Tamil Nadu is emerging as a strong and growing medical textiles industry says a Expert Market Research Study. In fact the state’s focus on medical textiles is more than a decade with the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA), Coimbatore identified for development into a Centre of Excellence (COE) for production of medical textiles products.

First and foremost is the availability of raw material as most raw materials used in medical textiles are available with ample production of cotton for spinning, weaving and knitting etc. Also Coimbatore, a big textile hub and a major city, has a large number of good hospitals and textile units. This helps textile companies have better R&D and feedback about their products as well as a ready market for their products. Moreover, Tamil Nadu has many lucrative initiatives for investors.

India holds second position globally in medical textile manufacturing. The domestic market provides innumerable opportunities. Higher rate of child birth and growing medical tourism is providing further boost. Many medical textile products are imported and not manufactured in India, so there is a huge potential for manufacturing them in India. Many medical textiles products are classified as medical devices. About 80 per cent of medical devices are imported.

Tamil Nadu accounts for nearly 34 per cent of India’s apparel exports. The state has 45,000 registered textiles factories and around ten per cent of these are in the meditech segments.