§1What this business is
Scoured and bleached cotton fabric is stretched on a printing table, and dye paste is pressed through design screens with a rubber squeegee. The print is fixed by curing or steaming, washed, calendered, folded and packed. The report's products are printed sarees and printed fabrics.
Capacity: 100 pieces a day, 30,000 a year (300 days, 10-hour shift); year 1 at 50% rising to 90% in year 5.
§2Is it right for you?
Who it is for
A small entrepreneur in a saree or textile town who can sell to local cloth shops and traders.
Who it is not for
Someone who wants a fully mechanised, high-volume print line.
Advantages
- Low break-even (34%) and small capital
- Printed sarees and fabrics sell in every market
- No electricity load listed for the process
- Designs can change quickly with demand
Drawbacks
- Washing section needs effluent care
- Quality depends on good dyes, gums and screens
- No Indian standard covers printing quality — buyers judge by eye
- Price pressure from mill-printed fabric
Skills you need
- Screen preparation and colour matching
- Curing and steaming for fastness
- Design sense for sarees
- Selling to cloth traders
Why difficulty 2/5: Small capital and simple process; quality and selling need attention.
§3Market
Who buys
- Women buying printed sarees
- Cloth shops and saree retailers
- Garment makers buying printed fabric
How it sells
- Wholesale cloth markets
- Local retailers
- Exhibitions and online sale
Good to know
- The report sees good demand for printed items in both domestic and export markets.
- Raw material is ₹8.98 lakh of ₹21.38 lakh sales in year 1.
§4Raw material & machinery
| Item | Qty | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Plant & machinery for screen printing (item list not printed) | — | ₹7.00 lakh (total) |
From: PMEGP sample project report — Textile Screen Printing Unit (prepared by Udyami/Samadhan)
- Mull mull clothscoured and bleached cotton fabric bought from dealers
- Dyes, gums and chemicalschoice depends on the cloth and its end use
From: PMEGP sample project report — Textile Screen Printing Unit (prepared by Udyami/Samadhan)
Suppliers in Building Business Bazaar
Amardye Chem Ltd · Mumbai →Anil Starch Products Ltd · Ahmedabad →KAM Syndicate · Mumbai →S. Pritam Singh and Sons · Delhi →Supertex (India) Corp · Mumbai →
In our raw material database
§5Licences & registration
- Udyam registration
- GST registration
- State Pollution Control Board NOC (the report says it is needed before setting up)
- Trade licence from the local body
§6Schemes & subsidies
- PMEGPCentralActive15–35% subsidy
- MudraCentralActiveLoan up to ₹20 lakh, no collateral
- CGTMSECentralActiveNo collateral, up to ₹10 crore
The report is drawn up for PMEGP margin money (15–25% urban, 25–35% rural); MUDRA and CGTMSE also fit.
§7Money
How the investment is worked out: Sample report headline ₹9.35 lakh; its cost table adds to ₹9.32 lakh: plant & machinery ₹7.00 lakh, furniture & fixtures ₹0.50 lakh, working capital ₹1.82 lakh. Finance: term loan ₹6.75 lakh, working capital ₹1.64 lakh, own share ₹0.93 lakh.
Working capital: Working capital ₹1.82 lakh (bank ₹1.64 lakh); 15 days of stock.
Year not printed on the sample report — check current machinery prices.
§8Export potential
Confirm the HS code in the DGFT ITC(HS) lookup before you export
Export council / board: Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL)
- Register with TEXPROCIL and get an IEC before exporting.
- Printed sarees for export usually need colour-fastness test reports.
§9Risks — where people fail
- Poor fastness leading to returns
- Effluent complaints
- Unsold stock when designs go out of fashion
- Credit to traders
§1030 / 60 / 90-day plan
A general plan that applies to any business. A plan for this business will be added after research.
- Days 1–30: Visit a working textile screen printing unit (sarees and fabrics) unit, ask 10 buyers about price and quantity, and get quotations from 3 suppliers.
- Days 31–60: Udyam and the licences you need (Udyam registration, GST registration), a project report (DPR), and the scheme or loan file.
- Days 61–90: Space and machines, trial production, and first deliveries to 10 customers.
§11Who to connect with
Associations, clusters and training institutes — the directory is being built. Connect
§12Watch
There is no episode on this business yet. Shows are coming soon on the Podcast page.
Want to start Textile Screen Printing Unit (Sarees and Fabrics)?
DPR, loan file or registration — ask us on WhatsApp.
¶Sources
Data review: 6 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Report it. For information only — not legal or financial advice.