrastructure through brownfield project developments; supporting integrated units (more than one textile activity) with some additional incentives.

Karnataka has always had a tradition of tapping the best across India and the world to trace a steady growth curve across diverse sectors of the economy. The state is driving domestic growth, nurturing traditional sectors, crafting careers and creating wealth through a potent mix of resource, skill, technology and knowledge based products and services, Siddaramaiah said that care has been taken to ensure that an inclusive approach of development right from the handlooms sector to the high-end garment sector of the textile value chain.

The governments has been responding adequately to the growing infrastructure needs and are continuously upgrading investments in infrastructure with several mega projects under implementation and many are in the pipeline.

The government is encouraging setting up of major textile parks and textile clusters vis-a-vis skill development programmes. The new policy aims to promote entrepreneurship and attract investors.

The state has encouraged setting up of smaller textile parks in various potential districts such as Bagalkot, Belgaum, Bijapur, Chamrajnagar, Chikkaballapur and Mysore. M K Enterprises, a Middle-East based textile company, committed an investment of over Rs 1,500 crore for establishing a textile cluster near T Narasipur in Mysore division, on the occasion.

Textiles Minister Baburao Chinchansur, Additional Chief Secretary to Commerce and Industries Department K Ratna Prabha and Secretary Tushar Girinath were present on the occasion.

Karnataka is among the country’s top five industrialised states with over 500 MNCs and 66 global Fortune-500 companies doing business in the state. During the last plan period, the textile sector received an investment of Rs 5,000 crore and in it, Rs 3500 crore have fructified.