India will become self sufficient in silk in 2 years: Smriti Irani

New Delhi: Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani on Friday affirmed that India would become 'completely self-sufficient' in silk in the next two years.

She said that in the production of silk, India is second after China.

Irani was addressing a programme organised by business chamber FICCI.

She also said that technical textiles is the future of textiles and that she was keen on taking it forward.

She gave an example of the diverse uses of jute. She also said that people only know limited uses of jute but if used for the purpose of road building, the life of the road would definitely last longer, news agency IANS reported.

She said, "In a country which has brilliant handcraft legacy, we also are in a position to find new packaging avenues for our old crafts, new marketing modules, and new markets."

She also put light on the marketing of textiles saying that it is the legacy of the country. Speaking about the gaps in marketing avenues, she said when agenda is pushed in terms of international marketing, then their direction of interest will move towards the Indian market.

Irani said that the Indian farmer uses a specific type of cotton called 'Shankar' which is a better quality of cotton then Egyptian cotton.

She also said that textiles are used by the space agencies like ISRO from one of their establishments in Ahmedabad.