Indian textile industry

The Indian textile industry is one of the largest in the world with a massive raw material and textiles manufacturing base. Our economy is largely dependent on the textile manufacturing and trade in addition to other major industries. About 27% of the foreign exchange earnings are on account of export of textiles and clothing alone. Indirect employment including the manpower engaged in agriculture based raw-material production like cotton and related trade and handling could be started to be around another 60 million. As on March 2008 there were 1773 cotton / man-made fiber textile mills in the country with an installed capacity of 35.01 million spindles, 4, 61,000 rotors and 56,000 looms.

The decentralized power loom sector plays a pivotal role in meeting the clothing needs of the country. The growth of the power loom sector as we see in India in 1942 that is before independence the total number of power loom in our country is 15,000. After the independence in 1956 it was increased to 27,000. In 1972 it was further increased to 2, 91,000 power loom were in operation

Power Loom Sector in Tamilnadu:-

The power loom sector in Tamilnadu plays significant role in meeting the clothing needs of the people. The power loom sector in Tamilnadu is next only to Maharashtra in terms of number of power looms. In the liberalized economic environment, the delicensed power loom sector has been steadily registering good progress and providing more employment. Production of cloth as well as generation of employment has been rapidly increasing in this sector. It also contributes significantly to the export earnings of the country. The power loom sector in Tamilnadu provides employment to around 11.46 lakh workers both directly and indirectly. As against 23.24 lakh registered power looms in India, 5 lakh power looms are located in Tamilnadu.

Origin of Power loom industry in Tamil Nadu

The growth of the power loom sector in Tamil Nadu has been very spectacular registering over a period of time. The history of power loom industry start in Tamil Nadu during 1928 where the factory with six looms was started at Madurai. In 1933, a power loom unit was started in Komarapalayam of Salem District for making tapes and wicks. The Fact- Finding Committee of 1941 observed that there were “few hundred of power loom scattered over the Madras Province. After the independence during the first plan period there were around 1519 power loom of which 650 were on cotton. After the new textile policy in 1985 and new economic reform policy the power loom in Tamil Nadu was increased to 2, 27,500 in 1993 and it has further increased to 4,00,000 of which 3.20 looms are registered power looms and remaining 80,000 looms are unregistered loom.At present registered power looms in Tamil Nadu itself cross the mark of 5 lakhs.

Major clusters in Tamil Nadu:- The global market has become an overwhelming incentive for new investment and there has then occurred a veritable explosion of capacity cotton-based complexes, the most important being the Tamil Nadu clusters.

Tamilnadu cluster consists of Coimbatore, Tirupur, Salem, Karur, Erode, Madurai and Chennai.

Coimbatore & Tirupur District Cluster:- This district is the most industrialized district in the state. The majority of spinning and weaving units are occupied in Coimbatore district. Nearly (1/3rd) 32% of power looms are located in the Coimbatore district.