Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet top executives of banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) on September 3 to review the implementation of the resolution framework for stress in bank loans, caused by the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic. The meeting comes ahead of the expected announcement of the KV Kamath-led panel’s recommendations on eligibility parameters for the restructuring of loans to soften the blow to both borrowers and the lenders in the wake of the pandemic. “The review will focus on enabling businesses and households to avail of the revival framework on the basis of viability, necessary steps like finalising bank policies and identifying borrowers, and discussing issues that require addressing for smooth and speedy implementation,” the finance ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India extended a special window for lenders to recast stressed retail and corporate loans without classifying them as non-performing, provided that they set aside 10% provisions on such advances. RBI governor Shaktikanta Das has said a resolution framework for covid-19-related stressed accounts will be finalised by September 6. Already, banks have started internal processes to gauge the extent of the likely loan restructuring exercise. For instance, Punjab National Bank (PNB) saw about 5-6% of its loan book, or between Rs 36,000 crore and Rs 43,000 crore, getting recast in FY21, its managing director S S Mallikarjuna Rao said last week. Of course, a clearer picture will emerge after the Kamath panel prescribes the contours of the recast scheme, Rao added. The current repayment moratorium will expire on Monday after six months. In its Financial Stability Report, the RBI has forecast that gross non-performing assets (NPAs) may jump from 8.5% at the end of March 2020 to 12.5%, a 20-year peak, by March 2021. However, the NPA level may shoot to 14.7% by March 2021 in case of a severity of economic stress.
Source: Financial Express
Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways and H.E. Tran Tuan Anh, Minister of Industry and Trade of Vietnam co-chaired the 17th ASEAN-India Economic Ministers Consultations held virtually on 29th August 2020. The meeting was attended by the Trade Ministers of all the 10 ASEAN countries Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to take collective actions in mitigating the economic impact of the pandemic and resolved to ensure macroeconomic and financial stability and resilient supply chain connectivity, particularly the unimpeded flow of essential goods and medicines in the region, in compliance with the WTO rules. The Ministers’ discussion centred on the review of the ASEAN India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA). The Ministers appreciated the growing trade ties and deepening economic engagement between two parties. The report of the ASEAN India Business Council (AIBC) was placed before the Ministers. The AIBC Report has recommended that the AITIGA be reviewed for mutual benefit. The Ministers from India and ASEAN countries instructed the senior officials to start the discussions to determine the scope of the review at the earliest to, inter-alia, make the Free Trade Agreement more user-friendly, simple, and trade facilitative for businesses. The review will make the Agreement modern with contemporary trade facilitative practices, and streamlined customs and regulatory procedures. Initiating the discussion, Shri Goyal highlighted that the Free Trade Agreement has to be mutually beneficial and a win-win for all sides. Shri Goyal expressed the need to strengthen the Rules of Origin provisions, work towards removal of non-tariff barriers and provide better market access. Minister Goyal reiterated India’s consistent position that the review of the AITIGA has been inordinately delayed and requested for closer engagement towards finalization of the scoping exercise, before the ASEAN-India Leaders’ Summit scheduled in November 2020 and to start the full review before the end of this year. Minister Goyal also stated that India and ASEAN shared a close friendship, strongly tied with historical, cultural and traditional bonds and this relationship will continue to grow for the prosperity of the people of India and the ASEAN countries. India also made suggestions to further strengthen the AIBC and the Forum agreed to consider these suggestions to deepen the economic engagement between the two parties.
Source: PIB
Referring to the Indo-Pacific region as the “centre of geopolitics” in the future, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav suggested that the government could show some flexibility on the issue of joining the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) free trade agreement. The RCEP grouping’s ministerial meetings last week also announced they would leave the path “open for India” to rejoin the agreement, if India were to reconsider its position before the agreement is signed this November. “Should the decision [to walk out of] RCEP be taken as the final decision, or should we still keep one window open?” Mr. Madhav asked, speaking at a webinar organised by New Delhi-based Indo-American Friendship Association (IAFA) last week, on India’s Foreign Policy under Prime Minister Modi. “Because if you want to be a good global player, you cannot be out of all institutions and then say you want to be a global player. So India must play its cards carefully and with much more thinking in the Indo-Pacific region,” he added. In November 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at a meeting in Bangkok that India would drop out of the RCEP negotiations with ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) and partners China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, primarily due to its concerns over having its markets overrun with Chinese goods. Since then, despite several attempts by the RCEP countries to invite Indian negotiators to talks on trade, the Ministry of Commerce has repeated the government’s refusal. Negotiations have made “significant progress” said RCEP country ministers in a joint statement on Thursday, with plans to finalise the RCEP agreement in November 2020. In the past few months, the RCEP Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC) has held a meeting in Indonesia in February, followed by three rounds of negotiations (29th-31st rounds) through videoconferences as well as two ministerial meetings. India has declined to attend any of the meetings including the 8th Trade Ministerial meeting on August 27. India had also turned down a proposal from the TNC in April this year to reconsider its objections to giving market access for a “limited number of products”, if New Delhi would rejoin. “The Ministers... reiterated that the RCEP remains open for India given that not only had it participated in the RCEP negotiations since they were launched in 2012 but also in recognition of the potential of India to contribute to the region’s prosperity,” a joint statement read issued at the meeting on August . A Japanese trade official quoted by Kyodo News agency also said “each country will make its own efforts in getting India back to the talks.” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who stepped down this week due to health problems, was expected to make a last-minute push for India to rejoin RCEP during a proposed visit by Mr. Modi to Japan for the India-Japan summit scheduled for September or October this year. It is unclear whether the visit will proceed as planned in the light of Mr. Abe’s resignation. However, government officials have maintained that there is no change in India’s stand and even that the economic disruption and questions over global supply chain dependence on China during the coronavirus pandemic have “reinforced and retaliated” India’s decision to stay out of the RCEP. In his comments Mr. Madhav clarified that he referred to the leaving “only a window, not a door” open for future possibilities with RCEP. “This government understands that India’s future lies to the east of its geography. The effort has been to review the orientation of the foreign policy establishment, which is very entrenched...We are so westward bound, westward Ho, it is [difficult] to convince the establishment that our interests and future is in the east: the Act East [policy], the Indo Pacific is the epicentre of 21st century geopolitics,” Mr. Madhav said.
Source: The Hindu
The government on Monday extended by 2 months the due date for filing of annual GST returns for 2019-20 by composition dealers to October 31. This is the second extension in as many months given by the government. The original deadline for filing the return was July 15, which was earlier extended till August 31. The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) in a tweet said, “Last date GSTR 4 for FY 2019-20 extended to 31st October 2020”. Goods and Services Tax (GST) composition scheme can be opted by any taxpayer whose turnover is up to Rs 1.5 crore.
Source: Financial Express
Speaking on this occasion, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal reiterated that the Modi government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiaive “does not mean a protectionist India”. Economic ministers from the 10 Asean members and eight other nations, including India, the US and China, have highlighted the importance of strengthening regional supply chains to make them resilient in times of heightened challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and to spur economic growth. As per a joint statement after the 8th East Asia Summit (Economic Ministers’ Meeting) held on Friday, the ministers “reaffirmed their commitment to promote trade and investment, minimise disruptions to trade and global supply chains and facilitate supply chain connectivity, including for essential goods such as medical supplies, medicines, including vaccines, food, commodities and other essential supplies and services in the region”. Reiterating their support for the “necessary reform” of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the ministers pledged to continue to work together “to realise a free, fair, transparent, non-discriminatory, predictable, and stable trade environment, and affirmed the importance of agreed-upon rules in the WTO”. “The ministers agreed that any trade restrictive emergency measures put in place to address the impact of Covid-19 must be targeted, proportionate, transparent, temporary, consistent with WTO rules and do not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption of global and regional supply chains,” according to the joint statement released Saturday. Speaking on this occasion, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal reiterated that the Modi government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative “does not mean a protectionist India”. But it is about “up- scaling the growth of Indian industry, its skills and capabilities to make them resilient and less vulnerable to shocks and integrating our industries with the global supply chains,” he said. The meeting comes at a critical juncture when the pandemic has not just posed an unprecedented health crisis but also caused a sharp contraction in economic activities, disrupting trade and investments. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted a 4.9% contraction for 2020 global GDP, warning that the Covid-19 outbreak has plunged the global economy into its worst recession since the Great Depression in 1930s. The WTO, too, had in April warned that global trade volume growth could crash by 13-32% in 2020. The meeting was chaired by Vietnam’s industry and trade minister Tran Tuan Anh. Apart from Goyal, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and economic ministers from China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Australia and New Zealand also attended the virtual meeting.
Source: Financial Express
When Sunit Jain heard about a virus ravaging Wuhan in late January, he booked a ticket to see potential clients in the US, Chile and Peru. The Jaipur-based exporter of home linens, garments and paper products sensed an opportunity as Chinese factories closed due to a strict lockdown. “I was hopeful that the pandemic would benefit us in India, but that is not how it panned out," Jain said. He is glad he didn’t go as he would have been stranded in Latin America, but that is the only good fortune his business has had in 2020. US retailers such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Pier 1 Imports have all filed for bankruptcy. Jain’s Ratan Textiles now finds itself competing against deeply discounted prices—set at liquidation sales—of such companies. For Jain, it sometimes feels as if the skies have fallen in. Speaking the day after a huge downpour brought Jaipur to a standstill, he said, “It’s been quite an unfortunate year. My personal goal is to keep the team intact. And to survive till March." Businesses worldwide are reeling from the collateral damage of the covid-19 pandemic, but for export-oriented firms reliant on a narrow band of commodities—ranging from jewellery to garments and leather—these are the worst of times. These goods also happen to be primarily produced by India’s labourintensive small and medium-sized industries. In textiles and apparel, which has been among India’s top 10 export items, the dwindling number of large retailers in the US has left domestic firms heavily dependent on contracts from discount stores and the exacting demands of fast fashion companies. Unexpected local challenges have amplified the pain. Freight containers have been in short supply because the huge drop in imports has meant fewer containers are arriving at Indian ports. Production costs have also gone up as factories grapple with a shortage of skilled migrant workers. The larger problem is that for the past five years or so, the country’s most labour-intensive export industries have either not grown appreciably or have actually declined. Capitalintensive exports, from engineering goods to electronics to refined petroleum products, have done somewhat better. The Reserve Bank of India recently estimated that gems and jewellery and real estate are the sectors with the highest quantum of bad loans, about 25%.
Self-reliant
India Against this backdrop, the Narendra Modi-led government’s push for a self-reliant India is potentially the most complicated problem of all for small and mid-sized exporters. Changing import regulations and tariffs effectively push up the price of imported inputs, often needed for export items. From 21 September, just as firms complete shipping crucial Christmas orders in this calamity of a year, they will start facing the compliance nightmare of having to certify the origin of imported inputs. The new rules are similar to those of the Trump White House. They may be legitimately aimed at preventing Chinese goods from being routed in via Asean countries, but India’s companies could face sourcing problems. The combination of a Modi government focused on import substitution and the continual rethink of the strategy on free trade agreements, while the rupee remains overvalued, could result in the liquidation of many labourintensive export firms this year. In the past five years, leather exports have declined from $6.2 billion to $4.8 billion, textiles and garments from $34.8 billion to $32.3 billion and gems and jewellery from $41.2 billion to $35.8 billion. These trends remained broadly in place in July, the most recent month. Gems and jewellery exports declined by 50% year-on-year and leather and man-made yarn by about a quarter, though cotton yarn and handloom products grew by 7%. The irony is that India desperately needs these industries to flourish, along with construction and tourism. These industries use much more labour than a chemical plant or a machine manufacturer. In a 2018 article, former NITI Aayog chairman Arvind Panagariya compared Reliance Industries Ltd.’s employees and total assets with those of Shahi Exports, India’s largest apparel manufacturer. He found that for an equivalent investment, Shahi created 252 times as many jobs as RIL did. India needs to create jobs at a record pace to arrest the growth of what is already the largest cohort of under-employed labour in the world; according to a McKinsey & Co. report released last week, India needs as many as 90 million to 145 million additional non-farm jobs by 2030. “One of the salient characteristics of Indian economic policy is that while Reliance may enjoy a terms-of-trade advantage, labour-intensive industries are ‘dis-protected’," said Sebastian Morris, a professor of economics at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.
Source : Live Mint
MUMBAI - The Indian rupee retreated from near six-month highs on Monday afternoon after reports of fresh border tensions with China came to light, said traders. India said it had foiled an attempt by Chinese troops to change the status quo on their disputed and ill-defined border in a fresh flare-up between the two nuclear-armed countries. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 73.62/63 per dollar by 0707 GMT, compared with its previous close of 73.39 on Friday and much weaker than the 73.25 level hit earlier in the session - its strongest since March 5. "We have seen sharp gains in the rupee last week and early today, so the fresh round of border issues meant an immediate sell trigger for most," a trader with a private bank said. Earlier in the day, the rupee gained tracking losses in the dollar and a rise in Asian peers. The dollar was poised to register its fourth straight monthly drop in August. Traders said month-end dollar demand from importers also weighed on the rupee and that the local currency could continue to see a 73-73.80 range in the absence of dollar buying intervention by the central bank. The June-quarter GDP data due to be released at 1200 GMT is being closely monitored for further direction. According to a Reuters poll, India's economy contracted 20% in the first quarter of 2020/21, its worst performance in decades.
Source: Business Standard
Chief Minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani interacted with leading industrialists and corporate investors of India regarding the New Industrial Policy 2020 via video conference in Gandhinagar. The webinar was organized by Industries and Mines department, Government of Gujarat in partnership with key industry bodies – Associated Chambers of Commerce (ASSOCHAM), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). Chief Minister Vijay Rupani while releasing the policy booklet expressed his gratitude towards industry for their support and resilience demonstrated during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. He highlighted that Gujarat is at the forefront in embracing the Prime Minister’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat in true spirit and has become the first state to respond to this call to action by the release of the new Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 that aims to create an enabling ecosystem driven by this vision. He informed that the new Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 is a progressive and bold step that aims to instill the idea of ‘Minimum Government and Maximum Governance’ with first of its kind initiatives in India. Anil Mukim, State Chief Secretary highlighted that while Gujarat attracted big-ticket investments in the manufacturing and services sector, the Government has also focused on the development of the MSME sector. M K Das, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister and Industries and Mines Department laid-out the fine points of the new Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020. He also highlighted that Gujarat for enhancing the ease of doing business introduced several measures such as exemption to new companies from all labour laws for a period of 1,000 days, the exemption to MSMEs from obtaining permissions for a period of three years and the Gujarat Single Window Portal. As a testimony to the transparent and forward-looking policies, several key industries came forward to announce their investment plans in Gujarat. Major industrial projects worth to the tune of Rs 10,500-crore were announced by companies like Vedanta (Rs 4,500 crores – Metals), Kiri Industries (Rs 3000 crore – Specialty Chemicals), Welspun Group (Rs 2000 crore – Textiles), and UNO Minda Group (Rs 1,000 crore – Engineering).The online session was attended by Indian industry leaders and investors, who praised the visionary and dynamic measures introduced in the new Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020.
Source: The Dispatch
According to the joint statement, the ministers recognised the importance of facilitating essential movement of people across borders, without undermining each country's efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, to stabilise the trade and investment. Economic and trade ministers of 18 countries, including India, the US, and China, at the East Asia Summit agreed that trade restrictive measures taken to address the impact of coronavirus pandemic must be transparent and temporary, according to a statement. The ministers also emphasised that trade measures in view of COVID-19 should not create unnecessary barriers or disruptions in the global and regional supply chains, the statement released after the eighth East Asia Summit Economic Ministers' Meeting (EASEMM), held virtually on August 28, said. Economic ministers from 10 ASEAN-member countries, Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the US took part in the meeting. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal participated in the deliberations. According to the joint statement, the ministers recognised the importance of facilitating essential movement of people across borders, without undermining each country's eorts to prevent the spread of the virus, to stabilise the trade and investment. "The ministers agreed that any trade restrictive emergency measures put in place to address the impact of COVID-19 must be targeted, proportionate, transparent, temporary, consistent with WTO (orld Trade Organisation) rules and do not create unnecessary barriers to trade or disruption of global and regional supply chains," it said. It added that the participating countries exchanged views on how to accelerate economic growth, maintain supply chains and market stability, and strengthen the economic resilience of the EAS region post COVID-19 pandemic. They also discussed the importance of harnessing the opportunities of digital economy. "The ministers reiterated their support for the necessary reform of the WTO. The ministers will continue to work together to realize a free, fair, transparent, non-discriminatory, predictable, and stable trade environment, and airmed the importance of agreed upon rules in the WTO, which can enhance market predictability and business confidence," it added. India and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) are key trading partners. They have implemented a free trade agreement to boost bilateral commerce.
Source: Economic Times
New Delhi: India has begun an investigation to review the need to continue imposing anti-dumping duty on 2-Ethyl Hexanol from the EU, the US, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan with the existing duties on the product expiring on March 28, 2021. The Andhra Petrochemicals Limited has sought continuation of the duty on the product which is used in solvents, avours, and fragrances, citing the likelihood of recurrence of dumping. “The Authority hereby initiates a sunset review investigation to review the need for continued imposition of antidumping duty on 2-Ethyl Hexanol from European Union, Indonesia, Korea RP, Malaysia, Taiwan and United States of America,” the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) said in a notification. The existing antidumping duty on the product was imposed on March 29, 2016. DGTR, the investigation arm of the commerce and industry ministry, recommends such duties but the power to impose them lies with the finance ministry. The period of investigation for the present investigation is April 2019 to March 2020 and the injury period will cover FY17-FY20 “The Authority notes that there is prima facie evidence of dumping and consequential injury to the domestic industry on account of volume effect i.e. increase in imports, decline in production, capacity utilization, sales and market share and price effect due to price depression leading to reduction in profits, cash profits and return on capital employed,” DGTR said. It also said the data provided by the applicant on the increased imports inspite of duties imposed, third countries dumping, price attractiveness of the Indian market, injurious exports to other countries, export orientation of the producers in the subject countries, capacity expansion and significant share in demand in India of the imports from the subject countries also prima facie indicate a likelihood of dumping and consequential injury on cessation of the antidumping duty.
Source: Economic Times
About 3 lakh weavers, especially from Varanasi, say they have been pushed to the wall by the Adityanath government, the pandemic and economic slowdown. Powerloom weavers across Uttar Pradesh are up in arms against the sudden rise in power tariffs by the state electricity board which, they claim, has increased overheads and may lead to complete closure of the textile weaving industry, including the famous Banarasi sarees. Distressed by the Adityanath-led Bharatiya Janata Party government’s “neglect”, the weavers, under the banner of Varanasi Handloom Weavers Association, have decided to switch off their looms for an indefinite period from September 1. More than one lakh shops and powerloom weavers in the state are expected to join the strike call given by association, which claimed that the condition of weavers in Varanasi – the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was grim. Weavers were once the pride of Varanasi, and were already struggling due to various economic reasons, but their plight has become worse after the power tariff hike and due to COVID-19-induced lockdown since March. There have been reports of how some weavers had been compelled to pawn jewellery, houses and even their powerlooms for survival. Iftekhar Ahmed Ansari, president of the Uttar Pradesh Weavers' Association, said the electricity tariff rate for powerloom weavers had been increased significantly. Ever since the UP government did away with the flat tariff rate for weavers, lakhs them were badly hit. Ansari alleged that the electricity department was harassing weavers by asking to pay arbitrary bills. "Since 2006, the electricity bill was being paid at flat rates. We used to pay Rs 71.5/month for a powerloom. Today, this rate has increased manifold. Now the bill for each powerloom comes to around Rs 1,500," Ansari told NewsClick, adding that weavers were unable to pay this amount due to mounting financial difficulties following economic slowdown and the pandemic-induced lockdown. This is why a meeting of the steering committee of the Uttar Pradesh Weavers' Association decided that the weavers will shut down their powerlooms for an indefinite period from September 1. Sharing the ordeal of weavers, Ansari further said: "Even after this (the indefinite strike), if the government does not reduce the electricity rates, weavers of Varanasi would cut off their electricity connections forever”. The association president said that a weavers’ delegation had also met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in this regard and were assured that they would be charged at the old rate. But this has proved to be nothing but mere lip service. Accusing the Yogi government for changing the tariff scheme to get rid of the “increasing burden of subsidy” and “prevent misuse”, the association said powerloom weavers will now be exempted from the flat rate to a certain number of power units every month. Small powerlooms (up to 0.5 horsepower) will be given a rebate of Rs 3.5 per unit to 120 units and large powerlooms (up to one horsepower) to the extent of 240 units every month. Meanwhile, the assistant director (handlooms) Nitesh Dhawan, has admitted that the new power tariff plan had left the textile industry worried. “We have written a letter to the state government, with a request to sympathetically look at the weavers”, he told NewsClick.
WEAVERS DEMAND POWER SUBSIDY
The biggest demand of powerloom weavers in Varanasi is subsidy, which has been changed since January this year. In fact, in December last year, the Yogi Adityanath cabinet had decided that powerloom weavers would get a bill after meter reading every month instead of flat rate, and only a certain number of bills would be exempted. Akhtar Nabi, a weaver who lives in Nakki Ghat of Varanasi, said: “We used to pay Rs 150 a month till now for electricity. Now this will come to between Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000. If we pay so much, what will be left for labourers?” Nabi said work started slowly returning to a 'new normal' after months of standstill, when government people arrived to collect outstanding bills. Adil Zubair, secretary of Bunkar Mahasabha, said, electricity on fixed rates under the powerloom scheme should be restored immediately. "Ever since the subsidy was withdrawn by the state government in January last year, most of the weavers have been forced to look at another business," he said, adding that if these conditions continue, over 50% weavers will have to sell their machines and leave the profession. "The government did not help us in the lockdown. The powerloom employs skilled labour. A lot of foreign exchange is earned from it. Tourism gets a boost. The government is getting Rs 12,000 crore from GST, but it is paying no heed to weavers,” he said. Elaborating on the 2006 flat electricity rate, Zubair said the then Mulayam Singh Yadav government had gifted this subsidy to weavers of the state. Under the scheme, a weaver was charged Rs 65 for a 0.5 horsepower loom, while a higher horsepower loom was charged Rs 130 from the weaver every month. For 10 years the weavers got the benefit of subsidy, but in 2015-16 the scheme was handed over to the Department of Handlooms and Textiles. Mohd. Luqman, who sold his four powerloom machines during the lockdown said: “We did not have any order after March 22, and our old dues were also not being cleared by traders and middlemen. Power dues were also accumulating and feeding our families was proving to be difficult. My family decided to sell the machines. For two machines we got Rs 55,000 while two others were sold for Rs 40,000. With Rs 1.5 lakh collected by selling the machines, we have started a grocery shop," he said. The corona pandemic and lockdown have deepened the weavers' crisis. Several skilled weavers and artisans have been forced to work in construction sites, selling vegetables, running e- rickshaw or running confectionery shops to make ends meet. 3 LAKH
POWER LOOMS WILL COME TO STANDSTILL
The weavers union says there are about three lakh powerloom machines in the state and 15 lakh weavers are directly connected to those. From September 1, all these people will be rendered unemployed if the government does not change its decision, as it will not be possible to run the looms in future. The weaver unions said the COVID-19 had added to their woes as all earning had stopped. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) and some concerned individuals, who extended help to the needy weavers during the crisis, are also becoming helpless as their financial condition has also started worsening.
Source: News Click
Raymond, one of India's largest suit makers recently re-opened most of its 1,000-plus stores across the country Given how work from home (WFH) is shaping dress codes, the power suit seems to be going the same way as the three-martini business lunch. Back in the 1960s, ’70s and, to some extent, the ’80s, the noontime lunches embodied how movers and shakers closed big deals. Today, three-martini lunches are no longer in vogue. And it appears, crisp business suits, too, are falling out of favour — for the time being, at least. Master tailors, textile manufacturers and custom clothiers, however, say the upcoming festive season, reinvention in the form of new collections and digital ...
Source: Business Standard
|
Item |
Price |
Unit |
Fluctuation |
Date |
|
PSF |
793.29 |
USD/Ton |
-0.28% |
01-09-2020 |
|
VSF |
1239.93 |
USD/Ton |
0.12% |
01-09-2020 |
|
ASF |
1723.79 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
Polyester POY |
744.40 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
Nylon FDY |
1948.57 |
USD/Ton |
0.38% |
01-09-2020 |
|
40D Spandex |
4086.88 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
Nylon POY |
5254.56 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
Acrylic Top 3D |
948.74 |
USD/Ton |
-0.76% |
01-09-2020 |
|
Polyester FDY |
1846.39 |
USD/Ton |
0.80% |
01-09-2020 |
|
Nylon DTY |
1897.48 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
Viscose Long Filament |
926.85 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
Polyester DTY |
2211.29 |
USD/Ton |
0.33% |
01-09-2020 |
|
30S Spun Rayon Yarn |
1722.33 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
32S Polyester Yarn |
1364.73 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
45S T/C Yarn |
2196.70 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
40S Rayon Yarn |
1882.88 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
T/R Yarn 65/35 32S |
1700.43 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
45S Polyester Yarn |
1532.58 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
T/C Yarn 65/35 32S |
2072.63 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
10S Denim Fabric |
1.15 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
32S Twill Fabric |
0.64 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
40S Combed Poplin |
0.94 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
|
30S Rayon Fabric |
0.48 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
01-09-2020 |
Source: Global Textiles
Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.14596 USD dtd. 01-09-2020 is not responsible for the correctness of the same.
Vietnam achieved a record trade surplus of $11.9 billion in the first eight months as imports declined due to the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Imports fell by 2.2 percent to $162.2 billion while exports rose by 1.6 percent to $174.1 billion, according to the General Statistics Office. Exports of five items exceeded $10 billion each: smartphones, electronics-computers, textile-garments, machinery-equipment, and footwear. The U.S. was the largest market, buying $46.7 billion worth of exports, up 19 percent, followed by China and the E.U. Imports to serve manufacturing fell by 1.7 percent to $152 billion, while those of consumer goods were down 9.2 percent to $10 billion. China was the largest exporter to Vietnam ($49.3 billion), followed by South Korea, ASEAN and Japan. "The Covid-19 pandemic continues to have negative impacts on Vietnam’s trade activities," the General Statistics Office said in a statement. Last year the trade surplus had risen 21 percent to $3.4 billion.
Source: Vietnam Express
The Export Development Board (EDB) yesterday welcomed the Government’s decision reactivate the Export Development Council (EDC), noting that it will be a game-changer in the post-COVID-19 economic transformation of Sri Lanka. “Reactivating the EDC is an incredible news to the export community. For several years we have never had this type of a functioning body or a cohesive methodology to resolve our problems related to exports. The new EDC will work in tandem with the national export strategy and be a game-changer for the economy,” EDB Chairman Prabhash Subasinghe told the Daily FT. Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena on Saturday revealed that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has gazetted the establishment of an Export Development Council of Ministers in terms of the EDB Act No.2 (1). The EDC is subject to any general or special directions given by the Cabinet of Ministers, and is responsible for the formulation and implementation of National Export Development (NES) policies and programs. The EDC will be chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and comprise ministers in charge of the subjects of trade, shipping, industries, agriculture, plantation industries, textile industries, fisheries, finance, foreign affairs, planning and rural industries.“This (EDC) will be a game-changer for the export community,” Subasinghe said, adding that he believes President Rajapaksa will guide Sri Lanka’s economy through directions given to EDC while also attending to the inter-ministerial coordination. Renewing EDB’s confidence that exports will continue to grow in the post-COVID era, Subasinghe said the move amplifies the importance of the sector in economic revival. Noting that this is also the first policy move by the new Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena, the EDB Chairman commended his efforts for suggesting EDC for the development of the sector going forward. “We are optimistic and anticipate that the steady growth trend in exports would continue in the last quarter as well,” Subasinghe said. Proving the country’s resilience and rebound amidst the COVID-19 impact, merchandise exports in July crossed the $ 1 billion mark, an achievement last enjoyed in January this year. Sri Lanka witnessed a continuous pick up in exports as against $ 587 million in May and $ 906 million in June. Soon after the pandemic erupted exports in April fell to $ 277.4 million. Merchandise export target for 2020 is $10.75 billion.
Source: Financial Times
When California Gov. Gavin Newsom ushered in the COVID-19 era in our state with stayat-home orders, my wife, Michelle, joined many amateur seamstresses in pulling out her sewing machine and cranking out facial coverings. The cloth she crafted into protective masks in the pandemic has an international story of its own. She purchased the colorful textiles 25 years ago, and more than 8,000 miles away from our San Diego home, in Ebolowa, Cameroon. She went on that journey to Central Africa with her birth mother to meet her birth father, a Cameroonian subsistence farmer, for the first time. The yards of fabric she bought came in a riot of colors: electric orange and lime green; blue geometric patterns against a white field; irregular figures on cloth of green, maroon and pink; a light blue cloth depicting women at home, work and leisure to commemorate “Journee Internationale de la Femme,” or International Women’s Day. After she returned home, she could never quite figure out what to do with the fabric. Dresses, blouses, trousers — all were considered, but none seemed right. So the technicolor cloth languished in plastic bins in our garage. Weeks, months and years went by as it sat untouched, mostly forgotten. That changed this spring when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, and Gov. Newsom decided in March that Californians should shelter at home to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Suddenly, facial coverings were required accessories. And Michelle, who loves to sew, decided to create her own masks for family, friends and acquaintances. She headed for the garage and dug out the bins of African cloth that had been waiting unseen, like a hidden treasure. Following patterns she found on the internet, she began fashioning the cloth into masks for people living near and far. She made masks for our two adult sons and their girlfriends in San Francisco. She made masks for our oldest son, his wife, and our two granddaughters in Pflugerville, Texas. She made masks for her sister and her husband in Albany, Ore., and for her niece, her husband and their two young children in Lebanon, Ore. She made them for her best friend in Berkeley and her son, an essential worker at a high-end grocery store. She made them for our friends — a husband, wife and their two children — in La Mesa. She made them for our mailman and other relatives — scores of facial coverings for 40 people in all. The faces wearing the masks are African American, White, Filipino and Latinx. They are sporting the face coverings on urban streets and country lanes, in big cities and small towns. The most recent creations were sent to her birth mother, Cindi Martines, who lives in an assisted-living community near Portland. As a teenager, Cindi’s parents were White missionaries in 1950s Cameroon. Her mom was a housewife and her dad a dentist, who filled cavities and performed other procedures, while also teaching classes to aspiring Cameroonian dentists in the town of Enongal, where he built his clinic. It was called the House of Teeth. When her mother and father were not working, they were spreading the gospel as adherents of the Presbyterian Church. Some of the souls they sought to save were lepers in a nearby colony. Cindi, a restless and adventurous teen, never wanted to hang out with the missionary kids. She was always drawn from Enongal to the village of Yem Ndong, located about 30 minutes away. There, she played with the village children, learned the rapid-fire Bulu language, and engaged in a love affair with Minlo Moise, a lab technician at the missionary hospital and a farmer. Cindi held a secret when she and her parents left Cameroon and moved back to Portland in 1956. She was pregnant, and Michelle was born in early 1957. After the birth, Cindi’s parents encouraged her to put the newborn up for adoption. They said it would be a severe hardship for her to raise a mixed-race child in the years when the civil rights movement for Black Americans was in its infancy. Reluctantly, Cindi placed Michelle into foster care. She would not see her again for more than two decades. Over the years, Cindi searched in vain for Michelle at a time when adoptions were largely sealed. After following many dead-end leads and some determined and creative maneuvering, she finally located her in 1980. The reunion began with an awkward phone call from Cindi, then living in California, to Michelle, a recent college graduate living in Portland. Michelle had been adopted and raised by a White family in Portland. The couple also adopted a Mexican-American boy and a Filipina. In 1960s Portland, Michelle recalls seeing no other families who looked like hers. People often referred to the lot of them as an “international family,” something that usually elicited eye rolls from the kids. A short time after being reunited with her birth mother, Michelle moved to Sacramento and temporarily lived with Cindi. They began talking about making a pilgrimage to faraway Cameroon so Michelle could meet the birth father she had never known. In 1995, 15 years after their reunion, mother and daughter made the trip. Michelle left our two youngest sons and me for the emotional journey of a lifetime. She met her father, a vigorous 65-year-old, in his village, a collection of mud-hewn houses with dirt floors, about three hours of red dusty road from the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde. It was a joyous meeting, and Michelle also met and embraced seven half siblings, four brothers and three sisters. The day Michelle met her father, he had been at work in the fields and some of the villagers went to retrieve him. Soon, he bounded out of the bush, machete in one hand, his stride purposeful. He was dressed improbably in an old suit coat and slacks. Michelle remembers her hands shaking as she captured his arrival on a camcorder. Over the years, Cindi had sent Minlo photos of Michelle and our family, pictures he had pasted onto the pages of a calendar as a makeshift album. “Mee-chelle,” he said. And the two embraced, through tears, for a long time. In addition to his job as a farmer, Minlo was a respected village elder and a choir director at his church, where his choir’s repertoire included songs he had written. He cut quite a figure on the Sunday that Michelle and Cindi accompanied him to services, exhorting the choir through rollicking and lilting songs of praise. The village residents were a tight-knit community. One night they all came out and danced, from pre-schoolers to grandparents, as a way of welcoming Minlo’s family from America. To the amusement of the villagers, Michelle joined in the communal dance circle. One of Cindi’s favorite memories is her videotaping Michelle and Minlo as they walked across a community soccer field, side by side. Their strides, their gait were the same. On a sweltering afternoon near the end of the two-week visit, Michelle and Cindi went shopping at a marketplace in the nearby city of Ebolowa. In a small shop in the market, Michelle bought the colorful fabric that would become cloth mementos of a family’s fractured history and be utilized years later, and a world away, during a pandemic that she could never have imagined. Memories of that journey came flooding back as she cut and sewed the cloth info facial masks on our dining room table. There were moments of melancholy as she reflected on the demands of work, child-rearing, and the expense of travel that prevented her from making a return trip to the village. Sadly, Minlo Moise died in 2010 at the age of 81. Most recipients of her masks do not know the back story of the colorful fabric they are wearing in the COVID-19 world. But Michelle knows its origins. In fact, she can never forget. Ronald W. Powell is a manager in the Government and Civic Relations Department of the Port of San Diego.
Source: Sandiego Union Tribune
