Govt to hire consultant to improve textile sector soon

With India losing its competitive edge in global textile and apparel sector, the government has decided to engage a consultant to improve the county’s performance. The textiles ministry will hire a consulting firm to identify new opportunities for market expansion, maintain a database on international tariffs, trade data, growth trends, impact of international agreements and free trade agreements, installed capacity, production and employment in the sector.

It will also provide inputs for promotion of foreign direct investment especially in textile parks, and intellectual property rights issues including geographic indications in textiles and handicrafts. “We want to appoint a consulting company. It will assist the ministry in sensitizing Indian industry of the global market scenario and emerging trends to help identify new opportunities for market expansion,” said an official.

The exercise is aimed at providing export intelligence and strategic support to the sector through timely addressal of policy-related issues of all the segments. The development comes in the wake of India’s exports of cotton yarn shrinking 10.7 per cent on year in FY20 while readymade garment exports contracted 4 per cent. The consultant will also be tasked to review India’s existing FTAs, need for new FTAs, data to support trade talks and multilateral arrangements as well as issues pertaining to non-tariff barriers.