The textile manufacturing industry, the largest employer in Gujarat, after agriculture, is slowly losing its sheen in the state, according to a research study by Knight Frank India. The report provides extensive scenario of states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka that are identified as leaders in manufacturing capabilities.
According to the study, released recently, the textile industry employs close to two lakh people accounting for 18 per cent of total manufacturing workforce in Gujarat. The share of textile in the state's total manufacturing output has come down to 6 percent from 12 in the last ten years, it said.
It further said that even the number of factories have decreased by 22 per cent to 1,523 from 1,957 a decade ago. This is in sharp contrast to Tamil Nadu where the number of factories in textile sector has increased by more than 1.5 times in the last 10 years. According to the Knight Frank Output Specialisation Matrix, textile is placed in the 'Lost Opportunity' quadrant meaning that the state is losing its specialisation in the sector compared to rest of India.
Samantak Das, National Head, Research, Knight Frank India said, "The erstwhile textile hubs of Ahmedabad and Surat are gradually losing out to Tirupur and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. Going forward textile sector output will grow annually by 12 per cent in the next five years. However this will still be lower than Tamil Nadu's 14 per cent growth."
He said the loss of textile in the state will be compensated by gains in emerging sectors such as automobile and engineering. "Gujarat has attracted huge amount of investment in the automobile sector with companies such as Tata Motors, Peugeot and Ford setting up large production facilities in the state," he said.
India's largest selling auto company is planning to set up a 20 lakh production plant in the state. Gujarat is giving a tough competition through the newly established auto hub of Sanand to the existing hubs of Chakan in Maharashtra and Oragaddam in Tamil Nadu, Das said. He observed that the emergence of automobile sector will not only create ample new jobs but will help strengthen the upstream sectors such as engineering, metal and metal fabrication in the state.
However, in order to maintain a healthy rate of job creation, the state will have to renew its focus on labour intensive industries like textile, food processing and IT/ITeS, he said. Gujarat's GDP has grown at more than 10 per cent annually in the last ten years fuelled by the double digit growth of 16 per cent witnessed in the state's manufacturing sector. However, the rapid industrial growth has not been able to create enough jobs when compared to peers like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the study pointed out.
