Secretary of the Ministry of Textiles, Neelam Shami Rao, chaired the 10th Empowered Programme Committee (EPC) meeting under the National Technical Textiles Mission at Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi, on Tuesday.

During the meeting, the committee approved grants for four startups under the ‘Grant for Research & Entrepreneurship across Aspiring Innovators in Technical Textiles (GREAT)’ scheme, with each startup receiving approximately ₹50 lakh. These startups are focused on key sectors including medical, industrial, and protective textiles, according to an official release.

In addition, a grant of approximately ₹6.5 crore was approved for three educational institutes, including IIT Indore and NIT Patna, to introduce specialized courses in Technical Textiles. The courses will cover areas such as Geotextiles, Geosynthetics, Protective Textiles, and Sports Textiles.

The committee also greenlit 12 skill development courses, developed by textile research associations SITRA, NITRA, and SASMIRA. These courses aim to train professionals in sectors like medical textiles, protective textiles, mobile textiles, and agriculture textiles, addressing all focus groups within the technical textiles value chain.