Context: Recently, the Textiles Committee operating under Ministry of Textiles has launched testing equipment for Personal Protection Equipment (PPE). The Committee will now test and certify the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) body coveralls required for healthcare workers and other Covid-19 warriors.
Key Points

• Textiles Committee is the ninth approved laboratory to test and certify body coveralls.
• The national accreditation body, National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL) has approved the lab facility under the textile committee.
• The Textiles Committee has come up with fully indigenously designed (Make in India) PPE Testing Equipment, i.e. Synthetic Blood Penetration Testing equipment, required for determination of the resistance of protective clothing materials to penetration by blood and body fluids.

Benefits

• This will help in overcoming the challenges of non-availability of reputed domestic manufacturers of PPE testing equipment. Further, there is a delay/long gestation period to import machines from China.
• This would also help in making India the world’s second largest manufacturer of body coveralls, next only to China.

About Textile Committee

• It is a statutory body established in 1963 through an Act of Parliament.
• It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles.
• It has been formed to ensure the quality of textiles products and textile machinery both for internal consumption and export purpose.
• The Committee is tasked with the functions of establishing laboratories for the testing of textiles and textile machinery and providing for their inspection and examination.