Textile Ministry favours FDI in multi-brand retail

The ministry of textiles under the newly formed BJP government has a contrarian view on the allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi brand retail.

Contrary to the party’s policy for not allowing FDI in multiband retail, the ministry, in its strategy report for the sector has recommended FDI in single and multi brand retail under automatic route, albeit restricting its views only to Indian apparel brands.

At present, foreign direct investment policy does not allow any FDI in Indian brands or retail but only in foreign brand/retail, which is owned and operated by an international company.

On the other hand, the ministry is of the view that building brands and expanding retail footprint is capital intensive yet promotion of Indian brands in the domestic market needs to be supported with success in dedicated retail stores for single and multiple Indian brands.

It has further stated that the Turkish model for helping country’s brands to venture overseas is a good template, which can be adopted with suitable adjustments and modifications on a pilot basis to begin with.

Contrary to the views of Narendra Modi-led government, the Ministry of Textiles is in favour of FDI in multi brand retail. The ministry in its strategy report has recommended FDI in single and multi-brand retail under automatic route but restricted it only to Indian apparel brands. The earlier UPA government had allowed FDI only in foreign brand/retail, which is owned and operated by an international company. However, the ministry is of the opinion that Indian-grown brand require a strong funding boost to taste success in dedicated retail stores for single and multiple Indian brands. It has further recommended that India should follow the Turkish model of promoting domestic labels into overseas markets.

The ministry has also come up with a proposal to conduct a scientific, systematic anthropometric study of Indian population for developing a standard Indian sizing system. Anthropometry refers to the measurement of the human individual and plays an important role in industrial design, clothing design, ergonomics and architecture where statistical data about the distribution of body dimensions in the population are used to optimize products.