Uttarakhand has decided to set up a centre of excellence for Himalayan fibre in Kumaon region’s Almora district. The decision was taken recently at a cabinet meeting in Dehradun, according to state urban development minister Madan Kaushik. The centre will be set up with support from the Northern India Textile Research Association (NITRA) in Ghaziabad. A proposal to allot land for the centre at Bercimi village in Almora was also approved, a news agency quoted Kaushik as saying. Setting up

With the retail industry in its annual lull between seasons and plans for a tariff increase on hold, imports at US’s major retail container ports are expected to drop to their lowest level in almost a year in the current month, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates. “Now that the holiday season is over and summer has yet to crank up, this is the quiet time of year for retail supply chains,” said NRF vice preside

Visual Next has launched the improved application for Shop Floor Process Optimization using capacity planning and real-time shop floor monitoring. Factories utilising this tool achieve greater visibility of their workforce productivity with built in analytics to make better business decisions and improve efficiencies and processes to deliver more products. Pic: Visual Next Visual RTS provides manufacturers and their facilities with secure access to real-time operational data deployed over Wi

BMSvision has launched the freshly developed and built-in tool called OPCconnector for its latest version 8.40.03 of BMSvision WeaveMaster and PlantMaster systems, which offers superior flexibility to connect various machine types to the BMSvision MES systems. BMSvision is a developer of MES for the textiles, plastics, and pharmaceutical industry. OPCconnector allows an utmost easy and flexible integration of machines equipped with either Classic OPC or OPC-UA interfaces. The BMSvision MES s

Textile machinery firm Karl Mayer’s warp sampling machine, Multi-Matic, has been successful in gaining a foothold on the Portuguese market. The machine is in demand for shirting and suiting with multi-coloured patterns and in small production runs or high-quality furnishing textiles and upholstery articles with striking designs in large fabric widths. Pic: Karl Mayer Compared to present conventional counterparts, this all-round machine enables to increase the production of sample warps four

ITL Intelligent Label Solutions has entered into a strategic partnership with Poppy’s Knitwear including the set-up of an ITL service bureau within Poppy’s Tiruppur manufacturing plant. The facility, which will have the capability to produce rotary printed care labels, heat transfers, variable data labels including barcodes and RFID, will be managed by ITL. Pic: Poppy's Knitwear PVT Ltd The facility will have the capacity to produce all of Poppy’s Marks & Spencer labeling requirements as

Yarn Expo from March 12 will offer a springboard for exhibitors to capture the potential of the China market. Over 450 exhibitors from 12 countries and regions, including new exhibitors from Egypt and France will display natural cotton, linen and wool, as well as extensive options for fancy yarn, functional fibres and other specialty yarns at the fair. The three-day fair will see an increase in international exhibitor numbers, as well as domestic. This includes Yarn Expo Spring’s first ever e

Inaugurating the renovated Handloom Haat in New Delhi’s Janpath recently, Indian textiles minister Smriti Irani launched three projects of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT)—VisionNXT-Trend Forecasting Initiative; Indian Textiles and Craft Repository; and Design Innovation and Incubation. She released a booklet, ‘World Handmade Textile Biennales’. Pic: PIB The Haat, set up by the ministry of textiles, will offer marketing opportunities to authentic handloom products from va

India recently rejected US claims of imposing ‘tremendously high’ tariffs, saying its import duties are within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) norms. India’s import duties are consistent with the bound rates that it is entitled to at the WTO and comparable to more liberal developing economies and some developed economies, commerce secretary Anup Wadhawan said. Duties imposed on imported goods are called applied rates and the extent to which a country can raise those duties are termed boun

Howard Malpass has bagged the AATCC (the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists) Olney Medal Award. Malpass is being recognised for his work on the implementation of pre-reduced indigo and its beneficial impacts in the dyeing, manufacturing, and retail industries. AATCC is a not-for-profit association for textile professionals. Pic: AATCC Early in his career, Malpass worked at Milliken & Co. first as a supervisor, and eventually dyeing superintendent. In 1979, he became