How Indian Textiles Turned Disruption Into Opportunity

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How Indian Textiles Turned Disruption Into Opportunity

As the new year opens, India’s textile and apparel sector enters 2026 with rare confidence. The past year was not just about turmoils of geopolitics and tariffs, it was not just about schemes and statistics, 2025 marked a structural shift. Infrastructure moved from plans to ground. Incentives translated into production. Farmers, factories and fashion schools were all pulled into a single forward-looking narrative: scale, speed and global relevance.

The Ministry of Textiles’ 2025 year-end review reads less like a government scorecard and more like a blueprint for the next decade. From mega textile parks to fibre reforms, from GST rationalisation to export resilience, the direction is clear - India wants to be a predictable, competitive and future-ready textile powerhouse.

PM MITRA: From vision to construction mode

The PM Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) scheme crossed a critical threshold in 2025 - execution.

Seven parks across Tamil Nadu (Virudhnagar), Telangana (Warangal), Gujarat (Navsari), Karnataka (Kalaburagi), Madhya Pradesh (Dhar), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow) and Maharashtra (Amravati) are now firmly on the map. With a total outlay of ₹4,445 crore up to 2027–28, these parks are designed as plug-and-play ecosystems, integrating fibre, fabric, processing, garmenting and logistics.

Key milestones achieved in 2025:

100% land acquisition completed and handed over to SPVs
Investment MoUs signed with an expected investment potential of over ₹27,434 crore
Infrastructure works worth ₹2,590.99 crore initiated by state governments
Environmental clearances secured for all seven parks
DPRs worth ₹7,024 crore approved for parks in Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Maharashtra
Foundation stone laid at Dhar, Madhya Pradesh

As India enters 2026, PM MITRA parks are no longer policy promises, they are emerging industrial cities that could redefine scale, cost efficiency and global sourcing confidence.

Technical Textiles: Quietly becoming a strategic engine

The National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM), with an outlay of ₹1,480 crore, continued to build long-term capability rather than chase quick wins.

In 2025, the mission approved:

168 R&D projects worth ₹520 crore across speciality fibres, composites, carbon fibre, aramid and machinery
24 startups, signalling growing private innovation interest
45 proposals from IITs, NITs and universities for new UG/PG programmes, backed by ₹204 crore for labs and faculty training
8 Quality Control Orders covering 68 technical textile items

More than half of PLI beneficiaries are now in technical textiles, underlining a clear shift: this is no longer a niche segment but a capital-intensive, high-value growth engine aligned with defence, infrastructure, healthcare and sustainability.

PLI Textiles: Investment turning into output

The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for textiles began delivering tangible outcomes in 2025, moving beyond gestation.

Under the scheme:

74 companies were selected
Proposed investment: ₹28,711 crore
Projected turnover: ₹2,16,760 crore
Expected employment: 2,59,164 jobs

By the end of 2025:

40 companies reported investments
22 achieved threshold investment levels
30 companies commenced production and reported turnover
₹54 crore was disbursed as provisional incentives to two companies
Five companies met both investment and turnover thresholds in FY 2024–25

With 56.75% of beneficiaries in technical textiles, the PLI scheme is quietly reshaping India’s manufacturing profile from volume-driven to value-led.

Exports: Stability in a volatile world

In a year marked by geopolitical stress, tariffs and supply chain realignments, India’s textile exports held firm.

Key highlights:

Textile and apparel exports reached US$ 37.8 billion in 2024–25
5% year-on-year growth
Trade surplus of US$ 28.2 billion
India ranked as the world’s 6th largest textile and apparel exporter
The sector contributed 8.63% of India’s total exports and 4.1% of global trade

Traditional markets - the US, EU and UK - accounted for 55% of exports, while emerging destinations such as Bangladesh, UAE, Sri Lanka, Australia and Canada contributed 20%.

Looking ahead, the Ministry’s Vision 2030 target of US$ 100 billion in exports signals intent. The strategy is clear: market diversification, sustainability-led differentiation and deeper district-level export mapping - already completed across 520 districts.

SAMARTH: Building the workforce of the future

Manufacturing ambition means little without skilled hands. The SAMARTH scheme has emerged as one of the quiet success stories of 2025.

So far:

5.41 lakh people trained
4.76 lakh women beneficiaries (88%)
4.05 lakh candidates placed in jobs (75%)

The scheme blends modern, technology-enabled training with support for handlooms, handicrafts and entrepreneurship. In FY 2025–26, SAMARTH targets skilling another 2 lakh people, critical as PM MITRA parks and PLI units scale up.

Cotton: Digitisation meets farmer security

Cotton reforms in 2025 combined farmer protection with traceability and productivity.

During the 2024–25 season:

525 lakh quintals (100 lakh bales) procured under MSP
₹37,450 crore disbursed to farmers
38% of arrivals and 34% of national production covered

Structural reforms included:

Launch of the Kapas Kisan app for farmer registration and slot booking
Blockchain-enabled QR-coded bales (BITS) for traceability
CotBiz platform for e-invoicing and contract management
Temporary customs duty exemption on raw cotton imports (Aug–Dec 2025) to stabilise prices

The newly announced 5-year Cotton Productivity Mission aligns farming with the “Farm to Foreign” vision, while the Kasturi Cotton Bharat programme positions Indian cotton as a branded, traceable global product.

Wool, Silk and Jute: Strengthening traditional pillars

Wool
Under the Integrated Wool Development Programme (₹126 crore allocation), 2025 saw GI registration for Ladakh Pashmina, DNA testing facilities, R&D for coarse wool, branding initiatives and common facility centres - modernising a sector rooted in nomadic livelihoods.

Silk
India strengthened its global position as the second-largest silk producer. Raw silk output rose to 41,121 MT, while bivoltine silk production surged nearly 300% since 2013–14. Digital tools like the SILKS portal, indigenous reeling machines and price dissemination systems are making sericulture more efficient and dignified.

Jute
Mandatory jute packaging norms continued to support 3.70 lakh workers and 40 lakh farmers. Lightweight jute bags, satellite-based crop assessment and digitised procurement through PAAT-MITRO reflect how even legacy fibres are being future-proofed.

GST and regulatory reforms

One of the most industry-impacting moves of 2025 was GST rationalisation:

Man-made fibres and yarns reduced to 5% GST
Garments up to ₹2,500 per piece retained at 5%
Carpets, handicrafts, handlooms and sewing machines moved to 5%

This corrected inverted duty structures, freed working capital and aligned fibre-to-fabric taxation.

Alongside, decriminalisation under the Jan Vishwas framework reduced compliance anxiety across silk, handloom and Textile Committee laws, signalling a shift to trust-based governance.

Export-focused relief in a tariff-heavy world

To cushion the impact of US tariffs, the government extended:

RoDTEP and RoSCTL schemes till March 2026
Export obligation timelines from 6 to 18 months for QCO-linked products
Import monitoring through MIP on synthetic knitted fabrics

Crucially, QCO-related relief on machinery, polyester and viscose staple fibre eased raw material access and investment planning.

Bharat Tex: Signalling global intent

Bharat Tex 2025 was not just an exhibition, it was a statement.

Spread over 2.2 million sqft, the event hosted:

5,000+ exhibitors
120,000 trade visitors
Buyers from 120+ countries
70+ knowledge sessions

With exports already touching ₹3 lakh crore, the ambition is clear: scale to ₹9 lakh crore by 2030 by integrating fibre, fashion and foreign markets.

Looking Ahead: A confident start to 2026

The message from 2025 is unmistakable. India’s textile sector is no longer reacting to global shifts, it is positioning itself to shape them.

Infrastructure is visible. Incentives are working. Farmers are digitised. Tax structures are cleaner. Skills are scaling. And the narrative has shifted from survival to leadership.

If 2025 was the year of groundwork, 2026 could well be the year India’s textile ambition begins to show its full global weight.

The Ministry of Textiles’ 2025 year-end review reads less like a government scorecard and more like a blueprint for the next decade. From mega textile parks to fibre reforms, from GST rationalisation to export resilience, the direction is clear - India wants to be a predictable, competitive and future-ready textile powerhouse. Looking ahead, the Ministry’s Vision 2030 target of US$ 100 billion in exports signals intent. The strategy is clear: market diversification, sustainability-led differentiation and deeper district-level export mapping - already completed across 520 districts.

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