PM MITRA Parks: Features, Objectives & Significance

The PM MITRA Park scheme aims to establish world-class textile parks in India, integrating the entire value chain from fiber to fashion. Initiated to increase competitiveness, attract investment, and create employment, it supports sustainable and efficient textile manufacturing with infrastructure of global standards and connectivity.

About the PM MITRA Parks

In reality, the Indian textile industry stands among the largest industries in the world, feeding on abundant raw materials alongside manufacturing capacities across the value chain.
In order to actually make the industry globally competitive, the Government’s focus towards increasing textile manufacturing has been directed at the building of best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure, technology upgradation, innovation, skill-upgradation, and cost reduction in the sector.
In light of experience from competing economies, the question of integrated large-scale world-class industrial facilities for textiles came up to build scale, reduce logistics cost, and improve overall competitiveness.
Therefore, with this vision in mind, the Government of India has recently approved the establishment of 7 PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel (PM MITRA) Parks for the Textile industry.
Inspired by the 5F vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister (i.e., Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign), the PM MITRA Parks is a very big step forward in realizing the Government’s vision of making India a global hub for textile manufacturing and exports.
MITRA parks will assist the textile industry of India in attaining higher size and concentration along with the formation of a modern & integrated textile value chain at one single location.
This will make India’s textile industry globally competitive, attract huge investments, and spur employment growth.
Apart from accommodating the entire T&A value chain, the MITRA Parks will nurture and grow the ecosystem that supports the Industry.
The parks will provide world-class Infrastructure with plug-and-play features and assist in creating global champions in the textiles sector.
After completion, each park is believed to generate about 1,00,000 direct jobs and 2,00,000 indirect jobs. It is also estimated that each PM MITRA park will generate investments worth Rs 10,000 Cr.
Bringing modernisation, scale, and skilled workforce to benefit every segment of the textile value chain.

Features of the PM MITRA Parks

MITRA Parks will be created at chosen locations with ready-to-move, ready-to-start (plug and play) common industrial infrastructure and facilities to integrate supply and value chains in a contiguous area.
The idea of the Ministry of Textiles is to have world-class infrastructure for industrial units and workers working and staying inside and around MITRA Park. In order to facilitate scale, each MITRA Park should ideally be at least 1000 acres in area.
While being a 1000-acre park promises that large-sized units, both domestic and international can comfortably locate therein, the plug and play concept shall drastically reduce the time an investor would need to start operations.
The MITRA Parks will enable the formation of an Integrated Textiles Value Chain right from spinning, weaving, processing, and printing to garment manufacturing and accessory making at one location, reducing logistics and transaction costs.
New investments are also expected to have a significant component of Manmade Fibre (MMF) and Technical Textiles.
The MITRA parks can either be Greenfield or Brownfield.
(a) Greenfield Sites: New independent sites will be developed under this category.
(b) Brownfield Sites: Sites with partly developed industrial trunk infrastructure and other intended facilities will be taken up for completing the development.

Objectives of the PM MITRA Parks

The PM MITRA (Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) Parks scheme will create world-class textile infrastructure for an uplifting Indian textile and apparel sector. Some notable objectives include:

Improving Competitiveness: Building textile parks with globally competitive infrastructure and supply chains.
Improving Investments: Encouraging domestic and foreign investments in textile manufacture through integrated facilities.
Creating Employment: Providing scope for creating large employment for skilled and semi-skilled workers.
Strengthening Value Chain: Linking all stages of textile production-fibre to fabric to fashion-within one location.
Increasing Exports: Enabling mass production of high-quality goods to improve India’s share in international textile exports.
Sustainability Promotion: Encouraging green and sustainable manufacturing methods.
Lowering Logistics Costs: Ensure efficient supply chain with common infrastructure through integrated parks.

Significance of the PM MITRA Parks

The PM MITRA (Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) Parks scheme is of paramount importance to the textile sector in India and seeks to place the country on the global map of textile manufacturing.
It takes a holistic and integrated approach for enhancing efficiency, competitiveness, and sustainability in the sector.
PM MITRA Parks offers one major benefit-with competitiveness. Creation of world-class infrastructure under this scheme reduces costs of production, increases supply chain efficiency, and attracts large investments.
The parks are envisaged to integrate the entire textile value chain, from fiber production all the way to apparel manufacture, so there are no chokepoints and the operations continue smoothly.
Another benefit of PM MITRA Parks is job creation: providing ample employment opportunities, especially in rural areas and for women. Increased investment and production will create millions of jobs, direct and indirect.
The other critical result in this regard is the growth of exports, whereby India will be helped to produce on a large scale, with high quality, and lower logistics costs so that Indian textile exports can compete more on the international markets.
This will help increase foreign exchange earnings and strengthen India’s position in the global textile trade.
Sustainability and innovation are also major focus areas. The parks will promote environmentally friendly production processes, encourage the use of sustainable materials, and drive research and development in technical textiles.
By developing seven PM MITRA parks, the scheme is set to revolutionize the textile industry, making India a preferred destination for textile investment and manufacturing while enhancing its global economic footprint.

Lacunae of the PM MITRA Parks

High Initial Investment Requirement: Establishing world-class infrastructure demands large capital investments, and the presence of private investors may be uncertain given the high initial investment and long gestation periods.
Land Acquisition Issues: Acquiring large land parcels for textile parks may be a complicated and prolonged process, mainly while dealing with densely populated areas prone to land disputes, regulatory challenges, or other impediments.
Infrastructure and Connectivity Challenges: Although still-welcomed by the central government, transport ensures the connectivity problems, especially in remote locations where parks are proposed.
Financial Viability for MSMEs: Banks may prioritize large investors, causing few SMEs to engage, even though they form the majority of the textile industry of India.
Environmental Concerns: Textile manufacturing, especially in man-made fiber production and processing, causes pollution of a major scale. Ensuring that environmental regulations are complied with strictly and that the best sustainable practices are implemented may itself turn out to be a challenge.
Implementation and Bureaucratic Delays: Execution of large-scale projects in India often faces delays due to administrative inefficiencies, red tape, and coordination issues among central and state governments.

PM MITRA (Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel) Parks for UPSC CSE Prelims

Launch Year: Announced in 2021 under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
With the prime objective of creating seven world-class textile parks, it was meant to strengthen domestic manufacturing, investments, and international competitiveness.
Integration: The whole textile value chain, i.e., fiber, fabric, processing, apparel, and exports, is under its umbrella.
Investment and Incentives: 4,445 crores allocated for five years to be provided as Viability Gap Funding (VGF).
Employment Generation: One lakh direct and two lakh indirect jobs generation per park is estimated.
Implementation Model: A Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode involving state governments and private stakeholders.
Location Criteria: Nearness to raw materials, transport network, and the skilled workforce.
Sustainability: Green infrastructure, waste management, energy efficiency.
Exports Boost: To raise India’s share in the world market for technical textiles and MMF (Man-Made Fiber).
Governance: SPVs constituted for each park by the collaboration of the respective state and the central government.

Way forward

For PM MITRA Parks, the way ahead involves ensuring timely project execution, generating global investments, and encouraging innovations in sustainable textile manufacturing. Enhanced engagement with the industry, skill development, and policy streamlining will be attractive. Ensuring sound infrastructure, adopting technology, and export promotion will position India as a global leader in textile production.

Conclusion

Executing the design for PM MITRA Parks is a transformative initiative in building integrated textile hubs for furthering India’s global competitiveness. Attracting investment, promoting sustainability, and creating employment will strengthen the textile value chain and boost exports, thus situating India among the number one textile manufacturing and apparel hubs around the globe.