Apparel Online India Magazine January 1st Issue 2019 | Page 13

MIND TREE
Q: The US has recently registered a complaint
with WTO about India’s export subsidy
programmes… How can Indian policy makers
neutralise this impact…?
April 16-30
Dr. Siddhartha Rajagopal, Executive Director, TEXPROCIL, Mumbai –
India’s textile sector continues to grapple with the domestic challenges,
facing the charge that our exports are heavily subsidised. The need
of the hour is to quickly develop ‘alternate schemes’ which are WTO
compatible. TEXPROCIL is actively engaged in compiling suggestions from
its exporting members for submission to the Government vide a proposal
on the various alternate schemes that can be developed to become WTO
compatible. These schemes could cover areas like ‘embedded taxes’,
‘transaction costs’ and ‘structural weaknesses’ in the textile and clothing
sector.
Q: Smriti Irani, after being Textile Minister for a year, was
given extra responsibility of I&B Ministry. But now she is
having only one portfolio as the Union Textile Minister.
Your reaction…
June 16-30
Jas Mahindru, Owner, Mega Brands, Delhi – I keep on hearing she is
doing a lot for the weavers, but I am not sure if situation has improved in
any way. We need to work on all fronts; base is the cotton growers and
weavers as they are our source...
Q: Dates of various exhibitions are overlapping in
the coming months of July and August… Being a
stakeholder in the apparel industry, will it impact
you, and what could be the possible solution?
July 1-15
Q: Being an apparel manufacturer or
stakeholder of textile industry, how do you see
the current scenario of labour availability?
Gaurav Juneja, Director, Mex Exhibitions, Delhi – IIGF is mainly focused
on international buyers, so there is no clash of IIGF with CMAI’s National
Garment Fair as such. Fairs Gartex and GTE, held in national capital Delhi,
are always a hub for the exhibitions, but show at Bangalore is considered
as a regional show...
May 1-15
Yogeeta Prabhakar, MD, Prabhakar Overseas Group of Companies,
Noida – Certain Government policy changes have made drastic changes
in the labour availability as market is facing recession, but scale of wages
is still high and many exporters aren’t able to manufacture on buyer
target prices which leads to difficult competition with the neighbouring
competing countries, such as Vietnam, China and Bangladesh...
Q: Recent scams and increasing NPAs are creating
pressure on banking sector. Even balance sheets of apparel
manufacturers, especially of exporters, are not showing
good indications… Are you also facing the heat of liquidity?
July 16-31
Q: Official data released shows Indian apparel
exports are in a recessionary zone with decline
in apparel production, but some companies are
doing well. Are you the one…?
May 16-31
Vivek Saxena, Director, Moissanite Apparels, Noida – We are growing
at the rate of 20 per cent, but at the same time we are also conducting
small workshops in our factory and also motivating all professionals,
making it clear to them that we are in a position where there is no space
for any mistake. We are trying to make sure that if 6,000 pieces are to be
delivered, we should cut fabric for the 6,000 pieces only. This is the need
of the hour as we are under pressure and high-efficiency is required at all
levels.
Q: In the current difficult scenario, apparel exports are
under pressure. Being a buyer representative or buying
house, how much growth or downfall have you witnessed,
and what are your sourcing strategies?
June 1-15
Jag Mohan Sharma, Sourcing Manager, Buffalo David Bitton, Canada
– We are already sourcing from well established companies of China,
Bangladesh and India that are following compliance completely and
working with proper systems. And to remain competitive, we constantly
work on sourcing front, developing vendors, exploring new factories that
are having any kind of special or different product. We travel a lot for this.
Meanwhile, economy in core markets – the Canada and the US – is good.
Even Canada is growing, especially compared to last year. In US, after the
NAFTA developments, things are shaky, but overall growth is going on.
Davinder Sandhu, MD, Davinder Sandhu Impex, Ludhiana – Banks are
not supporting businesses at all. Their documentation system, which was
fairly strong earlier also, has now become more stringent; they are taking
comparatively much more time in most of the processes...
Q: Recently the Central Government announced 28 per
cent ‘historical’ increase in MSP of cotton. Being an
apparel manufacturer, how do you see this hike?
August 1-15
Pranav Ghelani, MD, Sumangalam Exports, Mumbai – The Government’s
decision to increase the MSP of cotton will have an adverse effect on the
textiles industry. Given this increase, the acreage for cotton cultivation
will go up and consequently the supply. With China continuing to be the
largest importer of cotton, this will not allow the prices to stabilise...
Q: A few days ago, TEA requested its members to ask their
buyers to increase the garment prices by 10 per cent as
overall costing is increasing. Top sourcing professionals are
of the opinion that such initiatives will not solve any problem
and might make them more worse. Your take…?
August 16-31
R Sabhari Girish, CEO, Award Associates, Tirupur/Noida – With the
increase in prices of yarns and other attributes, it is inevitable that the
exporters get a better price from the buyer. This is the first time in the
history that TEA has sent a circular like this. If we demand 10% increase in
price, we will be helping our competitors to grab our orders. It’s high time
that the exporters start looking for the elimination of wastage, increasing
of productivity and providing of value additions like design input, thus
helping them sail through this situation.
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