The textile ministry, while expressing concern over the large number of lay offs in the textile industry, has asked the industry to furnish actual job loss numbers as the government is unable to capture this data on its own.

This comes in the background of claims by the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, an industry body, that about 700,000 jobs have been cut in the last six months.

The industry lobby group has also forecast a further loss of half a million jobs in the next five months.

Finding out the actual number of job cuts and the reasons are crucial as the textile industry is demanding sops from the government.

A committee of officers, set up by the prime minister in the wake of the global financial crisis, is considering proposals to help the industry.

Though no authentic survey has been done for figures, it is possible that a large number of people would have lost jobs, said a senior textile ministry official. "We have asked industry representatives to furnish us the figures," he added.

Due to the ongoing financial turmoil, the country's textile exports have started to feel the pinch. Over 50 per cent of the total textile production in the country is exported to the United States and the European Union.

While last year it was the rupee appreciation that affected textile exports, this year the weakening of demand in these markets is expected to result in very low growth in exports, despite the rupee depreciating by more than 20 per cent vis-a-vis the dollar in the current fiscal.