Indian textile industry: sea of potential opportunities

India’s share of the global textile industry is expected to grow from 4% to 7% by 2011-12 and the share of apparel in the export basket is expected to increase from 48% to 60%. A Vision 2010 for textiles formulated by the government after exhaustive interaction with the industry and Export Promotion Councils to capitalize on the positive atmosphere aims to increase India's share in world's textile trade from the current 4% to 8% by 2010 and to achieve export value of US $ 50 billion in 2010. All segments have their own place but even today cotton textiles continue to dominate with 73% share. These technical textiles are an emerging industry with a potential to reach a size of US $ 127 billion in 2010 and hold a great promise for Indian textiles industry. To understand India’s position among other textile producing the industry contributes 9% of GDP and 35% of foreign exchange earnings, India’s share in global exports is only 3% compared to China’s 13.75% percent. Majority of Indian consumers look for definite universal parameters like design, quality and above all merchandizing. Innovation in product design and fabric selection, are vital elements that add to value perception for a product. As per a World Bank study, covering 181 economies, India’s ranking has enhanced marginally in 2009, on various indicators of charisma as a business destination. However, in absolute terms the ranking remains quite low. Significantly, India is ranked a respectable 33 on the limit of protecting the interests of the investors. The EXIM policy provides for the establishment of export processing zones (EPZs) and special economic zones (SEZs). Units in the EPZs that export all of their output can import industrial inputs free of customs duty. Looking at export shares, Korea (6%) and Taiwan (5.5%) are ahead of India, while Turkey (2.9%) has already caught up and others like Thailand (2.3%) and Indonesia (2%) are not much further behind.