Smriti Irani stresses on expansion of jute products to boost Indian Export

NewsBharati    28-Feb-2018
Total Views |

Kolkata, February 28: Emphasizing on expansion of jute products in the country, Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani pitched on the need to give stress on the use of the golden fibre used for the purpose of building infrastructure.

 

During the interactive session with the with members of Indian Chamber of Commerce and the media at large, in Kolkata on Tuesday, Smriti Irani said that the country is striving hard to make speedy development and there is a need to increase the export of jute as compared to the neighbouring nation Bangladesh.

She said, “We are the biggest producer of jute. But why would not we compete at the same level with Bangladesh? If you look at the Bangladesh business model, they have diversified jute products. On the Indian jute Industry, why would not you diversify in terms of product range as much as the Bangladesh does? The industry said the problem begins with the quality of raw jute.”

 

The Minister further added that the increase of export will only happen when the quality of raw jute improves, which again will happen on account of farmers getting superior quality seeds, adding that the Jute ICARE initiative, that aims to double the farmers' income, had been launched.

 

Jute has been used for building of roads and studies have confirmed the life-span of the roads increases with the use of jute materials and the golden fibre has also been effective in holding soil erosion. Irani also said she was in favor of standardization of technical textiles as it varies from international definition. So there is need to inculcate industry associations to bring out different definition, parameters which are acceptable for the international industry.

Aiming to influence the global markets, India’s standard has to be same with international standard and only then the acceptability will increase.

The minister also urged the industry to pay the dues of the labourers. It would make the industry to pick up any amount of government orders it wanted. The government's thrust is to enhance India's export potential of both the jute and the textile industry, for which it seeks the help of better marketing and promotions of the two sectors.