Indian textile industry has to innovate & automate: Jt secretary

During a technical session on ‘Digitization, Automation & Innovation in Textiles and Apparel Industry’ as part of the tenth edition of Asian Textile Conference (ATEXCON), Verma assured that the government will facilitate industry to face global challenges. She advised the industry to focus on man-made fibre instead of cotton. She also stressed on sustainability, designing and innovation.

Navdeep Sodhi, Partner of Gherzi Textile Consultants, moderated the session. He said that change in sourcing trend is very common, but the changes due to geo-political reasons are quite important. He said the US based e-commerce giant Amazon has drastically changed the supply chain to suite for its digital platform. According to Sodhi, textile industry can benefit from digitising its demand and supply side processes.

Ashwin Chandran, vice chairman of the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) and managing director of Precot Limited, highlighted on cost, servicing and brand promotion. He said that the industry can apply technology to optimise resources, and improve supply chain, quality of products and timely delivery to the buyers. Chandran said that Bangladesh succeeded in developing its brand globally. Therefore, every sourcing professional from global brands acknowledge Bangladesh. It’s time for India to develop brand of Indian textiles.

Prabir Jana, the Shahi Chair professor of Industry 4.0 at National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), focused on training of workforce for the industry in future. He said that it was quite difficult to digitalise the production line. He also emphasised on production of small parts and equipment locally, which are currently imported from China.

Joachim Hensch, CEO & Mentor of Joachim Hensch Consulting, Germany, addressed the session virtually. He explained about smart factory in Vietnam and its replication in India.

TVK Chaitanya, head, PMT Agri department of Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), suggested industry to adopt hedging of cotton in futures to mitigate risks of volatility. 

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)