Ludhiana Textile Cluster

Ludhiana in Punjab is famous for woolen hosiery and constitutes a sizable chunk of the cotton hosiery market also. The Ludhiana knitwear cluster produces a wide range of products for winter wear like sweaters, woollen socks, pullovers, cardigans, thermal wear, gloves, muffler, baret caps, shawls, jackets, jersey, and blankets, and for summer wear like T-shirts, cotton and blended socks, under garments, knitted bed sheet, skirts, tops, sports wear, night suits, etc. The total output of hosiery products in Ludhiana is estimated to be around Rs. 8,000 crore and the share of domestic sale to exports is to the tune of 70:30 ratio. However, the share of woolen knitwear exports in the total cluster exports is only around 25%, though it commands over 95% share in the domestic   woolens market. The major export markets today are the US, EU, Middle East and Russia. 

Most of these firms are unorganized and 'owner managed’. The owner performs all basic functions of marketing, procurement and finance. A sample survey by Project Vikas has indicated that around 57% of these are small/micro and about 32% are medium sized firms.

There are huge but fragmented capacities in the cluster and a lot of subcontracting prevails within the locally available supply chain activities. Thus the economic capacities are quite low to sustain high-end designers and other technical workforce.

Under Project Vikas, PricewaterhouseCoopers studied the ICT solution map for Tirupur cluster, and analyzed its validation in the context of Ludhiana. In the Ludhiana cluster, PwC covered about 15-20 firms that included small revenue to high revenue firms comprising shawl manufacturers, knitwear manufacturers, woolen garment manufacturers, exporters, dyers, knitters in order to comprehend and evaluate their business processes, while also monitoring pain points and current IT usage.

Challenges

PwC found that Ludhiana lacks adequate knowledge of what IT is and what IT can do for the firms. Only a very small number of have invested in enterprise wide applications. It’s only the large SMEs in the cluster that have realised the importance of advanced IT applications for enhancing business processes.

Most of the smaller manufacturers and exporters are engaged in handling subcontracted or outsourced production orders of bigger firms. However, there is a lack of adequate number of firms that can efficiently handle outsourced orders within the given time, cost and quality standards.

Project Vikas Initiatives

Project Vikas has planned a number of initiatives to tackle these challenges. Under the project, sensitization programs are being conducted to help enterprises understand how the challenges before them can be well addressed through use of ICTs.

Project Vikas is also in the process of setting up an e-Readiness Centre in the cluster. Training programs for the local independent software vendors are being conducted. Workshops for the CxOs and Directors of enterprises on ICT training are also being conducted. Workforce training programs are also planned.

To enable business development of the enterprises, Project Vikas has envisaged a Web portal which would enable these businesses to connect with other business, and help them find customers as well.