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India is expected to expand by 7.1 per cent year on year in the January-March quarter, just up from seven per cent in the prior quarter and ahead of China’s 6.9 per cent growth rate.
Some even expect a growth rate as high as 7.8 per cent.
The impact of GST is not clear -- some items are expected to be cheaper -- but the prospect of a price rise is seen pushing some people to buy ahead of July. Shoppers are bringing forward spending into the current quarter looking to avoid rates of 28 per cent, or higher, on some consumer durables and luxury items.
Layoffs in the information technology sector are unsettling some households at a time when the economy is still not generating enough new jobs for a workforce that is growing by around a million people a month.
Millions are thronging shopping malls and stores in India, thanks to a busy wedding season. In Asia’s third largest economy consumer spending has been traditionally a driver of growth.
Car sales, retail lending and goods imports show consumer spending has roared back to life after the November shock.
With a good monsoon and government pay hikes in prospect, the outlook for a sustained recovery looks good.
Walmart's closes the gap between itself and the online leader its acquisition of Jet.com and products that appeal to younger shoppers gave it an e-commerce boost. The world's largest retailer is betting on essentials like cereal and diapers, and has adjusted its shipping strategy to better compete with Amazon's Prime program. But Amazon keeps innovating too, implementing new technology and trying to make shopping more convenient.
Marc Lore, a co-founder of Jet.com who is now head of Walmart's U.S. online operations, says he's confident about the company's momentum and there's plenty of room for it to thrive.
He further stated in Jet headquarters in Hoboken, N.J that the company is happy with the results and moves that they are making. Since it is a big market, e-commerce sales industrywide are still growing 15 per cent per year he noted.
As Walmart prepares to show off some of its innovations this week before its shareholder meeting, there are signs that things are starting to click.Sales at Walmart.com rose 63 per cent in the first quarter, up from 29 per cent growth in the previous quarter and marking its fourth straight quarter of increases. Despite its acquisitions, Walmart says that a majority of the increase was through Walmart.com and was fuelled by changes in its shipping strategy and a discount for shoppers who pick up their online orders. Walmart now offers 50 million products including those from third-party sellers, up from 10 million a year ago. In comparison, Amazon has hundreds of millions of products.
David Spitz, CEO of e-commerce technology company Channel Advisor, points out saying that for some shoppers it has become ingrained that they start and finish their shopping at Amazon, and the Prime program reinforces that. He says Walmart wasn't putting a sufficient emphasis on keeping up.
According to Spitz ifthe gap was widening Jet.com was intended to be a jolt. Walmart is clearly being more aggressive. There is a sense of urgency, but whether that is enough is the multibillion-dollar question he added.
Amazon accounted for 33 per cent of U.S. online sales last year, according to the research firm Euromonitor. Walmart moved into second place ahead of eBay, with 7.8 per cent. Greg Melich, an analyst at research firm Evercore, estimates that Amazon customers spend an average of $800 annually on the site.
As per Melich, If Amazon's relationship with Prime members continues to grow, then Amazon's path toward Walmart's nine per cent of the total U.S. retail market from its current three per cent is reasonable.
Textile products from Uzbekistan may receive customs privileges in EU countries.The customs privileges apply to processing, supplying and transit of Uzbek textile products to EU countries.
Up till now, the most favored nation treatment as part of the partnership and cooperation agreement was not applied to the import of textile products from Uzbekistan. There was also a double licensing system when issuing permits for the import of textile products from Uzbekistan to the EU.
Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s most important industries. The World Bank has launched a new program in Uzbekistan in order to help cotton farmers improve their production efficiency, safeguard the environment, and improve labor practices.
Uzbekistan has complied with the requirement to eradicate child labor in cotton harvesting.
EU-Uzbekistan relations date back to 1991, when the European Commission launched the Technical Aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Since 2007, the EU has been delivering increasing development support to Uzbekistan. Moreover, the country benefits from specific expertise in the area of higher education. The EU cooperation program supports, through its development programs, relevant policy reforms and national strategies.
Uzbekistan benefits from support under the EU-Central Asia regional program. Uzbekistan currently participates in two EU-Central Asia regional programs which address cross border challenges.
International fast fashion retailer Uniqlo has announced plans to continue its expansion into Queensland, by opening a fourth store in the state later this year This new store, located in Brisbane’s northern suburb of Chermside, will cover an area of 792 square metres and is expected to create over 50 jobs in the local area.
Uniqlo Chermside will be the thirteenth store for the company in Australia since entering the market in 2014, and the fourth in Queensland in two years. The brand have also announced that the full Life Wear range for women, men, children and babies will be made available in-store.
On opening its first store in Queensland 2015 Uniqlo Australia COO Kenji Tsuji shared his thought saying that the decision to open the store was easy, quoting the positive reaction the brand had received from customers in Queensland.
The brand havebeen receiving a very positive response from local shoppers who have loved the wide range of every-day products and innovative fabrics that are sold.
Tsuji further stated that It made sense to continue to expand the brands presence in the region, and they are thrilled to be able to make the Uniqlo brand more accessible for shoppers across Queensland.
Growing up in Manhattan Eric Sauma spent most weekends accompanying his father to work at Mood Fabrics to help hand out flyers. On most days, what would normally be a quick jaunt across a few city blocks would take nearly 45 minutes, as throngs of people would stop his father to talk shop or say a quick hello. If you worked in fashion, Jack Sauma was the man to know. On any given day, Eric’s father was accosted by aspiring designers, businessmen and manufacturers from all walks of life, as trucks whizzed by in the background carrying garments and hundreds of workers walked the streets pushing carts filled with fabric.
For reality television enthusiasts, Mood likely evokes scenes from the fabric store Project Runway. According to Eric Mood is the family business that he runs alongside Philip his brother. Eric have now dramatically quelled.
Now the garment district is under even more duress as the result of a proposed redistricting plan put into action by Mayor Bill DeBlasio’s administration, with the support of the Council of Fashion Designers of America that has the potential to relocate the area to Brooklyn.
Talking about the transformation of the garment district designer Yeohlee Teng got her start in the garment district in 1981, selling her first collection to Bergdorf Goodman. During that time she found factory space available on 37th Street. More than three decades later, she still produces in the district, just a couple streets away on 35th Street.
Fashion jobs in the district began to diminish as designer’s outsourced production overseas in search of cheaper rates over the years. In 1987, there were 30,000 manufacturing jobs in the garment district. It was protected by zoning laws that prevented real estate moguls from buying up factory space and flipping it into luxury real estate. At present there are just 5,000 workers occupying the same space, and discussions have percolated over lifting overlay zoning that protects garment businesses on side streets in the area.
Russian regions are turning out to be the main players in driving forward both the light industry (as the Russian textile and apparel industry is called) and fashion.
The Ivanovo region, located in the European part of the country, accounts for 80 per cent of Russia’s cotton fabric manufacturing.
Construction of a synthetic fiber plant is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2017 in the Vichuga special economic zone in the Ivanovo region. Synthetic fiber is not yet produced in Russia and the plant has already secured orders for 80 per cent of its proposed production capacity.
The Vichuga SEZ will also include an industrial technology park built to accommodate small enterprises that will use synthetic fiber to produce finished products.
Another important driver of the light industry in Russia is the St. Petersburg light industry development program. The program includes a set of measures to support small businesses in the textile and apparel sector.
In addition, the city is also building an industry-specific business accelerator to promote new designers, including through the use of advanced technologies like 3D printing, robotic sewing machines and others.
Earlier this year, a bill was passed in Russia that allows textile, leather and apparel manufacturers with more than 250 employees to qualify as medium-sized rather than large businesses.
New York City government has protected Midtown's Garment District from rising rents by way of a zoning resolution dubbed the Special Garment Center District Since 1987. In spite of an industry that's constantly in flux, designers and manufacturers have been able to operate in the iconic neighborhood, which is widely regarded as the epicenter of New York's fashion industry.
The area occupies less than 20 blocks in the heart of Manhattan, and business owners there enjoy a level of protection that's hard to come by in New York—especially in such a highly-coveted part of the city. All of that may be coming to an end.
A plan put forth by local officials and the New York City Economic Development Corporation might move a large portion of fashion industry across the East River and into Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood. It's backed by the Garment District Alliance, a group founded by the district's hundreds of property owners and thousands of businesses, but has drawn criticism from designers who rely on the Midtown location.
Stephanie Baez of the NYCEDC states that the proposal to lift the 1987 zoning regulations would not change the underlying zoning for the area, which is currently zoned for manufacturing. The NYCED and the Council of Fashion Designers of America have collaborated on a $51.3 million package to help incentivize manufacturers to make the move. The money will go towards grants for investments in new machinery and technology, training programs and relocation costs.
It's unclear on what will become of the Garment District if the business that, you know, make garments vacate the neighborhood. The NYCEDC notes that the zoning regulations would limit new residential and hotel developments in the area.
A documentary film, Machines, presents an intimate portrait of the rhythm of life and work at a textile factory in Gujarat. Moving through the corridors, the camera immerses the viewer into a claustrophobic space of exploited workers and child labor, provoking a reflection on working conditions in the global supply chain.
With strong visual language, striking images and carefully selected interviews with the workers themselves, the film tells a story of inequality and oppression of humans and machines.
The factory employs 1,500 workers and some are seen sleeping on piles of fabric. Their lungs are damaged because they breathe in silica dust and also carbon particles.
Workers earn less than three dollars for shifts of 12 or more hours. The noise of the machines to which these workers are exposed serves as the film's soundtrack. The film won the jury prize for best photography at the Sundance Film Festival this year.
Machines has already premiered in Britain and will debut in India later this year. Screenings are being planned for the country’s most densely populated industrial cities.
Though Machines was not filmed for activism purposes, director Rahul Jain hopes it induces steps to support workers in the country’s textile and clothing industry.
Gujarat (India) will soon get its first cooperative cotton spinning plant. With the total expenditure of Rs. 140 crore, Surat Vankar Sahkari Sangh is going to start the plant in cooperative sector of Dinod village, the tribal-dominated area of Mangrol taluka which will be inaugurated by Cooperation Minister Ishwarsinh Patel on 1 June, 2017. President of Surat Vankar Sahkari Sangh, Rajnikant Bachkaniwala stated that, this is the first state-of-the-art cotton spinning plant set up by us in the whole of Gujarat. The production of cotton yarn had started in April and until now we have exported around nine containers of yarn to Pakistan, China and Indonesia
Sources say that the cotton park has been set-up at Mangrol to tap the ever growing demand of cotton yarn in India and abroad. The plant will have around 30,000 spindles which will be helpful in twisting of 17,000 tonnes of cotton yarns on regular basis. Spread across 17-acre land, it will have 10 units of weaving, five units of knitting and three units for garment manufacturing. The yarn manufactured at the facility will be of international quality which definitely has a huge market.
Bangladesh, the apparel manufacturing hub, noted a wave of panic when hundreds of garment workers fall ill. Around 18 factories were shut down after 30,000 workers left in the middle of their shifts as some of their fellow workers lost consciousness due to the soaring temperature in the country.
The workers were then rushed to hospital where they were given saline and first aid and were released within an hour.
The workers were attacked by a disease called hysteria conversion reaction. Laborers were malnourished, while a lack of rest owing to rising temperatures and acute power cuts left them further weakened, succumbing to heat waves.
The temperature in Dhaka rose to 36 degrees celsius, but taking humidity into account it would have felt like 51 degrees celsius.
With more than 4,500 garment factories in the country, many of them lack basic ventilation and air coolers.
Accord and Alliance have so far severed business relations with 217 Bangladeshi readymade garment factories on grounds of unsafe working conditions.
Alliance is a coalition of North American retailers. Accord is a grouping of EU retailers.
These groups are interested in structural, electrical and fire safety initiatives at the factories from where they procure products. They have conducted safety inspections at more than 2,600 factories in Bangladesh following the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013.
