Indian Apparel Industry

Origin of Indian Apparel Industry

The Indian Textile industry contributes 14 percent to manufacturing and 8 percent to India's GDP. It provides 38 million people with jobs and is also the second largest provider of jobs after agriculture. The Indian Apparel & Textile Industry is one of the country's major sources of foreign exchange flow with apparel exports accounting for approximately 21 per cent of the country's overall exports.

Read Article on Know more about department in Apparel Industry

A systematic SWOT study of the fashion and apparel industry shows the following:-

STRENGTH

Raw Material

India has a high degree of self-sufficiency for especially natural raw material fibres. India's cotton production is the world's third-largest. Indian garment industry manufactures and processes all sorts of fibres.

Cheap Labor

The Indian Apparel and Textile Industry have always been the source of cheap labor and powerful entrepreneurship ability.

Flexibility

The small scale of production that predominates in the clothing industry makes it possible to meet smaller and limited orders more flexibly.

Rich Heritage

The country's cultural diversity and rich heritage gives designers a strong foundation for inspiration.

Domestic Market

Natural demand factors are driving domestic demand, including raising income rates, growing urbanization, and purchasing population growth.

Weakness

Dependent on Cotton

Because of over-specialization in cotton, the bulk of the international market is missed, synthetic products are expensive in India, and fabrics required for items such as swimsuits, sky-wear and industrial apparel are relatively unavailable.

Spinning & Weaving Industry

Spinning industry is lacking in modernization, and new technology needs to be implemented. India has comparatively less looms for shuttle-less.

Poor Infrastructure

High power costs and long lead times on exports erode the competitiveness of India's exports across the textile chain.

Low Productivity

In India, productivity rates for the manufacture of various apparel products are much lower compared to its competitors.

Other weakness are 

More focus on workforce training 

Weak quality standards 

Potential market gap 

Higher average use in the home market 

Lack of expertise and supply chain integration 

Dependence on quota system 

High investment in R&D 

Limited use of economies of scale

OPPORTUNITIES

Growing Industry

World textile trade would continue to grow at a rate of 3-4% to reach $200-210 billon by 2010.

Market access through bilateral negotiation

The trade is growing between regional trade blocs due to bilateral agreements between participating countries.

Integration of Information technology

‘Supply Chain Management’ and ‘Information Technology’ has a crucial role in apparel manufacturing. Availability of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), makes communication fast, easy, transparent and reduces duplication.

Opportunity in High Value Items

India has the opportunity to increase its UVR’s (Unit Value Realization) through moving up the value chain by producing value added products and by producing more and more technologically superior products.

THREATS

Decreasing Fashion Cycle

There has been an increase in seasons per year which has resulted in shortening of the fashion cycle.

Formation of Trading Blocks

Formation of trading blocks like NAFTA, SAPTA, etc; has resulted in a change in the world trade scenario. Existence of bilateral agreements would result in significant disadvantage for Indian exports.

Phasing out of Quotas

India will have to open its protected domestic market for foreign players thus domestic market will suffer.

Read Article on Overview of Global Garment Industry