A P J Abdul Kalam's speech at SITRA,Coimbatore
Technological intervention needed to enhance weavers' income:There is an urgent need for technological intervention, to enhance the per capita income of the weavers and to make all cooperatives profitable both in handloom and powerloom sector, President A P J Abdul Kalam said tonight.
The intervention could be through design inputs, creating powerlooms, training the weavers to adopt new technology and tie up with the fashion design institutions, he said.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Golden Jubilee of the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA), Kalam asked the association to take up the lead in this matter for revitalising the sector.
This could be done in partnership with banks and textile industry leaders, which would benefit large number of weavers in Tamil Nadu, which has over 12 lakh weavers in 1,250 cooperatives societies, he said.
Since 50 per cent of the cooperatives were loss making, the measures can also enable tripling the revenue generation from the sector from the existing Rs.600 crore to Rs 1800 crore within the next three years, Kalam said.
He also suggested SITRA to study productivity problems of handloom sector, based on the experience of increasing the productivity of powered textile mills.
Kalam also stressed the need to evolve a new type of research culture, for promoting quality research in the upcoming textile area.
