The initiative seeks greenfield investments in the textile sector which are operated on a public private partnership, and is part of the government's goal of setting up a world class infrastructure for the textiles industry.

"The focus of government has been to ensure value addition through aggregation to best utilize India's raw material surplus in cotton and cotton yarn for enhanced labor employment and export earnings" the minister said.

Of the new textile parks, six will be in Maharashtra, four in Rajasthan, two each in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, and one each in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tripura, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir and West Bengal. Production will include apparel, hosiery, silk, processing, and technical textiles.

The government also added that of the 40 textile parks sanctioned under its 11th five year plan (which began on 1 April 2011), 24 have begun operations and have attracted investments of INR188.8bn (US$3.87bn).