Giriraj Singh marks OCGC's 10 years, 6,000 women empowered
Synopsis
Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh joined Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur to celebrate the Orange City Garment Cluster's 10th anniversary, highlighting how OCGC has connected over 6,000 women with skill training and employment over a decade.
Key Takeaways
Giriraj Singh attended the OCGC 10th anniversary at the Common Facility Centre in Upppalwadi, Nagpur on 26 September 2026 .
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari , who represents Nagpur, co-attended the milestone event.
The Orange City Garment Cluster claims to have linked over 6,000 women with training and employment opportunities over ten years.
The cluster operates out of a Common Facility Centre , a model backed under central textile and MSME cluster-development schemes.
Women's entrepreneurship and skill development have been core pillars of OCGC's operating model since its founding.
The Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks (2005) provides the policy backbone for cluster-based garment manufacturing infrastructure across India.
A garment cluster in the heart of Maharashtra's Orange City just crossed a decade — and Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh was in Nagpur on Saturday, 26 September 2026 to mark the moment. Joining fellow Union Minister Nitin Gadkari at the Orange City Garment Cluster (OCGC)'s 10th anniversary event at the Common Facility Centre in Upppalwadi, Singh toured the cluster's product displays and took stock of a decade's worth of work connecting women to skill training and livelihoods.
A decade of stitching livelihoods in Nagpur
Posting in Hindi on X, Singh wrote: 'Nagpur ke Upppalwadi sthit Common Facility Centre mein Orange City Garment Cluster ki 10vi varshganth par... shaamil hua.' ('I joined the 10th anniversary programme of the Orange City Garment Cluster at the Common Facility Centre in Upppalwadi, Nagpur.') He noted that over the past ten years, the OCGC has linked more than 6,000 women with training and employment opportunities, enabling them to become self-reliant. The minister extended warm congratulations to the entire OCGC team for a decade of sustained effort and achievement.
Why Common Facility Centres matter for garment MSMEs
The Common Facility Centre model — supported under central textile and MSME cluster-development schemes — gives small manufacturers shared access to machinery, quality-testing labs, and design infrastructure that individual units could not afford alone. Nagpur, already a nodal city for Maharashtra's MSME ecosystem, has used this architecture to build out its apparel manufacturing base. The Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks, launched in 2005, laid the policy foundation for exactly this kind of cluster investment.
Women entrepreneurs at the centre of the cluster's story
What sets OCGC's decade apart is the deliberate focus on women's economic participation. Skill development and women's entrepreneurship have been twin pillars of the cluster's operating model — a design consistent with the Ministry of Textiles' broader push to make women the primary beneficiaries of garment-sector growth. Singh's visit signals continued ministerial attention to ensuring such clusters remain funded, recognised, and scaled. With Gadkari — Nagpur's own Union Minister and a heavyweight in industrial policy — sharing the stage, the event carried both symbolic and political weight for the region.
Point of View
Reinforcing a dual-minister endorsement that carries weight for future budgetary attention. The broader question is whether anniversary recognition translates into concrete expansion — more centres, more districts, more women — or remains a celebratory moment without a follow-through policy push.
NationPress
26 Sept 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Orange City Garment Cluster (OCGC) in Nagpur?
The Orange City Garment Cluster (OCGC) is a Nagpur-based garment manufacturing cluster that operates a Common Facility Centre in Upppalwadi, offering shared infrastructure and skill training for apparel units, with a focus on women's employment and entrepreneurship.
How many women has OCGC trained in ten years?
According to the post by Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh, the OCGC has connected over 6,000 women with training and employment opportunities over the past decade.
Why did Giriraj Singh visit Nagpur on 26 September 2026?
Giriraj Singh attended the 10th anniversary celebration of the Orange City Garment Cluster at its Common Facility Centre in Upppalwadi, Nagpur, alongside Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.
What is a Common Facility Centre in the context of textile clusters?
A Common Facility Centre provides small garment and textile manufacturers with shared access to machinery, testing labs, and design tools — infrastructure that individual MSMEs cannot typically afford on their own, supported under central cluster-development schemes.
What government scheme supports garment clusters like OCGC?
The Scheme for Integrated Textile Parks, launched in 2005, provides the policy and financial foundation for cluster-based garment manufacturing infrastructure, including Common Facility Centres, across India.
