Indian Chamber of Commerce organized a virtual seminar today on the topic- Importance and prospects of Personal Protective Gear & Medical Textiles Industry in the New Era.
The webinar was conducted in the view of the corona outbreak and the medical textile products.
Sanjay Jain, chairman, Indian Chamber of Commerce, Expert Committee on Textiles and Jute, MD – TT Ltd, in his welcome address said the medical textiles have become a Rs 6,000 crores industry in just two months from nowhere.
Medical textiles was always on a priority list of ministry of textiles, but due to lack of orders from hospitals and low level of awareness, very few players were interested but things have changed now.
India has proved that it can be the next global player in the market and he asked government all the support needed to grow the industry.
In his key Note Address by Nihar Ranjan Dash, joint secretary, Ministry of Textiles, said the ministry has acted on a mission mode from February once it got the intimation from Ministry of Health about the global pandemic and the shortage of PPE in the country.
It was identified that PPE and N95 masks were the two key products to fight the pandemic.
India had the fabric necessary for manufacturing the product but very few producers.
They immediately contacted some Gujarat based manufacturers and asked them to make the samples.
The samples were airlifted and sent to the certifying agency SITRA for certification.
In the meantime DRDO came up to help the ministry with their technology. Around 30 units were given orders to produce PPEs on fast rack basis.
On March 25, India’s PPE production was only 2,000 piece per day which increased to 5000 pieces on April 14.
And on April 29, the production has touched 5 lacs per day which is the second highest number in the world.
Rajesh Bheda, CEO and Managing Director, Rajesh Bheda Consulting, Founding Member, Department of Garment Technology, National Institute of Fashion Technology who was also present in the webinar said that PPE is the most important product for healthcare worker.
The global market size was $ (US) 52.7 million in January annually, which has increased to $ (US) 92.5 million.
The demand for mask and gloves is around 76 million globally.
But there are challenges like availability of raw materials, skilled manpower, seam sealing machines, certifications and getting the migrant labours back to work.
He also urged the government to lift the ban on medical textile products so that Indian players can have global market share.
Suresh Patel, President, INDINON (Indian Non Woven Fabric Manufacturer Association) said that the nonwoven textile manufacturers took a big risk when asked by the government to ramp up the production and have successfully delivered the requirement of raw materials at the need of the hour.
Nishit Dand, CMD, Sure Safety India Limited said that India needs international certifying laboratories in collaboration with the Indian laboratories to make the quality products.
He also said that there is no global guidelines as such for the reusability of the N95 masks and asked the Govt. to quickly form a regulatory body. The Webinar was attended by a wide variety of audience throughout the country.