India's textile exports failed to achieve the required target of $25 billion in the financial year 2008. The exports for the year 2007-08 stood at $20.5 billion. Union textile minister Shankar Singh Vaghela at the Ficci seminar on technical textiles said that the textile exports were hit because of rupee appreciation. However the exports saw a rise of 10% than the previous year.

 

Mr. Vaghela also said that the government aims to increase the textile exports by $50 billion by 2010 and are taking steps to achieve the desired target. The government is also planning to create four centers of excellence for technical textile which will provide the required infrastructure support for technical textile industry. The centers will have high class facilities with labs of international standards. Technical textile is widely used in sectors like Agriculture, Railways, Defence, Healthcare, Automobiles etc.