A major puzzle for the Indian economy in the last one decade has been the weak performance in the textiles and apparel sectors. In real terms, the apparels sector has grown marginally and the textiles sector has witnessed a decline. India’s share in world trade in textiles and apparels has also declined considerably. Between the late-1990s and early 2010s, India’s share in the textiles trade has doubled, as the Indian economy revealed its comparative advantage in a variety of products in this category. But since then, India’s share in textiles trade has declined, even as many other countries have increased their share. The causes for this sudden reversal in a crucial sector is worth understanding.

In this episode of Interpreting India, Abhishek Anand and Naveen Joseph Thomas join Suyash Rai to discuss how India can reignite its manmade clothing sector.

Episode Contributors

Abhishek Anand is a consultant with PwC Middle East. Earlier, he has worked at the World Bank as a Robert S. McNamara Fellow and prior to that as a career civil servant with the Government of India. His research interest lies at the intersection of macroeconomics and economic development.

Naveen Joseph Thomas completed his Ph.D. in Economics at the Department of Economics, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He received his M.Sc. in Economics from the TERI School of Advanced Studies and his B.Sc.(H) in Physics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. His research interest lies in the areas of Household Economics, Growth Theory, Labour Economics and issues of the MSME sector. His current research focusses on the role of intra-household conflict in explaining low labour force participation of women in patriarchal societies, the scope of Mutual Credit Guarantee Schemes for the development of the MSME sector in India, and the analysis of education choice of parents under constrained supply of public-funded education in rural India using the ASER dataset.

Suyash Rai is a deputy director and fellow at Carnegie India. His research focuses on the political economy of economic reforms, and the performance of public institutions in India.

Additional Reading

Reigniting the Manmade Clothing Sector in India by Abhishek Anand and Naveen Joseph Thomas

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Episode 554: Is Western Finance to Blame?