​TANTU

COLLEGE OF TEXTILE TECHNOLOGY 
Berhampore & Serampore
Alumni Association (North India Chapter)

   seminar 2016 

The fourth TANTU seminar on The Technical Textiles: The next Big Opportunity was held on 25th September 2016 at India International Centre, New Delhi. There was an interesting gathering of industry experts, academicians, professionals and Govt. officials from all over India discussing on medical and protective textiles. Dr. Prabir Jana, President, TANTU and seminar chairman in his brief welcome address, set up the right tone by giving a overview of the seminar theme  and  pointed out that though India has lots of nonwoven roll goods manufacturer but, there are few good professional organisations to convert these into final product. And to value add in the supply chain India needs more such manufacturers of technical textile products.

Dr. Amalesh Mukhopadhyay, Advisor, Dept. of Science & Technology explained the Govt. approach and scope of technical textile’s market in India. Mr. Dilip Gyanchandani, COO, F2F, steered the session on “Wellness and Medical Textiles” with four panel members. Dr. P.J. Singh, Managing Director, Tynor Orthotics, mentioned that bio textile is key issue to make the success, Mr Krishna K. Behati, Director Technical, Shubh Swasan India Pvt. Ltd. emphasized that the comfort level and related parameters should be given equal importance (if not more) for wearable technical textile products and there must be passion for excellence. Dr R Chattapadhyay from Textile technology department, IIT, Delhi called for educating students across the country in the arena of technical textile which are highly science based products, more participation of industry in research and assured uncompromised institutional support to make a great success. Mr. Subhamoy Banerjee, Senior Marketing Manager, Freudenberg Performance Material who emphasized that three aspects marketing, markets and technology are key for the success of technical textiles. 

Subhamoy further explained that there is an excellent coverage of medical and SoundTex products from Freudenberg range and its uses. He has extended an open offer to support any collaborative product development initiative. Mr. Bhaskar from Mann Filter explained the need for air purification in current scenario and demonstrated the superior products from MANN FILTER range designed for room and automobiles.

 Mr Deepak Mohindra, Editor-in-Chief of Stitch world, presided over a rather large panel of 5 members on “Safety and Protective Wear”. Dr. Mrinal Talukdar, Director Technical, Kusumgar Corporate, emphasized the need for more organised mills for making technical fabrics in India. India still imports 90% of taffeta, used for making basic products like umbrella. Mr. Anurag Singhal, Managing Director, Sai Synergy LLP, emphasized the need for adding the fashion element to the protective gear to increase its acceptability and expected more professionals from design institutes to join technical textile industry to explore their career. Dr. Arindam Basu, Director General, NITRA, mentioned the breakthrough steps taken by Government in making the norms mandatory for use of protective wear in workplace. The experts present in the seminar welcome the move and expressed that it will help expanding the market for protective gear. Mr. Gaurav Kumar, Marketing Director, Excel Global from his long experience of working in South Asian countries felt that India is still not ready with quality manufacturers of protective gears. He also mentioned that the typical practice of using contract labour for manufacturing in northern India may not go very well with protective wear manufacturers. Dr. Mukesh Sinha, Scientist E (Dy. Director), Defence Research Development Organisation acknowledged that unrealistic stringency norms and specifications in protective gear for defence use is currently a hindrance and DRDO is working towards removing such hurdles with collaborative support from industry. Mr Krishna K. Behati, Director Technical, ShubhSwasan India Pvt. Ltd. emphasized that the comfort parameters should be given equal importance (if not more) along with functional parameters for protective wear for defence personnel. He gave an example where a light weight sleeping bag was designed and developed for defence with stringent performance criteria.

 Freudenbeg Performance Materials, part of 7 billion EUR  Group has associated with the seminar as Gold Partner. Freudenberg is a Germany-based company offering its customers technically challenging product solutions and services. Mann+Hummel, a 3 billion EUR Global Leader from Germany in all filtration-related products and the Oerlikon Group from Switzerland, offering Surface Solutions, Manmade Fibers, Drive Systems and Vacuum were the Silver Partners of the seminar.