Indian Govt Will Focus On Boosting Textile & Garment Exports
“The government will focus attention on boosting India’s textile and garment exports, which fell in the previous two fiscals,” Textiles Secretary Rachna Shah said.
In fiscal ending March 2024, India’s exports of textiles and clothing dropped 3.24 percent year over year to US $34.4 billion.
As against this, overseas shipments of textiles and apparel amounted to $41 billion in fiscal 2021-22.
“We had challenges like the Red Sea crisis making it slightly more challenging,” the Textiles Secretary told PTI while commenting on the decline in India’s textiles exports in the previous fiscal.
“Although geo-political challenges remain, a few exporters have reported improvement in their order books in the first quarter and shipments are likely to expand in the coming months,” she added.
“We will be looking at more focused attention on products which have greater export potential and the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme is focused on those globally traded products,” Shah stated.
Shah also outlined other measures being looked at to promote exports from the sector, including possibly looking at newer markets.
She said the free trade agreements (FTAs), which India has entered into with other nations, hopefully will open up more opportunities for textiles exports.
“We should look at higher exports happening now. The global demand is also looking better,” Shah informed while sharing the outlook for exports from the sector.
India has been losing ground in global garments trade to countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam due to their lower labour costs, larger operation footprints, and benefits from free trade agreements.
