JUNE 11: The inaugural meeting of the Task Force on Textiles Exports was convened on June 10, 2025, at Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi, under the chairmanship of Commerce Secretary Shri Sunil Barthwal. The session brought together key government officials, industry leaders, export promotion councils, and exporters to deliberate on strategies aimed at significantly enhancing India’s textile exports.
Opening the discussions, Shri Sunil Barthwal emphasized the need for creating a unified platform where all stakeholders could collectively address the challenges facing the textiles sector. He highlighted India’s rich legacy in textiles and stressed the importance of active collaboration to resolve existing bottlenecks and frame actionable strategies that will enable India to capture a larger share of the global textiles market.
Special Secretary, Department of Commerce, Shri Rajesh Agrawal, pointed out that innovation aligned with emerging global trends would be essential for India to strengthen its competitive edge. He encouraged the industry to adapt to evolving market dynamics and invest in innovation to seize new opportunities in global trade.
Adding to the conversation, Special Secretary Shri L Satya Srinivas reiterated that textiles remain a key priority sector for export promotion. While the government continues to negotiate trade agreements aimed at removing tariff disadvantages, he urged industry stakeholders to effectively leverage these agreements to maximize export potential.
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Shri Rohit Kansal, spoke about several government initiatives designed to support the sector, including the PM MITRA scheme. These programs aim to build integrated textile parks and provide robust infrastructure to encourage large-scale manufacturing.
The meeting’s comprehensive discussions covered a wide range of topics across the entire textiles value chain. Key areas included skilling and labor development, cost competitiveness, adoption of renewable energy, sustainability practices, manufacturing scale, quality control, logistics, promotion of GI (Geographical Indication) products, and productivity enhancement of natural fibers like jute. The participants also deliberated on the role of the upcoming Export Promotion Mission being established by the Department of Commerce.
The meeting concluded with the decision to establish multiple sub-task forces, each led by the relevant ministry, with participation from export promotion councils and industry representatives. These sub-groups will work on specific areas and submit recommendations to the main Task Force.
The session closed with a shared resolve to collaboratively develop a clear roadmap to achieve the ambitious target of USD 100 billion in textiles exports by 2030-31, aligning with the larger vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.