Question

Give a detailed account of cotton textile industry

Answer 1

The cotton textile industry is one of the oldest and firmly established major organised industries of India. In 1818, the first unit of cotton textile industry was established at Fort Gloster, situated near Kolkata. Later on, real base of this industry was established in 1854 with the establishment of another cotton textile mill at Mumbai.
Till 1920 this industry was continued with its units in and around Mumbai. Later on, this was expanded to Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Northern India and some other parts of the country. But at present Mumbai and Ahmedabad are the two major centres of cotton textile industry in India. The other important centres for the production of textiles are Sholapur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Nagpur and Indore.

The textile industry continues to be the largest industry in our country. It accounts for 20 per cent of total industrial output, provides employment to 20 million people and contributes nearly 38 per cent to the total Value of exports. The textile industry has witnessed a phenomenal growth during the last four decades.

The spindle-age in the cotton/man-made fibre textile mills increased from 110 lakh in 1951 to 322 lakh in January 1997.
The cotton textile industry in India is having its three following distinct categories in the organised Sector:

a) Spinning mills,

(b) Coarse and medium composite mills, and

(c) Fine and superfine composite mills.

At the end of March 1996, there were 1569 textile mills in India, out of which 906 were spinning mills and 269 were composite mills with 28 million spindles and 1.6 lakh looms. This industry is provided direct employment to nearly 17.0 lakh workers which account nearly 18 per cent of the total factory workers of the country.

Again, total employment in textile sector is estimated about 35.00 million in 2002-03 as against 39 millions in 1990. There were 132 closed mills at the end of March, 1994.

Answer 2

A detailed account of the cotton textile industry is given below:

• The cotton textile industry is one of the most important primary industries in India employing around 40% of the population either directly or indirectly.
• Traditionally cotton textiles were produced using handloom weaving and spinning techniques.
• After the 18th century, power-driven looms came into use.
• During the colonial rule, the Indian textiles industry suffered huge losses due to superior quality and cheaper price of mill-made cloth from England.
• This industry is however facing problems due to erratic power supply and outdated machinery. It is also facing strong competition from the synthetic fibers industry in recent years.