The centre will provide subsidy to powerlooms that use solar energy to run their units from August this year, as a part of its clean energy initiatives.

“From August 15, powerlooms in the country will utilise solar energy for running their operations. We are planning to provide 50 per cent subsidy to them,” textiles minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said at a press conference on the achievements of his ministry during the past two years.

The total subsidy to be given is Rs 3.75 lakh to persons belonging to the general category, Rs 5.62 lakh for OBC category and Rs 6.75 lakh to SC/ST, the minister said.

He said over Rs 6,500 crore has been spent on schemes for promotion and development of the textiles sector during the past two years and aboutfive lakh additional jobs have been created during the period.

The ministry is also working on increasing the daily earning of handloom weavers to Rs 500, Gangwar said adding that national textiles policy will be announced soon. e:EN-US; mso-fareast-language:EN-US; mso-bidi-language:AR-SA; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold’>The youngsters, trained under the courses, could be utilized by the units in Tirupur knitwear cluster in key posts for ensuring cost effective apparel production.