By PTI

New Delhi: India’s technical textile market could grow four fold to become a $37 billion (Rs1,47,075 crore) industry by 2020, provided issues such as lack of investment and absence of research and development are addressed, a report by industry body Ficci said.

According to the Ficci-Technopak report, the Indian technical textiles market has been registering a growth of 11.25%, which now stands at $8.3 billion. The growth of the sector is, however, marred by factors like lack of investment, absence of high quality R&D and database, it said.

“The lack of mandatory rules for use of technical textile products, certification agencies, design standards, guidelines and skilled manpower are also hindering growth of the sector,” the chamber said.

Technical textiles are materials and products used primarily for their technical and functional properties and not for use as apparels.

Of the 12 technical textiles segments, the report identifies buildtech, geotech, meditech and protech would drive the growth of the sector.

“The demand for geotextiles and protective textiles is set to grow manifold in view of the growing infrastructure and increasing use of fire retardant textiles in various applications,” the report said, adding consumption of geotech in the next five years could be around Rs10,000 crore.