Decline in the export causing job losses in Indian textile industry

October 7th, 2009 KOLKATA - The central government has constituted a working group to formulate a National Fibre Policy (NFP) by the end of the year, Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran said Wednesday. "Hopefully, by the end of this year, a comprehensive policy on all fibres will be in place," Maran said during a seminar with the industry players here.

August 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Though the overall economy has started showing signals of an early recovery, the country's textile sector, the second largest employment provider, is still struggling with the slowdown, an industry report said Monday. The report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) said decline in textile exports and massive layoffs in the industry were still continuing.

July 22nd, 2009 TOKYO - With a view to finding new markets for the textile industry and reducing dependence on the US and the European Union (EU), India has begun promoting itself in Japan, with Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran inaugurating the Indian pavilion at the Mega Apparel and Textiles Show here Wednesday. The initiative is part of the government's policy to push Indian textiles exports to South East Asia, especially Japan.

July 22nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's textile industry was hit hard by the global slowdown last year, with the handloom and powerloom production declining 3.8 and 3.2 percent respectively, a union minister said Wednesday. According to the provisional data available, production in the handloom sector in 2008-09 stood at 6,677 million square metres, as compared to 6,947 million square metres the year before, Minister of State for Textiles Panabaaka Lakshmi told the Rajya Sabha.

July 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government is promoting an export policy regime for the textiles industry that will cover all potential markets including South East Asia, said Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran Wednesday. The government is also promoting textiles mega shows in potential markets.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government will set up mega industrial clusters in five states to boost the traditional textile and carpet industries and generate "thousands of jobs", Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Monday. Presenting the union budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha, Mukherjee said: I propose to add one handloom mega cluster each in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and one powerloom mega cluster in Rajasthan.

July 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Though comprehensive job loss data is not available for the current financial year, the Economic Survey Thursday said the financial crisis hit the Indian job market in the last quarter of 2008 but improvement in the employment situation was in sight. Quoting a labour ministry survey, it said during October-December 2008, there was decrease in employment of about half a million workers".

June 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government will provide health insurance to 150,000 weavers and open two textile parks, Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran said Wednesday while unveiling the department's first 100 days' work agenda. "The textile sector is the second largest employer after agriculture and accounts for 13.5 percent of the total merchandise export earning and four percent of the GDP," said Maran.

June 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government will exempt the slowdown-hit textile sector from service tax as part of its short-term strategy to bail out the industry, Minister for Textiles Dayanidhi Maran said here Friday. As part of our short-term strategy for the textile industry, we will try to rationalise fiscal structure, exempt service tax, reduce interest rates on pre and post-shipment credit and facilitate faster clearance of arrears, Maran said here while releasing a report on the effects of the slowdown on the textile sector.

June 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The textile industry will regain lost ground to grow at 7-8 percent in the current fiscal, Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran said here Friday. Industry is quite optimistic and I am also quite optimistic we will be able to achieve that growth, Maran told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

May 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - After successfully running training centers across India that focus on the garment industry, the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has expanded its educational and training initiatives through its Institute of Apparel Management (IAM) for the fashion and lifestyle industry. Launched in 2007, IAM has been promoted by AEPC to address the 'national talent deficiency' of competent professionals in the textile, fashion and lifestyle industries.

May 13th, 2009 SILIGURI - Tea exporters in Siliguri are in a joyous mood, as demand for Indian tea in the world market goes up, with competitors Sri Lanka and Kenya engaged in domestic problems. The demand for Indian tea has considerably gone up even as there is a marginal drop in supply in the international market.

March 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - As a result of deteriorating indo-Pak relations post the Mumbai terror attacks, cross-border trade is likely to witness a sixty percent decline in fiscal 2009-10. The trade relatio has hit the new low because Indian exporters are scared from doing business with Pakistani businessmen, a FICCI survey has revealed.

January 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Ashwini Kumar Wednesday said the government is chalking out a strategy to minimise job losses in sectors such as export and manufacturing in the next fiscal. 'In the next fiscal, our growth will anyway be between 6.5 and 7 percent, which is four times the world average.

December 22nd, 2008 NEW DELHI - Job losses in India will continue into the next year due to the global slowdown, but it will be at 'minimum' levels, a top government economist said here Tuesday. Soon after the government tabled the mid-year review of the Indian economy in parliament, Arvind Virmani, the chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, told reporters that most of the job cuts would be in the export sector as industry was hit hard by the slowdown.