apparelindia - Apparel Export Promotion Council

INDUSTRY Interview
«AEPC can play a major
role in Ludhiana’s knitwear
industry to encourage cluster
system & by becoming a
bridge between the Industry
and Central & State
Governments for redressal of
the problems being faced by
the Industry…»
Shree Sanjeev K. Jain, Managing Director of M/s.Jain
Udhay International and founder of Blue Mount
Based in Ludhiana, Jain Udhay Group was
established in 1957. The company is engaged
in manufacturing and exporting garments and
established the brand, Blue Mount in 1999. The key
brand promoter is Shree Sanjeev K. Jain.
Blue Mount has now spread its wings to other parts of
India and mainly caters to the youth segment, with a
presence in over 1,000 multi-brand outlets (MBOs),
9 exclusive-brand outlets (EBOs) and 5 large format
stores (LFS).
Product Portfolio
The group is specialized in manufacturing highly innovative range
of Menswear and Kids as well as Boyswear. It is equipped for
efficiently fulfilling the requirements of clients and alliances as per
the market demand. Its product range is T-Shirts, Shirts, Jackets,
Pullovers, Sweat Shirts, Track Suits, Lowers and others.
We spoke to Shree Sanjeev Kumar Jain, Managing Director
of M/s. Jain Udhay International and founder of Blue
Mount, who gave us his inputs on the Knitwear export
market in India
What is the present status of Ludhiana
Knitwear exports in particular and overall
apparel export industry in India?
The current status of Knitwear exports from Ludhiana is far behind
the other major national knitwear exporting hubs such as Delhi,
Tirupur and Kolkata as the city now demands major improvements
in the basic infrastructure and amenities. The status of the overall
apparel export industry is also not very much encouraging as the
apparel industry is today facing tough competition from better
equipped China and even smaller countries like Bangladesh,
Vietnam and Pakistan.
What are the main challenges the apparel
exporters are witnessing here?
The main challenges being witnessed by Ludhiana’s Apparel
exporters are :
1) Highly fluctuating prices of raw-materials,
2) Shortage of power supply, frequent power-cuts, imposition of
weekly off days.
3) Increasing shortage of skilled and highly skilled labour.
4) Lack of basic infrastructure like International Airport, 5 & 7
Star Hotels and restaurants, Exhibition Centre of National level,
College of Knitwears & Design Studio, Textile Park, etc.
5) The much delayed project of six laning of G.T.Road, Pitiable
condition of city roads and local conveyance.
Do you feel that government policies are
working in favour of exports? What steps
do you think the government should take
for further development of this industry?
As far as the government policies are concerned, there is a big void
between what is being done and what should be done to counter
the threat from competing countries and global multinationals in
order to increase our share in world export of Apparel and Knitwear.
I suggest that the Central as well as the State Government should
come up with exporter-friendly policies and should be more liberal
in providing cheaper export finance, increase in export incentives,
prompt release and payment of incentives, issue of licences for
duty-free import of capital goods, raw-materials, accessories, stores
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