Silk production is regarded as an important tool for economic development of a country. The Central Silk Board is a statutory body established for administrative control of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India. It gives advice to the Central Government on all matters relating to the development of the silk industry, including import and export of raw silk. The textiles ministry is expecting that India's silk export is likely to touch ₹ 7,000 crore by 2012. The textiles ministry is creating more awareness to the farmers about silk and also giving training to use new technologies for silk production. Silk industries are using modern and scientific production techniques to produce silk products and achieve high exports to other countries.
The Indian silk industry is an integral part of the Indian Textile Industry and is among the oldest industries in India. The silk industry in India engages around 60 lakh workers, and it involves small and marginal farmers. Today, the textile industry is a global industry and we are living in a world full of volatility in commodity prices, foreign exchange, and interest rates. Since raw cotton presents such a large percentage of total input cost, bad judgments in price fixations can seriously affect the profitability of a company. More and more cotton growers and textile mills around the globe employ the services of consultants to assist them with their cotton pricing and risk management decisions. This is not surprising as cotton is the only major input cost item over which a textile mill has control.
Originally published in Textile Review, July-2011
S. Venkatachalam is Assistant Professor with Dept. of Management Studies at Karpagam College of Engineering in Coimbatore. K. S. Kavitha is a lecturer with Dept. of Commerce at Sree Ramu College of Arts and Science in Pollachi and also a PhD Scholar with Karpagam University, Coimbatore. Dr. P. Palanivelu is Controller of Examinations with Karpagam University in Coimbatore.
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