In Tirupur, no cash to pay workers who dress up best global brands

Business Standard checks out trade hubs across the country to assess the impact of demonetisation. The first of a six-part series takes a look at Tirupur

Sixty-two-year-old Gajalakshmi has been waiting all day for buyers in a shop at Banian Bazar in Khaderpet market next to the railway station in the country’s knitwear capital Tirupur. She used to do business worth Rs 6,000-10,000 a day. But ever since the Narendra Modi government took the decision to ban old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, she seldom gets a customer. The market streets, otherwise busy with brisk sale of export rejects, are now empty.

The export-reject market alone, which has mushroomed around the main business of Tirupur, makes up for around Rs 2,500 crore sales every year