Textile Sector shifted Manufacturing its Textile Products to Masks, PPEs and Technical Textiles
Reportedly domestic manufacturers and exporting units are facing huge challenges. In the midst of this uncertainty, industry players and entrepreneurs are discovering new and innovative means of operation. While the fallout from the crisis is both amplifying familiar risks and creating new ones, change at this scale also creates new openings for managing systemic challenges and ways to steadily build back business with the new normal.
Meanwhile one lesson learned is that since business is a function of capital and labour, the labour force cannot be taken for granted, as is evident from the reverse migration witnessed [during the lockdown]. Moreover, with the launch of the Garib kalyan Rojgar Yojana, with an outlay of Rs 50,000 crore, to offer job opportunities to migrant workers in their native districts, there is a likelihood that many [workers] may not return to factories in textile clusters in the short run.
As the economy opens up, we will see a steady rise in demand and production. Due to the pandemic, businesses and supply chains are witnessing a drastic shift from traditional products to new ones such as PPEs, N-95 masks, technical textiles, synthetic material, etc. Before the outbreak of the pandemic, the PPE requirement in india was approximately 50,000 [units] per year. However, since the outbreak, india has become self-reliant in these segments with production capacity of PPE coveralls reaching 450,000 [units] per day, from zero production capacity.