Sewing machine makers in Ludhiana are coping with falling demand. Instead garment manufacturers prefer to import high end advanced machines from South Korea, Taiwan and China since the sewing machine industry in Ludhiana doesn’t have the infrastructure and technology to manufacture these machines.

Ludhiana is the largest producer of sewing machines and spare parts in the country but the problem is, it does not have the required technology to manufacture even a single part of high-end sewing machines. And the cost of acquiring this technology is very high. So, the sewing industry wants help in setting up a research and development center to develop prototypes of high end machines, so that the new models of such sewing machines are made in India. There is a research and development institute for bicycles in Ludhiana but none for sewing machines.

Ludhiana’s sewing machine industry is losing several hundred crores worth of business every year. Domestic machines have gone out of trend, and industrial machines being manufactured in Ludhiana are of no use anywhere, because they cannot compete with the highly advanced industrial machines being imported. In the meantime businessmen associated with the sewing machine industry are setting up a cluster for sewing machines and parts manufacturers.