India’s wool and woollen textile industry is the seventh-largest in the world. Woollen textiles and clothing industry is relatively small compared to the cotton and manmade fibre based textiles and clothing industry. However, the woollen sector  plays  an  important role  in  linking  the  rural  economy  with  the  manufacturing industry,  represented  by  small,  medium  and  large  scale  units.

Woollen textile industries in India:

• India has  the  3rd largest  sheep  population country  in  the  world  having  07 million sheep producing 43.50 million kg of raw wool in 2017-18.
• The most important producers are Punjab, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh followed by Gujarat, Karnataka, and Jammu & Kashmir.
• Out of this about 85% is carpet  grade  wool,  5%  apparel  grade  and  remaining  10%  coarse  grade  wool for making rough Kambals
• The woollen industries comprises of organized sector and the Decentralized Sector.

Employment potential:

• There are several woollen units in the country, majority of which are in the small scale sector.
• The woollen  industry  employs  a  workforce  of  7  million  and  30,000  technical supervisory  level  personnel.   
• With the  spurt  of  the  textile  activity  and  the  projected target  growth,  while  5  million  direct  jobs  are  likely  to  be  created  in  the  textile  industry with  another  7  million  jobs  in  allied 
• It is  safe  to  estimate  the  requirement  of about  2  lakh new  jobs  in  the  woollen  sector  consisting  of  skilled  and  semi-skilled workforce; in addition to trained /qualified supervisory personnel & managers.

Economic growth:

The  aggregate export  of woollen items  from  wool  tops  to  finished  products  like  textiles,  clothing, blankets and carpets is currently estimated around app. Rs. 11484Crs.

Challenges:

• The production of wool in the country is not sufficient to meet the demand of the wool industry  particularly  of  apparel  sector  and  most  of  it  is  being  imported  from Australia, New Zealand and many other countries.
• Low priority of State Governments in development of wool sector.
• Lack of  awareness,  traditional  management  practices,  and  lack  of  education  and poor economic conditions of woolgrowers.
• Inadequate marketing facilities and infrastructure.
• Absence of  organized  marketing  and  minimum  support  price  system  for  ensuring remunerative return.
• No educational  institute  for  wool  technology  resulting  lack  of  expertise  in  wool sector.
• Shortage of pasture land which force breeders to migrate their flock from one area to another throughout the year.
• Uneconomical return  of  the  produces  to  sheep  breeders  e.  Sale of raw wool, live sheep, manure, milk, mutton, skin etc.

Measures taken:

• Integrated Wool Development Programme, (IWDP): For the holistic growth of the wool sector, Ministry of Textiles, formulated a new integrated programme. This programme would be implemented through Central Wool Development Board in major wool producing States in Financial Years from 2017-18 to 2019-20 with total financial outlay of Rs. 112 crores.
• Wool Marketing Scheme (WMS): To ensure remunerative prices.
• Wool Processing Scheme: this scheme   will   provide   support   for establishing  Common  Facility  Centre  (CFC)  for  different  kind  of  wool  and  woollen processing 

Conclusion:

The Indian Wool Industry is an important industry since it is one of the prominent sources of livelihood for the rural India and it represents small, medium, and large scale units. Further, the India wool Industry also caters to civil and defence requirements for warm clothing for the Indian Army.