Various issues, including financial aspect in textile and garment sector were vividly discussed by experts at the annual conference on ‘Indian Textile – The Way Forward’, organised by Textile Association (India), Mumbai unit at hotel ‘The Lalit’ recently.
For the first time in the textile conference, there was a presentation on Intellectual Property Rights in textile and garments and credit finance to textile industry.
Chairman of the Association’s Mumbai unit, Mr. V.C. Gupta said the conference ensured that non-technical topics like finance, marketing, supply chains etc. were covered for the benefit and interest of textile professionals. He said various state governments like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh came out with the policies to attract investments and incentives to the textiles and clothing industries. Mr. Gupta appealed to the processing industry to upgrade them so that it can add to the exports and reduce imports to boost the Indian economy.
Addressing the conference, secretary, Textile Committee, Dr. P. Nayak pointed out “how India has been exporting less valued items in textiles and how our value addition has been staying at a very low level. Weaving and processing sectors have to be strengthened and the entire industry be integrated in one way or the other.”
Additional secretary (textiles) government of Maharashtra, Mr. Sunil Porwal said logistic is a major problem in India. Cotton is produced in North, West and Southern parts of the country, while consumption centre are located in different places. For an instant, Mr. Porwal said, 50 per cent of garments in the country are made in Maharashtra and those are sent to other centres for processing entailing additional cost. This is the biggest challenge today, he added. Several others, including industry leaders, professionals and experts had submitted their presentations at the conference.
