UN Steps in with $1 Billion aid as South Asia cries - Do not call America stingy - Do not call India inefficient
Sonia Chopra, Special Correspondent
January 06, 2005

As the world opened up for Indian textiles, millions of low skilled jobs are coming to India. India’s indigenous textile and related technologies promises the country a very dominant position in garment export to the America and Europe.

Hinduja family owns Gokaldas Exports, India's largest exporter of garments, with 41 factories and 32,000 staff making ski jackets and winter coats for US brands Gap, Reebok and Nike. It is ready to explode upwards in textile exports as the international quota is withdrawn.

According to Financial Times, Hinduja is in a hurry to be big. He has opened garments factories at the rate of one every six weeks for the past year, creating nearly 9,000 jobs ahead of the removal of textile quotas this year.

He says that the expansion is not enough to meet the forecast rise in demand triggered by the end of quotas from January 1. "What I have opened is only for existing customers," he says.

For India, with its skilled and low-cost textile workers, the removal of quotas offers a unique opportunity.
However, many industry observers believe that the country could be trumped by rivals such as China, Vietnam and Bangladesh, because it does have not enough Mr Hindujas.

"There's a lack of investment to create scale," says Raghav Gupta, a principal at textile consultancy KSA Technopak in Delhi. "That could be costly because global clients now want fewer, big suppliers in fewer locations."