To promote opportunities in India for textile machinery manufactures, India’s ITME Society organised a networking dinner at NH Fiera, Milan recently. Industry members, Associations, media and government officials from various countries attended this by invite-only event. The meet saw a good gathering of 17 associations, 36 journalists and above 50 MNCs from 17 countries. Basant K Gupta, India’s ambassador to Italy graced the evening as the chief guest while the guest of honour was Raoul Ascari, Chief Global Development Officer, SACE.

Ascari spoke about the support offered by SACE to Italian companies interested in investing in India, and the presentation generated much interest among the guests, making everyone believe that India and Italy will in future activities benefit from each other in the textile and textile engineering industry.

Gupta highlighted the various textile parks and schemes initiated by the government of India, which is expected to create more opportunities for textile machinery manufacturers and textile companies in India. He also pointed out the Indian’s governments schemes to encourage ‘Make in India’ and the high demand for modern textile machinery in India.

Raju Paithankar, from Indian Textile Technologist made a presentation about the traditional textile fabric of India ‘Pashmina Cashmere’, which is a rare and luxury fibre, and obtained from a specific breed of goats, which survive at a height of 17,000 feet in Ladakh. Two Italian companies, Loro Piana and Reda and Paithankar are together working extensively to produce and promote this traditional fabric from India.