INTRODUCTION

Establishment
The Parliament in its 14th year of the Republic enacted the Textiles Committee Act, 1963 ( 41 of 1963), which received the President's assent on 3rd December, 1963 and was published in the Gazette of India on December 4, 1963. The Textiles Committee, as an organisation, started functioning from 22nd August, 1964. By virtue of Section 3 of the Act, the Textiles Committee is a statutory body with perpetual succession. The Textiles Committee is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India.

Functions
The Textiles Committee's main objective is to ensure the quality of textiles and textile machinery both for internal consumption and export purposes. The Textiles Committee, as corollary to its main objective of ensuring the quality of textiles and textiles machinery has been entrusted with the following functions, under Section 4 of the Act: To undertake, assist and encourage, scientific, technological and economic research. To establish standard specifications for textiles, textile machinery and the packing materials. To establish laboratories for the testing of textiles and textile machinery. To provide training in the techniques of quality control. To provide for the inspection and examination of textiles and textile machinery. To promote export of textiles. To collect statistics and To advise the Central Government on all matters relating to textiles and textile machinery, etc.

Management
The Committee is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. The Textiles Committee is managed by a Committee comprising of 29 members as laid down under Section 3(3) of the Act and Rule 3 of the Textiles Committee Rules, 1965. It comprises

a Chairman from the Industry, a Vice-chairman-Textile Commissioner (exofficio), and a Secretary, who is the Chief Executive of the organisation as a Member Secretary. There are 12 other ex-officio members representing various Textile Federations, Export Promotion Councils etc., and 14 other members representing almost all interests of the textile sector. The Committee has powers to constitute Standing Committee and Adhoc Committees.

Office Setup
The Committee's headquarters is at Mumbai. There are 29 other offices in major textile manufacturing/exporting centres, of them 18 have textile testing laboratories, including 9 eco-parameters testing laboratories.

Functional Divisions
The functions of the Textiles Committee are handled by the following Divisions:Personnel and Establishment Division Housekeeping Division Vigilance Division Hindi Cell Finance and Accounts Division Export Promotion & Quality Assurance Division Laboratory Division TQM Division Market Research Division, and HRD & PR Division
.

EXPORT MARKETING
CONTEXT:
With gradual dismantling of quotas, rationalisation of customs tariffs and consequent integration of markets under WTO framework, the Indian textile SMEs need to adopt innovative strategies in retaining

and enlarging their market shares. International markets offer better opportunities to widen the sales and increase the profitability of companies. But a large percentage of Indian SMEs shy away from export markets and are contended with domestic market. What are the constraints, which inhibit a textile manufacturer or an exporter in India in doing business in international markets? Is it lack of information on overseas markets? Is it due to absence of awareness about procedures, schemes related to exports? Is it the inability in risk taking to do export business? Is it the inability to identify right kind of overseas contacts? Is it lack of knowledge on modern IT based business related technology?

This workshop is designed to address these questions and issues and provide practical tools to explore and manage export business.

OBJECTIVES:
To orient potential textile exporters to various dimensions of export business. To sensitize the textile SME to international market intelligence. To provide information & practical exposure to the Internet based search techniques & website marketing skills.

ORGANISATION:
The Textiles Committee, a statutory body under Ministry of Textiles, which is implementing Cluster Development Programme in 23 textile SMEs clusters in the country and also conducting a nation wide training programme for industry personnel, is organising this workshop.

RESOURCE AGENCY:
Global Network, an international trade consulting firm will be the resource organization. The CEO of the company Mr. Jagat Shah, MBA with an experience of 16 years in international trade & travel to 44 countries for marketing, will conduct the workshop. He has conducted 65 such workshops in last 4 years on international trade related topics and taken 32 business delegations to USA, Europe, Africa, Latin

America, CIS, SAARC, South East Asia & China during the last 6 years.Please check website: www.globalnetworkindia.com for profile.

TARGET GROUP:
Textile and clothing manufacturers and traders, who would like to get into exports, are the primary target group for this workshop. In addition, proprietors and senior executives of export units and support service institutions will also immensely benefit out of this workshop.

NETWORKING STARATEGIES FOR DEVELOPMENT OF TEXTILE SMEs CONTEXT:

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which are constitute the backbone of Indian textile and clothing industry, need to gear up themselves to sustain and enlarge the global as well as domestic market shares, in view of economic liberalization within the country and globalization of trade. The integration of markets under ATC/ WTO and consequent phasing out of quotas by the year 2004, will pose opportunities as well as threats. An innovative and integrated strategy involving various stake holders in the process of SMEs development is the need of the hour, to convert the threats into opportunities. The textile SMEs, located in identifiable clusters in India, face several common problems: lack of technology upgradation, inadequate capacity to source the requisite raw materials as well as marketing of products, inability to avail institutional credit, absence of product innovation and diversification and inadequacies in the area of infrastructure. An individual SME by being in relative isolation and smaller in size is not in a position to address these problems on its own. Therefore, a cluster oriented approach by way of net working of the SMEs and related stake holders is the right strategy to synergize their efforts and resources for sustainable development of the industry. With the objective of ensuring collective efficiency of textile SMEs in improving their business processes and support systems, the Textiles Committee has launched a Cluster Based Development Programme in 19 clusters across the country. Net working of stake holders in the cluster is the core theme of this Cluster Development Programme.

It is in this background that a series of workshops to sensitize the industry and other support service institutions in textile clusters, on the subject of Networking Strategies for Development of Textile SMEs are being held in 23 clusters in the country, with the following objectives.

OBJECTIVES:
to sensitize the textile SMEs, support service institutions and other stake holders in textile clusters about the advantages of networking to provide working tools for developing consortium approach in business processes sourcing of raw materials, marketing, financing etc.,

ORGANISATION:
The Textiles Committee which is coordinating the Cluster Development Programme will organize these workshops in coordination with local industry associations, State / Central Government agencies and other stake holders in the cluster.

RESOURCE AGENCY:
Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDI), Ahmedabad, an institution with vast experience in Entrepreneurship Development in the country will be the resource agency for this Programme. Prof. V Padmanand, M.Phil., PGDMM, FUWAI, FCCS, (Cambridge, U.K.), Programme Director of EDI will be the lead resource person in conducting the Workshops.

PARTICIPANTS:
Senior management personnel of Textile SMEs, suppliers of raw materials and machinery, financial institutions, traders, marketing agencies, Export Promotion Councils, Industry Associations and other State/ Central Government Agencies, Individual Consultants etc. Approximately, 150 persons representing these segments are expected to attend each Workshop.