Madhya Pradesh has to attract Rs 10,500 crore investments towards the textile industry for increasing its installed spindle capacity to 5% at 27.5 lakh spindles of from the present state share of 4% by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan, said state level working committee on integrated development of textile industry.

The committee recommended that the state should aim at increasing its present share to 5% of the country's total installed spindle capacity of 5.5 crore spindles by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan in 2017.

The panel said that it might require the state to attract an investment of Rs 10,500 crore during the period, which would be 7.3% of the country's textile industry's projected investment for the 12th Plan. The textile industry's total plan budget for the 12th Plan has been estimated to be about Rs 1.40 lakh crore.

The state is blessed with its big area, growth potential and geographical advantages to flourish the textile industry. Capacity in downstream segments like weaving, knitting, processing and garmenting may also be created.

Talking to ToI, SP Oswal, chairman of Oswal group, who is also the chairing the committee, said, "There is a tremendous potential for investment in the textile industry of the state. But, for this, we need to attract investors as it is a quite competitive field. In case the state was having mega policies, then only could it attract the investments.

Textile industry is a labour-intensive industry and therefore, sensitive to wage cost. To attract textile industry into the state, government has to formulate minimum wage policy in a judicious manner, focusing on creation of sustainable employment for large number of people, especially those unskilled and semi-skilled who cannot find employment in other high skill industries.