TEXTILES INDIA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi receiving greetings from audience after he visited Theme Pavilion/Hall No. 1. Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani; Andhra Pradesh CM
Chandrababu Naidu; Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani; Minister of State for Textiles, Ajay Tamta; and Textile Secretary Ananth Kumar are also seen in the picture
GST implementation has brought
in serious uncertainty, particularly
to exporters. Will we be refunded
all the embedded taxes, what about
those taxes not covered under GST?”
he questioned. He added, “Whereas
a bulk of the world market is into
synthetics, India competes in cotton
and related segments, while China
straddles the whole market place.
Labour laws are a huge constraint
deterring large-scale corporate
investment and the sector gets no
duty advantage from EU and Canada,
unlike our competitors like Sri Lanka,
Pakistan, Vietnam and Bangladesh.”
As part of the event, two fashion
shows were staged. The first one
was on the ‘Evolution of Textiles of
India’ to present a compelling story
of the Textiles of India; and another
was the ‘Indian Handloom Show’,
which presented the story of the India
Handloom brand initiative launched
by Prime Minister Modi on National
Handloom Day in 2015. Many well-
known and young upcoming designers
showcased their collections with
pride. “Just being short-listed to
showcase my handloom collection,
is an honour,” said designer Manish
Tripathi, who heads the iconic
menswear brand Antardesi. Manish
is National advisor to the Ministry of
Textiles for India Handloom Brand
and has set his eyes on developing
modern int erpretation of Maheshwari
fabric to support the weavers for
more commercial business. For the
designs and colour palette of his
collection, Manish took inspiration
from the picturesque forts and
palaces of Maratha queen Rajmata
Ahilya of Maheshwar and the flora
from tropical forests of Madhya
Pradesh. To add to the details in
the garments, mukaish, hand and
machine embroidery, block prints,
and few other intricate techniques
were used.
Textiles India was
good enough in
terms of round
table discussions
as they covered
numerous aspects
of the entire supply
chain and experts
from across the
globe participated
in these discussions.
Many top ministers
and bureaucrats
were also involved in
various sessions and
they discussed how
their ministries can
work together with
MoT/textile industry.
“We are very happy to be here as it gives us an
opportunity to network with the industry and also meet
our ‘buyers’, the garmenting segment for fabric and textile
mills for yarn under one roof.” – Yatish Pandey, Chairman
and Managing Director, Texperts India
The event saw great appreciation
from all quarters for brand ‘Textile
India’ with all major names in textiles
represented at the event. “India
is such a large textile and apparel
manufacturing country, there is so
much skill in this regard. I think this
event is helping to see all the strength
of textiles that exists in India. I think
people will take some learning out of
here and we will see more and more
people look at other opportunities.
One of my exporter-friend shared
that he could not believe that India
does so many things. I think MoT has
looked out for the strength of Indian
textile industry and has led from
front in trying to bring everybody
under one roof. I hope that we will be
able to build this event into something
much larger in years to come,” said
Rakesh Biyani, Joint MD, Future
Group. He was at the event with his
sourcing and buying team. “Three
days are too less to identify and
hold partnership meetings but it’s
a beginning. As we are growing
our business substantially in the
country, we are looking for new
manufacturers, new partners. This is
going to be a good event for us as we
will be able to connect with many new
suppliers,” he added.
Sadly, while textiles was a major
thrust area, the garmenting segment
was not brought into the limelight.
This was clearly reflected in the
satisfaction level of the participants
of both segments. “We are very
happy to be here as it gives us
an opportunity to network with
the industry and also meet our
‘buyers’, the garmenting segment
for fabric and textile mills for
yarn under one roof,” said Yatish
Pandey, Chairman and Managing
Director, Texperts India. The
same sentiment was shared by
most of the textile companies, who
felt that their participation at the
event was successful. On the other
hand, garment exporters were very
unhappy as foreign buyers were very
few and not many of them were big
buyers’ worth mentioning. However,
everyone agreed that the concept
was interesting and had potential if
done properly.
www.apparelresources.com | JULY 16-31, 2017 | Apparel Online India
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