Samarth 2.0: A ₹25,000-Crore Plan to Skill Textile Workers and Boost Exports
The Union government is considering a skilling programme worth about ₹25,000 crore over five years for the textiles and garments sector. It is called Samarth 2.0.
Samarth 2.0 was announced in the Union Budget 2026-27. Its aim is to update the old training system by bringing industry and colleges or training institutes closer together, so workers learn the skills factories actually need.
This is a huge jump. The existing scheme, Samarth 1.0, spent about ₹740 crore in the five years up to March 2026. Its allocation for the current year is ₹300 crore.
The Ministry of Textiles' proposal has been examined by the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC). The EFC is a committee of senior officials that checks big government schemes for cost and design before they go to the Union Cabinet. Cabinet approval is the next step.
The textiles and garments sector employs about 45 million people directly. It is the second-largest employer in India after agriculture, and many of its workers are women and rural people.
The push is timed with new trade deals. The India-UK free trade agreement came into force in July 2026, and the India-EU agreement is expected to start in early 2027. Both promise duty-free entry for Indian textiles and clothing. India aims to raise textile and apparel exports to $100 billion by 2030.
Samarth: Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector
Samarth is a Government of India scheme that trains people to work in the textile and garment industry. It teaches new workers the basic skills they need to get a factory job, and it helps existing workers learn newer, better skills. It is run by the Ministry of Textiles. Its full official name is the Scheme for Capacity Building in Textile Sector (SCBTS), and "Samarth" (a Hindi word meaning "capable") is its short name.
The government now wants to scale Samarth up many times over as Samarth 2.0, with about ₹25,000 crore for five years instead of ₹740 crore. The plan has cleared the Expenditure Finance Committee and awaits Cabinet approval. The goal is a large trained workforce ready for the export boom expected from the UK and EU trade deals.
India's Textile Sector: Strategic Importance and Policy Framework
India's textile sector covers everything from growing cotton and rearing silkworms to spinning yarn, weaving cloth and stitching garments for sale in India and abroad. It is one of India's oldest industries and today is one of its biggest sources of jobs, especially for women and rural people. Because it needs many workers and not very costly machines, it is called a labour-intensive sector, and governments see it as a key way to create mass employment.
The large skilling plan under Samarth 2.0 is meant to support this sector's export goal of $100 billion by 2030. New trade deals with the UK and EU give Indian clothing duty-free access, but factories need many more trained workers to win those orders against Bangladesh and Vietnam.
- Samarth 2.0: proposed ₹25,000 crore over five years; announced in Union Budget 2026-27
- Samarth 1.0 spending: about ₹740 crore in the five years to March 2026; ₹300 crore allocated this year
- Samarth launched in 2017; original outlay ₹1,300 crore for 2017-18 to 2019-20
- About 7.38 lakh trained in entry-level courses across 4,614 centres (dashboard, 16 October 2026)
- Textile sector employment: 45 million direct; supports livelihoods of over 100 million
- Export target: $100 billion by 2030
- India's 15 FTA partners: a $198 billion textile market, against India's current exports of $11.5 billion to them
- EU duties on Indian textiles: up to 12% until the India-EU FTA takes effect (expected early 2027)
- India-UK FTA in force from July 2026