'Technical textiles are most profitable,' said Maran, adding that India annually imports Rs.4,000-crore worth of such textiles from China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany and Italy.

While stressing on the need to exploit its potential, Maran said: 'My ministry has set up four centres of excellence for Agrotech textiles in Mumbai, Geotech textiles at Ahmedabad, Meditech textiles at Coimbatore, and Protech textiles at Ghaziabad.'

Meditech refers to technical textiles used by hygiene and medical facilities, Protech to personal protection items like fire retardant textiles, Agrotech relates to textiles for the agriculture sector and Geotech covers textile items used in geotechnical applications pertaining to soil and rock.

The minister also said the state-owned National Textile Corp (NTC) has identified land in Coimbatore for setting up a new technical textile unit.