environment friendly products is growing. According to him, waterless dyeing / processing will soon become a reality. He further stated the importance of technology given the growing need for traceability in the supply chain.
“ Giving customers a unique experience while shopping has become essential and important in order to survive in the apparel industry these days,” said Thomas Varghese, business head – Domestic Textiles, Overseas Spinning and Acrylic Fibre, Aditya Birla Group. He also emphasised on the uses of AI( Artificial Intelligence) and VR( Virtual Reality) for“ Virtual Try Rooms”— a technology which allows customers to try various outfits and dresses without trying them on physically.
RK Rewari, managing director, Morarjee Textiles, talked about the importance of customer satisfaction by being customer centric. He talked about the changing scenario due to reduction in fashion cycles and customers’ inclination towards mindful purchase. He talked about real time tracking of purchases being made and change in productmix accordingly by the retailer. He said that in order to cope up with the changes, it is important to understand customer requirement, have an attitude of collaboration for technological advancement and scale and understanding the roles & responsibilities as manufacturers.
During the session on“ Government Role in Enhancing Industry’ s Competitiveness”, Atul Patne, secretary – Textiles, Government of Maharashtra, and Mihir Parekh, director – Mega Textile Park, Government of Telangana, elaborated on their respective state government’ s Industrial Policy and the support it provides to the textile and apparel industry. Industry expectations were also spelled out by Narain Aggarwal, chairman, SRTEPC, during the session.
Atul Patne, Secretary – Textiles, Government of Maharashtra
Narain Aggarwal, Chairman, SRTEPC
Anjani Prasad, managing director, Archroma India, highlighted the importance of presence of strong value chain. He specified some of the potential areas of innovation in textiles like feel, comfort, looks, technology and functional technical textiles. He said that ecological and environmental factors are having a gamechanging impact and there is an increasing push from legislators as well as consumers.
Mohan Kavrie, managing director, Supreme Nonwoven, focused on the importance of robust systems and processes for any industry. He stated that the entire value chain in textile industry needs to be efficient for overall growth of the industry. He stated the example of automobile industry in which even the Tier 1 & 2 suppliers are forced to follow the norms and the same model. He also highlighted the importance of government policies in leading to job creation. Finally, he urged the financial institutions not to be sceptical of the textile industry in general because of recent issues with few companies.
Rahul Mehta, managing director, Creative Casuals India, moderated the session which focused on the need to shift focus from product first to people and customers first. The session discussed on moving beyond competitive prices to serve customers with the right product and in the right time.
Sanjay Kumar Verma, vice president – L & D, Reliance Industries Ltd., focused on the need of efficient supply chain management with complete transparency in the value chain. Given the increasing focus of brands towards supply chain transparency, he emphasised the need to have social compliance in addition to being environmentally compliant. He stated that technology can be leveraged to provide full transparency to customers that ultimately leads to customer satisfaction.
Mihir Parekh, Director – Mega Textile Park, Government of Telangana Union minister of textiles Smriti Irani with industry leaders at“ Texellence 2018” which was held on May 25, 2018 in Mumbai.