Textile Industry Development Council Holds Its First Meeting

The correct answer is the Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Neelam Shami Rao. The council met for the first time at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi under her chairpersonship, and in her address she stressed that textiles and apparel are among the largest employment generators and export earners for the country and called for a whole-of-value-chain approach to production, innovation and global market access. Option A is wrong because the meeting was chaired by the Secretary and not by the minister, a distinction question setters like to test. Option C is wrong because the head of a public sector cotton agency has no role in chairing this council. Option D is wrong because the policy think tank of the government is a separate institution altogether and does not chair sectoral development councils of a ministry. Remember both the office and the name, and note that senior officers, industry associations, export promotion councils, research associations, state governments and sector experts attended.

The correct answer is Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The Development Council for Textile Industry held its first meeting there on 6 October 2026, chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Textiles, with senior officers of the ministry, industry associations, export promotion councils, research associations, state governments and sector experts in attendance. Options A and D are wrong because, although both are well-known Delhi venues for large exhibitions and conferences, neither hosted this meeting. Option B is wrong because, while it is the seat of several economic ministries and therefore a plausible guess, the council did not meet there. Venue questions are common in current affairs papers because they are easy to set and easy to get wrong, so the venue should be learnt along with the date, the chair and the decision to constitute working groups and sub committees on priority themes.

The correct answer is minimum support price for sugarcane, which was not on the agenda. The council took up five areas: production and productivity, covering capacity addition, modernisation and cost competitiveness across fibre, yarn, fabric, processing and apparel; research and development, including industry and research linkages, new-age fibres and technical textiles; exports and market access, covering diversification of products and markets and the quality, compliance and logistics constraints exporters face; raw material and input availability, covering cotton, man-made fibres, yarn, dyes and chemicals; and investment, skilling and sustainability, covering ease of doing business, support for small and medium enterprises, workforce skilling and circular practices. Options A, B and D are therefore all part of the agenda. Sugarcane pricing belongs to a different ministry and a different crop economy, which is why it stands out as the exception here.