Lack of concerted efforts in using many of the government schemes seems to have affected the growth of Tirupur knitwear cluster. This was revealed in a CII study of the Tirupur district council, and Srupuram Trust among others, with the help of Grant Thornton, the sixth largest consultancy/accounting network firm in world, to understand the strengths/weakness of the Tirupur cluster. The report said 15 government schemes formulated to trigger growth of industrial clusters like Tirupur were either not fully used, or used only once, which too not in recent years.

Director (government and business advisory department) of Grant Thornton for South India, V Padmanand, says schemes like micro, small enterprises cluster development program, scheme for workers hostel, processing development scheme, technology business incubation, and market access initiative scheme were not used at all. Many in the knitwear cluster were not even aware of some of the schemes. The report further suggests the need for disincentivising export of cotton, and the requirement of a free-trade agreement with Russia and Brazil, and the European Union.

The feeling is that an FTA with EU is essential since competitors like China, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are getting preferential market access to EU making their products cheaper than Indian apparels. Many say that an export duty should be imposed on cotton to discourage its export. As Padmanand puts it, main competitors of India are benefiting from cotton exports. Vietnam domestically produces only 2 per cent of the cotton needed for its apparel production, while imports the rest from India, and Africa.