Textiles ministry approves 18 R&D projects worth Rs 46.74 cr across different areas of technical textiles

New Delhi [India], September 29 (ANI): Ministry of Textiles approved a total of 18 Research and  and Development projects worth Rs 46.74 crores across different areas of technical textiles, an official statement said on Thursday. 
Addressing the 7th Meeting of the Mission Steering Group (MSG) of National Technical Textiles Mission in New Delhi, Union Textiles Minister Piyush Goyal said, "Industry and Institute’s pro-active and robust engagement is essential for the indigenous development of technical textiles in India." 
Among these 18 R&D projects, 14 are high value Projects, 3 are Prototype Grant projects and 1 is Ideation Grant project. The projects cover different application areas of technical textiles including 1 Projects from Geotech, 2 of Protech, 2 Indutech, 2 Sportech, 5 Sustainable Textiles, 3 Meditech, 3 Smart & E Textiles and 1 Geotextiles were approved during the meeting. 
The approved projects were led by institutes and research bodies including BTRA, ATIRA, IIT Delhi, IIT Jammu, NIT Jalandhar, IIT Kharagpur, CSIR New Delhi, IIT Madras, among others.
"Emphasis should be on R&D for globally highly imported technical textiles items, apart from import-dependent technical textiles items and specialty fibres in India," Piyush Goyal said.
Textiles ministry said that progress on the Education, Training and Skill Development front was also reviewed by the Union Minister wherein 26 applications from 15 Public and 11 Private institutes valuing INR 151.02 Crores were approved for introducing papers, procuring laboratory infrastructure and training of trainers across different application areas of technical textiles. 
Senior officials from NITI Aayog, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ministry of Heavy Industries, Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Expenditure, Department of Higher Education, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and members from other Ministries, and eminent members from the industry attended the meeting. (ANI)