The world faces exceptional – perhaps even unprecedented – political uncertainty and financial instability as it enters 2018. There has been sharp decline in people’s pro-globalization mania. World leaders’ romance with the global village is slowly coming to an end. The near end of America’s dominance in the world affairs is going to create a turbulent period both politically as well as social and economical spheres. All eyes will now be on China but the country doesn’t appear to have refined its vast raw power including financial, infrastructural and geopolitical. This makes China incapable of employ her dragon image in practice in order to come a few steps closer to replacing the US as the super power. The chances of this look rather dim also due to the robust American checks and balances that should enable them to withstand a one-term Trumpian rule and come out of their dangerous political decline.
The textile industry now has a distinct class divide like we see in social, cultural, financial and personal worlds. The developed countries are now entering the Industry 4.0 era with a solid planning supported by vast R&D resources and with a clear distinct well defined objectives. The traditional textile products – like a normal shirt or pant and other made-ups – no longer find any place in their textile manufacturing roadmap. They are all focused on high performance fabrics, technical textiles, smart and interactive textiles, bio-textiles, 3D printing and lifestyle changing textiles and clothing materials. The traditional textile manufacturing will be in the sole domain of countries like China, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Viet Nam, Turkey, Korea and others who might be reclassified as the second generation of Third World countries. There are all the chances that China will be able to upgrade and manage to come out of this class. So, India will continue to have excellent business potential in the restructured world of textiles and clothing. The industry will flourish in the coming years provided our businesses reposition themselves in the new world order in which buy local or buy from an ally or buy from a nearby region will be the new sourcing norm. Also, fully automatic plants will drastically bring down the labourcost in the developed countries making them quite independent of other sourcing destinations.
We may soon realize that self reliance is the best policy. If we are able to manufacture our textiles & clothing from domestically produced raw materials, there may not be any need to look for outside support. This sounds outdated or perhaps a backward thinking but we are witnessing the decline of liberal thinking worldwide. Under such scenario a visionary approach is required to save ourselves from the outside shocks. The reverse globalization has begun and anyone who races ahead in de-globalizing may be in a better & more comfortable position in the new world(order or disorder).
Concerns aside, we got to have ‘feel good’ effect and the overall outlook for the new year should be seen as positive. So, let’s welcome 2018 with open & optimistic mind. NCM wishes you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year.
