Chennai, Feb. 15 Welspun India Ltd occupied the top slot among exporters that won awards for their exports for 2008-09, from the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil). The Gujarat-based company, whose exports in the year fetched it sales of Rs 4,368 crore, won the ‘Special Gold' award in the category ‘Highest Global Exports'. Alok Industries (Rs 550 crore) won the Silver.
At a function held here to give away the awards, Mr V.S. Velayuthan, Chairman, Texprocil, said that Rs 1.75 lakh crore investments would be needed across textiles and clothing to achieve market size of Rs 4.80 lakh crore by 2015, from Rs 2.49 lakh crore now.
These investments generate 70 lakh jobs directly, he said.
Mr Manikam Ramaswami, Vice-Chairman, Texprocil, also stressed the importance of the textiles sector in employment generation. He said that more than being a generator of employment, the sector opened up jobs in rural and semi urban areas.
He wanted the Government of India to award a ‘special status' to the textiles sector, given its potential to generate jobs.
Source : Business Line