India’s textile market to reach $250 bn in 2 years: ASSOCHAM study

The Dollar Business Bureau

India’s textiles market is likely to reach $250 billion in the coming two years from the present level of $150 billion, according to a study. 

“The market size of India’s textile market is expected to touch $250 billion in the next two years from the current level of $150 billion,” said a joint study conducted by ASSOCHAM-Resurgent on ‘Women in Textiles & Handicrafts Industry'.

“The textile sector in India makes up for about 10% of the manufacturing production, 5% of the country’s GDP and 13% of its exports earnings,” the study said.

The study observed that the textiles and apparel sector is the 2nd biggest employment provider with around 51 million people directly and more than 68 million people indirectly employed by the sector in 2015-16.

However, the study finds out that smaller players have been hit hard by the demonetisation and transition to Goods and Services Tax (GST).

“The number of workers affected due to closure of cotton and man-made fibre textile units (the bigger units that comprise the non-SSI segment of the industry) during 2016-17 was 4,356 on account of the closure of 18 units, according to official Textile Ministry data on non-SSI units,” it said.

In 2015-16, 7,938 workers were hit by the closure of 27 units, whereas the 5,384 workers affected in 2014-15 from the closure of 21 units. During the previous three years, more than 17,600 workers affected by the closure of 67 units. 

The rollout of GST has further affected the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in textile hubs of Bhiwadi, Surat and Ichalkaranji, the study said.

“Capital goods firms are struggling as most of the downstream sectors are saddled with excess capacity and low demand,” it added.

The study highlighted that the textiles and garment sector is one of the biggest employment generators in India. The country has nearly 2 million power looms, which accounts for 60% of the total textiles sector, manufacture about 20 billion meters of cloth.

“The sector is largely unorganised with many players having hardly 10–20 looms and weaving on an average around 1,000 meters of cloth per loom per month, depending on quality of cloth and loom used to manufacture,” it said.

The study was released by Minister of State for Textiles Ajay Tamta at an ASSOCHAM event held in New Delhi on Wednesday.

While releasing the study, Tamta said that the textile and handicrafts sector is economically vital from the point of high ratio of value addition, low investment of capital and high exports potential and foreign exchange earnings for India.

“Indian textile and handicrafts industry constitutes an important segment of the country’s economy as it is one of the largest employment generators after agriculture. The sector employs about 7 million people directly and indirectly, which include a large number of women and people belonging to the weaker sections of the society,” he said.