TEXTILE INDIA 2017
Jhini, jhini bini re chadariya, kaahe ka tana, kaahe ki bharni, kaun taar se bini re chadariya.” Quoting these words by Kabir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the two-day Textiles India 2017 at the Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar on June 30. A collaborative effort by 24 export promotion councils under the Union ministry for textiles, with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as industry partner, the initiative may even become an annual event. Around 1,500 exhibitors and 20,000 participants, including 2,500 foreign buyers and sellers, registered for the event. There were participants from the US, China, UK, Australia, Germany, Bangladesh, South Korea, UAE and Vietnam, among others. As many as 65 memorandums of understanding (MoU) were signed on July 1.
Prime Minister Modi loomed large over the occasion, whether spinning a charkha a day earlier at the Sabarmati ashram in Ahmedabad, or in the Modi jackets and Modi kurtas being exhibited outside the venue—both incidentally now registered brands. Later, textiles minister Smriti Irani tweeted an image of a loom where the carpet being woven had the PM’s face on it. The lone statue of the Mahatma at the spinning wheel at the venue served mainly as ‘selfie point’.
Union ministers M. Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Ananth Kumar, Nirmala Sitharaman, Radha Mohan Singh, Mahesh Sharma and Rajiv Pratap Rudy were in attendance, as were the chief ministers of the three partner states— Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Maharashtra.
The event featured two fashion shows as well. Symphony of Weaves, curated by IMG Reliance, had 30 celebrated designers, including Manish Arora and Tarun Tahiliani. The second show featured garments from clusters allotted to the country’s top designers to revive weaving traditions
and strengthen the India Handloom Brand.
At the event, Gautam Singhania, the chairman of Raymond, said his company was building a greenfield park in Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, to produce denim. India is the largest producer of denim, and handloom denim is the next big thing.
The crisis in China’s textile exports (currently estimated to be worth $150 billion) can be an opportunity for India. Latin American countries, for instance, want to reduce their dependence on Chinese imports, and are looking to diversify their markets, according to R. Viswanathan, a former Indian diplomat and specialist in Latin American affairs. India is the third-largest supplier of textiles to Latin America and the fourth largest in readymade garments. Synthetic textiles account for 70 per cent of the world’s textile supply. Experts say if India focuses on man-made fibre, it could soon overtake China. The crouching Indian tiger could yet slay the hidden dragon.