While I have not been associated with the Indian textile industry as long as The Textile Magazine you are reading right now, in the past nearly 20 years I have had the privilege to visit India very frequently. At the same time, I could also visit other major Asian centers of the textile industry, such as Bangladesh, Indonesia and of course China.
Within the textile industry, my personal experience is limited to spinning, so I will concentrate on this sector only.
In the past 20 years, India has progressed greatly. Just think of the airports we had then, compared to now! Or look at the cars you find on the roads, or look at the roads themselves! In other areas the progress seems to be lacking: the traffic discipline is no much better in my subjective judgment than it was 20 years ago.
While India’s progress is undeniable and very, very remarkable, China has progressed more, it seems. Why?
I am no social scientist, just a mechanical engineer, but it seems to me that a certain lack of discipline is hindering India to live up to its true potential. The chaotic traffic is probably just one of the outwardly visible signs. The almost ‘tribal’ political actions are, may be, another sign of a lack of an “All India Discipline”…
To repeat it, India has progressed a lot, and some of the strong points of the Indian society are:
• The English language!
• India is a safe place! I personally feel safer in India than almost anywhere else.
• High education! It seems to me that Indian parents put more emphasis on the education of their children than any other society I know. Therefore, Indian industry can select from a large pool of educated professionals. As we all know these professionals are even ‘exported’ to many countries, also fully developed ones.
• Risk-taking entrepreneurs! It is they who convert the advantages into progress for society.
If I look at the Indian spinning industry all the assets mentioned above can be found there. The large majority of our customers are family owned and led by a member of the family. The technical staff is very well educated, and nearly all of them have created an atmosphere where the workers seem to like to work.
Very bluntly speaking, I personally find the Indian spinning industry second to none in the countries I know!
India has been good to me and to SUESSEN! Over the past 10 years we could sell over 33,00,000 SUESSEN EliTe Compact Spindles to our Indian customers. This is over 3.5 times more than our closest competitor.
SUESSEN’s EliTwist Compact System, with about 4,00,000 spindles installed, is vastly more successful in India than anywhere else! In my opinion, the reason is the unique mixture of risk taking owners and technically sophisticated GMs. Nowhere else in the world’s spinning industry can this be found to the extent available in India.
What is my view of the year 2012? What does it hold in store for our spinning industry? Well, I also do not have a “crystal ball”.
The last few months have been difficult for our industry, more difficult than in some other parts of the world.
This additional difficulty, in my opinion, may be attributed to some counter-productive moves by the Indian Government (export ban on cotton, then on yarn…)
However, I am optimistic about the future of our spinning industry! Like they say in “economic language”: the fundamentals are right with our industry!
On a personal level, I am looking forward to many more years of close association with “my” spinning industry in India, many of whose principal actors have become trusted friends over the years!