India

From pre-pandemic exports a little under 2% of its total revenues to gunning for a 15-20% growth this fiscal, the Ahmedabad-based Chiripal Group, is on an expansion drive as it looks to augment its overall denim capacity to 240 MMPA.

Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry, will address the ‘Sustainable Clothing and Textile Recycling Conference’, an exclusive B2B event, to be held in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore, on 10 August.

Given that trade agreements cover a wide range of issues and can have a multidimensional impact, there's a need for detailed studies and industry consultations to understand their likely impact across the entire value chain of the textiles and apparel industry and how India can use the agreements to strengthen domestic manufacturing capabilities and value addition along with enhancing exports.

From the anvil of hope to sole-sinking despair to cobbling up a footwear brand, perhaps the only to be manufactured by jailbirds in a prison, Inmate, with the tagline ‘Bringing Humanity to Leather’, is a story that now braids success. A first person account from the Founder.

The Cotton Association of India (CAI) has released its May estimate of the cotton crop for the season 2021–22 beginning from 1 October 2021. The association has further reduced its cotton crop estimate for the 2021–22 season by 8.31 lakh bales to 315.32 lakh bales of 170 kg each from its previous estimate of 323.63 lakh bales of 170 kg each.

Among the top ten foreign exchange earners for the country, the Indian leather, leather products and footwear industry has been identified as one among the 12 Focus Sectors by the Indian government to help the country emerge as a global supplier by tapping into its inherent strengths. However, leather players, mostly small or medium scale enterprises, continue to be besieged by a host of issues. A SWOT analysis.

As cotton costs touch historic highs, there seems to be no solution as the supply-demand imbalance is playing the pricing dynamics. But with India being one of the top-most cotton producing and cotton textile exporting countries, the government needs to take a serious view and seek a long-term solution.

Extra charges over carry bags has been an ongoing battle between retailers and consumers. The practice goes back to the time when plastic carry bags slowly started disappearing from stores after the notification of the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011. The Rule, only for plastic bags, soon became the norm for all carry bags. What’s right or wrong? texfash.com explores.

Primark's Sustainable Cotton Programme trains farmers on using fewer chemical pesticides and fertilisers and less water, thus lowering input costs and improving profits for farmers. The retailer has now announced that it will train an additional 125,000 smallholder cotton farmers in more sustainable farming methods in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh by the end of 2023.

India has been furiously negotiating deals ever since the RCEP came into force earlier this year. Initial rounds of negotiations on FTA and other trade policies with several countries should hopefully ensure a handful of agreements by 2024. A texfash.com report.