India’s textiles and apparel (T&A) sector is at a critical juncture. The global sourcing window created by shifting geopolitics and the ‘China+1’ strategy is open but it will not remain open indefinitely. if India is to expand apparel exports from USD 15.7 billion today to USD 40 billion by 2030, and raise its global market share beyond the current 3 per cent, business-as-usual will not suffice. What is required is a decisive overhaul of the apparel ecosystem-across scale, finance, skills, institutions and trade facilitation implemented with top speed and coordination. The real test will lie in the pace and coherence of implementation.
In this context, this report analyses the global apparel competitiveness across China, Bangladesh and Vietnam through five pillars of competitiveness (scale and capacity, capital, labour, trade facilitation and institutional mechanisms). China’s rise is driven by vertically integrated mega-clusters and predictable fiscal-financial systems; Bangladesh leveraged liquidity instruments such as back-to-back letter of credit and bonded warehouses to compress lead times; and Vietnam combined FDI-driven industrial parks with FTA access. By synthesising international experience with India’s structural realities, this report outlines a practical pathway for accelerating these reforms and repositioning India as a scale-driven, fibre-diverse, digitally enabled and women-inclusive global sourcing hub.
