Missing the boat, again

Reform needed to make apparel exports competitive

India’s apparel exports are not having a good year. According to the data of the Clothing Manufacturers’ Association of India, or CMAI, exports of clothes went down by 23 per cent and 17 per cent in April and May this year compared to the equivalent months in 2017. This follows a poor performance in 2017-18, in which Indian apparel exports went down by 4 per cent. The CMAI has partly blamed this on straitened demand in markets in the developed world such as the United States and Europe. This “weak global demand” argument has been heard before as an excuse