Textile industry: High time for Punjab to learn from other States

There are a lot of similarities between Punjab and Karnataka as well as a lot of differences also, but when it comes to the textile and clothing industry, both are prominent Indian States. Recently, both the States have quite different news pertinent for the textile industry especially related to fresh investments to grow the industry.

First the negative news from Punjab, after the strong opposition by environmental activists, the State Government scrapped the ambitious mega textile project PM MITRA park schemes. Months before, the Ministry of Textiles team from Delhi has already made a visit regarding this project and the State was expected to get this park which could be a big boost for the textile industry. And now, so far, there is no indication the state will push again this project, and even if the State government takes a positive step again, it is comparatively difficult to get approval from the union government, especially after this scrapping of the project and many other states are having strong lobby to get a park.

Was the State officials and the government not aware of the possible objection of environmental activities, there was no need to choose this land despite that it is near the established hub Ludhiana.

The new government has almost lost an opportunity to give a major push in the state and to win the confidence of the local textile industry. In the Punjab textile industry lost its control on market and gave opportunities to other hubs. Even today, there are few big names like Vardhman, Trident, Nahar etc. But over the years overall the industry has not done as per its potential, especially in export as Punjab's textile industry has much scope to grow in export. And lack of basic infrastructure is one of the major reasons that the state couldn't grow in export.

Not only this, in Ludhiana, textile industry representatives demonstrated demanding better basic infrastructure and announced that if roads at textile clusters not fixed, they won't pay taxes. Having a clothing unit I can surely say that be it small or big scale business, involvement of owners is very much required in this business. And this is ironic that textile firm owners are on roads demanding basic infrastructure.Before this, the state was also in news due to negative news as there was a lack of electricity for the industry. While the Karnataka government has announced that textile parks will be set up in every Taluk headquarters of north Karnataka.

There should no comparison between the two states as they have their own benefits as well as some negative points, but from the last few years, looking to the potential of job creation, textile and clothing is among the top priority for the State governments.

Not just Karnataka, almost every state those have a good size of textile and clothing industry has focused on the same and there are good results too like Uttar Pradesh is working on flatted factories, and newer hubs are on the radar of the state government. Telangana was able to get a large investment from Kitex Group and Youneone Corporation. Jharkhand has also new factories from other States, Epic Group also has planning to invest here. This shows that not only Indian companies even a few foreign companies are also investing in these States which are not established hubs for textile and clothing but have labour, land, and most important is the government's policies and support for the industry.

There are schemes like One District One Product (ODOP) to promote export at the district level and there is a dire need to promote export as India's current account deficit is a concern.

Will Punjab learn from other states and have a thrust on the growth of its textile and clothing industry. If the State does not act positively, the industry will find its own way and can see the other States for their further expansion. Already Punjab's top textile companies have a strong presence in other States and the non-support of the government can force the middle-level companies to follow the same path, especially when other States have all the things in the industry's favour.

(The author owns a garment manufacturing setup in a rural area, which employs mostly women workers)