India : CSTRI Likely To Check Silk Dumping By China

The Central Silk Technological Research Institute (CSTRI) is likely to play an important role as the final check point to the large quantities of silk being dumped by China.

On various occasions, the CSTRI has already been asked to assess the quality of silk that is being imported from China and its role will only continue to increase in the coming months, according to TH Somashekar, the director of CSTRI.

"We will not say whether the silk is good or bad. We do our duty to asses the quality of silk and assign grades to it," Somashekar said. He admitted that their professional approach had resulted in rejection of certain shipments of silk, imported from China. He added that it was necessary to restructure the industry in order to reduce the quality costs.

He announced that CSTRI had received the certificate of accreditation in accordance with standard ISO/IEC 17025:1999 for its facilities in Bangalore in the field of mechanical testing and chemical testing.

Somashekar further added that the textile testing laboratory had also provided consultancy services to Iran and African countries. The lab in Bangalore is also among the eight labs in the country to be upgraded with latest technologies required to test the quality of silk. The upgradation exercise had cost them nearly Rs 1.3 crore.

"During the previous fiscal, our lab tested 3,448 samples and generated revenues of Rs 14.16 lakh. The certification is valid for two years and would be subject to constant surveillance audits," Somashekar said.

On increased usage of banned chemicals and dyes, which resulted in various specifications from the silk importing countries, Somashekar said that the R&D unit of CSTRI had also developed alternative chemicals to extract banned and unwanted chemicals and dyes in silk.

"The cost of existing chemicals for extracting dyes is very high. We are looking at alternative measures. We test in accordance with the importing country's requirement," he said.

Somasekar also highlighted CSTRI's co-ordination with the department of primary education, Government of Karnataka. "Every year, the state distributes uniforms to school children.

We are given the job of checking the quality of silk. This is very important because the norms for quality of silk for children are much tighter than those for adults," he said.