1st world textile conference
Toshihiro Hirai, Dean, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Japan (third left), releasing the first copy of the souvenir to commemorate the first world textile conference on ‘Apparel and Home Textiles’ in the city on Thursday.Textile education in Japan has not reached very high standards. It is not yet globalised.“We are trying to internationalise it by attracting students from abroad”, especially India, Toshihiro Hirai, Dean, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Japan, said here on Thursday.He said that Japan had moved away from conventional textiles.“It is importing now. Only 20 per cent of textiles are conventional; the rest is technical textiles”, he said while inaugurating the first world textile conference on “Apparel and Home Textiles”.The three-day meet was jointly organised by the International Textile Educational Consortium (ITEC) and SSM College of Engineering, Komarapalayam.M.S. Mathivanan, Chairman, SSM Group of Educational Institutions and ITEC, said that awareness about the creativity and raw material capability of Indian fabric should be created among textile technocrats.
“Next to agriculture, textile industry is the maximum employment provider in the country. It is also the No. 1 export provider.”He said that textile education in the country was rated the first in the world.Despite this, productivity was very low due to a huge dearth of ITI-trained personnel.In India, only 10–14 shirts were made per (sewing) machine, while in China it was 22 and in Italy it was 35.He lamented that the average value of Indian fabric was Rs. 16 a metre, while that of processed fabric was Rs. 22 a metre.But, home furnishing was valued at Rs. 300 a metre. Hence, he urged the textile community to further enhance the growth of this sector.
Mr. Mathivanan said that ITEC proposed to set up an ITEC factory headquartered in Hyderabad.Clusters would come up in other centres. Noriako Saito, Managing Director, JUKI Machinery India (Private) Limited, Bangalore, said that productivity was the key to growth and improvement.He said that Indian skill was not efficient enough to churn out more than 14 hours per machine.Those in China and other countries were able to perform better with the same machines, he said.With eight offices in India, the company had one or two more in the pipeline.“Domestic manufacture is aggressive. There are many in small towns who want to make high quality garments. They require international sewing machines. We have a good market now.”The company sold approximately 40,000 machines in 2006.It expected to increase its target in 2007 by 20 per cent. India contributed nearly $ 30 million to the company’s turnover, Mr. Saito said.
