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IMPRESSIONS from a Cross-section

Topic

India missed out on a golden opportunity after phase out of quotas in early 2000. What steps should government & industry take so that it does not miss the bus again?

 

India should keep in mind the following points to catch the opportunity. We must upgrade our textile machinery to yield better productivity; go for wider width finished fabrics 60"+ as most overseas markets are asking for those; educate our workers on how to operate machines with new technologies. We should have our total quality system checked before packing. We should study the overseas market requirements and norms.

We must be independent in terms of raw material resources and should promote indigenous infrastructure. The skilled labour must be trained more to achieve professional attitude towards their work. The taxation structure must be simple and same all over the country.

Increasing labour costs in China will not last long. Africa is coming up in a big way as a hub, where the labour costs are less than ours. Also, automation techniques (which China and other countries are already focusing on) will reduce labour costs and it will not be advantageous to India any more. We should rather focus on increasing productivity by adopting new techniques, improving the quality of products, marketing, and presentation of our products and provide more value to customers at lower costs. Adopting new and innovative techniques and moving towards automisation than being labour-intensive will fetch good results.

Achieving scale across the value chain; attracting investment into the sector; improving skill, quality and productivity; and reforming labour laws can ensure that we make use of this opportunity.

We have a fixed mindset. There is absolutely no comparison between us and China. Chinese labour costs may have gone up but their productivity makes them more economical and efficient. What we gain in our creativity, we lose in lack of discipline. We are content to meet immediate and less stringent domestic demand. This is the mindset of 80 per cent of the players. The rest are progressive and futuristic.

 

Published on: 11/07/2017

DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.