The joint initiative of the Ministries of Power and Textiles—Sustainable and Accelerated Adoption of efficient Textile technologies to Help Small Industries (SAATHI)—was launched in August 2018.
Under the initiative Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a public sector utility under the Ministry of Power, would procure energy-efficient powerlooms, motors and rapier kits in bulk to be provided to small and medium powerloom units at no upfront cost.
The use of efficient equipment would lead to energy savings and cost savings to the unit owner and he would pay in installments to EESL over a 4 or 5 year period.
The EESL and the office of the textile commissioner will jointly implement the SAATHI initiative on a pan-India basis in key clusters such as Erode, Surat, Ichalkaranji, Bhiwandi, Bhilwara and Panipat.
The scheme is meant for revival of powerloom sector in India, which is largely an unorganised sector. It comprises a large number of micro and small units which produce 57 per cent of total cloth in the country.
The Government of India has been implementing the INSLTU upgradation of plain powerlooms as part of Power Tex India.