Indian govt proactive to strengthen industry: Textiles secretary


The Indian government is proactively working to equip the textile industry to face global competition in the next one decade, textiles secretary Upendra Prasad Singh has said. Addressing a session during the 10th Asian Textile Conference (ATEXCON), he urged the industry to focus on value and quality so India can benefit in a shifting scenario.

Chairing the technical session on ‘Rebuilding India’s Textile & Apparel Industry’, the secretary said that the government is trying to act on problems of the industry. However, it is difficult to have a balance between various stakeholders in fragmented value chain. He suggested that the industry should think about handlooms sector. He said that size and scale are major issues for the industry to compete in the current market scenario.

Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopark Advisors, who moderated the session, said that the industry has to think about technological solutions of current problems and challenges. The industry needs to focus on sustainability, integration, and more value addition. Currently, the industry should not focus on volume but on value.

The Indian government is proactively working to equip the textile industry to face global competition in the next one decade, textiles secretary Upendra Prasad Singh has said. Addressing a session during the 10th Asian Textile Conference (ATEXCON), he urged the industry to focus on value and quality so India can benefit in a shifting scenario.

Gautam Nair, chairman of Export Promotion Committee of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), said that there are many disruptions in the industry. COVID-19 has disrupted the industry most. Brands and other buyers were seriously thinking on ‘China plus one’, but they could not find assured sourcing destinations, so they had to go back to China. According to Nair, India has long way to cover in the journey of increasing its market share. “We need to integrate the supply chain. Bangladesh has successfully presented itself as assured supplier before the buyers. But Indian industry needs to do a lot of things.”

Sunil Patwari, vice chairman of The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL), said in the session that there are huge opportunities for the Indian industry. “If we are able to attract 10-15 big brands, we can expect substantial market share. But we need to focus on strengthening our system, product innovation and value addition. In line with sustainability, we must have large number of certified factories which can attract buyers,” he said adding that environment friendly ecosystem has currently become very important in the entire world, so sustainability and circularity are must.

Next to speak was Bhadresh Dodhia, vice chairman of the Synthetic & Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC), who said that the industry needs to focus on man-made fibre, which has tremendous opportunity. According to him, man-made fibre is more sustainable and environment friendly. “The government is very proactive for the same and it is incentivising the industry for man-made fibre production. We need to ensure availability of man-made fibre as per the per future demand in the next three to five years.”

Representing the Federation of Buying Agents (FBA), Lokesh Parashar suggested that the industry should work on scale and research on products and innovation. He said, “We are not able to supply product of 100 container volume in whole month, but the Chinese industry offers 3,000 container supply in one month. Secondly, Indian industry looks for orders from buyers, but buyers expect long term supply deals on large scale basis.”

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)



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