A few days ago, the Textiles Ministry convened a meeting of the research associations and asked them to submit exhaustive reports in a month's time on the research & development (R&D) projects on technical textiles that can be taken up by each of them. On the basis of the reports, the ministry would chalk out an integrated plan for the development of this segment, a senior official said.

The Silk & Art Silk Mills' Research Association (SASMIRA) will be appointed as the nodal research association to undertake the consolidated R&D project. The research bodies studies would aim at developing low cost and viable technologies fort enhancing the commercial production of technical and industrial fabrics and other textile items. These technologies would later be offered to the industry at a price for large scale commercialisation, the Union textiles secretary Shyamal Ghosh said.

He however, said that the ministry's financial allocation for the project has not yet been finalised. ``It depends on the research bodies' assessment of the financial requirement.''

This view of the ministry would be reinforced by the S Sathyam Committee on textile policy, which, it is learnt, has included a separate chapter on technical textiles in its report. According to the committee, the global market for technical textiles is valued at US$ 67 billion. ``Even if we supply to ten per cent of this market, which we are indeed capable of, it would be nearly equal to the total export of textiles from the country at present,'' the committee points out.

The research associations have already taken up some stray initiatives to develop speciality fibres, though the fibre composition for industrial and technical uses are still dominated by synthetic fibres like high tenacity nylon and polyester, besides some quantities of rayon. The development of new high-value speciality fibres is expected to drastically change the existing fibre volume for the production of industrial fabrics.

Though technical textiles produced from carbon fibres, etc currently have applications in space research activities and are being used by the defence department, most of the potential of these inputs remain to be utilised. Experts observe that cost reduction in these technologies would result in a whole lot of economically viable applications in agriculture, crisis management and medicine.