Once known as the ‘Global Capital for Textiles’, India is perhaps the only country across the globe that has abundance of raw material, skilled workforce, stable business environment, government support, favourable policies, strong democracy, a growing and robust economy besides active sustainable lifestyle practices. But, despite all these, India seems to have missed the bus many a times in over the last two decades, including in 2005, when the quota system was done and dusted with.
Other subcontinents and Asian countries zoomed past us, despite not having the wherewithal that India has, right from fibre to finished product, complimented with strengths of embellishment, design sensibilities and craft. India’s craft capabilities have been second to none but are still extremely underrated and undermarketed.
However, with the world exploring options beyond China, as an answer to the global manufacturing needs, it’s a huge opportunity for India to prove its mettle.
Though India has moved many miles ahead in IT, electronics and in some other manufacturing industries, textiles and apparel has still been a laggard. India’s apparel exports for FY 2022-23, US $ 16.7 billion, stands at 10 per cent below the level from where it was in 2017 (US $ 18 billion).
However, I still have a strong conviction that India will soon be the world’s manufacturing hub for apparel and textiles.
To explain the reasons for the same, I have broken my vision into two parts which are further divided into seven points each:
1. Wonders that work for Indian apparel and textiles industry
2. Wanders (Distraction) that Indian apparel and textiles industry needs to work upon
Seven wonders positively impacting the Indian apparel and textiles industry
1.World looking at China + 1 or China’s Alternative
A. With the world looking at China’s alternative or China + 1, whatever we would like to call it, India becomes a natural choice for various reasons that are stated further, one of them being the country’s majority population speaking English.
2. Raw material abundance
A. India is the largest cotton producer (23 per cent) in the world and has the highest area under cotton cultivation (39 per cent of world area).
B. The country is the second largest producer and exporter of manmade fibres and textiles (polyester and viscose).
C. It holds the number one position in jute manufacturing and the second position in silk manufacturing.
3. Multiple clusters with specific strengths
For individual product categories, India has several varied clusters like Surat, Ahmedabad, Vapi, Jetpur, Tirupur, Erode, Salem, Karur, Kolkata, Banaras, Lucknow-Jaipur, Jodhpur, Pali-Ranchi, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Delhi and NCR, Sonipat, Panipat, Kangra, Kashmir, Bengaluru, Bhagalpur and Kanchipuram
4. Humongous and young workforce
A. Each of these clusters have skilled workers for products, processes, operations.
B. The workforce is young, energetic and committed.
5. Fifth largest and fastest growing economy
A. India, which is the fifth largest economy globally, aspires to become the third largest economy soon and hence it is focused on creating world-class infrastructure, skills, connectivity.
B. As the fastest growing economy, India has the wherewithal to provide support that apparel and textiles industry needs for further fuelling its growth engine.
C. India’s tremendously growing economy provides an opportunity for the world to invest and partner with.
6. Stable democracy and geography
A. Consistent and stable governance is key for any country to become a global hub. India, the largest democracy with vast geography and smooth transfer of power, provides the ideal platform to the world, when it comes to alternate or +1 manufacturing hub.
B. IT, Electronics and Automobiles are big examples of India’s abilities as a manufacturing hub.
7. Agile and qualified leader as Minister of Textiles
India’s textile industry is now being led by a professional Chartered Accountant who understands the business processes thoroughly, opportunities at hand, the possible challenges and needs. These will help the government to collaborate and work in tandem with the industry.
Seven wanders that are not in favour of Indian apparel and textiles industry
1. Lack of technological advancement
A. Technologies involved in process of textiles lack advancement. Mills and machineries are outdated.
B. This is a big hurdle for India when it comes to meeting the quality needs of export customers.
2 . Lack of leadership talent in manufacturing
A. While India has massive workforce as workers and supervisors, what is clearly lacking is great talent on the production floor as there is dearth of leaders with technical qualifications to enable technological upgradation and usage, human empowerment, process implementation and so on. This is primarily because the educated youths do not want to work amidst the hard conditions of the production floor.
B. Production floor skills in India are low. Technicians are not respected as they are in other parts of Asia, EU, US. Because of this, most of the big talents are moving away from the production floor.
C. Mushrooming opportunities in buying, online businesses, brands, tech start-ups are attracting young and good talents because of easier working conditions.
3. Lack of scale
A. Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia grew and went past India in global share of apparel exports because they created scale. It required some big investments for which both investors and government stepped in.
B. Shrinking margins, due to multiple reasons, like higher process loss, quality and efficiency loss in manufacturing, are negatively affecting business volumes. Now we are in a catch 22 situation. Government wants industry to commit investment for scaling up and industry is looking for incentives from the government to commit to investment.
4. Dyeing craft
A. India has been a country of unique arts and crafts. Each of the states are known for their innovative art forms like Bagruprint of Rajasthan, Banarasi sareeof Varanasi, Chikankari of Lucknow, Ikat from Odisha and Andhra, Silk from Bhagalpur of Bihar and Muddenahalli, Mysore of Karnataka.
B. We have not put in enough efforts for these crafts to gain global prominence.
5. Lack of Government focus
A. Apparel and textiles is a small ticket industry in comparison to an Apple iPhone factory or a semi-conductor factory. Hence, it lacks significant government attention, however, things are changing for good now.
B. India is historically an importer of large ticket products like CBU automobiles and electronics and exporter of low ticket products like apparel and textiles, food grains. So, a Blanket FTA makes it an imbalance agreement.
C. Countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia have apparel and textiles majorly contributing to their GDP and their FTAs were signed long ago, which gave them a straight advantage of 12 per cent in apparel and textiles.
6 . Poor, cheap quality products
A. India has not been focused on making great quality products, particularly in weaving, dyeing and processing as it requires big investments on high technology machines. Most large manufacturing set-ups are established with old machines imported from other countries, which helped in keeping the capital investment at lower level but this has negatively impacted the product capability.
B. Because we were largely a craft-based manufacturing hub, using manual processes, inconsistency was considered as a design element and it became our DNA. We never focused on bringing consistency in our operations.
C. We have always looked at quality as a cost centre, without realising that ‘Good quality is costly, poor quality is costlier’ or ‘Poor quality is cheap, good quality is cheaper’.
7. Lethargic supply chain process
If we look at the calendar of any brand, we primarily have 5Ds that take an inexplicable amount of time:
A.Discovery of trend – Minimum 4-8 weeks
B.Designing of the product – 4-8 weeks
C. Developing the product – 4-8 weeks
D.Delivering the product – 8-16 weeks
E.Distribution of the product – 2-4 weeks
With trends changing almost every thirty days and digital social media platforms and influencers playing a big role in it, such widely stretched lead times make a product redundant, irrelevant as it goes out of fashion by the time it reaches the retail outlets. This impacts the sell-through of products. Our supply chain needs to be a lot more nimble, agile and flexible to be able to deliver at least 50 per cent of the products (core and basic fashion) in under 30 days. Technology can be a great enabler in cutting down the timeline and making the entire discovery, design and product development and approval process far more efficient.
However, despite the vast number of hurdles, abundance of opportunities; hardworking, ambitious and skilled youths; a supportive government; cutting-edge technology start-ups; and world’s belief in India’s ability and leadership ensure that India is ready to take on a journey of exponential growth like never before. Newer manufacturing geographies, young entrepreneurs jumping into fashion retail with new product categories are some of the growth engines that will drive India’s apparel and textiles industry much beyond US $ 40 billion by 2030.
