India is amongst the world’s largest producers and exporters of textiles. Textiles are not only the necessities of an individual but have also grown to be a style statement generating a huge amount of profits for companies in India as well as globally. However, these vivid, eccentric apparels have a dark side as the textile industry is one of the most unsustainable industries. Finding sustainable alternatives is essential to reduce the damaging environmental effects. Experts of international repute from France, Sweden and Germany, besides India will address and participate in the Sustainable Textile Summit to address the pertinent topics on textile sustainability.

The summit will have one main session followed by three thematic sessions. The main session will focus on ‘Sustainable and Circular Textile’ and will discuss ‘Building sustainability and circularity in the textile value chain’, ‘Policy reforms and strategy for textiles sustainability’, and ‘Environmental issues’.  

There will be special addresses by Upendra Prasad Singh, secretary, ministry of textiles, Government of India. The Department of Textile and Fibre Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) is the Knowledge Partner for the summit, while Fibre2Fashion, the leading global B2B portal for the textile-apparel industry, is the Digital Media Partner. 

Session 1 on the theme ‘Recycling Textiles’ will see a panel discussion on topics such as reducing textile waste in landfill, increasing recycling and reuse, post-industry textile waste, post-consumer textile waste, sourcing fabric from pre-used textile products, recycling technologies, and global best practices in recycling textiles. The special address will be delivered by Sudhir Kumar, adviser, NITI Aayog, and leading textile industries such as Reliance Industries Ltd, RSWM Ltd – Bhilwara Group, Oerlikon Textile, etc and the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) will participate in the session.

The next session on the theme ‘Role of Brands in Textile Sustainability’ will have a special address by Vijoy Kumar Singh, additional secretary, ministry of textiles, Government of India. Panellists at this session will discuss topics like opportunities & challenges in sustainable textiles, the role of government in promoting sustainability, sharing economy, circular product design and sustainability, and global brands’ best practices in sustainability. The leading brands Reliance Industries and Marks & Spencer will participate in the session.

The final session on Day 2 will have ‘Digital Manufacturing, Industry 4.0 & Sustainability’ as its theme. Prajakta L Verma, joint secretary, ministry of textiles, Government of India, will give a special address, which will be followed by a panel discussion. Topics including automation and smart manufacturing, sustainable fibres, Industry 4.0 – digital manufacturing, supply chain visibility, and supply chain resilience would be discussed. 

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)