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The state agriculture department and trade bodies expect the cotton production to be lowered further by nearly 60,000 bales from the previous estimates of 10.97 lakh bales (1 bale=170kg) in Punjab for the 2017-18 crop year (September 1, 2017-August 31, 2018). The latest estimation of production of cotton, which is Punjab’s second biggest kharif (summer sown) crop after paddy including basmati, has been put at 10.37 lakh bales as on January 31.
At the start of cotton procurement season in September 2017, cotton outputestimates in Punjab were 12 lakh bales, which were revised in December to 10.97 lakh bales. Cotton had been sown over 3.82 lakh hectares in Punjab this season whereas in 2016, area under the fibre crop was 2.57 lakh hectares.
In the 2016-17 crop year, Punjab had an output of 8.57 lakh bales of raw cotton with an average yield of 655 kg per acre. In the current season, the yield is expected to decrease to 550kg per acre. Till January 31, 2018, arrivals of 6.92 lakh bales of cotton were recorded in the markets of Punjab whereas in the corresponding period last year, arrivals were 5.91 lakh bales. Cotton output target has also been lowered in neighbouring Haryanaand Rajasthan.
Farm department and experts are citing deficient rainfall in July-August 2017 and less availability of canal water as the reasons for the drop in yield of cotton this season. Apart from getting lower yields, farmers are also impacted by weak rates of raw cotton. Currently, raw cotton is selling at Rs 5,100-5,200 per quintal, down from Rs 5,600-5,700 in the corresponding period last year.
We were expecting the yield to remain around 650kg per acre. However, it’s likely to drop to about 550kg per acre due to deficient rain and hot and humid weather conditions in July,” said Sukhdev Singh, joint director of Punjab agriculture department. Union government agency Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has also lowered the estimates of cotton output in the region. CCI’s Bathinda branch manager Brajesh Kasana said, “Earlier it was expected that over 11 lakh bales will be produced in Punjab. However, going by the drop in yields, we expect arrivals at nearly 10.4 lakh bales.” I J Dhuria, director (raw material) of leading textile manufacture Vardhman Textiles, said though cotton scene at the national level seemed good, the yield had come down in Punjab which might lower the total output. Farmer Krishan Singh of Bhagi Wander village in Bathinda, who has sown cotton in six acres, said “We are expected good yield like the previous year but it has gone down.” Another farmer Gurdev Singh from Kot Shamir village said lower yields would lead to dip in their returns from the crop.
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India continues to remain towards the bottom of the Intellectual Property Index, ranking 44th among 50 nations and it needs more reforms to complement its policy, says a report
India has increased “substantially” its score in the International Intellectual Property (IP) Index, ranking 44th among 50 nations, but it needs to take additional and meaningful reforms to complement its policy, the US Chambers of Commerce said in a report.
Despite improvement in the score, India continues to remain towards the bottom of the ladder. It now ranks 44 out of 50 countries. Last year, India ranked 43rd out of 45 countries in the Index.
“India’s overall score has increased substantially from 25% (8.75 out of 35) in the 5th edition of the Index to 30% (12.03 out of 40) in the 6th edition,” according to the annual report prepared by the Global Innovation Policy Centre (GIPC) of the US Chambers of Commerce. India’s ranking, the report said, reflects a relatively strong performance in the new indicators as well as positive reform efforts on patentability of computer-implemented inventions (CIIs) and registration procedures for well-known marks.
The US tops the list with 37.98 points, followed by United Kingdom (37.97) and Sweden (37.03). The annual report notes that India in July 2017 issued ‘Guidelines on the Examination of Computer-Related Inventions’ which significantly improved the patentability environment for technological innovations. Additionally, the government created IP awareness workshops and technical training, programmes for enforcement agencies, implementing key deliverables of the National Intellectual Property (IP) Rights Policy.
“However, India’s score continues to suggest that additional, meaningful reforms are needed to complement the policy,” he report said. In what is otherwise a very challenging environment for IP rights holders, India has demonstrated a long-standing and clear commitment to increasing awareness of the importance of IP rights and respect for creators and innovators, it said. However, India has a long way to go, the report noted. Among key areas of weaknesses are limited framework for protection of life sciences IP; patentability requirements outside international standards; lengthy pre-grant opposition proceedings; previously used compulsory licensing for commercial and nonemergency situations; limited participation in international IP treaties and no participation in international PPH (Patent Prosecution Highway) tracks.
“For the first time, India has broken free of the bottom 10% of economies measured, and its score represents the largest percentage improvement of any country measured. This is further evidence of a country on the move,” said Patrick Kilbride, vice president of GIPC. “Several factors figure into the improved score. India passed guidelines to strengthen the patentability environment for technological innovations, improved the protection of well-known marks, and initiated IP awareness and coordination programmes, thereby implementing some tenets of the 2016 National IPR Policy,” he said.
“However, additional, meaningful reforms are still needed to incentivize domestic innovation, attract foreign investors, and improve access to innovation,” Kilbride said. The report analyses the intellectual property (IP) climate in 50 world economies based on 40 unique indicators that benchmark activity critical to innovation development surrounding patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secrets protection.
Loan borrowers in the knitwear sector here will get a huge relief as the Reserve Bank of India has relaxed the non-performing assets (NPA) delinquency norms for those micro, small and medium enterprises registered under Goods and Services Tax. According to the new norms, the amount from the borrower overdue as on September 1, 2017, and payments from the borrower due between September 1, 2017 and January 31, 2018 are paid not later than 180 days from their respective original due dates, would be treated as standard assets in the books of the banks.
“Even though the condition says that only those MSMEs registered under GST having an aggregate credit facility of less than Rs. 25 crore gets this relief, it is a big breather for many of the units in Tirupur knitwear cluster,” said S. Dhananjayan, a chartered accountant. M. Velusami, vice-president of Tirupur Exporters Association, said that the apex bank’s decision would help units in capital intensive clusters like Tirupur as the sector was going through a transition phase under GST and facing difficulties to meet repayment obligations to the banks.
Small-scale spinning mills have got relaxation in NPA classification from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) following its recent circular that micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSMEs) registered under Goods and Services Tax will be classified as standard asset and not as Non-Performing Asset provided the unit meets specific stipulations. The RBI has said that banks and non-banking financial companies generally classify a loan account as NPA based on 90 days to120 days delinquency norms. With implementation of GST, small entities have faced problems related to cash flow during the transition phase and were unable to meet the loan repayment obligations. To support these entities, the RBI has decided that MSMEs will be classified as standard asset and not NPA if they have registered with GST, the borrower account was standard as on August 31 last year, the aggregate exposure to be borrower does not exceed Rs. 25 crore, etc. S.K. Ranagarajan, president of the South India Spinners’ Association, said in a release that the association had been seeking relaxation in NPA norms. Its representatives had met Ministers and RBI officials to seek moratorium to the small spinners. “This is a much-needed relief to the business units operating under the MSME category,” he said.
A team of officials from various government departments demolished 50 dyeing units functioning illegally in Kumarapalayam on Thursday. These dyeing units were discharging untreated effluents into River Cauvey. Two special teams led by T. Jayalakshmi, District Environment Engineer, TNEB, Kumarapalayam, and Malaiyandi, flying squad engineer, TNEB, Erode, conducted surprise checks and demolished the units. Baskaran, RDO, Tiruchengode, and S. Shanmugam, DSP, monitored the operation.
Ideas from stakeholders to be incorporated, says Principal Secretary
A comprehensive road map on research activities will be a feature in the textile policy to be unveiled by the State Government soon, according to K. Phanindra Reddy, Principal Secretary (Textiles, Handlooms, Handicrafts and Khadi). “All ideas that came from various stakeholders will definitely be incorporated into the textile policy,” he told The Hindu on Friday. He was here to inaugurate the ‘Textile Research Conclave,’ organised by Tirupur Exporters Association, Indian Texpreneurs Federation, and NIFT-TEA Knitwear Institute with the support of Union Textiles Ministry.
Mr. Reddy said that the government had started promoting technical textiles production in the State through a series of programmes. “The department is planning to hold a workshop on technical textiles to encourage young entrepreneurs take up technical textiles. The participants will be taken for visits,” he added.
Tirupur Exporters Association president Raja Shanmugam said that the bringing together of research organisations and industrialists on a single platform would help in product diversification
Pest attacks on crop in Telangana, Maharashtra pulls down acreage
The Cotton Association of India (CAI) has, in its latest estimate, lowered the crop size by 8 lakh bales (of 170 kg each) to 367 lakh bales against the earlier estimate of 375 lakh bales.
For the 2017-18 season, beginning from October 1, 2017, the CAI reduced the crop estimate to 367 lakh bales citing severe infestation ofcotton with pink bollworm.
“In accordance with the advice of the scientists, farmers in several areas, particularly in Maharashtra and Telangana, have uprooted their cotton crop without waiting for further pickings,” the CAI said in a statement issued on Friday.
The projected balance sheet drawn by the CAI estimated total cotton supply for the season at 417 lakh bales including an opening stock (or carryover stock) of 30 lakh bales at the beginning of the season and the imports, which the CAI estimated, at 20 lakh bales.
The domestic consumption is pegged at 320 lakh bales, while exports for the season are seen at 55 lakh bales.
The carryover stock at the end of this season on September 30, 2018 is estimated to be 42 lakh bales.
Data from each cotton growing local State association put arrivals up to January 31, 2018 at 211 lakh bales (157.75 lakh bales).
In December 2017, the CAI had estimated the cotton crop size at 375 lakh bales.
A lot of the work that goes into making a t-shirt or a pair of jeans has been automated, except for cutting and sewing. Now machines are taking over one of these last surviving manual jobs, which humans have performed for hundreds of years.
Some forty years ago, Ijaz Khokhar’s father set up a factory in Sialkot, a dusty industrial town of Pakistan, to make karate and martial arts uniforms. Over the years, as the country faced several political and economic upheavals, Khokhar’s clothing company, Ashraf Industries, prospered.
It has now become one of the the country’s largest exporters of karate and martial arts outfits with loyal clientele from Japan to Europe.
Along the way, Khokhar saw profound technological shifts in the way business was done. The just-in-time inventory system, cross-border outsourcing, internet and cloud computing—innovations that have drastically shaped his business since the 1960s. Every year, Khokhar travels to textile machinery exhibitions to see the latest innovations in manufacturing processes. “I try to keep myself up to date with new trends,” he told TRT World. “There’s no escaping it.” Yet he never imagined that one day he’d be talking about the possibility of robots becoming a threat to the way garments are sewn in his factory. “I remember watching a documentary on it, but never thought it could become a reality.”
The automation onslaught
From harvesting cotton in the farms, to making thread, then weaving it into cloth in looms, followed by the stage of printing—the textile manufacturing cycle has largely been automated in the past two hundred years. What remains in the hands of humans is when fabric is sewed into the clothes that we wear. That might change as tech start-ups, encouraged by lightning technological changes, make robots that can imitate humans. Softwear Automation, a company based in Atlanta, in the US, has built an entire assembly line manned by robots that can pick a piece of garment, arrange it properly and then sew it. This technology is called the Sewbot. Just picking up a piece of fabric is a massive step forward for robots. Sewing and stitching has eluded machines because cloth is floppy and crumbly, difficult to handle even for humans who are not trained tailors. Nimble finger movements can quickly adjust a piece of fabric under the needle of a sewing machine. It’s a grueling job for a worker to continuously adjust the garment under the striking needle, making sure the seam stays straight and smooth.
It’s a skill that garment factory workers in developing countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and India acquire over many years of mentorship. What has come to drive them out of the factories is a combination of powerful algorithms, fast computing speed and the ever-decreasing cost of technological products. The Sewbot work-line robots rely on high speed cameras, which see the individual threads in fabric, pinpointing the exact location where a needle strikes and adjusting the garment accordingly. Softwear Automation sees this as a disruptive technology, which will have a lasting impact on how apparel, home textiles and garments are made. And it can do that without workers.
“Our Sewbot work-line can produce nearly twice as many finished t-shirts in an eight-hour shift as manual sewing and can running 24 hours a day,” Softwear Automation’s CEO Palaniswamy Rajan said.
“It’s 80 percent more efficient.”
Rajan, a venture capitalists, invested in Softwear Automation after the company was founded in 2012. Multiple studies by organisations such as the OECD and the World Bank have warned that automation can leave millions of people jobless, not just in developing countries but also in advanced economies. The use of industrial robots across the automotive, electronic and others industries is at its highest, said the International Federation of Robotics.
The growth in industrial robot sales is led by Asia. Between 2011 and 2016 robot sales increased by an average of 12 percent.
An inevitable transition
Besides Softwear Automation, another start-up working to automate the repetitive sewing job, is called Sewbo, the brainchild of 30-year-old New Yorker Jon Zornow. He devised a method to stiffen fabric by using a dissolvable chemical solution. This allows cardboard-like hard patches of material such as denim to be handled by robots. Once sewed the garment is washed with water without compromising its quality. Zornow’s inspiration came from 3D printing. “That technology also uses water-soluable scaffolding to temporarily support objects as they are being created on the 3D printer,” Zarnow told TRT World. His robots come off the shelf, making it easier for companies to find replacements when needed. That’s a tell-tale sign of how one technology is giving birth to another. It also explains why prices are continuously coming down. In his seminal book, The Rise of the Robots, Martin Ford writes that advanced vision technology being used in industrial robots emerged from gaming consoles.
The US government has played a crucial role in the promotion of this technology as well.
Softwear Automation’s Sewbot concept was conceived by Dr. Steve Dickerson, a Professor Emeritus of Mechatronics at Georgia Tech. The US Department of Defense supported him with $1.7 million, seeking locally manufactured military uniforms for the US soldiers in return.
His firm was later acquired by Rajan’s investment fund, CTW Venture Partners.
Made in USA—by the robots
Softwear Automation and other proponents of robotics say that automation will help bring manufacturing back to the US. But unlike what US President Donald Trump has been telling his supporters, this won’t necessarily translate into more jobs. Up until the 1990s, the US met most of its garment and apparel needs from domestic factories. But then the tide turned. Production was outsourced to Mexico, China and India, almost eliminating all local production, and leaving thousands of people jobless. Between 1990 and 2012, the US textile and apparel sub-sector lost 1.2 million jobs, or more than 76 percent, as imports replaced domestically produced garments, according to The New York Times. The companies that do remain in business face ageing workers on sewing machines, high wages and an uninterested workforce that views textile factories as sweatshops.
And it’s not just the wages that pose a challenge.
“In the firms I visit, people have forgotten how it is to run this business,” said Zornow. Even though some manufactures want to bring apparel and garment production back to the US, chances of that happening on any large scale are slim, he said. “People ask me if it’s possible for factories to move back to the US, and they want the answer to be yes. But I am not sure. Garment manufacturing is a complicated process. You still need humans to analyse every piece that comes off the line.”
Khokhar agrees.
“Take silk or chiffon. How do you think the machine will handle that?” The supply chain plays a crucial part as well, he said. “Where do you source the cotton from, do you have all the materials? All these things come into play,” Khokhar said. Perhaps the most encouraging point for bringing back the automated sewing work to the US is proximity to the consumer market. Big retailers such as Walmart, which source garments and apparel from developing countries, have to wait months before they can put a new line clothes on the shelf. This is because clothing samples are sent back and forth for approval. Softwear Automation has received funding from Walmart as the retail giant wants to meet the demand of its customers before fashion wears out.
What about the people?
Both Rajan and Zornow are focusing primarily on the US market for their robots. They see a timeline of at least five years for the technology to start making any marked change. “A brand or manufacturer that’s willing to commit can have up to 10 percent of its manufacturing to the US within five years of setting up a Sewbot factory,” Rajan told TRT World.
However, the change, they said, is inevitable. And it won’t necessarily be bad for the workers.
“Sewbots are not meant to replace all of garment manufacturing,” said Rajan.” Using automation for high-volume basic apparel enables sewing machine workers to focus more on complex garments, while advancing their skill sets and commanding higher wages all around the world.”
The shift to e-commerce and on-demand manufacturing makes this even more important, he said.
For Zornow, automation is a necessary step in the cycle of industrialisation. “Two hundred years ago, how many people were living in poverty and dying of starvation? Has industrialised technology helped? The answer is definitely yes.”
He said he went public with his plans at an early stage to provide an opportunity to people in textile-dependent countries such as Bangladesh to prepare for the technological onslaught.
“I read Bangladeshi newspapers everyday. There is so much fanfare every time there is investment in the garment sector. But I don’t wanna see that because we know that economic landscape is changing and that money could be invested in other sectors.”
The fear of automation replacing humans has already pushed industry leaders like Elon Musk to debate this incoming disruption. “AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilisation and I don’t think people will fully appreciate that,” Musk said in July 2017.
Here again, it would be the workers in developing countries that are most likely to be hit by automation.
Pakistani businessman Khokhar said it won’t be easy for governments of developing economies to deal with large scale job losses in the textile industry.
“I’m still skeptical. Automaton is not going to take jobs away from humans any time soon. This work is too complicated for machines to handle,” he said.
“But if that happens, the consequences would be devastating.”
To start the year, cotton prices were seeing a steady climb. Recently, they have seen a bit of a pull back. To John Payne of This Week In Grain, this signifies that the gins are finally catching up to the strong supply.
“At the beginning of harvest and as the gins started to fill up, we had all these hands go up from overseas,” he said on AgDay. “The price spiked to try to get some of those sales slowed. The gins have really worked the last couple of months.” Payne thinks moving into 2018, the price could be right to see more cotton acres replace wheat.
“It certainly beats trying to throw a loser after the wheat and a lot of them throw in the towel on the wheat market, and with corn prices where they are, not that attractive,” he said.
Cotton farmers, whose crop had started showing signs of moisture stress, have renewed hope amid moderate to heavy rains that have fallen in most parts of the country since last week. While cotton is naturally a drought tolerant crop, the prolonged dry spell that the country experienced since end of December last year, had resulted in part of the crop suffering from moisture stress. And if the dry spell had persisted, a significant hectarage of the crop would have been written off. However, the country started receiving the rains last week, renewing hopes for many farmers. “We are happy we are now receiving the rains after experiencing a long dry spell and this should help us to produce better yields,” Yeukai Zerera of Nyanyadzi in Manicaland said. The majority of the farmers benefited under the Presidential Input Scheme, which saw nearly 400 000 cotton growers benefiting. Last year, The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe, which is administering the programme, distributed inputs to about 155 000 cotton growers, pushing the national production to about 75 000 tonnes from 28 000 tonnes. This year’s package was made up of 8 000 tonnes of seed, 40 000 tonnes of basal fertiliser and 20 000 tonnes of top dressing fertiliser. The first tranche of inputs being planting seed and Compound L fertiliser have been disbursed to the targeted farmers. Farmers in Birchenough Bridge and Jerera also expressed optimism of better harvests following the rains.
“We started receiving decent rains last week in some of the areas surrounding us, but the rains have now spread all over the entire region and this has revived our crop, which had started showing signs of moisture stress,” said Ngoni Jairus, who farms in Jerera, Masvingo Province. Even farmers who had a late crop also said the wet spell would help reviving their crop. Cotton Producers and Marketers Association chairman Steward Mubonderi, said the rains had brought much relief to farmers whose crop had been affected by the dry spell. “The crop, particularly the late planted, is beginning to show signs of recovery,” said Mr Mubonderi in an interview. “Although there was a setback, the rains have kept us on course to meet our targets,” he said, adding the association would disclose the estimates of projected output upon completion of a validation exercise. “But we are likely to have an improvement on last year since we have more farmers participating (under the Presidential Input Scheme) this year. “We now encourage our farmers to ensure the crop is well managed (pest control) to ensure better yields. Cotton used to be one of the country’s largest foreign currency earners before production slumped due to viability challenges resulting from inadequate funding and poor prices. Agriculture analysts say to some extent, the “mid-season drought” will help boost production. “Unlike last year when we had incessant rains, which resulted in excessive vegetative growth, we are seeing an increase in average balls per plant because of the hot conditions,” said an agronomist with a local Non-Governmental Organisation.
