Date: June 3, 2020
‘The Textile Industry – Crisis and Reforms’ was another live webinar organized by the Faculty of Fashion & Design, SGT University to focus on the crisis in the textile industry due to the pandemic of Covid-19 and what measures can be taken to improve the situation. In this session the faculty member, Mr. Deepak Sharma, interacted with Mr. Nitin Baranwal, Director Partner at Malti Rugs and Champa Dyeing; along with Mr. Rishi Kant Sharma, Former Merchandising Head at Williams Somona and currently serving as an industrial expert at SGT University.
The Covid-19 Pandemic has affected every part of the world. One side health is on stake and people are dying, other side the world is witnessing a huge breakdown in the economy. The economic crisis is affected all sorts of industries like travel, e-commerce, hotel, hospitality, restaurants, automobile etc. including the textile industry. After agriculture, the textile manufacturing industry stands to be the largest employment creating industry.
The textile industry is labour and capital demanding. Most of the workers are migrants and they have returned to their native places, therefore, a lack of labour is disrupting the workflow and production schedule. On the other hand, there are problems like raw materials are not being supplied on time; few buyers are cancelling the order whereas few are not paying on time; there is a huge decline in demand; and much more. It all has become a worst-ever crisis in the industries, says Mr. Nitin.
Given the current scenario, Mr. Rishi suggests, the textile industry is in a need of some measures to be taken by the government besides the fund which has already been announced by the government to provide the loans to employers. The experts spoke about opening up the skill centers where unskilled and semi-skilled labours can be taught the technical skills required to work in a textile industry. This will provide the employment to the local labours and a skilled manpower to the industries within their cities/states.
The webinar ended with various thoughtful ideas that can be taken to overcome this economic shock followed by the lockdown due to Covid-19.