The Ministry of Textiles in India, through the Office of the Textile Commissioner, has commenced an online system for collecting authentic data on the cotton ginning industry in the country.
 
The online system for filing of registration form by the independent ginning factories, independent pressing factories, cotton ginning and pressing factories, cotton traders and surgical cotton or cotton wadding manufacturing units started operating from August 7, 2013.
 
The system requires cotton ginners to visit the Office of Textile Commissioner website and click on the ‘Online Registration of Units/Cotton Traders’ link which would lead them to unit registration page where they can find a new registration form.
 
The registration form requires details such as the commencement of the commercial production, commodities traded, nature of trade and whether the unit has availed financial benefits under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme or Technology Mission on Cotton.
 
After the submission of the online applications, the concerned cotton traders/units are required to register themselves with the Regional office of the Textile Commissioner by submitting the specified format for registration.
 
On receipt of the registration format the Regional office of Textiles Commissioner would issue a Registration Number. 
 
The traders and units have to submit their figures of production and trade on a monthly basis by logging on the website.
 
The Ministry aims to collect the figures related to production, consumption and closing stock of cotton. The compilation of the figures will help to prepare the Cotton Balance Sheet and also form the National Cotton Distribution Policy (NCDP).