EASITEX part of DFU Publications, Director Salil Chawla today at the inauguration session interviewed Dr. Arindam Basu, Director General-NITRA, Ghaziabad, U.P. (India)
Q: Message for the event?
Dr. Basu: This event has been arranged to disseminate the research findings of eight textile research institutes to the industry so that the technology developed by us is commercialized properly.
Until the R &D sees the tail of commercial production, it is not successful. Successfully, only it will work out when the whole production is commercially produced and sold throughout India. That is the main purpose of this two-day seminar.
Q; And generally, what is this scenario in terms of research and development in the Indian textile industry?
Dr Basu: Indian textile industry, this is because basically, the government of India is supporting a lot of textiles in the research, under the national technical industrial machine and also other schemes are there.
Q; Is the focus of R&D limited to cotton only?
Dr. Basu: So, these are the areas we are doing. This is not for NITRA. It is for all TRAs like this. And generally, it is focused on only cotton fiber? No, no, no. It is for all fibers, all fibers. But because the sustainability things have come, we are now concentrating more on natural fibers so that they become sustainable and biodegradable.
You know, the time has come. People have started talking about sustainability and biodegradability so that the product atmosphere can be improved. That is the main reason.
Q; Is Technical textile where the focus in on currently?
Dr. Basu: I would say in this, 50% will be technical textiles. And 50% want this common industry. So, technical textiles is a new area where R &D is the most important. So, that is the reason technical textiles have been covered in this 50 percent so that the new companies can adopt more and do this.
Q; This is the micro view you have given about this, in general over here, but what is the macro view on technical textiles, how much R&D support is coming forth?
Dr. Basu: See R &D you may know that there is the government has already approved 400 crores worth of MVDM projects and various IITs, NITs, and textile research institutes are here, advantage of textile research institutes are here, part of the industry, our chairman, deputy chairman, and vice chairman is from industry, so what happens whatever technology we do it goes to industry faster. So more and more projects are been backed up by the textile ministry to make them more successful commercially.
Q; And do you think technically they are supporting on-the-ground R&D initiatives translating into the desired outcomes?
Dr. Basu: I think many many big companies, as well as many start-up companies, have come forward to take these technologies and you may see some of them have set up base here, also these are start-up companies and companies like Arvind, Raymond, and Reliance they are continuously taking up/owing up companies and innovative startups to turbo charge this space.