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India: Rising Opportunities in Nonwovens and Technical Textiles



India will defy the existing nonwovens growth theory and grow exponentially with rising income levels



Seshadri Ramkumar and Appachi Arunachalam
Nonwoven and Advanced Materials Laboratory
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX




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Economy, in particular the loss of manufacturing jobs,  is center stage in the presidential election campaigns in the U.S. these days. This has been a dramatic shift from other issues that were considered priority six months back. Some economic pundits are predicting recession in 2008 in the U.S. However, this situation is quite a contrast 10,000 miles away—in India. India is rising and moving ahead with opportunities in every sector. For the past four years, India’s GDP has grown more than 8%. The growth in 2007 reached as high as 9.4% and is predicted to be in between 8-9% in 2008. The Indian middle class population tops 300 million, which is set to spearhead the growth of the nonwovens and technical textile industry.

According to Goldman Sachs, India’s economy will ex­ceed the economy of Europe and Japan by 2030 and that of the U.S. by 2045. Such a growth is possible because of the increase in household incomes and the predicted growth in agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors. The consumer spending level is growing more than 5% per annum,  which has resulted in the ongoing growth of organized retail sectors. India’s population of 1.1 billion, one-third of which is in the middle income group, plays an important role with the growth of India’s economy. India has roughly 100 million people younger than 25, out of which approximately 25 million are highly educated and this number is still growing. The economy gets a boost due to the growing middle class, young and educated population. These are vital factors for the growth of the nonwovens and technical textiles industry in India.

The 11th five-year plan of the Government of India (April 2007- March 2012) calls for all-inclusive growth, which is expected to reach double digits by the end of the fiscal year 2012. This clearly emphasizes the growth needed in agriculture and manufacturing sectors, as the IT and service sectors have done extremely well in recent years. Taking this mandate of the National Planning Council into consideration, the Ministry of Textiles of India sees the nonwovens and technical textiles sector as an important area for support and growth.