India gets its first ever Brand & Logo for its Cotton on 2nd World Cotton Day – A Historic Day for Indian Cotton!

New Delhi, October 7. The 1st ever Brand & Logo for Indian Cotton was launched by Smriti Irani, Union Minister of Textiles and Women & Child Development on 2nd World Cotton Day on 7th October, 2020 through Video Conferencing. From now on, India’s premium Cotton would be known as ‘Kasturi Cotton’ in the World Cotton Trade. The Kasturi Cotton brand will represent Whiteness, Brightness, Softness, Purity, Luster, Uniqueness and “Indianness”.

Speaking on this occasion, she said, “This is a much awaited moment that today the Indian Cotton has been endowed with a Brand & Logo. This event becomes more important as the 2nd World Cotton Day is being celebrated world over today.”

The Minister recounted the importance of Cotton in Indian economy. She added, “Cotton is one of the principal commercial crops of India and it provides livelihood to about 6 million cotton farmers. India is the 2nd largest cotton producer and the largest consumer of cotton in the world. India produces about 6 Million tons of cotton every year which is about 23% of the world cotton.  India produces about 51% of the total organic cotton production of the world, which demonstrates India’s effort towards sustainability.”

In the words of the minister, a certification system based on comparable international standards verified through internationally acceptable institutional system is required to be put in place to ensure sustainability, integrity and end-to-end traceability of the organic products. Accordingly, Ministry of Textiles through APEDA under Ministry of Commerce and Industry has prescribed a certification system for organic Cotton which will be introduced in phases in the entire textile value chain. Similarly, prescribing a certification system for non-organic Cotton has also been taken up with APEDA so that usages of cotton can be suitably augmented.

The Minister stated that Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has made the ever highest Minimum Support Price (MSP) operation of cotton and the procurement under MSP will be hopefully increased during the new cotton season. 430 procurement centers have been opened by CCI in all cotton growing states and the payments are being made digitally to farmers’ accounts within 72 hours. Further, a mobile application named “Cott-Ally” has been developed by CCI for providing latest news regarding weather conditions, crop situation and best farming practices. CCI is also offering a discount of Rs.300/- per candy in its regular sale to MSME mills, Khadi & Village industry, Cooperative sector mills to enhance their competitiveness and efficiency. It was also stated that cotton may be used across all dimension of Technical Textiles. Further, the minister has also informed that Government has passed bills for the welfare of the farmers, which will also be beneficial to the industries.

Irani graced the inaugural session of the webinar which was organized by TEXPROCIL and CITI on the theme of “NEW-LOOK COTTON” to facilitate exchange of ideas on the emerging scenarios in cotton usage and application.