We have come a long way from our grass and animal hide wearing ancestors to the jeans and thongs wearing youngsters of today. The driver for this change has been largely due to a socio-cultural phenomenon called ´fashion´. Even a thousand years ago, specific styles of attire differed from one culture to another.

GoCoop, India´s 1st online social marketplace for weavers & artisans has launched the ´#ILoveHandlooms´ campaign to popularise handloom among the masses and to pledge support for artisans and weavers. Through the campaign, GoCoop invites people to share their love for handloom by posting a photo or writing a story about a favourite handloom product they own.

Weaving Terry, Like Never Before, the banner above the new R9500 terry loom of Itema at their Colzate office seemed to convey all that the machine stands for ´ perfect terry weaving, when it was unveiled to a select audience of VIPs from Turkey, Japan, Korea and other countries.

This March, the textile fraternity saw the launch like no other; Birla Cellulose did a grand launch of its fabric brand, LIVA with their new stylish brand ambassador Kangana Ranaut. Expected to play a key role in producing excellent fabric to the fore, LIVA is an endeavour to reach out to the end consumer with a quality offering that is in line with current fashion trends.

The expectation from the new government in the centre was very high. However the situations at the ground level did not alter much. The government´s attention was concentrated on macro issues. This could not lift the morale of the industry.

´If our cotton could speak, it would describe the extraordinary people behind its growth and cultivation.´ ´Our farmers are passionate: about their work, their crops and their communities. They are devoted to transforming an element from the earth into a fiber of our lives. They see a singular vision of the crop´s connection to what matters every day, and its embrace of all.´

The picture that appears at the end of the top row on Page 76 of ITJ September 2015 issue is that of B B Bharti, Joint Textile Commissioner. It has been erroneously named as Sundara Moorthy of BDB India. The inadvertent error is regretted.

True to the motto ´standstill is a step backwards´, a successful card model such as the C 70 will also be further improved. Further development is based on customer and market requirements as well as the technical progress of the technology and machine components.

Anuj Bhagwati, who now heads the A.T.E. Group, joined the Group in 1994. He has been actively involved in a wide range of activities in the group: he introduced IT to the group, managed several companies, put together joint ventures, and has been a part of divestments, turnarounds, start-ups and scale-ups. In the process he has transformed A.T.E. into a modern and technology oriented group.