Textile

The textile industry in India traditionally, after agriculture, is the only industry that has generated huge employment for both skilled and unskilled labor in textiles. The textile industry continues to be the second largest employment generating sector in India. It offers direct employment to over 35 million in the country.[India is the second largest producer of fiber in the world and the major fiber produced is cotton. Other fibers produced in India include silk, jute, wool, and man-made fibers. 60% of the Indian Textile Industry is cotton based. The strong domestic demand and the revival of the Economic markets by 2009 has led to huge growth of the Indian textile industry. Textiles leave one of the largest water footprints on the planet and dyeing poses a big problem. Dye houses in India are notorious for not only exhausting local water supplies, but for dumping untreated wastewater into local streams and rivers. The industry’s challenge is to adopt more water-friendly technologies to dye cotton and polyester, the two most mass marketed textiles.