Picture the last piece of clothing you bought. Maybe you remember the brand, the fit and also the price tag. You probably don’t picture Ramesh Bhosale standing knee-deep in a Maharashtra cotton field at 6 am, deciding whether to spray his crop again or wait another day. You should. Because the hands that planted the cotton will never touch the clothes they made.

India has been making textiles for thousands of years. The subcontinent, which gave the world muslin so fine it was once described as ‘woven air’, is today among the largest producers of cotton and the most significant exporters of finished cloth.

Now, for the first time, it also has the scale, the policy framework, and the global leverage to convert that ancient strength into a 21st-century advantage. But only if the industry is willing to follow the thread all the way back to where it begins.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 5F vision — Farm to Fibre, Fibre to Factory, Factory to Fashion, Fashion to Foreign — captures that ambition precisely. It reflects a fully integrated value chain, from the cotton field to the world’s most competitive retail shelves.

The vision has driven two flagship initiatives: the PM MITRA Mega Textile Parks and the Production Linked Incentive scheme for technical textiles. Both are designed to close the gap between what India grows and what it sells globally.

Niche choice turning competitive baseline

The foundation is substantial. The sector contributes over two per cent of GDP, employs more than 45 million people, thereby making it the country’s second-largest employer after agriculture. The textile sector is a major source of export earnings too. Nearly six million cotton farmers anchor the raw material base. The farm and the factory exist in the same country. This combination of challenge and the opportunity is making them work as one system.

That begins with the soil. Conventional cotton farming carries a heavy environmental load in the form of high water consumption, intensive fertilizer use and excessive chemical dependence. In water-stressed regions like Vidarbha and Telangana, these pressures affect input costs, fibre quality, and everything downstream. Farmers like Ramesh are already responding . They are cutting down on chemical inputs, adopting integrated pest management, working more carefully with soil and deftly navigating water cycles. What was once a niche choice is becoming a competitive baseline.

The global market has clearly taken note of the evolving scenario around sustainability. In European and North American sourcing rooms, the questions have clearly shifted in stance. Where did this cotton come from? How was it grown? How can its journey be traced? These are now compliance requirements driven by the EU’s textile sustainability directives. The evolving consumer base in this part of the world is increasingly connecting what it wears to what it values.

Durable upgrade

Countries that cannot demonstrate traceability will find doors closing. Countries that can will find those same doors opening wider.

The PM MITRA parks have brought spinning, weaving, processing, and garment manufacturing under one roof across seven locations. The PLI scheme has opene new markets in technical textiles spanning medical, agricultural, infrastructure and defence applications.

But for that upgrade to be durable, it has to include the farmer. The sustainability of what India sells to the world begins with how India grows its fibre.

Ramesh doesn’t need to see the policy documents to understand what is at stake. The choices he makes each morning in that Maharashtra field about inputs, water and the soil his father tilled before him will quietly determine whether India’s textile ambitions hold. Farm to Fibre, Fibre to Factory, Factory to Fashion and lastly, Fashion to Foreign. It begins, as it always has, in a field.

The author is Chairman of the ICC National Expert Committee on Sustainability

Published on April 19, 2026