Textile industry representatives urge PM Modi to create India shopping festival

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Jan 7, 2020

A group of 11 delegates from the Indian textile industry who recently met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged him to launch a large-scale shopping festival to reinvigorate consumer sentiment. 

 
At PM Modi’s recent meeting with textile industry representatives at his residence on December 26, he was asked to launch a shopping festival in summer, traditionally a low-demand season, to encourage spending on apparel.

“Spring-summer is quite a sedate period because of school holidays. A shopping festival during summer will help us generate business,” denim apparel brand Spykar Lifestyles’ CEO Sanjay Vakharia told ET Bureau.

Countries such as Dubai already run large-scale shopping festivals and the idea is to use these as a model for an Indian event, ET Bureau reported. “We suggested introducing a countrywide festival in summer on the lines of shopping festivals in Dubai and Singapore to uplift low consumer sentiment that has directly impacted our business,” said Vakharia. 
 
Exporters and textile, yarn, spinning, and apparel brand executives from Vardhaman Mills, Biba, the Tirupur Exporters Association, Shahi Exports, and Arvind Limited also participated in the meeting. It was the first time Modi himself held a meeting solely focused on the textile sector showing his increased focus on the industry. The Union Government plans to increase India’s competitiveness in the global textile and apparel export market and increase domestic production as part of its “Make in India” campaign.