Dear Readers,
India’s textile and apparel companies need stronger, data-backed narratives to demonstrate that sustainability is now embedded in their operations. Companies must clearly demonstrate how ESG compliance, traceability, and circularity are being implemented.
Given that sustainability is central to strengthening the global competitiveness of India’s textile and apparel sector, non-listed companies should also prioritise publishing data-backed reports on their sustainability efforts. These reports should detail investments made, including in R&D, and the progress achieved across key sustainability parameters. Having independent agencies conduct such studies would further enhance their credibility.
If the industry fails to communicate its sustainability progress proactively, it risks creating the impression that it lacks confidence in demonstrating, with transparency, how it is advancing its sustainability agenda. Such reticence could also invite greater scrutiny of Indian textile and apparel exporters in key overseas markets, particularly the European Union, in the years ahead.
These outcomes would be especially undesirable at a time when new trade agreements, including the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, are expected to create fresh opportunities for exporters, and when India has set itself the goal of more than doubling textile and apparel exports to $100 billion by 2030.
As global buyers and regulators increasingly demand verifiable ESG performance, competitive advantage will depend not only on implementing sustainable practices but also on documenting, validating, and communicating them effectively. In markets governed by stringent sustainability regulations, compliance that cannot be demonstrated may increasingly be treated as non-compliance. Evidence-based sustainability reporting can become a useful tool for reputation-building, market access and export growth.
It is important to recognise the uneven sustainability preparedness of India’s textile and apparel sector. While larger companies are already among the best in class, or close to it, in meeting global sustainability norms, the sector’s broader readiness remains far from uniform.
Sustainability remains a work in progress for the MSMEs that form the backbone of India’s textile and apparel landscape. This is not because of a lack of intent, but because micro and small enterprises in the sector continue to face deep operational, financial, and capability constraints in reducing their carbon footprint and transitioning to clean energy.
Medium and large textile and apparel enterprises could support their micro and small vendor and supplier partners in strengthening their sustainability practices by sharing the necessary expertise, helping sustainability take deeper root across the ecosystem.
Such support could take the form of training in circularity and traceability, along with help in accessing finance for clean energy investments.
Ultimately, in an increasingly volatile and competitive global marketplace, perception matters as much as performance. Companies that communicate their sustainability credentials with credible evidence are likely to earn greater trust among buyers, investors and regulators.
Indian textile and apparel companies should not risk missing emerging opportunities because of perceptions that fail to reflect the sustainability progress they have made. Enhancing the credibility and visibility of these efforts will be critical not only to strengthening their competitiveness, but also to supporting India’s export ambitions and broader economic development.
Doing the right thing is no longer enough; companies must also be able to prove it.
