India joint textile minister Shri Shankersinh Vaghela held the opening ceremony for the global conference of India technical textile industry. The meeting lasted for one day.

At the opening ceremony, he said that the government of India is planning to set up four excellent academic centres to provide assistance for the technical textile infrastructure.

These centers will be equipped with internationally recognized testing laboratories, training equipment, technical personnel, IT information center and other technical textile entrepreneurs need support.

He said the four centers will be built in six months.

These centers are the Mumbai Textile Research Association (BTRA), which is responsible for Biotechnology textiles, silk and arts silk manufacturing Research Association (SASMIRA), responsible for agricultural technology textiles, India northern Textile Research Association (NITRA), responsible for the protection of technical textiles, and India Southern Textile Research Association (SITRA), responsible for medical technology textiles.

He said that in September 2007, India Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh announced that the government will soon set up a technical textile technical team.

He said that the group will provide support for the development of India's technology textile industry, including enterprise capacity building, including standardization, product development, joint inspection facilities, domestic and export market development, and silk development.

He urged industrial representatives to use the government's incentive policies to develop opportunities for development in the textile sector.

Textile minister Shri A. K. Singh said technical textiles are becoming an investment area in India.

The industry has great potential for development.

He said that the technical textiles expert committee estimated that the market scale of technical textiles in 2003 04 was about 200 billion rupees, and that it will grow to about 300 billion rupees in 2007-08, with an annual growth rate of 12%.

The one day conference focused on India's problems: the next destination of technical textiles; standard development of technical textiles; biotechnology, building technology, automotive technology and medical technology; national defense and fire prevention technology.