BHARAT TEX 2024

I had an indirect hand in the two largest Textile Fairs in India. In? 2017, as Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, I accompanied the then Secretary Textiles @Mrs. Rashmi Verma to Gandhinagar along with senior officials of the ministry to oversee the setting up of the first huge textile fair, in the newly built exhibition ground in the city. As a board member of ITPO, in 2016-17, I was instrumental in planning and sanctioning the renovation of ITPO, where I witnessed the monumental Bharat Tex 2024, occupying 12 halls of Bharat Mandapam, which is the name of the renovated ITPO.?

While Gandhinagar was an extravaganza, with all known national brands and some international brands showcasing their presence, Bharat Tex is an unprecedented event which has 1200 Indian factories complying with the latest fashion industry standards, thousands of exhibitors from India and abroad, and lakhs of footfall, because of every conceivable segment of textile getting exhibited in the halls made available by ITPO. 12 export promotion councils under the overall guidance of Apparel Export Promotion Council, and led by the Textile Ministry, did a stupendous job in catapulting India on the Textile Map of the world.

I took the opportunity of attending an excellent seminar on Investing and Doing Business in India with reference to textiles, and I am outlining the main points that emerged from this seminar, from the 10 odd panelists.?

1. MD Invest India highlighted that while electronic waste is 50 million tonnes, the textile waste exceeds 100 million tonnes today and needs fixing. She also mentioned that in the US alone $220 billion worth of textiles is returned on account of misfits or misuse, and hence is abegging a solution. India’s recycling DNA allows better sustainability which is heartening. She also expressed appreciation for the use of nanotechnology in the textile industry.?
2. Mr. Anant of Shahi Exports, stressed that they had started 50 years ago and have become one of the largest garment manufacturing companies with 50 factories, 3 textile mills and employing 1 lakh people. While India’s exports have touched about $40 billion, China, Vietnam and Bangladesh are still ahead of us. To scale up to $100 billion of exports, we would need hundreds of new factories and huge investment in R&D.?
3. Mr. Ritesh Kumar Singh, Secretary DPIIT highlighted that India’s textile exports are just about 5% of global exports of $930 billion. On Ease of doing business, India is ranked 63rd now with several improvements in the registration of companies, incentivisation for higher production, trade policy initiatives etc. But we are still lagging behind in compliance of contracts due to judicial delays, and complexities in property mutation.?
4. Mr. Dubey of Mckinsey explained his experience of being a lateral entrant in the civil service in the civil aviation sector and pointed out improvements like 3000 labs being enabled for certification purposes, substantially bringing down the cost of compliance.?
5. Mr. Eric, a French national, spoke about his Mauritius base of knitted fabrics set up 50 years ago. In 2003, he set up shop in India, and now has 7 factories near Bangalore, employing 7000 people, with exports worth $160 million and domestic supply of $40 million. His advice to expand the textile industry in India was to have a consistent government policy, and traceability of textiles for ensuring sustainability.?
6. Mr. Banerjee of Pearl Industries said that his company is a manufacturer and exporter to 9 countries, and supplies to all big global retailers. His advice to catapult textile manufacturing was through value addition of fibre into yarn, yarn into fabric and fabric into apparel instead of stopping at the lower end of the value chain of $2 billion worth of fibre exports, $5 billion worth of yarn exports and $5 billion worth of fabric exports.?
7. Another NRI who ventured into a dedicated textile and apparel park at Vizag in 2006 on a 1000 acre plot, stated that in 10 years he now employs 20 thousand people and exports nearly $350 million, through a facility which is integrated end to end. His secret of success he said was the enormous support given to him by the state government by setting up a raw water pipeline 26 km long, and building a substation at the site, apart from providing the SEZ scheme benefits.?
8. The owner of Home Textiles, who said he manufactured furniture in Thailand, fabrics in Mexico and rugs elsewhere, was helped by Consul General in Houston, and Invest India, to set up base in India, and iron out the initial teething troubles. Today, he has 250 looms and 1200 weavers to make hand knitted rugs, with 100% delivery to 45 countries from India.?

I was impressed by the different speakers and their achievements in India, and the support provided by the State and Textile ministry. However, with my experience of 7 years in the Ministry of Commerce and 3 years in Textile, I observed the following points which requires urgent attention:?

1. India's textile market is large, but attempts need to be made to segment the market professionally, so that a strategic product positioning plan is created, to cater to all market segments efficiently, effectively and comprehensively. To my mind, this is the only mantra to raise textile revenues by 3X as envisaged by Invest India.?
2. India is a country where factory seconds are sold in exclusive shops and outlets at subsidized prices. Many such outlets exist in Delhi itself and are available throughout the country. No attempt has been made so far to estimate the size of this market, which is essential to understand and then cater to, substantially, to meet the needs of the middle class.?
3. While India produces the best of handmade, handwoven and hand embroidered textiles which command a high price, both domestically and internationally, there are huge design gaps in the market, and hence the marketability of the product has not reached the extensive scale that it deserves. The Ministry of textiles has attempted to integrate the various branches of NIFT with the weaving community, to introduce them to new designs and hence new varieties of creative products, but we have touched only the tip of the iceberg. For tapping the premium domestic and international market, huge design intervention is necessary, for which we need to harness all our design capabilities existing in the National institutes of Design and the National Institutes of Fashion technology created in the country in the last 40 years.?

There is no doubt in my mind that a long neglected textile ministry can rise 3x in exports if it is provided professional support, adequate funding and international collaboration after thorough professional market research is done to appreciate the textile market in totality.?

JK Dadoo IAS (Retd.)