Abstract

India is the world's second largest producer of textiles and garments after China. It is the world's third largest producer of cotton-after China and the USA-and the second largest cotton consumer after China. The Indian textile industry is as diverse and complex as country itself and it combines with equal equanimity this immense diversity into a cohesive whole. The fundamental strength of this industry flows from its strong production base of wide range of fibres/ yarns from natural fibers like cotton, jute, silk and wool to synthetic/man-made fibres like polyester, viscose, nylon and acrylic. The growth pattern of the Indian textile industry in the last decade has been considerably more than the previous decades, primarily on account of liberalization of trade and economic policies initiated by the Government in the 1990s. In producer-driven value chains, large, usually transnational, manufacturers play the central roles in coordinating production networks. This is typical of capital- and technology-intensive industries such as automobiles, aircraft, computers, semiconductors and heavy machinery. Buyer-driven value chains are those in which large retailers, marketers and branded manufacturers play the pivotal roles in setting up decentralized production networks in a variety of exporting countries, typically located in developing countries. This pattern of trade-led industrialization has become common in labour-intensive, consumer-goods industries such as garments, footwear, toys, handicrafts and consumer electronics. Large manufacturers control the producer-driven value chains at the point of production, while marketers and merchandisers exercise the main leverage in buyer-driven value chains at the design and retail stages. Apparel is an ideal industry for examining the dynamics of buyer-driven value chains. The relative ease of setting up clothing companies, coupled with the prevalence of developed-country protectionism in this sector, has led to an unparalleled diversity of garment exporters in the third world. Apparel is an ideal industry for examining the dynamics of buyer-driven value chains.

The author is Associate Professor in Department of Commerce, University of Mysore, India

The work described in this working paper was substantially supported by a grant from the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New Delhi.