FICCI meet: Driving growth through innovation

The Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry´s (FICCI) 6th edition of Annual conference on textile and apparel Industry, ´TAG 2014´, held at the Hotel Taj Lands End, Bandra (West), Mumbai, focused on Driving Growth through Innovation in the Textile Industry.

A knowledge paper on Driving Growth Through Innovation, compiled by Wazir Advisrors Pvt Ltd was released during the conference. The first session discussed about the innovations taking placed in the T&C industry around the globe from fibre to finished goods.The panelists deliberated on how innovation is the backbone of success in the changing global scenario. They discussed how their own companies innovated products, process or systems in the past and what the industry needs to learn from other global leaders.

The second session had presentations from representatives from successful manufacturers where they explained how they have grown their market share through a core strategy to excel. The third and last session had presentations from textile technology suppliers about how the state-of-the-art technologies are helping to evolve the traditional manufacturing processes.

The speakers included:
The Moderators were:
Although India already have a strong manufacturing base in textiles and clothing, with increasing global competition and evolving consumerism, it is slowly becoming a must for textile manufacturer to be innovative. Firms need to explore innovation at all levels including processes, products and marketing and Indian textile and apparel industry should also focus on to create a global vision for innovative textiles.

Given the high degree of market integration, product differentiation and diversification are becoming increasingly important to ensure a particular company´s positioning in the market. In this respect, a commitment to innovation and new technologies are key factors for industrial development; new products, new designs, new formats, new uses and new techniques are the factors will enable business expansion and access to new markets.

Although companies are running their traditional lines of business, they are also bringing in new strategies for value addition in products in order to enter new markets and compete with emerging economies. The meet dwelt on the importance of innovation for success and growth of business in the increasingly competitive market place.

The main objective of the conference was to exchange experiences regarding policies, practices and programmes about innovation as substantial economic lever to improve brand image, sales and profitability of companies in textile and clothing sector in India. Through this conference, it was aimed to have Textile and Apparel Sector to achieve high value added production and perform sustainable export.

From L-R: Deepak Mukhi, Head, FICCI – MSC; Suresh Kotak, Chairman, Subgroup on Textile & Technical Textiles, FICCI – MSC; Dilip Jiwrajka, Managing Director, Alok Industries; and Prashant Agarwal, Jt. Managing Director, Wazir Advisors Pvt.

From L-R: SS Aich, Director Operation, Welspun India; Dilip Jiwrajka, Managing Director, Alok Industries; Prashant Agarwal, Jt. Managing Director, Wazir Advisors Pvt; Rajiv Dayal, Managing Director & CEO, Mafatlal Industries; Mohit Marwaha, Director-Marketing & Sales, South Asia INVISTA; and Jayant Khera, Textile Industry Manager-Asia Pacific (Sales & Technical), Novozymes South Asia Pvt Ltd.

From L-R: Arindam Saha, Associate Director, Wazir Advisors, was the moderator for the session 2. Others sitting are: Vinu Sudan, Director, Brandix India Apparel City; Anil Rajvanshi, Sr Executive Vice President, Reliance Industries; Yogesh Mehta, Chief Executive Officer, Welspun Zucchi Textiles; Manohar Samuel, President-Marketing, Birla Cellulose; and Ranojoy Chowdhury, Deputy General Manager, SIDBI.