Ebitda margins of leading Indian textile and apparel companies have risen by one per cent during the current fiscal. Their employee cost index and raw material cost index have also increased by six per cent and two per cent respectively. This shows constraints on resources, and companies have to rework on their costing and reengineer their systems.

Among these companies are Arvind, Vardhman, Welspun, Trident and Raymond. The textile industry is a labor-intensive industry. So its growth plays a vital role in job creation. Textile exports from many Indian states have contracted in the last five years.

During this period, exports of textile and apparel commodities have shown a decline of seven per cent. The downtrend of exports of fibers, filaments, yarns and home textiles continues. Fiber export and yarn export are down by 47 per cent and 30 per cent respectively. Notably, fabric and apparel exports increased eight per cent and one per cent recepectively. As far as imports are concerned, India’s imports of textile and apparel commodities have increased by 16 per cent in this period. Fabric imports were down by three per cent, while fiber, filament, yarn, apparel and home furnishing imports increased. Fiber imports increased by 53 per cent and yarn imports increased 18 per cent.