India Stages Country’s Largest Ever Textile Event

Mayu Saini
·6 min read
19

Bharat Tex 2024, which concluded in New Delhi on Friday, featured more than 60 agreements and more than 100 product launches. Organizers hope future iterations of the event will help grow and promote the industry.

“The Bharat Tex expo will be an annual affair,” said Sudhir Sekhri, chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), as the four-day four day event which ran Feb. 26 to 29 wrapped up. It was held at two newly opened state of the art venues—Bharat Mandapam and Yashobhoomi in New Delhi—and spread across an area of 2 million square feet.

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More than 3,500 exhibitors and 3,000 buyers from 100 countries participated, making it the largest textile event ever in India, organizers told Sourcing Journal, bringing together top level policy makers, business heads, thought leaders and designers.

Global brands at the show included Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Vero Moda, H&M, Target, Busana Group and Lenzing, along with a lineup of the top Indian players, including Reliance, Aditya Birla, Welspun, Trident, Vardhaman, Raymond, and others.

The event was supported by a consortium of 11 Textile Export Promotion Councils and the central government.

Prime minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the proceedings, emphasizing the gathering momentum of the textile industry in India, exhorting the leaders of the industry, as well as the smaller players, to speak with a common voice, and assuring support to both manufacturers and farmers. “Today, India is one of the largest producers of cotton, jute and silk in the world,” he said, highlighting the fact that the event marked a “significant milestone in promoting India’s rich textile heritage and fostering collaboration within the industry.”

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) held their CITI Textile Sustainability Awards 2024 at the event, with Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Textiles and Darshana Jardosh, Union Minister of State for Textiles and Railways presenting the awards. “There is an undeniable force propelling India towards progress in the textile sector, and nothing on earth can impede it,” the union minister said, emphasizing the role of sustainability.

“Manufacturing excellence is intertwined with sustainability today,” said Chandrima Chatterjee, secretary general, CITI, explaining that “horizons have been expanded with retail practices—the top of the pyramid—to make the whole value chain take these into account. Other categories include Best Human Resources Practices, Materials and Recycling.

Indo Count Industries Ltd. won the award for Best Practices adopted by textile Mills, partiuclarly in social responsibility, as well as for innovative material management in textile mills. Other winners included:

Best Recyclers: Geethanjali Woolens

Best HR Practices: Brandix Apparel India Pvt Ltd.

Best Alternate Materials Use: Sulochana Cotton Spinning Mills P Ltd.

Best Sustainable Retail Practices: Amann Sewing & Embroidery Threads Private Limited

Best Women Entrepreneurs – Leading Sustainability and Social Impact: Kumbaya Producer Company Limited

“Everything that was possible to plan into this event was put in, we had the best of the players,” said Mithileshwar Thakur, secretary general, AEPC. “The design of the event was such that it was a showcase of the Indian story rather than just the product basket and the India value. It provided a look at the present situation along with future plans, and a close look at the roadmap forward.

“We realized that we need to create capacities, to make more investment, to engage more with foreign buyers. This is the first time we had competing countries exhibiting their products. We needed to show the rest of the world that we are not a timid India that fears competition, but rather a bold, resilient and confident India, willing to take on the world. The idea is that we need to brand and market ourselves,” he said.

Some of the dismay that the industry has seen relatively stagnant export numbers over the last few years was laced with optimism.

“The current value of apparel manufacturing in India is estimated at $52 billion, with $17 billion for exports and approximately $35 billion for the domestic market,” said Rajesh Bheda, a consultant, expressing his belief that the Indian apparel manufacturing industry “has immediate available improvement potential of 15 percent which can be realized within next 12 months.”

“This means, the industry as a whole has a productivity improvement potential worth $7.8 billion in the next 12 months,” he observed, while stressing the need for several steps to make this change happen, including new state-of-the-art manufacturing plants. “The critical importance of the need for productivity improvement needs to be better understood for strengthening the sector. It must also be noted that in spite of enormous improvement potential, Indian garment exports have been hovering at around $16 billion-$17 billion for last five years. Post Covid, the industry has not been able to bounce back, as geopolitical developments have affected the global consumption and international trade,” he said.

Meanwhile, despite the slow numbers, is the industry moving towards a bigger goal?

Bob Assenberg, director, Good Fashion Fund, who was also part of the knowledge sessions at the event told Sourcing Journal that he could see a change in direction.

“I do see change, and there will be change in the coming decade,” he told Sourcing Journal. “India has a history of innovation and a lot of smart people and I do see that there is a way forward. I think what is needed is a lot of collaboration and transparency about where India is going and what its planning to do. I see a lot of opportunities for foreign investors to come to India, but I think in the apparel industry it does take time. Now, the consumer awareness and the regulations are making change imminent.”

Cem Altan, president, International Apparel Federation (IAF) who was at the event, observed that the event was a “good showcase of the strength of the country, bringing in all the instruments of apparel and textiles together. India has big potential. It is like Turkey—it has cotton, accessories, fabric, recycling and a lot of investments made on sustainability and a lot of production facilities. But unfortunately, Indian manufacturers find it easier to work in the domestic market, which reduces their incentive to export to the global market. To achieve the $100 billion target, exports will have to be increased. This means building on quality, productivity, capacity building, to change the way of working to comply with European regulations. India has big import taxes for foreign products as well. It has to open its doors, and have a lot of retailers come to the country so that there is more learning about the rest of the world and a learning to compete. It needs a program,” he said.

Looking ahead helped find some answers.

“The question is how will we able to survive over the next 10 years, as the world evolves so fast,” said Kailash R. Lalpuria, executive director and CEO of Indo Count Industries Limited, noting that it was time to look ahead in a far more integrated way. “Developed markets are applying more policies, more compliances, now they are talking about circularity, a 360 degree chain. We need to have a more holistic approach now.”