The Ministry of Textiles on Monday has approved the pilot project on skilling of design and commissioning technical personnel associated with the application of geo-textiles in infrastructure projects (roads. highways, railways, and water resources). Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), Bangalore, IIT-Madras, and IIT Roorkee will carry out the project, the ministry said in a press note. According to the statement, the coordinating faculties of the engineering departments will look after the implementation of the special courses, in consultation with the other concerned centres and offices of the respective institutes. Additionally, the project will be implemented in batches and phases. One batch will consist of 75-100 candidates. Two batches per institute will be selected during the pilot phase. "Continuation of the special skill development course will be subjected to a review by the Mission Directorate of National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM) or the Ministry of Textiles," the statement read. The government is implementing various steps to push the textiles industry towards progress, which was gripped by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, urged the stakeholders of the textile industry to focus on speed, skill and scale and get into an innovative partnership. He called for creating "100 Indian textile machinery champions recognised across the world." "India should be looking to become a global player in producing textiles machinery, producing at scale, producing with quality and quantity the machinery of choice that the world requires," the minister was quoted as saying. He added that while India is not averse to imports, the country must endeavour to reduce import dependency on textile machinery. According to the minister, focusing on quality will help capture bigger markets and higher productivity.
Source: Your Story
India’s textiles and allied product exports were worth $30.4 billion in fiscal 2020-21, down by 10 per cent from a year before due to the pandemic, according to the textile ministry, which recently said that in the first five months of this fiscal, such exports jumped by 87 per cent on year to $16.6 billion, aided by strong economic recovery in key markets. The government has set an ‘aspirational’ target of $100 billion for textiles and garment exports over the next five years, Darshana Vikram Jardosh, minister of state for textiles, told an international conference on textiles and apparel organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently. She urged the industry to take advantage of a global market shift where China is pruning its market share in the labour-intensive segment. “We will remain committed to ensuring implementation of all development schemes and bring in many more schemes in pursuit of this aspiration,” she was quoted as saying by Indian media reports. Earlier this month, the cabinet approved a scheme to incentivise investments in setting up mega textile parks to build scale in the fragmented sector. That followed a ₹10,683- crore production-linked incentive scheme for man-made fibre products and technical textiles.
Source: Fibre 2 Fashion
The state government will focus on attracting investments in thrust sectors such agriculture equipment, automobile and electric vehicle, petrochemical, IT, healthcare, mines, renewable energy, textiles, tourism and electronics, a senior official of the industries department said during a review meeting of the proposed ‘Invest Rajasthan2022 Summit’. Explaining the preparations, industries secretary in the meeting said the department was reaching out to investors in Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata among others. Pednekar said investor connect initiatives will be organised in November during the Dubai expo in Dubai. Besides, he said, road shows will be conducted in cities like London, Paris, Seoul, New York, Berlin and Singapore. The chief minister directed the officials to tap India’s embassies in various countries. He said all the departments will have to work in coordination to realise investments on the ground.
Source: Times Of India
The Amended Technology Up-gradation Fund Scheme (ATUFS) was reviewed by Union Minister of Textiles, Piyush Goyal and Minister for State for Textiles, Darshana Vikram Jardosh yesterday along with different Ministries, Departments, Textiles Industry Associations and Banks etc., at the 5th Inter Ministerial Steering Committee (IMSC) meeting organized by the Ministry of Textiles. It was intended to boost the Indian Textile Industry by enabling ease of doing business, bolstering exports & fuelling employment. In addition to fixing the timeline for conduct of IMSC meeting quarterly to facilitate implementation, some of significant decisions to resolve pending issues and way forward include: -- Reduction of Compliance burden by accepting only single certificate from the concerned bank instead of multiple documents regarding evidence of payment for claimed machineries -- Rationalisation of GR related to cases of consortium finance -- Consideration of Standalone embroidery machines wef inception of the ATUFS. -- Facilitating Industry by providing Condonation of filing for UIDs to 1795 pending cases besides the cases in which cut off dates falls during 23rd March 2021 and 22 October 2021(COVID Second wave period) with time line of its submission to Office of Textile Commissioner/iTUFS within 90 days ( i.e., total period for unit & banks). -- Condonation for the submission of JIT request to 814 units besides the unit in which cut-off date for submission of JIT request in post COVID-19. Ministry of Textiles will simplify the procedure for Joint inspection using a calibrated approach to linking joint inspect to subsidy support size by reducing burden on bracket lower than INR 50 lakh instead of present 100 %. Dr. Animesh Saxena- Manging Director Neetee Apparels- a leading garment exporter and President of Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME) said, “We appreciate the decision government is leaning towards as it was cumbersome and needed simplification and we are in full support of this step. Ministry of Textile should also deliberate on getting refund on time, as delay in refunds made people lose interest in this scheme because sometimes refunds were not cleared up to 2-3 years.” Secretary ( Textiles) and Textile Commissioner will look into the modalities for simplification of enlistment of machinery manufacturers and accessories / spares parts manufacturers. Speaking on the occasion, Commerce Minister Goyal said that despite the hindrances during COVID-19 pandemic, Ministry and the office of Textile Commissioner have put serious efforts in resolving the policy constraints and settling of the claims. He mentioned that a special measure was introduced to ease liquidity flow in the industry by introducing an option for getting part subsidy released against Bank Guarantee. He noted with satisfaction that out of total settlements under ATUFS since inception, about 61% of claims have been settled during the peak of pandemic period i.e., in FY 2020-21. The Minister also suggested that Ministry and Textile Commissioner should rework the physical verification mechanism to automated verifications through Video Conferencing mode. He said provision for self-certification of machinery by units and random verification by office of Textile Commissioner may be considered in place of present physical inspection. Ministry of Textiles had introduced Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS) in 1999 as a credit linked subsidy scheme intended for modernization and technology upgradation of the Indian textile industry, promoting ease of doing business, generating employment and promoting exports. Since then, the scheme has been implemented in different versions. The ongoing ATUFS has been approved in 2016 and implemented through web based iTUFS platform. Capital Investment Subsidy is provided to benchmarked machinery installed by the industry after physical verification. ATUFS was approved for a period from 2015-16 to 2021-22 with an allocation of INR 17,822 crore (INR 12,671 crore for committed liability of previous versions of TUFS & INR 5151 crore for new cases under ATUFS). The scheme is being administered with a two stage monitoring mechanism by Technical Advisory-cum-Monitoring Committee (TAMC) and Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee (IMSC). ATUFS is implemented through web based platform, iTUFS. Modifications carried out in scheme guidelines in 2018 and further streamlining of procedures have simplified the process for availing the subsidy under the scheme In 2019, IMSC decided to introduce physical verification of machinery and computation of subsidy before releasing committed liability under previous versions of scheme (MTUFS, RTUFS & RRTUFS).
Source: KNN India
In a first initiative of its kind in Haryana, the state government is all set to start business ties with African countries. A first government-to- government (G2G) between the envoys of 18 African Countries with Haryana government officials will be held here on Thursday and Friday. An initiative by the foreign cooperation department, the initiative will showcase Haryana’s agriculture, animal husbandry, foreign exports, tourism, textile products, especially the agro products. As on now, Haryana is doing exports of around Rs 85,000 crore out of which the exports to African Countries are of around Rs 5,000 crore. Haryana exports clothes, food and other items. Notably, as on now, Gujarat is dominating the business ties with African countries and the idea of exploring investments has come from there itself. “During this two-day event, the our officials will explain the possibility of investments in Haryana and four different groups of exporters from Gurugram, Faridabad, Panipat and Karnal will give presentation about their products and the possibilities of expanding their business in African countries. Besides, the envoys from Africa will be accompanied by their trade promotion experts who shall have direct dialogue with entrepreneurs and government functionaries,” said Yogender Chaudhary, principal secretary of foreign cooperation department and adviser to Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on foreign investigations and resource mobilization.
Source: Times of India
The economy is likely to register a 9.5 per cent growth this fiscal over 7.3 per cent contraction last year, as the ongoing recovery is faster and more credible than earlier foreseen, according to a foreign brokerage report. It will gather more momentum in the second half of the current fiscal, but will slow down to 7.7 per cent next financial year, it added. The government has budgeted for a 10.5 per cent growth this fiscal, but the Reserve Bank has scaled it down to 9.5 per cent. Ravaged by the pandemic, the economy tanked 7.3 per cent last fiscal, the worst and the third contraction on record. Swiss brokerage UBS Securities India expects the economy to gain momentum in the second half on cyclical tailwinds, including pent-up demand and favourable external demand. We expect real GDP to grow at 9.5 per cent in FY22, but to lose the momentum to 7.7 per cent next fiscal. We expect growth to gain momentum in the second half on cyclical tailwinds including pent-up demand, especially after more people are vaccinated, favourable external demand as exports are over 25 per cent the pre-pandemic level) and higher government spending and the likely resultant spike in Capex, Tanvee Gupta Jain, chief economist at UBS Securities India said in a report on Monday. However, she said that the recent supply-side disruptions, including high global commodity prices, especially oil and domestic coal shortages, could weigh on the fragile recovery. The report is based on a survey among the key policymakers who are more optimistic now and expect the real GDP growth to surprise well on the upside. Equity strategist Sunil Tirumalai said during a one-day virtual macro tour last week, the broad consensus among policymakers was that the economy was in a swift recovery mode thanks to the progressive re-opening after the second wave. They expect real GDP growth in FY22 and FY23 to surprise well above the consensus forecast but did not offer a number. He credited this optimism to the joint efforts of the monetary and fiscal policies to support the economy. A large majority of these policymakers also do not see too much risk from a third wave and underlined the need for ensuring full vaccination. On the fiscal front, the general expectation is that the Centre is likely to register a lower fiscal deficit this year at 6.3 per cent, but a marginally higher deficit for the states at 3.5 per cent. The report estimates the consolidated deficit to narrow to 9.8 per cent of GDP this year from 13.4 per cent in FY21. It attributed the likely lower fiscal deficit to cyclical economic recovery boosting revenue collections and the roll-back of pandemic-related relief measures. In contrast, the states may miss the budgeted 3.2 per cent of GDP by 30 bps on a likely shortfall in state GST collections. The expected better fiscal numbers are also on the back of the buoyant tax collections and a higher-than-expected dividend from the Reserve Bank.
Source: Economic Times
Earlier this month, the OECD had announced that 136 countries had agreed to join an accord to impose a two-pillar global tax reform plan. As per the deal, large multinationals have to pay a minimum tax of 15% on their global incomes from 2023 and those with profits above a threshold will now have to pay taxes in the markets where they conduct business. Several large Indian companies exploring outbound investments have put their plans on hold following a globaltax deal over concerns of additionaltaxes and compliance challenges related to the new framework adopted by the world's leading industrial bloc. Large companies, especially in the information technology (IT) and information technology-enabled services (ITeS) sectors, were looking to expand in the Middle East, Africa and other Asian countries. To route these investments, the companies were looking to set up entities in tax havens and countries such as Dubai, Singapore, Ireland, Mauritius and the UK, as part of their global structuring and tax and compliance planning. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) global tax deal now means that the Indian companies could see their tax liability go up in the near future. Earlier this month, the OECD had announced that 136 countries had agreed to join an accord to impose a two-pillar global tax reform plan. As per the deal, large multinationals have to pay a minimum tax of 15% on their global incomes from 2023 and those with profits above a threshold will now have to pay taxes in the markets where they conduct business. Indian multinationals have now reached out to their legal and tax experts to figure out whether they can still go ahead with the investments or they need additional ring fencing of their entities in the tax havens. Under OECD deals, currently only large companies are covered but for several Indian companies that are planning to use certain jurisdictions to make investments in the Middle East, Africa or Asia, this could cause complications in the future," said Uday Ved, partner at tax advisory firm KNAV. "Most Indian companies want to hold certain entities in countries such as Singapore or UAE to ring fence holding entities here and the tax savings are incidental, but the global tax deal means that they might have to tweak some of these structures." Take a large multinational that is looking to invest in Australia, for instance. The company was looking to set up an entity in Singapore or Mauritius through which the investment would have been made. "The main purpose was to create a buffer between the Australian entity and the Indian holding company, and tax advantage was incidental," a tax lawyer advising the company told ET. The company has now reached out to legal advisors to figure out if such a structuring could result in additional taxes or any other compliance issues. "The biggest problem is whether there could be additional taxes even on the entities based in Singapore or Mauritius. While tax treaties with India would come into play in this regard, the company doesn't want to let go of control (in Australia) and still wants to limit the risks to its Indian holding company," the legal expert said. Traditionally, large Indian groups tend to set up entities in Europe or Singapore to invest outside India. These entities practically work as a pass through vehicles and attract no taxes. However, the OECD deal would mean that in the years to come, if the global taxes are less than 15% additional taxes could apply. While the OECD deal, as of now, is only applicable to around 100 multinationals that have a particular size, this is set to create tax complications for other companies and entities that are present in tax havens, say tax experts. The new OECD framework would mean that large companies will have to disclose their global revenues and pay taxes on them.
Source: Economic Times
High economic inequality might drive India to embrace fairer surveillance capitalist personal data economies We’re in a digital data economy where an unprecedented amount of analysable information on humans, (Internet-of-) things, and nature opens up vast opportunities (more than ever before) for accelerated insights, innovation and economic growth. According to the UN Financial Trade Quarterly (FTQ) report of 2019, the five largest data firms in the world—Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft—are actors in the digital data economy with a combined market value of nearly $4 trillion (as of 2019, and growing) that represents approximately 20% of market capitalisation in the US. However, the people—whose raw data is driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution—play a rather passive role in the modern digital economy as they are often shamelessly, and unfairly, left out of the capitalist value chain that transforms their raw data into huge monetary benefits using powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tools. This non-transparent data economy brings an added disadvantage to common people in the form of privacy risks. Most visibly, the Cambridge Analytica scandal and its influence on the 2016 US (and 2014 Indian) elections demonstrated that individuals are increasingly at privacy risk to become manipulated, against their preferences, through big data aggregating and analysing firms in the unfair surveillance capitalism age (a term coined by Shoshana Zuboff). Economic inequality in certain digitally-booming GDP-rich nations is blatant (for example India, a rapidly-growing economy that is a top-five GDP nation globally), where millionaires control a significant portion (54%) of the nation’s GDP, leaving the average individual’s income paltry (approximately $12 per month in India). The monetary power of AI and data science-driven personal data commerce (PDC) can be leveraged in a host of initiatives with the aim of a more ‘equal’ distribution of wealth along with increasing GDP in nations exhibiting high economic inequality. In addition, several (information) economists and technologists, over the decades and all over the globe—whether they represent economies with high inequality or otherwise— have argued in favour of an alternative human-centric data economy (HCDE) in which people be paid/compensated whenever their data will be used for revenue-generating products and services. There is no denying the fact that, in principle, personal data—without which AI and machine learning-driven business models have zero value—should be paid for by collectors/aggregators to their owners; it’s a viewpoint shared by industry leaders such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. This will help the personal data collecting capitalists give back, in all fairness, a significant amount of monetised digital wealth to its due owners, ensuring a fairer surveillance capitalist (or to a degree socialist) society, compared to the privacy and monetary unfair surveillance capitalist society currently existing today. Empirical research in the western world has established that popular personal data (age, sex, browsing activity, geo-location, etc) of the average (mobile-savvy) individual is worth at least $1,000 annually. Such an amount, if economy calibrated and PPP-converted as a cash payment, can significantly reduce the GDP-induced macroeconomic inequality in any economy—its effect most likely to be felt on economies with high inequality; for example, for the smartphone-penetrating, GDP-rich, but highly unequal Indian economy, personal data monetisation is likely to reduce the average economic inequality by at least one-fourth. Such an economy comes in with the following multiple additional ‘perks’ for the privacyconscious personal data owning individual. First, monetising personal data will put economic pressure on online services with respect to them accruing data collection and processing costs, and subsequently propel them to apply data minimisation principles (to acquire minimum data), in accordance with recommended practices laid down in regulations such as the GDPR in the EU and the privacy Act in India. This will help mitigate privacy risks. Second, HCDEs would usher in the concept of property rights (currently non-existent) over personal data, and confer these rights to data-owning individuals. This would hand over significant control regarding the ownership of personal data to its owner, who could then sell this public good generating data, license it for profit, use it as security to raise capital (as with intellectual property rights), and contribute to privacy-enhancing data minimisation. Finally, the digital online services market is not necessarily a zero-sum game—paying owners for their data does not have to harm the profits of online services. On the contrary, it might result in higher quality (lowering processing costs) data being shared by individuals in many application scenarios and lead to economically-efficient HCDEs, and innovation in technology. However, oblivious of the above viewpoint, one crucial facet still remains to be considered, and highly inequitable economies like India can garner thoughts about the successful existence of HCDEs undertaking PDC: Will the potential pitfalls of an HCDE (for example privacy risks) be potent enough for people in India to opt-out of doing PDC in HCDEs? The broader social impact of such economies on three fronts: (1) a society preferring HCDEs will likely enable high-quality personal data to be collected by online (social) applications in a trustworthy fashion that subsequently will catalyse a much-improved AI-driven multi-stakeholder targeted advertising business, (2) the GDP-centric macroeconomic inequality in an economy might considerably reduce due to online (social) application users earning from their personal data, and (3) much to the like of these application businesses, users will invest in increased time and meaningful attention to the former that will act as upward spiral feedbacks on improved personal data collection.
Source: Financial Express
Chinese firms face persistent labor shortages, logistics woes Logistical disruptions and labor shortages are straining Chinese manufacturers in Ho Chi Minh City after the southern business hub in Vietnam eased COVID-19 lockdown measures, a local business association said. As a crucial link in the global supply chain, Vietnam faces a threat to its export-oriented economy from a lack of workers, which is affecting manufacturing for global firms, including sportswear brands Nike and Adidas, and tech giant Apple. Vietnam was one of the few economies to report positive growth in 2020, but growth contracted 6.17 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2021, the largest quarterly drop in 35 years. Only 10 percent of Chinese plants in Ho Chi Minh City were capable of maintaining operations at more than 85 percent of their normal staff size, Zhao Qian, head of the China Business Association Ho Chi Minh City Branch, told the Global Times. The city is home to a large number of factories that manufacture clothes, textiles and furniture. "Companies manufacturing shoes and clothes are suffering from a serious backlog of orders. They are rushing to fulfill orders placed from July to September," Zhao said, estimating that they would be unable to arrange new orders until February next year.
Local problems
Meanwhile, companies in wood processing, catering and services are suffering from a shortage of labor and a lack of raw materials, according to Zhao. "Many workers have given up their jobs due to concerns about the virus," Zhao said. Vietnam reported 4,045 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, according to the country's Ministry of Health. Most of the community cases were detected in southern localities, including 966 in Ho Chi Minh City, 524 in Binh Duong province, and 429 in Dong Nai province, the Xinhua News Agency reported. As of Sunday, Vietnam has registered a total of 884,177 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases since the start of the current wave in late April, according to the ministry. Virus containment measures have also affected local logistics. "It would take more than a month for courier service companies to deliver the overstocked parcels even if they don't take new orders," Zhao noted. Electronics manufacturers in the Southeast Asian country reported a shortfall of nearly 56 percent of the required workers to maintain operational capacity and the leather and footwear sector reported a 51.7 percent worker shortage, according to the government's website, citing its labor ministry data. Garment makers were also suffering from a lack of 49.2 percent workers. Textile and leather shoes are the two labor-intensive industries in Vietnam. Around 2 million people work in the textile sector, 1.4 million in leather shoe industry, and another 1.5 million in related trade activities, according to an article published by the economic and business sector of the Chinese Embassy in Vietnam. A local survey of 256 companies in textile and leather shoes revealed nearly 60 percent of the workers reported income drop due to their intermittent duty; 62 percent of the respondents lost income source and 77 percent of the workers reported negative sentiment toward their work, said the article. Government officials are scrambling to attract workers back to work via text message, and recruiters are dangling "crazy" benefits for new hires, Nikkei Asia reported. "The low vaccination rate and long-term quarantine polices had led to widespread exhaustion. The decline in incomes has also caused weaker purchasing power, which may impact production," said Zhao, the head of the Chinese business association.
Global impact
Vietnam is an important supplier in the global industrial chain, so the production standstill caused by the epidemic will have an impact on the global economic recovery in the short term, especially on garment and electronics supplies, Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times. Xu said that if the coronavirus situation worsens in Vietnam, the global supply chains will definitely be relocated from Vietnam to other markets. "Some foreign companies have already relocated some of their operations in Vietnam to China," Xu added, suggesting that if Vietnam can deal with the epidemic and labor issues, foreign companies will still choose to build factories in the Southeast Asian country due to its lower labor costs. The economic recovery across key economic zones in southern Vietnam largely depends on Ho Chi Minh City, Hoang Cong Gia Khanh, the vice chairman of the University of Economics and Law under Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City, told Vietnamese newspaper Nhan Dan, suggesting that the government should help companies reduce layoffs and re-recruit employees, as well as helping them to attract skilled workers who had returned to their villages during the quarantine. As of Friday, 60 percent of companies in Ho Chi Minh City have resumed production since the lockdown was lifted half a month ago, The Star reported. A total of 1,500 firms, including 500 foreign firms in the city's industrial parks and export processing zones, have resumed operations, with 60 percent reaching 80 percent of regular capacity, the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Business Associations told The Star.
Source: Global Times
South Korea and Cambodia officially signed a free trade agreement (FTA) Tuesday in a move to deepen their economic ties, Seoul's industry ministry said. Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and his Cambodian counterpart, Pan Sorasak, officially signed the pact during a virtual ceremony earlier in the day, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. South Korea struck the deal with Cambodia in February this year and wrapped up domestic procedures, including parliamentary approval. Under the agreement and the envisioned multilateral trade pact of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Cambodia will lift tariffs on 93.8 percent of all products traded, and South Korea will remove tariffs on 95.6 percent of all items, according to the ministry. The RCEP is a regional trade pact, which covers 10 ASEAN nations and its five dialogue partners -- South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. South Korea now awaits parliamentary approval. South Korea's major exports to Cambodia include cars, machinery, textiles, and agricultural and marine products. It mostly imports textile-based goods and agricultural products from the Southeast Asian nation. "The FTA is expected to boost our access to the Mekong River market and to strengthen our value chain, as Cambodia is the hub of the region and bears great economic growth potential," the ministry said in a release. The latest trade deal is part of Seoul's ongoing push to expand trade ties with ASEAN and other emerging nations to diversify its trade portfolio and reduce reliance on China and the United States. ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.
Source: Korea Herald
Six brands uniquely positioned to meet the challenging market demand for sustainable solutions within the hygiene sector. The Indorama Ventures (IVL) Hygiene Fibers Group presented an extensive range of recycled and biodegradable fibre solutions for nonwovens at last week’s INDEX show (October 19-22) in Geneva. The combination of polymers, technologies, processes and global reach supported by the group – one of three business segments that make up IVL – uniquely positions it to meet the challenging market demand for sustainable solutions within the hygiene sector. Across the six brands and companies that make up Hygiene Fibers Group – Auriga, Avgol, FiberVisions, Indorama Asia, Trevira and Wellman International – sustainability and supporting customers to achieve circular objectives is now paramount. At INDEX, the group launched CiCLO, a textile technology which enables polyester and other synthetic materials to biodegrade like natural materials do in wastewater treatment plant sludge, sea water and landfill conditions, reducing synthetic microfibre pollution generated during washing, and minimising plastic accumulation in landfills caused by discarded textiles. Aurifa, Trevira and Wellman have been working closely with the CiCLO technology over the past 12 months, with a focus on sustainable PET and rPET staple fibre and filament solutions in areas where recycling is particularly challenging, such as hygiene, home textiles and automotive applications. Trevira also introduced a new range of bicomponent fibres based on PLA and PBS (polybutylene succinate). Both biopolymers offer an exceptional technological opportunity in terms of environmental care and sustainability, while delivering optimum performance. Like PLA, PBS is recyclable and up to 100% biodegradable under industrial conditions. Wellman International meanwhile offers an extensive range of 100% recycled, accredited PET fibres under the Deja brand platform, while polyolefin producers FiberVisions, ESFibervisions and spunmelt leader Avgol, have partnered with UK-based Polymateria to commercially harness its biotransformation technology. This patented technology alters the properties of polyolefins to make them biodegradable in a natural process. Other polyolefin innovations include biosurfactant and biocolourant developments from Avgol, while FiberVisons is progressing sustainable design solutions, including lightweight, high performance, reduced carbon solutions.
Source: Innovation in Textiles
In a bid to address the increasing textile waste in Cambodia, The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel Limited (HKRITA) has developed technology that can recycle blend textiles, in cooperation with the H&M Foundation. Additionally initiated alongside VF Corporation and other international organisations, the technology labelled The Green Machine is looking to be deployed in Cambodia by 2022, with the goal of contributing to a better future for the country. According to the company announcement, the machine is a first of its kind in both sorting and recycling polyester and cotton blend textiles at scale without quality loss. Utilising a hydrothermal method, the process uses 15 percent of a biodegradable chemical to separate the materials. “Our aim is to develop technologies and solutions that can have a positive impact on our planet, and the Green Machine is an excellent example of that,” said HKRITA CEO, Edwin Keh, in a quote as part of the announcement. “The continuously growing demand for this solution will drive change and generate value for the entire fashion and textile industry.” The implementation of the machine is part of a solution to create circular practices within the industry, with key partners in the production brought together to assess the industrial scale development of the project. It also hopes to enrich the lives of the communities impacted by the rise in textile waste, producing new jobs and improving local environmental factors.
Source: Fashion United
