On road to recovery ?
An early end to the crisis gripping the Indian textile industry is in sight if the
Textiles Ministry move to revive it is anything to go by. This comes within days
of the comments made in these columns a month back that the setback to the
fortunes of the industry is only temporary and that the Government can only
ill-afford to neglect the interests of this major industry that offers the highest
employment, next only to agriculture, and accounts for the maximum exchange
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ister, Mr. Anand Sharma, who also holds the additional charge of the Textiles
Ministry did was to take a composite view of the situation prevailing in the cot-
ton and yarn industry in the last few days. Realising that imposition of restric-
tions on cotton yarn exports has severely damaged the prospects of more than
3,000 spinning mills in the country, he decided to remove the curbs forthwith.
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ceiling of 720 million kg of shipments and withdrawal of export incentives now reports fall in stocks to
around 300 million kg. This is expected to go down further, particularly in the festival season from Sep-
tember when surging demand would substantially help the spinning sector dispose of its products. The
projected demand is from the powerloom, handloom and garmenting segments.
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and interest is imperative to revive the mills’ operations in full swing in the coming months to avoid re-
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would lead to hoarding and speculation resulting in a steep increase in their prices which can’t be passed
on to the users. This is meant mainly to avert the chaos in marketing and unrest as happened at the begin-
ning of the current cotton season.
All indications are that the crisis-ridden textile industry, with the expected relief package from the
Government and RBI, will limp back to normalcy before long. However, considering the US economic
depression, there is little room for complacency. The American crisis aggravated by the downgrading of
its sovering rating would have its impact on India’s exports, particularly textiles. Further, appreciation of
the rupee against the US dollar would blunt India’s competitive edge. There is as yet no clear picture, but
economic experts liken the current US depression to the recession of 2008 that ravaged its economy and
the other economies across the world.
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THE TEXTILE MAGAZINE
AUGUST 2011
R. Natarajan,
Managing Editor & Publisher