Value addition, logistics need to improve: TAI meet

The Textile Association of India´s (TAI) annual conference with the theme, -ôIndian Textiles – The way Forward´, held at the Hotel The Lalit, in Mumbai, was a splendid event with a series of impressive presentations in three sessions. The sessions and the topics selected for this conference were relevant to the current scenario and beneficial to the textile professionals. There were over 300 participants comprising senior managers, decision makers and reputed textile professionals.

Sunil Porwal, Additional Secretary (Textiles), Government of Maharashtra, as Chief Guest spoke about the lack of value addition in the industry and its logistics problem. ´India is poised to become the world´s top most producer of cotton. And out of the total production of cotton this year, 40 per cent will be surplus. India´s contribution to world textiles is mostly in terms of raw materials – cotton and yarn. China´s import and India´s domestic consumption takes care of the most of the production. But why are we not adding value to this extra bales available with us?, he said.´

According to Porwal, logistics is a major problem in India. Cotton is in North, West and Southern parts of the country. But the consumption centres are in different places and after the making of yarn, the cotton sent from Maharashtra comes back to Maharashtra as yarn. This ends up in consuming more time and money during the conversion, leaving the logistics in utter disarray. For instance, 50% of garments in the country are made in Maharashstra, and this is sent to other centres for processing, entailing additional cost. This is the biggest challenge today. The third challenge is the environmental compliances in processing.

He made a mention about the Brandix Apparel city in Visakhapatnam. ´About 15 units have come up in the city. They has transport system in place for the employees, who live within a radius of 15 to 20 km, taking them to and from from their homes. All the other infrastructures are available within or nearby the apparel city´.

In his Guest of Honour Speech, Dr P Nayak, Secretary, Textiles Committee, specially mentioned about the ´Make India´ mission of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. He pointed out how India has been exporting less valued items in textiles and how our value addition has been staying at a very low level. Weaving and processing sectors have to be strengthened, he said. If the basic material is not up to the mark, then the end-products will also suffer, he said. The entire industry has to be integrated in one way or the other.

The TAI programme included felicitation for three eminent personalities from the industry: Anuj Bhagwati, Managing Director, A.T.E. Enterprises Pvt Ltd; N A Acharya, Chairman of Associated Chemicals and Ms Dipali Goenka, Managing Director of Welspun Global Brands Ltd. While Dipali Goenka could not attend the meet, Acharya´s felicitation was accepted by his son in the former´s absence.

Anuj Bhagwati, accepting his felicitation, thanked all his employees for helping A.T.E. write a great success story.C Bose, President, TAI, Mumbai Unit, and dignitaries lighting the lamp.

From L-R: AV Mantri, Hon. Secretary, TAI, Mumbai Unit; Rajiv Ranjan, Jt. Convenor; VC Gupte, Convenor & Chairman, TAI, Mumbai Unit; Sunil Porwal, Additional Chief Secretary (Textiles), Government of Maharashtra; Dr P Nayak, Secretary, Textiles Committee, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India; C Bose, President, TAI, Mumbai Unit; and Arvind Sinha, National President, TAI.

Anuj Bhagwati, Managing Director, A.T.E. Enterprises Pvt Ltd, felicitated during the event.