State of the Textile Industry
Context:
• South Asia has been the leading player in the global textile industry in the recent past, with lower production costs it has made the production of the textiles very cost competitive.
Background:
• As mentioned above South Asia has been the leading producer of textiles owing to its cheap labour costs.
• The civil war in Sri Lanka led to shifting of the textile industry into Bangladesh.
• Bangladesh utilized the opportunity well, it brought in policies favourable to the growth of textile industry.
• Zero duty on raw material and capital machinery and integration of its markets with the west led to this success.
• It overtook India in exports in the past decade.
Challenges to the Textile sector:
• The fourth industrial revolution has been gradually shifting towards automation and machine learning in the manufacturing processes.
• Robotics enhances the production efficiency especially in the areas such as cutting, colouring, etc.
• With change comes challenges as well as opportunities, there is anticipation of job losses, instability in the sector.
• With a 7% unemployment rate, India faces the challenge of job creation with increasing automation.
• So, the fourth industrial revolution will trigger unemployment and pose a challenge to the governments worldwide.
What is required?
• Investments in skilling the human force and investments into technological innovations is necessary.
• Digitalisation and automation in areas such as design, prototyping and production are key to stay competitive.
Question of Sustainability:
• Now the world is towards a green trend, especially the western buyers are keen on the environmental impact of the production processes.
• The textile and the apparel industry together contribute to about 17-20% of all water pollution.
• Sustainable practices such as sustainable manufacturing process, use of renewable energy for production and adopt water saving techniques, etc.
Source: THE HINDU.
