INDIA: SSI Ministry To Discuss Dereservation With Industry
The Indian Ministry of Small Scale Industries (SSI) will meet representatives of various garment associations today in a bid to break the impasse on dereservation, which is holding up the announcement of the new textile policy, Asia Pulse reported. While the garment associations have been demanding dereservation of ready-made garments, the SSI ministry is keen to enhance an investment limit from Rs10m-Rs50m for the sector without dereservation. The SSI Minister, Vasundhara Raje, made a u-turn when she indicated that she was now willing to consider the views of garment associations about dereservation. Dereservation has led to sharp differences between the SSI ministry and the ministeries of Commerce and Textiles. Both the textiles and commerce ministeries have demanded dereservation of 15 items, including ready-made garments, leather, and toys from the list of 812 items earmarked for the SSI list. The Indian textiles minister, Kanshiram Rana, has said that unless the issue was resolved, the new textile policy could not be announced.
September 19, 2000