CII and Wazir Advisors jointly released a report titled "How to make "Make in India" Happen: Textile and Apparel Industry" during the CII TEXCON 2015 held on 15-16 October 2015 at New Delhi.
Indian Textile and apparel industry has enormous opportunities in domestic as well as export markets. However, it has not been able to utilize its full potential in spite of several advantages. Though India is the second largest exporter of textile and apparel in the world but India is a distant second – China, the leading exporter has a trade share of about 40%. After quota phase out several smaller nations like Bangladesh and Vietnam were able to increase their exports much faster than India. In the domestic market, as well there are major challenges from cheap imported textiles and lack of vibrancy. There are several underlying reasons for this sub-optimal performance of Indian textile and apparel industry, such as high fragmentation, lack of economies of scale, low focus on product development and design, lack of branding, relatively higher finance costs and other input costs, inflexible labour laws, etc. In order to help Indian textile and apparel industry achieve its deserved state, it is pertinent that State and Central Government agencies provide special thrust in specific areas. The report highlights some of these key areas and the way forward.