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The 'Personal Protective Equipment' (PPE) created in pandemic induced lockdown is valued over Rs 10,000 crore in just two months, said Smriti Zubin Irani, Minister for Textiles and Women and Child Development, Government of India.

"We are the only industry in the entire world which in a pandemic lockdown situation created an industry which is valued at Rs 10,000 plus crore in just two months. This is a first for any economy in the world," she said.

The minister spoke at a webinar organised by the 'Indian Chamber of Commerce'.

Citing the example of 'PPE' success story, she told that every opportunity to commercially diversify should be acted upon and one should not wait for a crisis. Further, she said that the 'PPE' success story is an example of efforts taken by the Government and industry coming together without any subsidy component involved.

Mentioning the Prime Minister's 'vocal for local' campaign, she felt that there is a need for line by line analysis as to what can be produced locally which can give impetus to the manufacturing capacity.

Finally, she opined, "We look at diversification prospects, reorient our manufacturing process and leverage technology to strengthen the 'MSME' sector."

Earlier, Mayank Jalan, President, 'Indian Chamber of Commerce', in his welcome address stressed upon India's need to become 'atmanirbhar'. Vikash Agarwal, Senior Vice President, 'Indian Chamber of Commerce' gave the formal vote of thanks, while Sanjay Jain, Chairman, 'ICC National Expert Committee on Textiles' moderated the session.