Business

TAG 2020 Discusses The Way Forward In Disruptive Times

“Global textile and apparel Industry is going through disruptive times. Buyers are looking to diversify beyond China and opening opportunities for other countries. However, China is still disrupting the global value chain and investing in emerging manufacturing destinations like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, etc. on a large scale and also building smart factories that will give them a competitive advantage. In order to compete globally and win in the disruptive times, India needs to adopt manufacturing excellence and service orientation,” as per a FICCI – Wazir Advisors textile industry report on `Winning In Disruptive Times’ released at FICCI TAG 2020 annual seminar in Mumbai today. “India comprises a large fragmented industry and hence it is important for large anchor players to engage with smaller players and integrate the supply chain for bringing efficiencies. Further Indian companies need to adopt latest technologies and build smart factories that are digitally enabled with the value chain. Skilling of middle and top management is also important so that they are geared to follow best practices and build efficient and service oriented business. Indian domestic market is also growing and needs to be serviced with agility” said Prashant Agarwal, Co-Founder and Joint MD, Wazir Advisors while giving a presentation on the report. [caption id="attachment_17975" align="alignleft" width="400"] TAG 2020 Session1 (L- R) Session 1: Rahul Mehta, Managing Director, Creative Garments Pvt Ltd, R D Udeshi, President – Polyester Chain, Reliance Industries Ltd, Prashant Agarwal, Co-Founder and Jt. MD, Wazir Advisors Pvt Ltd and Rajendra K. Rewari, Executive Director & CEO, Morarjee Textiles Ltd[/caption] The report also stressed upon government’s policy intervention to help in neutralising cost disadvantage with global competitors and help build infrastructure to produce large scale manufacturing zones with focus on manufacturing excellence and sustainability. “Indian industry has become cautious in investing due to global disruptions. We need to have better risk taking capabilities and ability to speedily align with emerging mega trends to remain in the business,” opined a panel of CEOs during the conference. R D Udeshi, President – Polyester Chain, Reliance Industries Ltd stressed upon the product delivery time and quality and finishing of products as per the international standards to remain competitive in the global market and companies should focus on value addition and skill development. He also said that Indian textile industry can have advantage over its competitors like China, Bangladesh, and Vietnam with manufacturing excellence and scale of the factories. [caption id="attachment_17976" align="alignright" width="400"] TAG 2020 Session2 (L- R) Session 2: Anil Nair, President, Shubhalakshmi Polyester Ltd, B Prakash, Associate Director, Wazir Advisors, G V Aras, Director, ATE Enterprises Pvt Ltd and Akshar Chandra, Birla Cellulose[/caption] Rahul Mehta, Managing Director, Creative Garments Pvt Ltd was of the opinion that Indian companies should stop being scared of scaling up and start manufacturing clothes closer to the place of raw material and cheaper labour instead of being close to the place of market. Agility, speed and transparency is the key to win in disruptive times said Rajendra K. Rewari, Executive Director & CEO, Morarjee Textiles Ltd. He also said that it is necessary to bring young talent in the business in this disruptive time and attract this talent to change the system of our business and make the industry more remunerative. Earlier in the opening session, Sanjay Katkar, Deputy CEO, MIDC shared opportunities for textile industry in Maharashtra and S P Verma, Joint Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textile; Govt. of India said that Indian companies should Integrate market intelligence and IT in their processes more efficiently and utilize textile centres of excellence to their full capacity. [caption id="attachment_17977" align="alignleft" width="400"] TAG 2020 Session3 (L- R) Session 3: Subrata Siddhant, CEO - Lifestyle Division, Texperts India Pvt Ltd, Vikas Sharan, Director – India Operations, Saurer Textile Solutions Pvt Ltd, Avinash Mayekar, MD & CEO, Suvin Advisors Pvt Ltd, Sumit Gupta, Deputy Director - Standard Development & Quality Assurance, GOTS and Badruddin Khan, Sr. Manager – PMT, Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd[/caption] The theme of the TAG 2020 conference is very contemporary. In these disruptive times it's important that the industry experts discuss the issues and challenges and seek possible solutions to overcome those. TAG conference offered an excellent platform for giving a clear roadmap in that perspective said G V Aras, Director, ATE Enterprises Ltd during a panel discussion. With innovation, technology, versatile fibre availability and ample manpower resources, India should aim to be superior quality producer in the world said Anil Nair, President, Shubhalakshmi Polyester Ltd during a panel discussion.