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National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) along with the World Bank will launch a national skills portal to assess in real time the existing demand-supply gap in the current pool of workforce. This will help the policy makers and the implementing agencies to form a time bound action plan to expedite the whole process of the skill development programme. The portal will be launched in July this year.
The move follows the Skill India Programme failing to meet its Skill India target to train 400 million of unskilled people by 2022. The flagship scheme is running behind its target with hardly 40 million trained in four years by different stakeholders since then. Around 10 million entrants are trained every year by the skill development ministry and other central ministries like agriculture, textile and IT. The cabinet secretary has directed the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship to converge all skilling data across sectors, gender, social and geographic landscape to assess demand and supply for the skilled workforce.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), as a part of the Make in India campaign, will monitor the government order to ensure promotion of domestically produced leather goods such as bags and shoes. The government has instructed ministries, departments, public sector units, and defense forces to preferably use domestically produced leather ware. DIPP will be the nodal ministry to enforce this.
E-tenders must give preferential treatment to domestic leather including footwear and accessories. This directive is designed to encourage leather production in India and reduce the need for imports. Now government departments will have quotas that they have to meet for the percentage of domestically produced leather they use.
For footwear, up to 70 per cent minimum local content will be required for combat boots, safety shoes, footwear components, and sports footwear with synthetic uppers and leather uppers. A 60 per cent local content minimum has been set for other leather items including gloves and travel accessories. This government initiative aims to increase the domestic production of leather accessories in India.
The handicrafts sector has been exempted from minimum salary condition (Rs 16.25 lakh per annum) for grant of employment visa to foreign designers for a period of two years, till June 30, 2020. The Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) had asked minister of textiles Smriti Irani to interfere in getting exemption from the minimum salary condition for grant of employment visa to foreign designers. The minister's prompt action to obtain the exemption for handicrafts sector will help exporters to hire international designers.
P Prahladka Chairman of EPCHO says the inputs of skilled international designers will help drive innovations, new product developments and traditional craft material processing in this sector. This exemption will help Indian handicrafts exporters to develop products in sync with international trends. The exports of handicrafts during the latest period April- May 2018-19 have registered a growth of 3.05 per cent in Rupee terms and stands at Rs 3782 crore.
Although, US-based certifying agency Social Accountability International (SAI) is constantly upgrading its programme based on feedback to improve accountability in labour issues in India, it has failed to enforce procedures to protect the consumers. Many of the 1,500 mills in Tamil Nadu - the largest hub in India’s $40 billion-a-year textile and garment industry - operate informally with poor regulation and few formal grievance mechanisms for workers, most of whom are women. Following reports that girls as young as 14 were lured from rural areas to work long hours in mills and factories without contracts, and often held captive in company-run hostels, global rights groups have tried to improve accountability.
Manufacturers who comply with voluntary labour standards introduced by SAI receive certification, with around 300 certified factories employing about 64,000 workers in South India. But forced labour, sexual harassment and repression of unions is not being properly addressed, believes Dutch advocacy groups India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO).
Fashion major Global Brands Group (GBG) will sell a significant part of its North American licensing business to the Differential Brands Group. The assets to be sold comprise its North American children’s wear and accessories businesses and a majority of its West Coast and Canadian fashion operations. Among them is the label BCBG Max Azria, which GBG acquired last year.
The sale proceeds will be used to repay debt and lower working capital. GBG will continue to be a global company and somewhat less reliant on the US, and more equally diversified going forward. The debt-ridden group’s revenues increased 3.4 per cent in the 2018 financial year. The divestment will cut GBG’s 7,000 employees by over half. GBG’s Europe and Asia-based brands, as well as its global brand management business, will stay the same.
The company licenses brands such as Juicy Couture, Calvin Klein, and Under Armour. Its license portfolio also ranges from Disney characters to celebrity brands including footballer David Beckham and singer Jennifer Lopez. Global Brands was spun off from Li & Fung in July 2014, and sells branded children’s, men’s and women’s fashion as well as footwear and accessories priced in the affordable luxury range. Li & Fung is one of the world’s biggest global supply chain management companies.
MEX Exhibitions will organise the 3rd edition of Gartex from August 18-20, 2018. The trade show will be held on a much larger scale spanning over 100,000 sq. ft. of exhibit area, wherein more than 150 companies will display around 300 brands related to the theme in the four halls of Pragati Maidan.
The exhibiting companies will showcase innovations under three major categories including Digitex -an exclusive focus on digital textile printing technology; Embroidery Machines - highlighting innovations in the embroidery sector; Garmenting & Apparel Machinery - showcasing technological developments in the garment & apparel manufacturing sector; Fabric & Accessories Pavilion - a focused area to source all embellishments and fabrics, and Denim Show - a zone that aims to bring together the denim supply chain under one roof.
The highlight of the show will be the Swiss digital printing solutions company Mouvent who has confirmed its Platinum Sponsorship of the event. In the meanwhile, Creora has confirmed their participation in Denim Show as Platinum Sponsor of the VIP Lounge. Denim Show is support by DMA whereas Denim Trends is sponsored by Arvind Mills and Raymond.
Fila will hold its first ever runway show at the next Milan Fashion Week, set to take place from September 18 to 24, 2018. The brand's debut runway show will be led by Antonino Ingrasciotta, who became Fila's creative director last year. The brand will also organise an exhibition at Milan cultural institution La Triennale, an event that will present the heritage and history of the label as well as its plans for the future. The brand was acquired by a South Korean businessman via Fila Korea in 2007 and seeks to up its prestige and desirability through collaborations with designers such as Jason Wu, Anna Sui and Gosha Rubchinskiy. At February's Milan Fashion Week the brand even made an appearance at Fendi's runway show, with the Italian luxury label emblazoning a capsule collection with the red and blue Fila logo.
Fila is currently distributed in Europe through master licencee Dosenbach-Ochsner. In 2016, the brand hoped to see sales in the region increase by 10 per cent per year to ultimately reach a total of €620 million in 2020. However, as the label sees a resurgence of interest in its offering thanks to the popularity of the nostalgic 90s trend, it could well surpass this target.
Fashion for Good and PVH, one of the largest apparel companies that owns brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, have collaborated to accelerate transition towards a good fashion industry. This partnership will reveal their shared commitment towards industry-wide collaboration and integrate disruptive innovations within the fashion supply chain.
PVH will play an important role in setting Fashion for Good’s innovation agenda. It will define focus areas, participate in the selection of new innovators and provide expertise and mentorship to the selected start-ups. In turn, PVH will gain specialised scouting and screening support, as well as preferential access to market-ready innovations through Fashion for Good’s extensive network. PVH will also curate visitor-facing Fashion for Good Experience, the world’s first technology-forward museum dedicated to sustainable fashion innovation opening this October in Amsterdam.
Cotton production is estimated to grow by 8.11 per cent to 373 lakh bales in 2017-18 season ending September over the previous year, says the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI). Production is projected to expand on account of 13 per cent increase in cotton crop area to 122.59 lakh hectares from 108.45 lakh hectares.
High prices of cotton domestically and internationally would further force consumption to either remain stagnant or slightly at lower side. Hence, consumption figures should not exceed beyond 316 lakh bales, including the non-mill consumption of 19 lakh bales.
The closing stock of cotton for 2017-18 would be around 49.81 lakh bales which is sufficient for the textile sector to smoothly run their units throughout the year. The Cotton Association of India (CAI) earlier this week increased its May estimate of the cotton crop production by 5 lakh bales to 365 lakh bales for 2017-18 season (October to September).
As per the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), the sudden deluge of low-cost Chinese and Indian substitutes in local markets has resulted in over Tk 25,000 crore worth of domestic yarn and fabrics remaining unsold in the last five months. The majority of demand is being met by the Chinese and Indian yarn and fabrics, which are imported under bond licences and illegally sold in the domestic market by a section of unscrupulous traders enabled by the lax monitoring by the customs department.
These yarns and fabrics are used to make saris, salwar suits, bed sheets, scarves, lungis, the local yarn makers and weavers sell Tk 25,000 crore to Tk 30,000 crore worth of products ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha. The goods imported under bond licences are not allowed to be sold in the local market as those are imported duty-free for exporting to different countries after processing in factories.
