Cotton
Location -The first cotton textile mill on modern lines was started in Bombay in 1854. Later the mills were started at Ahmedabad in 1858, then in Kanpur, Nagpur, Sholapur, Surat and other places. As I said before, today India holds the third place among the cotton textile producing countries of the world. It provides emplyment to a large number of people and also helps to ear foreign exchange. Gujarat and Maharashtra states, lead the country in cotton textile production. Mumbai and Ahmedabad are the important centres. Mumbai has the largest number of cotton textile mills. It is themain cotton textile centre in India. Mumbai is called COTTONPOLIS OR MANCHESTER of India. (Manchester is the main cotton textile centre of England.) The other important centres of cotton textiles are Nagpur and Sholapur in Maharasthra, Kokatta in West Bengal, Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Surat in Gujarat, Salem, Coimbatore and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Bangalore and Davangere in Karnataka and Delhi.
•RAW MATERIAL: The main input of cotton textile industry is cotton. Cotton is easily available in most of the states. Though Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana are the leading producers but it is produced in many other states. The main input of iron and steel industry is iron which is available in Peninsular India only.
•LIGHT RAW MATERIAL AND FINISHED PRODUCTS: Raw material and finished products of cotton textile are light so the cost of transportation is less whereas raw material and finished products of iron and steel industry are heavy so the cost of transportation is high.
Products Made from Cotton Lint/Fibre
Cotton lint is spun then woven or knitted into fabrics such as velvet, coruroy, chambray, velour, jersey and flannel
About 60% of the world’s total cotton harvest is used to make clothing, with the rest used in home furnishings and industrial products
Well known cotton products include denim jeans, socks, towels,