Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh said that the govern ment has given an additional 1.5 thousand crore rupees to upgrade the textile industry. Due to this, the export of the textile industry in the world has reached 800 billion dollars today. He was speaking at the Global Tech-Textile Conclave at the Technical Institute of Textile and Sciences, Bhiwani. He said that India imports 250 tonnes of glass fibre from abroad, which will now be manufactured in the country. This type of special fabric will also be used in the construction of buildings, aeroplanes, wind turbines and light cars in the coming time. It will also be lighter and cheaper than iron. Experts from the textile sector from 14 countries around the world are participating in the conference. Allocation of Funds for Startups Under the Ministry of Textile’s National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM), the scheme of “Grant for Research and Entrepreneurship across Aspiring Innovators in Technical Textiles (GREAT)” aims to support the start-up ecosystem in the technical textiles sector across the country, including Telangana, by providing assistance to young innovators, scientists, technologists, and start-up ventures in translating their ideas into commercial technologies and products. The total budget allocated to the NTTM for the current financial year (2026-27) is Rs. 256 crore, which includes the provision for releasing grants to start-ups under the GREAT scheme. Under NTTM, 15 research projects and 01 application from an educational institution under the “General Guidelines for Enabling of Academic Institutes in Technical Textiles Education in India: For Private and Public Institutes” have been approved from the State of Telangana. An Evaluation and Monitoring Committee (EMC) has been constituted under NTTM to evaluate, monitor, and review the technical and financial parameters of the start-up proposals. Based on the criteria laid out in the GREAT guidelines, the EMC submits its recommendations to the Empowered Programme Committee (EPC) under NTTM for approval of start-up proposals. GREAT guidelines are available at https://nttm.texmin.gov.in. The grants provided to start-ups under NTTM are aimed at promoting innovation, commercialization of indigenous technologies, and the development of value-added technical textile products. The anticipated economic impact of these grants is fundamentally driven by robust collaborations between the supported start-ups and established industry partners. By fostering strong synergies between innovators and industry stakeholders for prototype development, field trials, and market launches, the scheme ensures market ready commercialization. This active industry engagement is anticipated to successfully scale these start-ups, significantly strengthen the overall technical textiles ecosystem in the country, and thereby catalyze broader sustainable industry growth and employment generation. Under NTTM, a total of 31 start-ups have been approved at a total cost of Rs 15.40 crore, of which Rs 13.65 crore is the Government of India share, details of which are given below. Under NTTM, a Review and Monitoring Committee has been constituted to assess and oversee the progress of the approved start-ups, with the authority to recommend for release of subsequent instalments of grant and closure of projects to the Empowered Programme Committee. Further, various public events, workshops, seminars and outreach activities are being organized nationwide to disseminate information about the scheme and facilitate industry engagement for scaling up the potential start-up projects.