Question

Explain the importance and distribution of cotton textile industry in India.

Answer 1

Importance:

• It provides employment to over 35 million people in the mills, power looms and hand loom sector. 
• Indirectly millions of people derives livelihood in cotton production, processing trade, garments and also in the textile machinery sectors.
• It is the most important sector of employment in the country next to agriculture. 
• The export of cotton textiles contributes about 17 percent Our total export earnings etc.

Distribution of cotton textile industries:

• Maharashtra: It is the largest producer of cotton textile in the country. It produces 39.38 percent mill cloth and 1079 percent yam of India. It has 169 mills – these are located at Mumbai, Pune, Sangli, Nagpur, Sholapur etc It is called ‘Manchester of India’ and the cotton police of India. 
• Gujarath: It is second largest producer of cotton in the country. It has 120 cotton mills which are located in Ahmadabad, Baroda, Rajkot, Bhuvanger, Surat etc. 
• Tamilnadu: It has highest number of textile industries in the country . They are about 893 mills on the state they are found in Coimbatore, Madurai, Salem, Tirpur etc. Coimbatore is the most important center with 323 cotton mills. It is called the ‘Manchester of South India’. 
• Karnataka: There are about 54 industries which are located at Davanagere, Hubli, Bellary, Gokak, Mysore, Bengaluru etc Davanagere is the chief center cotton textile in Karnataka.
• Uttar Pradesh : Kanpur is the chief center of cotton mills in Uttar pradesh. Other important centers are Agra, Bareily, Aligarh, Moradabad, Varanasi etc. 
• Madhya Pradesh: There are 52 cotton textile industries in the state. They are located at Indore, Gwalior, Ujjain, Bhopal and Jabalpur. 
• West Bengal: The industries are elargely found in Kolkata Howrah. 
• Others : In Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh etc.