It’s official. The textile industry, the biggest employer outside agriculture, is out of recession.
The declaration comes from none other than Mr Dayanidhi Maran, the minister who has been trawling the world in search of new markets for Indian clothes and garments through the downturn.
“The Indian textile industry has started showing signs of revival and it has become the first sector in the country to rebound,” a CII release quoted Mr Maran as saying at a roundtable in Mumbai recently.
The recession (for the sector) is over as garment manufacturers’ order books are full upto June, he said. The textiles industry, which is a major contributor to export earnings, has shown a five per cent growth in December and seven per cent in January against a negative growth of 15 per cent during the April to November period of 2009.
Textile exports had shrunk nearly two per cent to 21.75 billion dollars in 2008-09 as demand from western markets fell in the wake of the economic downturn. As orders dried up, thousands of units were shut down and about seven lakh jobs were lost in 2008-09, according to a CII estimate. The sector employs about 35 million people.
Mr Maran has been stressing on developing other big markets outside the United States as an alternative and led business delegations to several countries.
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