The Directorate General of Foreign Trade will realign itself along the lines of Prime Minister’s Make in India and will push for production of items domestically to cut down imports. The organisation is “focusing on creating more capacities within the country to produce items that can cut down imports and accelerate exports from the electronics and hardware sector, including ventilators,” Director General Amit Yadav said at an event organized by Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) on Wednesday. He also said that the government-run agency is also taking suggestions from the industry and others as to the areas which promise new capacities to reduce import and accelerate exports. Since the coronavirus pandemic has hit globally, the world as well as India is facing a shortage of ventilators. The agency under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry hence said that its focus will be on ramping up the production of ventilators and exporting them. Other items in electronics and hardware segments in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors are also on the government radar. RBI may go for status quo; announce other measures to boost growthfree foodgrains, National Food Security Act, Maharashtra,Rajasthan, bihar, PMGKY, Food Corporation of IndiaModi’s free food grain scheme reaches doorsteps of poor, migrant labourers amid unprecedented crisis
DGFT overhaul to increase ease of doing business
Stating that DGFT is in an overhaul mode, Amit Yadav said that the agency expects to finish the realigning work by the end of this year. Further, the work undertaken by the agency in the meantime will address changes required to ensure ease of doing business and removing trade barriers. “Our efforts are to promote ease of doing business and give exporters all possible help through application of technology,” Amit Yadav said. The agency has also said that there is a need to build an electronic component sector which will help in developing strong backward and forward linkages. Meanwhile, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has said that it will appoint an agency to scrutinise government tenders for compliance with procurement norms as the government pushes for Made in India products. The government had floated a Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 on 15 June, 2017, in order to promote the domestic production of goods and services and enhance income and employment in the country.
Source: Financial Express
India is well on the path of recovery from a trough in April, ably supported by proactive Government and Central Bank policies, the Macroeconomic Report for July, released by the Economic Affairs Department said. The economy was past the worst of the pandemic as leading indicators showed a recovery in June compared to the trough in April, however, the rising number of daily cases and intermittent lockdowns have made recovery prospects fragile, according to a government report. “With India unlocking, the worst seems to be over as high-frequency indicators show an improvement from the unprecedented trough the economy had hit in April 2020,” said the nance ministry’s monthly economic report for July. “However, the increase in the COVID cases and subsequent intermittent lockdowns make the recovery prospects fragile and call for constant and dynamic monitoring,” it added. The report cited a host of high-frequency indicators it was tracking to show improvements till July. These included the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), power generation, production of steel and cement, railway freight, tragic at major ports, air cargo and passenger traic, e-way bill generation, consumption of petroleum products and motor vehicle registration among others. Emphasising the need to bring the infection rate under control, the report said, “The future economic recovery of India is crucially linked to how the COVID-19 infection curve evolves across states of India,” it said adding, “India’s top 12 growth driving states account for 85 per cent of the COVID-19 case load, with 40 per cent of conrmed cases concentrated in the top two growth drivers i.e. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.”
Agriculture
Highlighting the positive developments in the agriculture sector and the high expectations the government had from it, the report said the sector would cushion the economy from the pandemic shock this scal. In a chapter titled “Agriculture Sector – The Silver Lining in the Year 2020-21”, the report said the sector would contribute positively to overall gross value added to the extent of 0.5-1 percentage points.
Credit growth
It also noted that despite eorts from the Reserve Bank of India and the government, credit growth remained sluggish. “Bank credit growth recorded a 0.4 per cent increase in the fortnight ending 3rd July, 2020 compared to the previous fortnight. However, on a YoY basis, the growth rate remained at 6.1 per cent, half of last year levels,” it said. In terms of non-food credit, the greatest fall in outstanding credit in May was recorded in the services sector, which accounted for 44% of the total decline for the month, the report said. This was followed by industry, which saw credit decline by Rs 27,700 crore in May, followed by personal loans and agriculture and allied activities.
Source: Economic Times
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) is undergoing an overhaul, with many changes being introduced to respond to the challenges the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to the trade scene, a senior official said on Wednesday. “By the end of this year, we hope to complete the overhaul and many changes will be brought about to address the trade barriers and to ensure ease of doing business,” said Director General of Foreign Trade Amit Yadav. He also suggested the DGFT portal be supplemented by the portal of the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics to get a clear picture of the government policies and other import–export data and procedures. Exporters have for long been demanding that the DGFT portal be made more comprehensive and its online services more interactive and customer-focused. Speaking at a webinar organised by the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC), Yadav said industry consultations are going on to reduce import and accelerate exports. In the case of ventilators, there were shortages and now focus would be more on creating manufacturing capacities and exporting them, he said. He added that several other electronics and hardware items are also on the government’s radar for augmenting domestic manufacturing and exports.
Source: Business Standard
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) will rope in a consulting agency to scrutinise tenders of government procuring entities for compliance with public procurement regulations that aim at promoting 'Made in India' products. The DPIIT has coated a notice inviting request for proposal (RFP) from interested agencies. The government issued Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 on June 15, 2017, to promote production of goods and services in India and enhance income and employment in the country. The order aims at incentivizing production linked through local content requirements to encourage domestic manufacturer's participation in public procurement activities over entities merely importing to trade or assemble items. It is applicable on procurement of goods services and works, including turnkey works, by a central ministry or department, their attached or subordinate oices, autonomous bodies controlled by the Government of India, government companies, their joint ventures and special purpose vehicles. Under this order, in procurement of all goods, services or works in respect of which the estimated value of procurement is less than Rs 50 lakh, only local suppliers shall be eligible to bid, except in certain cases. The DPIIT "intends to on-board an agency, for a period of one year for scrutinizing tenders of central government procuring agencies for its compliance with the order", the notice said. "Interested applicants are requested to submit their responses to the RFP on the central public procurement portal (eprocure.gov.in) before September 8, 2020 at 12:00 PM," DPIIT said. It said that the main objective of the assignment is to assist and support public procurement cell, DPIIT, for the implementation of PPP-MII Order by scrutinizing tenders of central government procuring entities, including CPSUs and autonomous bodies, published on CPP (central public procurement ) portal and submit a report to DPIIT for its compliance with the order. "A consulting agency will be selected on (LCS) Least Cost Selection process," it added. Earlier, the department had cancelled government tenders worth thousands of crores because of discriminatory practices being followed. Restrictive and discriminative tender practices prevent participation of domestic companies in government procurement.
Source: Economic Times
The RBI may refrain from cutting the benchmark lending rate on Thursday but can announce other measures like restructuring of loans amid the urgency to revive the coronavirus-hit economy, experts said. The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by the RBI Governor, is scheduled to announce its decision on August 6. This is the 24th meeting of the MPC.Although opinions are divided on the rate cut, experts believe loan restructuring is more essential at this juncture to combat the impact of Covid-19."The focus is on restructuring. Finance ministry is actively engaged with RBI on this. In principle, the idea that there may be a restructuring required, is well taken," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said last week. Besides, the central bank is expected to issue directions regarding the loan moratorium which is coming to an end on August 31 amid bankers opposing further extension of this facility on concerns over its misuse.The fast-changing macroeconomic environment and the deteriorating growth outlook necessitated off-cycle meetings of the MPC -- first in March and then again in May 2020. The MPC has cumulatively cut the repo rate by 115 basis points over these two meetings, resulting in total policy rate reduction of 250 basis points since February 2019, with an aim to boost economic growth. The central bank has been taking steps proactively to limit the damage to the economy caused by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. As per a research report by SBI, banks have cut rates on fresh loans by 72 basis points, the fastest transmission ever recorded. SBI has cut by an equivalent 115 basis points on its repo-linked retail loan portfolio. Shanti Ekambaram, group president- consumer banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank, said the interest rate cuts have had little impact on demand stimulation or growth. The Covid-19 pandemic is hurting both businesses and consumers alike and the uncertainty around when things will normalise has led to muted demand and supply disruptions, she said. "Having frontloaded the rate cuts and with inflation still above the 6 per cent mark, the MPC may decide to wait and watch and take a pause in August to monitor India's progress in its fight against the virus both from a health and economic point of view," Ekambaram said. The government has tasked RBI to keep inflation at 4 per cent (+, - 2 per cent). The central bank mainly factors in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) while formulating the monetary policy. Higher prices of food items, especially meat, cereals and pulses, pushed the CPI-based retail inflation to 6.09 per cent in June. The inflation rate for July will be announced on August 12. Experts are of the view that the MPC would maintain an accommodative stance on monetary policy in view of the fast-changing macroeconomic environment. The monetary policy was in an accommodative mode even before the outbreak of Covid-19, with a cumulative repo rate cut of 135 basis points between February 2019 and the onset of the pandemic.
Source: Business Standard
Manufacturing with its employment generation opportunities and revenue-generating potential will fulfil India’s aspirations In these turbulent times, we have all been fed with daily doses of inspiration right from WhatsApp forwards to office meetings over Zoom. Different cultures have claimed their legacy over the much beaten motivational quote on crisis and opportunity. In India, the last real crisis was of the balance of payments, which presented the opportunity to liberalise trade and make the economy more market and service-oriented. It has been largely a fluid ride since then, and hence, there wasn’t a compulsion to tinker with the existing frameworks until the recent announcements of GST, IBC and new corporate tax rates. Covid-19 caught the world unguarded and has wreaked immense pain wherever the establishments showed arrogance. India wisely chose to be conservative. When it started to become evident that the economy was pushed to the ventilator, booster shots, both in terms of stimulus package and reforms, were administered. There were also some big bang announcements for the electronics manufacturing sector. On April 1, MeitY notified three schemes with a total outlay of Rs 50,000 crore. This is as ambitious as India can get in declaring its intent to become a manufacturing powerhouse and realign global supply chains with India. However, the journey forward is quite arduous, and therefore, requires deep resolve to mend our ways of working. Several manufacturing considerations need re-evaluation. Discipline and order are most fundamental to manufacturing. MNCs generally maintain consistent standards across all their global sites, and there are no exceptions in India. A trained eye may not be able to tell the difference between a Toyota factory in India and Japan. Workers largely imbibe and start relating to values of MNCs that hire them. If such discipline can be diffused, we would not only see collective gains in productivity but also contain the spread of infections. Large scale production is generally planned around Takt-time, which is the rate of completion of product to meet customer demand. Takt-timed production reduces costs, irons out inefficiencies and optimises the flow of material across shop-floor. Since social distancing is now a norm, timing people flow with Takt-time will bring safety in sync with efficiency. In manufacturing, scale is everything. The daily struggles of lakhs of workers sustaining large scale operations can be ameliorated if commute and meals are taken care of. By offering full-service in-house dormitories, Indian companies can sustain operations during lockdowns and also bring people from all parts of India to scale up. Currently, India has a small footprint in the design ecosystem. Lack of design and innovation has shrunk the shares of domestic handset brands from 42% in 2016 to less than 1% in the last quarter of 2019. OEMs outsource some design work to their design centres in India, but Covid-19 has disrupted work-flow, which may delay critical product launches. Developing local design expertise will address any such future eventualities and unleash a spirit of entrepreneurship. India can launch new local brands on a global stage. The pandemic has raised overall awareness of the public about sanitation and hygiene. Post-Covid, this must continue to find priority. One doesn’t need to boil the ocean to institutionalise “no-touch philosophy”, which calls for minimising bio-trails by the usage of foot-operated door openers, disposable water cups and automatic soap/sanitiser dispensers. Covid-19 is predicted to compel corporations with dispersed supply chains to consolidate and localise to avoid recently seen disruptions, where lockdowns caused assembly lines to halt. If India aspires to be a manufacturing powerhouse, it would require companies to vertically integrate within its geography. For instance, vertical integration of a mobile phone requires local production of printed circuit boards, active and passive devices, integrated circuits, AV components, sensors, connectors, battery, display, etc. Covid-19 has been a saga of human sufferings, but now comforting prospects are emerging. Developing nations such as ours showed great character in combating this crisis. It derives strength from its large population, which is young and aspires to see India achieve its full economic potential. Manufacturing with its employment generation opportunities and revenue-generating potential will fulfil those aspirations. However, a tribute to our rich history can be made only by striving to become a 21st-century manufacturing powerhouse.
Source: Financial Express
The ongoing payments moratorium has achieved the limited purpose it was aimed at, and the Reserve Bank of India now has to look at providing restructuring relief to banks which would then determine who would qualify for loan recast, he said. The government and corporates have to open up their wallets to invest, and their actions should go hand-in-hand for a quick economic recovery since the vital middle class remains cautious amid ongoing unlocking of the economy, said State Bank ofIndia chairman Rajnish Kumar. In particular, investment in infrastructure should be stepped up, he added. The ongoing payments moratorium has achieved the limited purpose it was aimed at, and the Reserve Bank ofIndia now has to look at providing restructuring relief to banks which would then determine who would qualify for loan recast, he said. “It’s important that expenditure be stepped up by the government and corporates,” Kumar told ET in an interview. “The money which is put in the system will give a llip to consumption demand and infrastructure investment. The money put in the hands of people through direct benet transfers is helping boost rural demand. The middle class also plays a pivotal role, and for that segment to spend, the fear of Covid-19 has to go away.” As the lockdown continues for the fth month in one form or the other, industry and bankers are looking to revive businesses that are cash-strapped. There is a growing consensus that the moratorium may not be needed, but there should be exibility in loan repayments through restructuring and relaxing of provisioning norms for such rejig. “We don’t need an across-the-board moratorium now. We (are) saying that the future course of action should be left to the bank and the borrower,” said Kumar. “The current dispensation is that the account will be downgraded to a sub-standard asset and the bank will have to provide (for) 15%. What the RBI can do is if the bank is satised with the intent of the borrower and normalisation in cash ows, it can give some relief.” Although economic activity could shrink for the full scal year with some economists forecasting as much as 10% contraction in GDP, Kumar said the situation is improving. “In June, there has been a fairly good recovery and we saw that many industries have come back to 75-80% of their capacity utilisation levels. But there has been continued supply chain disruption because of the local lockdowns,” said Kumar. “In many cases, it so happens that a unit may be sourcing parts from an area where there is a lockdown and that is having an impact. Overall, I believe we are in a much better position than where we were in April and May.”
Source: Economic Times
The committee is expected to draw up a blueprint for making India the manufacturing hub for a dozen identied sectors including electronics, auto components, furniture and footwear. The meeting will also shortlist another eight sectors that have similar potential, the people said. As part of the initiatives to make India self-reliant, or Atmanirbhar, a committee has been formed under the aegis of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) with representatives from industry and the government…..
Source: Economic Times
Eight cities – Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune – are covered under the scheme. Cases taken up for faceless e-assessment are a mix of returns led by individuals, businesses, micro, small and medium enterprises as well as big companies. The income tax department plans to complete faceless e-assessments by next month, said SK Gupta, member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, adding that 8,700 cases of 58,319 selected, have been disposed of. “Our target is to nish all the cases by mid-September,” an official statement……….
Source: Economic Times
Nihilent is a pioneer in applying a human-centered approach to business problem-solving, especially within the context of digital innovation. Recently, Nihilent launched Covid-19 Mortality Incident Tracker (COMIT), a softwareas-a-service (SaaS) offering to help doctors and forensic pathologists to track and investigate the deaths that have been caused due to the pandemic. “Healthcare and medical institutions today are at the forefront in the fight against Covid-19 and it is very crucial to provide them with all the necessary tools, equipment and the right technology,” says LC Singh, director and executive vice chairman, Nihilent. An industry veteran, he founded Nihilent Technologies in 2000. In a recent interaction, he spoke to Sudhir Chowdhary about the latest IT trends and business plans for his venture. Excerpts: What are some of the technology trends you foresee in the post-Covid scenario? With Covid-19, we see a growing preference for low-touch interactions in customers. I expect numerous technologies to play a vital role, but the ones around interaction design, gamification, advanced analytics, data visualisation, robotic automation, virtual and augmented reality, distributed ledgers, geospatial analysis, Internet of Things, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing will hold the key. As for the Indian IT industry, we have come a long way since our humble beginnings, to tackling the Y2K bug, to now becoming the world’s de-facto IT office. Over the last three months, we showed our mettle yet again by tiding over unprecedented disruptions overnight using practical home-shoring delivery model, and keeping the lights on for global clients. Digital holds the key for every industry facing an existential crisis and I have no doubt that we are well-poised to exploit these emerging opportunities. What is the USP of Nihilent’s ‘Design Thinking’ framework and how can it transform customer experience? Nihilent is a pioneer in applying a human-centered approach to business problemsolving, especially within the context of digital innovation. Over the last few years, we made big investments and built state of the art interaction-experience design labs, which have today become the melting pot for innovation bringing together the creatives and the engineers. We have facilities in Pune and Johannesburg operating at full steam, and are now ready to open another one in Dallas. We have a large pool of passionate practitioners and continue to embed this philosophy into our daily solution design and delivery processes. This renewed vision and commitment to human-centered design, is what I would like to believe, will differentiate us in the coming days. What are the key focus verticals for Nihilent in India and what are the key solutions on offer? BFSI, media, healthcare, retail and manufacturing are the top focus for Nihilent and we continue to build tailored accelerators focused on specific industries and use cases. For the lending organisations, we launched ARM (Affinity Risk Model) to help build affinitybased red flags in credit scoring. We are ready to launch ReSense, an AI/ML based sales forecasting platform for the retail industry to make SKU level daily forecasts and recommend assortments. To manage private space and ensure social distancing norms according to government guidelines, we devised ARGUS, a powerful video analytics solution. A few more interesting solutions are in the works, which we plan to announce in the coming weeks. Nihilent recently launched a Covid-19 Mortality Incident Tracker (COMIT). What has been the market’s response to this solution? Covid-19 Mortality Incident Tracker (COMIT), launched last year, helps forensic pathologists and doctors track, investigate and record deaths from Covid-19 or comorbidity. We have designed COMIT as cloud based Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. We received encouraging responses from the US and India. Based on the feedback from our current deployments, we are working on enhancements on a war footing, for time is precious in our fight against the raging virus. Nihilent acquired Hypercollective earlier this year, what value did it add to your portfolio? With the acquisition of Hypercollective, a cross-disciplinary branding company, we seek to augment our expertise in digital technology with a deeper understanding of a purposeful brand and its attributes. We believe that the customer will continue to be the pull-propeller for businesses when it comes to transformation, and with our portfolio of consulting and delivery services spanning the brand, the customer experience, digital workplace, technology and infrastructure will enable us to become a true digital transformation partner for our clients.
Source: Financial Express
Turkey’s textile and garment industry urged the government to provide financial support, including tax exemptions and debt delays, to help the sector remain competitive during the coronavirus pandemic. Mustafa Gültepe, the chairman of the Istanbul Textile and Apparel Exporters Association (ITKIB), said Tuesday that the industry experienced a 16.5% contraction in exports during the January-July period compared to the previous year following the global demand plunge induced by the pandemic. Gültepe noted that the sector initially set a target of a 10% increase in exports for 2020 but had to revise these projections after orders drastically declined in March following the global spread of the virus. “There was a 27.4% contraction in March and 61.6% in April. In May, exports declined by 48.2%, meaning exports decreased by 26.1% in the first five months compared to last year,” Gültepe said. He noted that the monthslong closure of clothing shops and businesses in the country during the peak of the pandemic contracted the domestic market, putting additional pressure on the sector. The sector recorded an upward trend in July, however, posting a 25% increase in exports thanks to the gradual reopening of world economies and the rapid recovery in the European Union markets, Gültepe said. Gültepe said the industry is seeking the lifting of customs duties that were recently introduced for imports of intermediate products used in textile factories such as zippers, buttons and fasteners. “Customs duties were increased for fabric and yarn products. We expect the government to revise the additional taxes that negatively affect our competitiveness,” he said, adding that the sector is expecting the value-added tax (VAT), premium payments and loan repayments to be postponed for one year. Gültepe also thanked the government for paying a portion of the salaries for three months of those at firms forced to pause business due to the pandemic. New opportunities for Turkish exporters in post-pandemic textile sector Gültepe noted that Turkey could benefit from new configurations made in supply chains after the pandemic due to its strategic location. “Global brands plan to move their supply chains closer to home following the pandemic, which puts Turkey in an advantageous position in the European Union and U.K. markets,” he said. He also mentioned that the ongoing trade war between China and the U.S. could push American apparel companies to consider Turkey as an alternative production base. “We think we could secure $5 billion of exports from the U.S. market in the medium- to long-term.”
Source: The Daily Sabah
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has directed all public agencies to source garments, textiles and vehicles from domestic producers in the country. Speaking at the unveiling of the first Volkswagen assembled vehicles on Monday, 3rd August 2020, President Akufo-Addo explained that when COVID-19 reared its head in Ghana, one of the key objectives set by Government, in response, was to use the challenge of the pandemic as an opportunity to inspire the expansion of the country's domestic capability, and deepen our self-reliance. "To wit, we want to rely on the things we make and grow, not on the things we import. Indeed, the pandemic has disrupted the global supply chain, but it is also opening up opportunities for us to enhance our industrial, productive capacity, increase our agricultural output to engender our food security, and, generally, boost Ghanaian exports to markets in the continent and beyond," he said. A clear case in point, according to the President, has been the country's recent experience in the garment and textiles sector, with the onset of COVID-19. "With the support of Government, our, hitherto, dormant domestic garment factories have, over the past few months, been revived, and have been able to produce, currently, fifteen million face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPEs) for frontline health workers, and for all those, i.e. students, teaching and non-teaching staff, involved in the partial reopening of our junior and senior high schools, universities and other tertiary institutions," he said. President Akufo-Addo continued, "This has saved our nation millions of dollars in foreign exchange, and, at a time of job losses, has created jobs for thousands of people, especially young people, across the country. These job opportunities would have, otherwise, gone to foreigners in distant shores, had we chosen to import these PPEs." Government, the President stressed "is determined to continue this development with appropriate policy, including insisting that all public agencies purchase, henceforth, their textile and garment needs from domestic sources." He added that Government wants to replicate this example in all other sectors of the economy, including the automobile industry, adding that "we want to assemble and produce vehicles in Ghana, and, thereby, reduce, eventually, our over-reliance on the importation of used vehicles." To this end, President Akufo-Addo said the Chief of Staff at the Office of the President, has issued, recently, a new directive to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, and, indeed, to the Public Procurement Authority, to give first preference to the acquisition of locally assembled vehicles, when public funds are used to buy vehicles. He revealed further that, in the Finance Minister's Mid-Year Budget Review Statement to Parliament, Government is going to establish an Automobile Industry Development Support Centre, which will, amongst others, co-ordinate the technical processes for licensing domestic vehicle assemblers and manufacturers, and monitor, also, their compliance with industry regulations and standards. The Centre, in addition, will also co-ordinate the implementation of an essential element of a viable automotive sector, that is the establishment of a Vehicle Financing Scheme, which will link financial institutions to individuals and groups interested in purchasing newly-assembled vehicles in Ghana. "Furthermore, the Centre will carry out an Automotive Skills Enhancement Programme to provide requisite skills for the various categories of the value chain of the automobile industry. All these measures are situate in the context of the Ghana Automotive Development Policy," he added.
Source: Ghana Presidency
The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and Higg Co have released a new version of the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (Higg MSI), the leading tool to assess the environmental impact of materials in the apparel, footwear, and textile industry. The Higg MSI can calculate the environmental impacts of millions of possible material manufacturing variations. Higg MSI empowers brands, retailers, and manufacturers to compare material life-cycle assessment data and make more sustainable design and materials choices. In this new version release, the Higg MSI now offers an enhanced user experience, a new database and updated scoring. “The release of the updated Higg MSI is a big milestone for the industry because it provides more accurate and detailed information, allowing users to dive more deeply into material assessment,” Amina Razvi, executive director of the SAC, said in a press release. “With increased use and shared data, the Higg MSI will continue to evolve and become even stronger, helping to drive collective action.” Key updates to the 2020 Higg MSI include: new interface offering an enhanced user experience; migration from a standalone website to the Higg.org platform, alongside other Higg tools; addition of a packaging library, comparisons, and customisation; addition of a trims and components library, comparisons, and customisation; ability to customise transportation distances and modes between processing steps; and new process level loss rates, ensuring material assessments include consideration for process efficiencies. “We use the Higg MSI to understand and measure the environmental impact of Salomon’s materials, we have already scored more than 800 materials so far,” Céline Mazars, Salomon material manager of Footwear, said. “The final objective is to score our footwear products and be able to give environmental visibility to our end consumer and our B2B clients. In addition, with the Higg MSI, we can communicate about sustainability transparently with our suppliers and collaborate globally to make more sustainable products.” “The Higg MSI was developed specially for the textile industry through global industrywide consensus. Before the Higg MSI, no tool in the apparel industry offered common criteria for life-cycle assessments, methodology, and procedures,” Hidenori Terai, general manager, fibers & textiles GR & LI business planning dept, Toray Industries, said in the release. The Higg MSI captures how the five environmental impacts would change based on different raw material or production process options, such as switching from batch dyeing to continuous dyeing. In this example, users can see that the switch would typically reduce the amount of water and energy used when dyeing a fabric. Higg MSI users can also customise how their companies uniquely produce materials and use Higg MSI data to help them make more sustainable choices.
Source: Fibre2Fashion
The US trade deficit fell in June for the first time since February as exports posted a record increase, rising twice as fast as imports. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that the gap between the value of what the United States buys and what it sells abroad fell 7.5 per cent to $50.7 billion in June from $54.8 billion in May. Exports shot up an unprecedented 9.4 per cent to $158.3 billion. Imports rose 4.7 per cent to $208.9 billion. Global commerce has been hammered by the coronavirus pandemic. Compared to June 2019, total US trade — exports plus imports — plunged 21.9 per cent in June to $367.2 billion. But two-way trade rebounded from May to June, rising 6.7 per cent on a surge in both exports and imports of cars and auto parts. “The latest trade figures confirm that both exports and imports began rebounding in June, and we expect a continued recovery over the coming months as production catches up with the recovery in consumption,” said Michael Pearce, senior US economist at Capital Economics. The politically sensitive deficit in the trade of goods with China fell 4 per cent to $26.7 billion in June.
Source: Business Standard
Resurgence in COVID cases may halt economy comeback. Despite broad indications that the economy has begun to recover as businesses reopen from the coronavirus pandemic, conflicting data makes it difficult to say how steadily the comeback will continue, according to National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz. “Big questions are looming, and we are all grappling to discern what incoming data is telling us about the health of the economy and consumers.” – NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz “Optimism about the economy and retail spending is being tested daily with the spread of the coronavirus,” Kleinhenz said. “Big questions are looming, and we are all grappling to discern what incoming data is telling us about the health of the economy and consumers. Depending on the data selected, the answers are not entirely clear.” “A key question is whether the pace of growth and momentum will carry forward over the next few months,” Kleinhenz said. “Based on quarterly and monthly data, the U.S. economic recovery continues despite elevated COVID-19 cases. But in examining weekly data, the pace of improvement appears to be slowing. Could it be that we are at or heading back to the same spot we were at two months ago?” Kleinhenz’s remarks came in the August issue of NRF’s Monthly Economic Review, which said monthly indicators showed the economy improving in May and June but that more frequent data showed the pace of recovery flattening by mid-July. Economists traditionally look at monthly and quarterly numbers to gauge the status of businesses and consumers. But the release of that data lags weeks behind when it is collected. And with the situation changing rapidly since the outbreak of the coronavirus early this year, more frequent information has been needed to keep up. In response, the Federal Reserve and others have begun tracking some indicators as often as weekly. Consumer spending was up 8.2 percent in May, for example, ending two consecutive months of decline, and up another 5.6 percent in June. Meanwhile, retail spending as calculated by NRF – excluding automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants to focus on core retail – was up 4.9 percent in June. Monthly numbers for July are not available yet. But the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Weekly Economic Index – a composite of indicators – worsened from -6.65 percent on July 18 to -7.24 percent as of July 25, with officials citing a decrease in retail sales. The weekly Mobility and Engagement Index from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas also showed the economy leveling off in mid-July. In the labor market, 4.8 million jobs were added in June as the unemployment rate ticked down to 11.1 percent from 13 percent in May. The monthly jobs data, however, was collected before the recent resurgence in COVD-19 cases. By contrast, weekly data showed that 1.4 million initial unemployment claims were filed the week of July 18. That was a rise of about 100,000 from the week before and reversed a steady decline in claims since a peak of 6.9 million the last week of March. While many of the weekly reports initially agreed with the monthly data and “showed the economy on a good start down the recovery runway, they now suggest that the economy is moving sideways,” Kleinhenz said. “Time will tell, but the bottom line is that the economy is far from being out of the woods. The question is whether it is re-entering the woods.” With many economists saying the timeline of the recovery will be determined by the efforts to control the virus, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland conducted a survey in early July that found 89.9 percent of those polled wear a mask for activities such as shopping in a grocery store. The bank said it conducted the survey because masks “have the potential to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 without greatly disrupting economic activity.”
Source: Home Textiles Today
