By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, OCT 08, 2020: Ms Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister of Textiles and Women & Child Development, launched the 1st ever Brand & Logo for Indian Cotton on 2nd World Cotton Day yesterday through Video Conferencing. Now India's premium Cotton would be known as 'Kasturi Cotton' in the world cotton Trade. The Kasturi Cotton brand will represent Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and Indianness. 

Speaking on this occasion, the Minister said, this is a much awaited moment that "TODAY the Indian Cotton has been endowed with a Brand & Logo". This event becomes more important as the 2nd World Cotton Day is being celebrated world over yesterday.

The Minister recounted the importance of Cotton in Indian economy. She said, "Cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of India and it provides livelihood to about 6.00 million cotton farmers. India is the 2nd largest cotton producer and the largest consumer of cotton in the world. India produces about 6.00 Million tons of cotton every year which is about 23% of the world cotton.  India produces about 51% of the total organic cotton production of the world, which demonstrates India's effort towards sustainability."

Ms Irani said that to ensure sustainability, integrity and end-to-end traceability of the organic products, a certification system based on comparable international standards verified through internationally acceptable institutional system is required to be put in place. Accordingly, Ministry of Textiles through APEDA under Ministry of Commerce and Industry has prescribed a certification system for organic Cotton which will be introduced in phases in the entire textile value chain. Similarly, prescribing a certification system for non-organic Cotton has also been taken up with APEDA so that usages of cotton can be suitably augmented. 

The Minister stated that Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) made ever highest Minimum Support Price (MSP) operation of cotton and hopeful that during the new cotton season, the procurement under MSP will be increased.  CCI has opened 430 procurement centres in all cotton growing states and payments are being made digitally to farmers' account within 72 hours. Further, leveraging the technology, a  mobile app, "Cott-Ally" has been developed by CCI for providing latest news regarding weather condition, Crop situation and best farm practices. Discount of Rs.300/- per candy is being offered by CCI in its regular sale to MSME mills, Khadi and Village industry, Cooperative sector mills to enhance their competitiveness and efficiency. It was also stated that cotton may be used across all dimension of Technical Textiles. Further, Hon'ble Minister has intimated that Government has  passed bills for the welfare of the farmers, which also be beneficial to the industries.

Hon'ble Minister graced the inaugural session of the webinar organised by TEXPROCIL and CITI on the theme of “NEW-LOOK COTTON” to facilitate exchange of ideas on the emerging scenarios in cotton usage and application.