Context: Recently, the Ministry of Textiles disbanded another advisory body” the All India Powerloom Board” after All India Handicrafts and Handloom boards.

• It has also changed the status of all the Textiles Research Associations (TRAs) from ‘affiliated bodies’ to ‘approved bodies’ for conducting testing, research and developmental activities related to the textiles sector.

Reasons for disbanding

• It failed to impact policy-making and became vehicles of “political patronage” with the emergence of a ‘middleman culture’ that did not help the interests of weavers. 

Key Points

• The Textile Research Associations will now act as approved bodies to conduct tests, researches and development activities of the textiles sector.
• The boards have been scrapped with a view to achieving “minimum government and maximum governance”.
• Concerning point is, the Textile sector is the most prominent employer after agriculture in rural India and the move to abolish the board can be “disastrous for small-scale artisans.

About All India Powerloom Board

• The All India Powerloom Board was first constituted as an Advisory Board to the Government of India in November 1981. Powerloom is a mechanised loom that was developed during the early Industrial Revolution.
• Aims: It aims to advise the Government generally on matters concerning the healthy development of Powerlooms within the power-operated weaving sector.
• It includes measures to be taken to achieve better productivity, increased efficiency, improve the welfare of workers and locational dispersal of Powerlooms. 
• The Government of India reconstitutes AIPB from time to time.
• The present AIPB was reconstituted for a period of two years in 2013.
• The Handloom Board was scrapped on the National Handloom Day (August 7).

Status of Textiles Sector In India

• The percentage of contribution of Textile industry to industrial production is 2.3% of GDP of India. Textiles industry provides the second largest employment in the country providing employment to more than 45 million people. For the overall development of the sector, the government is formulating a New Textile Policy. 
• The textile industry is facing problems like technological obsolesce, high input cost (power & capital), poor access to credit, fragmented units, absence of fiber neutrality etc.
• The textiles sector is highly important to India as it generates huge employment to both skilled and unskilled labours after agriculture.
• India is first in jute production and contributes to 63% of Global textile market. Most of the jute mills in India are located in the banks of Hooghly River. 
• India faces tough competition from countries such as Brazil, Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand and Egypt. The main markets of jute are Russia, USA, UK, Australia and Canada.
• The textiles industry in India include silk, cotton, wool, jute and man-made fibres. Cotton contributes to 60% of Indian Textiles industry. 
• The Cotton Textile industries are concentrated in the cotton growing belts of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Various schemes to provide support to Textiles

• Knitting and Knitwear Sector scheme: For the development and Knitwear Sector to boost production in knitting and knitwear cluster at Ludhiana, Kolkata and Tirupur.
• Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS): Government is implementing Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) for technology up-gradation of the textile industry to incentivize production with an outlay of Rs.17,822 crore during 2016-2022.
• Power Tex India: A comprehensive scheme for Powerloom sector.
• National Handicrafts Development Programme (NHDP) and Comprehensive Handicraft Cluster Development Schemes.
• Silk Samagra: An integrated Scheme for development of silk.
• Scheme for Integrated Textile Park (SITP) which provides support for the tion of world-class infrastructure facilities for setting up of textile units.