India and the prospects of making a career in Textile Industry

According to recent global textile reports, India has emerged as one of the most preferred destination for global brands and their counterparts. This will likely create better employment opportunities in the country and provide the much required financial strength to the palpable economy. The strong foot holds of textile industry and increasing no of foreign key players investing is a clear indication, that India has tremendous scope in this sector. But the success story of this resilient sector dates back to the year 1991, with the onset of economic liberalization of Indian economy, this unorganized industry started shaping up and gradually stood to be the second largest employment generating sector after Agriculture for both skilled and unskilled labors in the country.

Since then the industry has proven to be the backbone of the economy. It was recently when the Apparel Export Promotion Council Chairman A Sakthivel said that India's garment industry has its inherent strengths in terms of design and raw material.

The brands from around the world are looking forward to invest and start sourcing from India. India not only is the second largest Employment provider within the country but evolved as third largest exporter of garment to Australia and has all the potential to boost the business further. The Australian garment export apparel market is expected to be as huge as $5.61 billion and if experts are believed India can tap it easily. As, India's apparel exports to Australia in 2012 were around $111 million.

"Australia is the focus country for us, considering that India and Australia are at an advanced stage of negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement and also the Australian buyers wanting to reduce their over dependence on China," said Sakthivel in a press meet recently .

The coveted position that India holds globally is the result of key research institutes like, Northern India Textile Research Association (NITRA. It stands to be one of the prime textile research institutes in the country. The textile industry and Ministry of Textiles, Govt. of India jointly established NITRA in 1974 for conducting applied scientific research and providing support services to Indian textile industry. The organization is situated in a 50 acre land at NCR Ghaziabad, near national capital New Delhi.

To know more about NITRA, Visit http://nitratextile.org/

An insight of the Textile industry and the Policies Framed

Textile industry remains the second largest employment generating sector after Agriculture for both skilled and unskilled labors in the country. According to a survey, the sector straight away provides employment to over 35 million people within the country. Though, was once unorganized but it completely changed after India economy opened to liberalization. The strong domestic and foreign demand of fiber has enormous helped this sector to flourish. And today, India earns an approx of 30% of its total foreign exchange through textile exports.

The Government has readily prepared a robust model to encourage, promote and produce the Textile and the opportunities availability in the sector. The Export Policies are revised in the budget every five year including Foreign Trade Policies. This also includes the various incentives under focus market scheme and Focus Product Scheme including several others.

Below discussed are various schemes and promotions, brought in effect by the Government if India for textile sector.

• Other than allowing 100% FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in textiles under the automatic route. The Government introduced Welfare schemes, under which the Government provides Health and Life insurance coverage to 161.10 million weavers and ancillary workers under the hand loom weaver s comprehensive welfare scheme, while 73000artisans were provided health coverage under the Rajiv Gandhi Shilpi Swasthya Bima Yojana.

• The E-Marketing platforms recently developed by the Central cottage Industries corporation on India (CCIC), and the Handicraft and Handloom Exports Corporation of India (HHEC) has significantly helped in simplifying marketing issues. And various marketing initiatives are being taken in order to push and promote niche handloom products.

• Skill Development, A great emphasis has been laid on skill development in 12^th Five Year Plan, an integrated skill development scheme was introduced in this Five Year Plan that aims at training 2.675, 000 people within the next 5 years. The scheme would cover all sub sectors of the textiles and apparels, handicrafts, hand looms, jute and Sericulture.

Other than this, The Government has also promoted Credit linkages, Financial Package for waivers of overdues and Textile parks.The sustainable growth this industry has witnessed in decades has tremendously boast and strengthen our economy. To keep it in the lineage the Government and the private sector has great role to play.

Source: http://bit.ly/15EXtek

Indian Textile Industry Eyes Emerging Markets

Being the second largest employment generator in the country the textile industry is booming at an exponential rate. According to Kearney’s ‘Retail Apparel Index’ India is ranked as the fourth most promising market for apparel retailers in 2009. Though the last financial year recorded a minor set back due to a dip in the export figures, experts still maintain the viewpoint that the industry is flourishing.

The statistics show that the demand for  garments has started improving in the traditional markets and exports to some new markets have also started growing. With a keen eye on expanding into the emerging markets, the Indian textile industry decides to  keep its focus intact. Even today the traditional markets are considered to be the core areas for growth. Handicrafts account for a huge portion of textile exports from India.

Thus, the South East Asian continent including countries like Japan and China; followed by Latin America (housing Brazil which is ranked as the most attractive emerging market for apparel retailers according to survey reports) and also the African continent is seen as major potential markets for expansion. At the National Garment Fair in Mumbai, Ms Kiran Dhingra, Textiles Secretary, said though the Textile Ministry is concerned over the demand slowdown in major western countries such as the US and Europe, new markets like Latin America, Africa and West Asia have good potential.

Some of the other emerging markets being focused by the textile and apparel makers for the last few years include , Russia, Australia and New Zealand as they offer good potential.

Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi promises a growth of 15 percent in India’s textile exports for the current fiscal year 2013-14.

Although entry into new markets is never easy and is a long and tedious process. With the right strategies and focused approach the markets can be tapped successfully over time and the revenues can be increased.