India’s textile industry is centuries old and has grown from handlooms to modern textile mills. Once upon a time, Indian clothes were the most popular in the world. In many countries, the name India was the identity of cotton. Silk from neighboring country China and cotton from India were among the most demanded goods exported to western countries.
But India could not maintain this dominance and countries like China, Germany, Vietnam and Bangladesh strengthened their hold on the global textile market. Now the ongoing political turmoil and violence in Bangladesh has once again given India an opportunity to strengthen its foothold in the global textile market. Currently, India is among the top-5 countries in the global textile market.
China rules the textile market!
China dominates the global textile market due to its low cost of production, better machinery, highest production of cotton and good quality raw material. After China, Germany, Bangladesh and Vietnam come next while India is at number five. It is important to know here that despite having a large textile industry, India is behind Bangladesh in exports.
According to statistics, India’s textile industry is worth $150 billion while Bangladesh’s industry is much smaller in size. But India’s exports are worth about $40 billion while Bangladesh’s are worth $45 billion. India’s readymade garment exports are one-third of Bangladesh’s.
India will have to work hard!
The government has set a target of increasing exports to $100 billion by 2027 and necessary steps are being taken in that direction. But to increase India’s share in the global textile industry, many steps including policy reforms will have to be taken, which include encouraging domestic industries lagging behind in the race of competition, providing availability of raw materials and modern machinery, producing more cotton on less land, increasing access to large textile markets like Europe and America and branding and marketing of the textile industry.
India will have to increase cotton production!
China grows more cotton on less land than India. According to statistics, only 460 kg of cotton is produced in one hectare in India while the global average is 780 kg per hectare. In China it is 2 thousand kg and in Brazil it is 18 hundred kg per hectare. The price of cotton has fallen by 30 percent in the last 6 months. But the government has imposed import duty to protect farmers from losses. Due to this, textile companies neither get cheap cotton in the domestic market nor can they import cheap cotton from abroad. In such a situation, there is a need to increase cotton production for which government support, solid strategy and innovation will be needed.
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