By Dr. N. Vasugi, Reader, Textiles and Clothing Science, Avinashilingam University for Women, Coimbatore
India is replete with natural resources like cotton, jute and silk. Indian textile products were known for long for fine designing, embellishment and craft. Besides, the ancient Indian fabric designers and weavers were one of the best in the world.
The Indian textile industry is also the largest employer, after agriculture, absorbing 38 million people. If employment in allied sectors like ginning, agriculture, pressing, cotton trade, jute, etc., is taken into account, the total employment in the sector is estimated at 93 million.
Due to ethnic diversity and cultural multiplicity besides racial traces in India’s hinterland, several designs and a variety of costumes and apparels are used to enrich the garment technology. Being the largest industry in India, textiles accounts for over 20 per cent of industrial production and is closely linked with the agricultural and rural economy.
India has around 40 million spindles in operation (23 per cent of the world total), and 0.5 million rotors (six per cent of the world capacity). India has 1.8 million shuttle looms, 0.02 million shuttleless looms and 3.90 million handlooms, which are 45 per cent, three per cent and 85 per cent of the world capacity respectively. The industry is highly fragmented, except for the spinning sub-sector and thus is manually intensive, as is clear from the weaving sector data given. The organized sector contributes to almost 100 per cent of spinning but hardly five per cent of weaving of fabrics.
The Indian textile industry is plagued by obsolescence, labour problem, raw material shortage and lack of modernization, including in spindles. The post-fabric stage processing technology has also been lagging, but is now coming up fast with the infusion of textile processing technology. SSI units account for major weaving and processing operations.
Tamil Nadu accounts for one-third of the Indian textile business. Coimbatore accounts for 40 per cent production of textiles in the State. The first mill in Coimbatore – Coimbatore Spg & Wvg Mills – was established in 1890 by Sir Robert Stanes, followed by Kaleeswara Mills, Somasundaram Mills, Lakshmi Mills, Radhakrishna Mills and Rangavilas Ginning, Spg & Weaving Mills, in that order. The well-known Pykara hydroelectric project that was commissioned in 1932 gave a big boost to textile industry growth in the region.
The Southern India Millowners Association (SIMA) was established in 1933 by Sir R K Shanmugam and the first Chairman was P S Sathappa Chettiar. The visionary leaders behind the development of the Coimbatore textile industry were G. Kuppuswamy Naidu and his sons (G K D & G K S), R. Venkataswamy Naidu, C. S. Ratnasabapathy Mdualiar and PS Govindaswamy and Sons.
While the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) was started in 1955 by Sir R K Shanmugham, South India Viscose was established in 1956. The year 1968 saw the birth of the National Textiles Corporation (NTC). The SIMA Cotton Development Research Association (SIMA CDRA) was started in 1974 and the South India Cotton Association (SICA) in 1977.
Contribution of Textile Industry to Coimbatore:
Direct employment
- Spinning – 1 lakh
- Knitted garment – 2 lakhs
- Power loom – 1 lakh
- Allied industries – 1 lakh
- Total – 5 lakhs
Indirect employment – 5 lakhs
- Grand total – 10 lakhs
The Coimbatore-based globally popular Lakshmi Machine Works Ltd. (LMW) manufactures the entire range of spinning machinery. A world leader in textile machinery manufacturing, it has also set up its ring frame manufacturing facility in China. The company still remains the preferred spinning machinery supplier in the world.
| GROWTH OF TEXTILE INDUSTRY | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| As | No. of mills | Installed capacity | ||||
| on | Spg | Composite units | Total | Spindles (millions) | Rotors(Thousands) | Looms(Thousands) |
| 2005-06 | 2743 | 210 | 2953 | 37.51 | 520 | 82.79 |
| July-09 end | 2897 | 361 | 3258 | 41.31 | 659 | 70.93 |
The other vital points to be considered while studying the Coimbatore’s textile potential are that 95 per cent of raw materials (both cotton and man-made fibres) are purchased from upcountry centres or imported at almost 10 to 15 per cent additional cost. Over 60 per cent of domestic yarn and fabrics are sold in upcountry centres. High power and labour cost are major impediments. AP mills have at least 20 per cent cost advantage as compared to Coimbatore mills.
The Indian textile industry has the potential to emerge a global player. The Government has embarked on an industry-friendly, pro-active programme. The industry needs power round the clock, and at least 90 per cent capacity utilization of machinery has to be ensured to achieve breakeven.
However, the industry continues to face power cuts, shutdowns and power interruptions almost throughout the year. Labour shortage is another major problem facing Coimbatore mills. Also vital is flexibility in labour laws to increase employment.
To effectively tackle the situation, the industry needs to invest in research and development to come out with new products, reduce transaction costs, cut per unit costs, and finally improve its raw material base.
The industry also needs to move from the lower-end markets to middle-level, value-for-money markets and export high value-added products of international standard.