Badly hit by COVID-19, Indian apparel exporters are gearing up to start producing personal protective equipment (PPE) kits to help fight the pandemic and also make India a hub for sourcing PPE kits over the next few years.
About 2,000 participants mainly apparel exporters from across the country logged on to 'Manufacturing of PPE Products under Medical Textiles' webinar orgsed by Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) along with South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) and Indian Technical Textiles Association (ITTA) on Saturday.
"We find that there will be a domestic demand of Rs 10,000 crore for the next one year and internationally there will be a $60 billion business in 2025 whereas India has done only $260 million so far last year, a study says," said AEPC chairman Dr A Sakthivel while addressing the exporters in the webinar.
Dr KS Sundararaman, chairman, ITTA, said: "There is a very strong anti-China sourcing sentiment going on right now and this is an opportunity for us to capture. We have a vibrant Indian market and we have a great global market. Please reach out to doctors who are near you and understand these medical professionals who will wear these PPE kits."
Dr Prakash Vasudevan, Director, SITRA, said: "We have two classifications - single-use and reusable. Both are widely accepted in today's scenario because disposal or single-use is becoming very complicated. The only way to dispose of all this medical waste is incineration and considering our situation safe disposal is a big problem. So, reusables are also slowly coming in."
Prasenjeet Shambharkar, Solutions Consultant, Lectra India, said: "WHO has predicted that globally 89 million masks, 30 million gowns, 1.6 million goggles, 76 million gloves and 2.9 million litres of hand stiser are required per month during the pandemic. There are different types of PPE kits which are required, basically one is for the doctors and one is for the investigation team."
The expert panel discussed at length the emerging market for PPE kits and the way to get into its production by discussing the products, technical specifications, requirement of inputs like fabric and seam seal tapes and machines, apart from their demand. The webinar drew a huge response both in terms of a number of participants and the rush to get their queries answered.
( With inputs from ANI )