March, 16-31, 2016

It’s a pleasure to present you the latest issue of Apparel Online with ‘Women Empowerment’ being our cover story as the industry celebrates International Women’s Day with fervour – A salute to the women in Indian Apparel Industry… How important is this particular day for them, what is on their wish list, especially for women in the industry, and many more such interesting topics were touched upon by Team AOon the occasion. Analysing the Budget 2016 reflects only disappointment as nothing much is in store for the textile & garment sector; domestic brand owners in particular are feeling unhappy. The Government is aiming at stimulating growth through public spending and stabilize growth rate in the back drop of grim global economic scenario and the Minister reiterated that the economy will grow at 7.6% in the current fiscal. Speaking to a stalwart of the industry – Sudhir Dhingra, CMD, Orient Craft Limited – AO discovers that he is pretty confident of growth for the sector. “For the past 40 years I haven’t seen such a conducive environment for the Indian apparel industry for growth,” he says in an exclusive conversation with AO. The magazine also gives space to IHGF review, the fair just concluded in Noida (Delhi-NCR). Even though of recent fairs have lost their charm, but this fair was an exception as largely the participants (mostly in home textiles/soft goods segment) were happy with the buyer footfall. Besides the above, our regular columns of Mind Tree, Fashion Trends, Industry Wire, Resource Centre, Export Statistics, etc. make the issue worth reading.