Fashion

The June 22 textile package announced by the Union government is being described in many quarters as the proverbial stitch in time. But whether it will, like the proverb foretells, be able to save nine, is a question that needs circumspection. That said, there is little doubt that the Rs6,000 crore package has come as a much-needed whiff of fresh air for a desperate industry that has been gasping for breath. The last two Budgets had little on offer for the textiles and apparel industry, and the...

How have oil prices affected polyester yarn business, both in India as well as at the international level? Pinkesh Jain: Oil prices have been dropping all over the world for almost a year now. But we realise that this price (the current price) is rock-bottom; it can't go lower than this. The market has been improving only of late. The prices of yarn and fibres have been improving a bit. All spinners and manufacturers know that these prices (of crude oil) are the lowest. So, that offers a scope...

At an October 2013 round table conference organised by the Guardian newspaper in association with the global engineering and environment consultancy URS, it became evident from the discussions that companies were becoming increasingly exposed to risks across their supply chains, either by disruption resulting from climate change or reputational damage. The discussants built up a strong business case for developing sustainable ways of working throughout a company and its supply chain: saving...

In September this year, German testing and certification giant TÜV SÜD announced its entry into the advisory domain for textile manufacturing in India to, as the organisation claimed, drive product innovation, process and production management across the textile value chain from fibre to garment. Sooner or later, the global industry leader had to enter the Indian market. The reasons were put in succinctly by the Senior Vice-President (Consumer Product Services) of TÜV SÜD South Asia, Suresh...

There is a supply chain management (SCM) axiom that says that it is all about having the right product in the right place at the right time at the right price. Competition has ensured that manufacturing keeps pushing the bar in productivity and efficiency, and marketing becomes more aggressive and precise. Today, survival depends considerably on how much a company is able to streamline it all – from the beginning till the end. It’s a lot about logistics. Logistics is defined in Wikipedia as “the...

Few sectors of the economy have so much bearing on people's lives as the textiles and apparel industry has. It touches as many lives as the food sector does – for no one stops eating, or for that matter wearing clothes; yet, it goes on up on food considering the sheer spread of the sector and its long-drawn supply chain that has an over-arching effect on innumerable other sectors of the economy. The scale of the industry is so enormous and overlapping with other sectors, and its supply-chain so...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech marking the first National Handloom Day has triggered some debate about the handloom sector. But unfortunately, as is wont nowadays, arguments for handlooms fluctuate between the revivalist (let's work towards an Indian pride) and the sympathetic (let's save the weavers). Unfortunately again, both indulge in rhetoric and bombast, cut off from grassroots realities. Modi was right in asserting that reviving the handloom sector can be a way to fight poverty...

The chat on #FairFashion was organised by Fairtrade India on June 11, 2015. The premise was my #FairFashion piece, 'Green will be the next black.' The article on sustainable fashion, which had appeared in Fibre2Fashion magazine's February 2015 issue, can be seen here http://bit.ly/1JD4gN9. I tweeted from the Fairtrade India account that evening. The chat ran for two and half hours. What follows below is a curated collection of some tweets that went under #FairFashion.

It's getting better; maybe marginally, but better nonetheless. The global apparel industry is expected to grow at 3.5 per cent. The rate of growth will be the same as that last year, marking a leisurely but steady recovery process. In 2013, the industry had grown at 3 per cent, and 2.5 per cent the previous year. The period between 2008 and 2011, during the peak of the global downturn, had seen the growth rate of the industry dwindling to a paltry 1 per cent. The worst, on the face of it, is...

News about solar and wind energy have been making headlines over the past few months. And not because renewable energy is a focus area of the present government in India, but because it’s a need-based practice that is fast catching on at the global level. There are reports of cities meeting most of their energy demands through solar/wind energy, and there are examples of governments making a push for renewable energy at the policy level. It is not that climate change has suddenly become the top...