ICAHT 08

Conference Inauguration

ICAHT 08 was held in the backdrop of great global economic turmoil. Inaugural function of ICAHT 08 was presided over by Hon’ble Minister of State for Textiles, Mr. E.V.K.S Elangovan. Dr. J. N. Singh, Jt. Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, as guest of honour, Anju Bhalla, Deputy Secy, Ministry of Women and Child Development as special invitee Ms. Ashita Mittal, UNODC , Prof. M.L.Gulrajani, Mr. P M S Uppal, President- OGTC, Mr. R. C. Kesar, Director- OGTC and Mr. M. K. Mehra, Jt. Director, OGTC. Joined him on the dais.

The conference was attended by 365 participants consisting of a galaxy of garment industry owners, CEO’s, industry professionals, academicians, representatives from industry associations, researchers, consultants, service providers, and post graduate students.

OGTCPath Breaker Award

From this year (2008) OGTC has started an award for sustainable service to the apparel industry. The first Award has gone to Mr.Ralesh Bheda for his practical and sustainable solutions on quality management in apparel Industry by organising multi company and company specific Quality Improvement Programmes.

Competitors Observations

Md. Fazlul Hoque President Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association in his presentation made a subtle reference though not in so many words that Bangladesh started garment exports from scratch as compared to India which has huge strengths in the Textiles Arena and have started a few decades back is now lagging behind Bangladesh in Apparel Exports.

Simultaneously it was pointed out the good ideas alone will not help as it is said that good ideas if not implemented are like excess baggage which retards the progress.

The entrepreneurs, the policy makers and all the players in the supply chain need to introspect as to what is missing in India.

The deliberations at ICAHT 08 do point out to the causes and also provide the road map for future.

Eminent session chairmen and speakers

Session Chairmen

  1. Mr. Vimal Kirti Singh, IAS, Secretary General, AEPC
  2. Mr. Sudhir Dhingra, M.D. Orient Craft
  3. Mr. Praveen Nayyar, M.D. Dimple Creations
  4. Md. Fazlul Hoque, President, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturing & Exporters Association
  5. Mr. A.K.G. Nair, Group Director (National & International) Pearl Academy of Fashion
  6. Mr. D.K. Nair, Secretary General, CITI
  7. Prof. M.L. Gulrajani. IIT Delhi.
  8. Mr. Devangshu Dutta, CEO Third Eyesight Consultant
  9. Mr. K.W. Yeung, ED CITA, Hong-Kong

Presentations by

  1. Mr. G.S. Madan, President, Garments Exporters Association.
  2. Prof. K.W. Yeung, ED, Clothing Industry Training Authority, Hong-Kong
  3. Mr. R.C.M. Reddy, IAS, MD, IL&FS, Textiles Park.
  4. Md. Fazlul Hoque, President, Bangladesh Knitwear
  5. Manufacturers & Exporters Association, Dhaka
  6. Ms. Pamposh Bhat, GTZ
  7. Mr. Charles Dagher, Canada
  8. Mr. Jayant Kochar, Go Fish Consultats
  9. Prof. Prabir Jana, NIFT
  10. Mr. Rahul Bhajekar, COO Texan Lab
  11. Mr. Manish Khambe-Resil
  12. Dr. Rajesh Bheda
  13. Mr. Payam Shoghi
  14. Ms. Savita Sharma, Pearl Academy of Fashion
  15. Dr. M.D. Teli, UDCT,
  16. Dr. N.D. Karthikeyan-Project Head and Senior Faculty. Pearl Fashion Institute, Dhaka Bagladesh
  17. Mr. Jaspreet Singh, M/s. Pratibha Syntex Pvt. Ltd. Anju Bhalla, Deputy Secy, Ministry of Women and Child Development
  18. Ashita Mittal, UNODC

Deliberations
Economic Turmoil

  • The issue seems to be not just availability of money, but also banks’ unwillingness to lend.
  • The working capital crunch has initiated a huge inventory liquidation cycle
  • Falling prices are pushing back purchase decisions
  • Utilisation cuts, in response to the working capital squeeze, are also delaying growth plans. Together with higher capital costs, this is leading to a postponement of new projects
  • The impact is very sector and company-specific, e.g., smaller companies are getting squeezed on working capital by big suppliers and bigger customers
  • Exporters worry about recoveries from other emerging markets facing similar crises.

Apparel Industry Specific Approach

  • It is said that a brave man is the one who doesn’t change the circumstances but changes himself whereas a weak man tries to change the circumstances. It will need enormous courage to bring industry to a level that the world can look up to us. We need to be more scientific and innovative to find solutions ourselves as no one else is going to do it for us.
  • There is need to find solutions rather than arguing about the problems.
  • Further A team effort is needed with the government and bureaucracy support but the major contributor has to the garment industry.
  • Since inception the Garment industry which started about 30 years ago in India and till date industry has been relying on hard work alone
  • The most common solution to problem was just hire more employees, buy more machines or spend more money. The industry cannot afford this approach anymore
  • Working around only sewing operators to improve the current state of industry is again false and will generate least amount of savings.
  • Instead of throwing more physical resources at problems, organizations need to try and identify bottlenecks and remove them by scientific analysis and professional enforcement
  • we need to take a measured and/or an intelligent risk to succeed.
  • In the changing times along with productivity and profits we have to keep in mind the issues related to product safety and social responsibility.
  • Further collective intellect is needed with inputs from all employees.
  • Special emphasis on deficiency of current quality of apparel related education, training and overall human resource development.

Cluster Centric Approach

  • The agenda to sustain the momentum for the apparel industry, particularly in India, would be to push for the development of an export and domestic apparel industry in an integrated fashion. The nascent stage of the apparel industry requires an integrated apparel ‘hubs’ or ‘valleys’ where industry, R&D, government, researchers and not-for profit organisations can come together to not only address the triumvirate of capex costs, efficiency and technology, but also provide a systemic platform for ‘breeding’ R&D efforts in terms of incremental technology improvements.
  • Such a hub could, for example, provide the infrastructure to develop large scale product development facilities, integrate the existing efforts for R&D and streamline national efforts for developing a trained and skilled apparel industry work force such that they contribute to the immediate and long term requirement of the industry.
  • All round the world cluster initiatives in various forms have been able to address issues of economies of scale, team working and optimisation of resources and helped in uniting the industry and addressing the core issues.
  • we need to think of extending the cluster concept where people even though having no physical proximity can join in the South Asian Countries as OGTC members have joined in NCR so that value chain can establish triangular production networks that are sought by retail giants .

Environment And Social Responsibility

  • Aggressively follow concepts of CDM ( Clean Development Mechanism ) across entire value chain and Carbon footprint can be effectively reduced by
  • Life cycle assessment (LCA) to accurately determine the current footprint
  • Identification of hot spots in terms of energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions
  • Usage of renewable energy sources
  • Optimization of energy efficiency and thus reducing CO2 and other GHG’s emissions contributed by the production processes
  • Identification of solutions to neutralize the CO2 emissions that cannot be eliminated by energy saving measures
  • Carbon offsetting, investment in projects that aim at reducing CO2 emissions (e.g. tree planting etc.)

Combating Trafficking In Women And Children

  • A conscious and determined initiative by industry, brands, social organizations and Government can be a desired way forward

Collective Approach (Private Public Participation)

  • Have a proactive dialogue with the Government to identify various policy issues (short term and long term) that need to be addressed in order to stimulate growth of Textile Industry in India.
  • Improve the competitiveness of the industry in India and participate in the schemes provided by the Ministry with regard to restructuring, productivity enhancement, increasing exports etc.
  • participate in negotiations with other industry associations (domestically and internationally) to solve issues related to trade and investment in textiles

Centre And State Initiatives

FISCAL

  • Exporters are facing problems in getting payments on time from buyers; the government must look at ways in which they can be provided with credit for a longer period and cheaper rates.
  • Insurance companies, which now find insuring export transactions a high risk area, may be incentivised to stand by exporters and banks
  • Transaction costs because of deficiency in infrastructure and administration must be reimbursed so that there is pressure on the Govt to improve.
  • Pakistan and China have increased incentives for their exports. in case of Pakistan it is 6% R&D assistance and 3% interest subvention on packing credit and in the case of Chins Vat refund from 9% to 13 % for Synthetics and 11% to 13 % for cottons. Whereas in our case Govt withdrawn interest subvention of 4% and a substantial reduction of draw back rates for all textile products. These not only need to be restored but increased
  • Incentivitise Training
  • Adopt scale neutral tax policies
  • Refund of State and Central taxes POLICY
  • India is basically a summer wear garment exporter. For winter wear fabrics Polyester garments play a major part .Indian exports of these garments are at a disadvantage because of import duties imposed in developed countries whereas LCD are able to export duty free. Till this duty is not removed the Govt of India must give an equal amount of subsidy so that there is a level playing field.
  • The present 10 export promotion councils (EPCs) for different segments of the textile industry do not engage in deep market intelligence gathering needed to support products in an export market. “Instead, many a time they work at cross purposes trying to take away business from each other. The efforts of these different export promotion councils need to be coordinated at the Govt. level by a single agency.
  • Up-grade and rationlise port infrastructure.
  • Adopt scale neutral labour policies.
  • Integrate the various segments of the textiles industry like fiber , yarn, fabric, garment etc into one fold.
  • Make Provision OF Learners/Trainees in the Textile Industry.
  • Legislate Incentive oriented and productivity based wage System.