"The size of Indian domestic readymade garment industry will double within five years due to economic prosperity, simplified government policy, growth in fashion orientation and brand awareness as well as consumer expectations,” stated Rahul Mehta, President, Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI). According to the recent survey about market statistics conducted by CMAI, currently the total size of the Indian apparel industry is around Rs 2,00,000 crores. Out of this, unstitched app

High street retailer Marks & Spencer has launched a new youth employability scheme, Make Your Mark, in partnership with youth charity, The Prince’s Trust, to offer more than 1,400 work experience placements for 16-25 year olds. With youth unemployment in the UK at a record high, with one in five 16-25 year olds struggling to find a job, the retailer is hoping that its new training and job placement programme will help “address the skills and experience gap” that prevents young people from fi

Russian police arrested some 200 Vietnamese workers making knockoff sports garments following a raid on an illegal factory outside Moscow Wednesday , Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. The Vietnamese were working and living at the factory in the town of Noginsk, east of Moscow, making fake brand-name sportswear,the police said. The workers were taken to a police station. An investigation has been launched to identify the building’s owner and tenant. Source: Thanh Nien News.

The China National Textile and Apparel Council is calling on garment makers to invest overseas to maintain growth. “The industry has suffered sluggish development due to the slowing global economy and rising costs,” said Wang Tiankai, president of the association. Bosideng International Holdings Ltd and JNBY Finery Co Ltd are pioneers of Chinese garment makers willing to invest overseas. Currently, Bosideng has more than 80 stores in the UK, and the company said it plans to expand in Europ

Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Friday announced interest-free loans to individual weavers up to a limit Rs. 1 lakh, on the lines of those given to farmers. This would benefit over one lakh handloom weavers outside the cooperative fold, he stated. The details would be worked out soon and the scheme would be rolled out, he promised, in the presence of Union Minister of Textiles Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Union Minister of State Panabaaka Lakshmi and Minister for Handlooms and Textiles Gaddam

Peru’s Ministry of Production, Promperu and the ACP Group have signed an agreement to jointly promote exports of cotton garments from Gamarra to Brazil. The goal is to achieve textile and garment exports of US$ 100,000 in the first stage, wherein six micro and small enterprises (MSEs) from Gamarra commercial emporium have been selected to participate by the Ministry of Production based on several criteria. The agreement for the pilot project was signed by Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister J

The Government of Pakistan through its High Commission in Sri Lanka is collaborating with the Government of Sri Lanka to revive the handloom sector in Mirigama district of Sri Lanka, aimed at strengthening this cottage industry and providing self-employment to the people of the area. The Cupertino envisages training of 75 individuals, providing them with handlooms, hand winders, accessories and raw material. In addition to the direct beneficiaries, hundreds of people will gain indirect employmen

With an annual growth of over eight per cent, knitwear exports from Tirupur are likely to touch Rs 15,000 crore mark in a couple of years as the town is exploring new and non-traditional markets like Japan, sources in Tirupur Exporters' Association said. Entering knitwear export market in 1984, Tirupur recorded exports worth Rs 1,162.43 crore in 1993 and scaled new heights to touch Rs 13,000 crore mark in the next two decades, contributing 42 per cent of total knitwear exports. The exports f

Textile entrepreneurs have urged businessmen and officials of the United States to grant the same market access to them as was provided to other countries. “We do not want any aid or monetary assistance but simply a fair market access to the US market,” said Ahsan Bashir, chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, on the second day of a presentation reserved for textiles at the Pakistan-US conference in Dubai last week. The US government has granted preferential market access

The early advent of monsoon may hamper the country's cotton production target in the upcoming season, textile division officials told Business Recorder. Cotton production for the upcoming season is estimated at 14.1 million bales from eight million acres of cultivated area which is 5.7 percent higher than the last year. The country estimated revised cotton production targets at 13.3 million bales from seven million acres of land for the last season. The Cotton Crop Assessment Committee (CCAC)