Apparel August 2019 Apparel August 2019 issue | Page 47

69TH NGF SPECIAL
Apparel markets across
India have been quite static
of late, in the sense that
there has not been much
business movement, even
with festivals such as Diwali
fast approaching. Having said
that, I do not think that the recently announced
Budget will have any grave impact on the Industry
at large. One, however, needs to dig deeper and
find out the reasons behind the sluggishness
pervading the market—be they policies
formulated by the Government, internal trading
sentiments, etc.
VALJI RAVARIYA, GRAZIA
NARENDRA BUBNA, MEHER AND MANSI
Today, the Apparel market
is suffering greatly—and
has been since the last
few years—and this year’s
Budgetary allocation has
barely done anything to aid
it. If the Government reduced
the Import duty that is levied on certain textile
products, it would help businesses to a huge
extent. We can learn a thing or two from countries
such as China, which levies lesser Import duties
on many such products.
SUDHA DASGUPTA, ZARZOA
MUKESH SHARMA, GK 9
The entire economy has been a bit sluggish
and the recently announced Budget has
undoubtedly had an impact on it. There is little
known information on what the Government’s
plan is for the Industry. Today, India’s textile
Industry employs close to three crore people
directly and indirectly. Although the Ministry is
taking steps to better the condition of the nation’s workforce, our
Industry is unable to compete with that of Bangladesh, Vietnam,
Cambodia, etc., because of the incentives that those governments
provide their citizens with. Today, even large-format companies
in the country are not able to churn out enough production, as a
result of which artisans (involved in weaving, dyeing, embroidering,
and more) face a threat of losing their source of income caused by
the craft going extinct. So if a Manufacturer does not have enough
business, the artisans, who majorly depend on brands or designers
for work, are losing out too. These artisans, who span a range of
crafts, are the wealth of the country and are the only aspect that
will stay relevant to the Industry for years to come. Hence, they
should be empowered and supported more in order to strengthen
the overall Garment Industry.
We are satisfied with how the Government
formulates policies and plans for other sectors
of India but speaking of textiles in particular, we
are quite unhappy. I feel that the Government
has not been playing close attention to
the Manufacturers of the Industry. The
repercussions of this are many: for example,
recently, many Garment factories in Surat
shut shop. The Exports, too, have been down
since some time. We certainly expected more
from the Union Budget declaration this time.
We hail from Jaipur, which aces in the creative
realm but when it comes to business-centric
nuances, it is largely unorganised, wherein
vendors across the supply chain are scattered,
as opposed to China, where a brand has its
Manufacturer, Designer, Distributor, Promoter,
etc., all in one place. Having a systematic,
comprehensive model, hence, can aid the
overall progress of the industry.
The months of May and June this year
have particularly been lax. Discounting
a few sectors, Budgetary allocations
in India are rarely ever translated from
paper to reality. But I doubt that it is
going to have a massive impact on the
Industry because a similar pattern in
allocation has been going on for some years and if it had not
hit the market severely then, it may not do so now either.
KARTIK MEHTA, ARNAV SILKS
APPAREL
I
August 2019
I
41