During a recent roundtable in London on advancing apparel and textile trade between the UK and India, the high commissioner of India to the UK, Vikram Doraiswami, shares: “The opportunity for us to work together to manufacture for the world is considerable”.
He continues: “The diversity with which the Indian product ecosystem exists – frankly no other country in the world can quite match that.
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“We are amongst the only countries in the world that can literally provide everything from the growth of cotton right up to the finished product.
“Helping our manufacturers reach the top tier of the market is something that we can do in partnership with the UK and the free trade agreement in this context is the gateway to all of this.”
Doraiswami believes the Free Trade Agreement that was concluded in July this year, is a huge opportunity, once stratified.
Sudhir Sekhri, chairman of India’s Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) expects the agreement to be operational by the end of this financial year, after it is approved by the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the UK.
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By GlobalDataBut, he asserts: “Quite honestly, the onus of how fast this is implemented, lies with the buyers here, because it is upon you to press your government to get it approved through the two Houses of Parliament, because it’s already been approved by our cabinet.”
Sekhri predicts that after the signing of this trade agreement, India’s exports of textiles and apparel to the UK will increase by at least two and a half times in the next three years, making India its second largest supplier.
India and UK can partner on fashion sector growth opportunities in Europe and globally
Doraiswami agrees, adding he is confident that once operational, the agreement will be the floor and not the ceiling of what is possible moving forward.
In fact, he states: “It is an opportunity for us to take this segment of our partnership and make India and the UK partners for the global market.”
Crucially, he suggests: “I think if we can work with the UK, the UK should potentially seek to be a partner for not just this bilateral segment of the relationship, but the totality of the opportunity in the European continent.
“We should set ourselves that as an opportunity. Let us set ourselves the ambition of being partners for a much larger global goal and not just a bilateral relationship, all of which is eminently possible today, and all of which is something that I hope, with your attention and with your effort, we can actually make happen within the very near future.”
He can see many benefits for India being closely aligned to the UK’s fashion industry, noting the UK is on the pulse of what drives the sector, what buyers are looking for and what the future consumer wants.
From sustainability and design to colour schemes, new materials and methodologies for creating product from recycled materials, he describes the UK as “a place in which a lot of this innovation takes place”.
Doraiswami adds: “Partnerships in producing for the top tier of the market are the way forward for India.”
He can also see value in tapping into the strength of the UK’s sport and athleisurewear sector with sustainable fabrics, man-made fibres and technical textiles for managing heat and sweat during sports.
He states: “All of this is an opportunity for us to work with UK manufacturers for the global sportswear industry.”
What is the Indian fashion sector’s long-term potential?
India’s Ministry of Textiles trade advisor Shubhra Agarwal deems investing in India’s apparel and textiles sector as a no-brainer in the long-term given it has the end-to-end value chain within its own borders and the largest as well as the youngest workforce in the world.
She tells the audience matter-of-factly: “You have to come to India. I would say there is no choice. It’s just that you are delaying this decision.”
Agarwal sees areas of global collaboration as ranging from technological tie-ups and collaborations between Indian and UK textile manufacturers on R&D to innovation and exchange of technical know-how and strategic sourcing. She believes this could also include collaborating with buying houses and retail brands for sourcing from India.
Doraiswami agrees, adding there is also the growth potential of India’s domestic fashion and textile market for both India and UK manufacturers to explore.
He jokes that India’s domestic textile market being worth $250bn by 2030 “is nothing to sneeze at” and “is an opportunity for you to be partners of that industry”.
For UK fashion manufacturers, he can see the potential of tapping into India’s own growing fashion and textile market.
He explains: “If you go to India today, you will see the scale at which both the high end and the fast fashion segment of the market have grown exponentially.
“We have domestic brands managed and owned by some of our largest business houses for fast fashion, but also international brands, all of whom are present in the Indian market.”
For this reason, he asserts “the competition for this scale of product is immense, and it isn’t just limited to four or five major metropolitan cities. Each of our state capitals now features shops with all of these products available”.
Plus, he points out web-based shopping is growing with warehousing in India’s larger cities catering for it, so “the scale of the opportunity is considerable”.
Embracing technology, sustainability and traceability
From a UK sourcing perspective, Sekhri points out fast fashion retailers such as Primark, ASOS and Boohoo turn to India for innovative solutions that align with their commitment to quality and sustainability.
He notes: “These values lie at the centre of India’s textile and apparel manufacturing progress and highlight India’s advancements in eco friendly materials, indigenous raw materials and the adoption of best ESG management practices.”
India’s textile industry is witnessing transformative growth underpinned by strong government initiatives and private sector innovation, which are laying the foundations for a globally competitive sector.
For example, he says the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) Scheme for Textiles which promotes manufacturing of man-made fibre (MMF) fabrics, apparel and technical textiles is catalysing investments in high-value man-made fibres and technical textiles to ensure the industry remains aligned with evolving global demands
There is also the Pradhan Mantri Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel Parks (PM-MITRA) Scheme, which is creating an integrated textiles value chain across seven mega textile parks across India and has an expected investment of $10bn.
Sekhri says this scheme is creating state-of-the-art facilities and integrated textile hubs equipped with world-class infrastructure to streamline production, encourage innovation and attract large-scale investments.
Vijay Kumar Agarwal, chairman of the Cotton Texile Export Promotion Council (TEXPROCIL) is keen to share that India’s traceability blockchain system for cotton is also worth shouting about.
He says: “We have a whole system where we can trace which farm the cotton has come from, right up to which factory has produced the final product. And we have a QR system in which we provide all the information.”
While, TEXPROCIL’s executive director Dr. Siddhartha Rajagopal claims India’s indigenously developed platform is the only one in the world that can provide a real time report on the status of the cotton and he says the testing is very rigorous.
India’s Ministry of Textiles Secretary Neelam Shami Rao adds that technology overall is extremely important for India’s success working with the UK and indeed globally on its aim of $100bn of textile exports by 2030.
She explains: “We have developed a very smart and intelligent forecasting tool through the National Institute of fashion technology (NIFT). We call it VisioNxt and it allows us to feed in trends and develop them through intelligent modelling to simulate the designs and colours that could be the trends for the next season or next few months.”
