Centre to consider extention of TUFS to textile industry

Coimbatore, Aug 7 (UNI) Union Minister of State for Textiles E V K S Elangovan today said the Centre was seriously considering to extend the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) to the textile industry.

Talking to newspersons, after inaugurating the three-day international conference on "Advances in Fibrous Materials Non-woven and Technical Textiles" here, he said the extention of the TUFS would be announced soon after consulting with the Finance ministry.

" The extension of the TUFS is essential to meet the country's export target of 50 Billion US Dollars by 2010", he said.

Earlier, delivering his inaugural address, he said the demand and consumption of technical textiles would grow enormously in India in the near future.

He said the textile sector, which employs about 3.5 crore people contributes 16 per cent to the total export earnings of the country and four per cent to GDP.

He said the surge in exports and improvement in other economic parameters in textile industry indicate the industry's good performance and by 2010 the industry would attract a cumulative investment of about Rs 14000 crore.

He said India with its large textile manufacturing base and technical man power would become the leading exporter of various technical textile products in the world.

UNI KS AJ 1552