The government on Tuesday said it will provide a grant-in-aid of up to Rs 50 lakh for start-ups and individuals to promote innovation in the niche technical textiles segment.

The Start-up Guidelines for Technical Textiles - Grant for Research and Entrepreneurship across Aspiring Innovators in Technical Textiles (GREAT) providing grant-in-aid of up to Rs 50 lakh for up to a period of 18 months has been approved, Rajeev Saxena, joint secretary, Ministry of Textiles, said. "With a strong emphasis on developing the start-up ecosystem in technical textiles, the guidelines focus on supporting individuals and companies to translate prototypes to technologies and products, including commercialisation, he told reporters here on the important developments in the National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM)."

"We are going to support up to Rs 50 lakh in the form of grant-in-aid without any royalties or equity. Only a minimum of 10 per cent contribution has to be made by the incubatee. All of this is being done by incubators like IITs, NITs, Textiles Research Associations, and Centres of Excellence, among others," Saxena said.

Under the GREAT scheme, he said, "the ministry envisages the research, which has already been conducted and some prototypes have been developed, to be made commercial." The official said that an online portal will be developed to invite applications within 10-15 days. The scheme will be commensurate with the National Technical Textiles Mission. We are going to support 100-150 start-ups. The textile ministry will additionally provide 10 per cent of total grant-in-aid to incubators, according to an official release.

To strengthen authenticity and commitment towards the project, Saxena said a minimum investment of 10 per cent of the funding from the incubatee in two equal installments is mandated. The start-up guidelines (GREAT) are aimed at providing the much-needed impetus for the development of the technical textiles start-up ecosystem in India, especially in niche sub-segments such as bio-degradable and sustainable textiles, high-performance, and specialty fibers, and smart textiles, among others.

As per the guidelines, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) will have to be signed between the selected start-ups and the incubator. The textiles ministry has also given a nod to 26 institutes for upgrading their laboratory infrastructure and training trainers in the application areas of technical textiles.

Applications from 26 institutions for the development and introduction of technical textile courses/ papers in the key departments/specialisations as well as introducing new degree programme in technical textiles have also been approved.

A total of Rs 151.02 crore was approved wherein 15 applications valuing Rs 105.55 crore are from public institutes and 11 applications valuing Rs 45.47 crore are from private institutes.

Some of the premier institutes to be funded under the scheme include IIT Delhi, NIT Jalandhar, NIT Durgapur, NIT Karnataka, NIFT Mumbai, ICT Mumbai, Anna University, PSG College of Technology and Amity University, among others.

On the quality and regulation aspect of technical textiles, the ministry has already notified two QCOs for 31 technical textiles products, including 19 geotextiles and 12 protective textiles, which will come into effect from October 7, 2023, onwards.

Besides, QCOs for 28 products, including 22 agrotextiles and six medical textiles are also in the final stages of issuance and likely to be issued in September 2023, Saxena added. Furthermore, an additional 28 items are also considered for QCOs, including Building textiles, Industrial textiles, and Ropes & Cordages.