Ministry of Textiles under North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme (NERTPS) had sanctioned a project to set up one each Apparel and Garmenting Centre consisting of three units in all North Eastern States at a cost of Rs. 18.18 crore per Centre, Minister of State of Textiles, Ajay Tamta, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today informed.

Construction and installation of machinery in 21 units in seven States (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura) were completed and the facilities have since been handed over to the Project Implementing Agencies of respective State Governments. Project Implementing Agencies are in the process of operationalizing the units through entrepreneurs.

Silk production in the country has been increasing during recent years and no manufacturing unit is losing the Indian silk market to China in recent times. As the consumption of silk is more than the domestic production, India is importing raw silk from China and other countries. India mainly imports Bivoltine raw silk from China.

With the significant increase in the Bivoltine raw silk production in the country, the share of Bivoltine silk in the total silk production has gone up from 8.38% in 2012-13 to 18.41 % in 2017-18. As a result, the share of imported raw silk has reduced drastically from 17.32 % in 2012-13 to 10.42 % in 2017-18. There is thrust for increasing the Bivoltine and Vanya silk production in the country with a goal to become self-reliant in silk production by 2022.

– Apparel and Textile News, Apparel Talk, Indian Apparel