Deshpande P
Garment industry developed in India, in real sense, from 1970 onwards. From a modest beginning in the
‘70s, it has grown into a gigantic industry spread over the entire country. It contributes significantly to employment
generation and export earnings; besides meeting the domestic demand for clothing. The Indian Garment Export Industry’s competitive strength was restricted by multi-Fiber Arrangement (MFA) Quotas.
Economic reforms were initiated in India in the year 1991, commencing the process of de-licensing, debureaucratization and de-reservation. The far-reaching changes initiated were expected to be reflected in increased exports of all the commodities and more specifically in the rise in the growth rate of Readymade Garments (RMGs), the subject of this study.
The present study is exploratory in nature. An attempt has been made in this study to analyze the industry’s export performance during the study period (1981-82 to 2000-01). As it is possible to divide this period conveniently into pre and post-liberalization periods (1981-82 to 1990-91 and 1990-91 to 2000-01) respectively, an attempt is made to compare the export performance of the industry during these two sub-periods.
An analysis of the performance of the industry as attempted in this study indicated that the expected improvement of its performance did not materialize in the post-liberalization period. This has been obvious from the fact that, while the growth rate of export of RMGs had declined in post-liberalization period, the rise in the share of export of RMGs in textile exports had also not been very significant.
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