The first N O W fashion exhibition, held in Milan in Italy, closed on a high note. N O W is the first new exhibition concept created out of the co-operation between Fiera Milano Expocts and M.seventy.

The premier textile machinery exhibition for the Americas -- ATME-I Megatex 2010 -- is continuing to grow and available booth space is now limited. The event, in Atlanta on May 18 - 20, is part of a powerful co-location with SPESA Expo and Techtextil NA all in the same hall and has the advantage of the prestigious IBP programme.

Having developed into one of the largest and well-established garment and textile machinery and accessories exhibitions in South Asia, the 6th edition of IGATEX Pakistan will take place at Karachi Expo Centre in Karachi from October 20 to 23, 2010.

As the single most effective trade fair for home textiles on the Indian subcontinent, Heimtextil India has shown resilience and business success for its exhibitors even in the weakest of market conditions, as was witnessed at the last event.

Pakistan is ranked as the world’s fourth largest producer and the third largest consumer of cotton, with a spinning capacity of 2.89 million kg of yarn and weaving capacity of 8.94 million m2 of cloth.

ITMA ASIA + CITME 2010 show authorities organised a major India Visitor promotion campaign in January 2010 to woo textile machinery buyers from India.

The American Biographical Institute has honoured Dr N N Mahapatra by appointing him as a Charter Fellow of distinguished standing. He has been conferred with an honourary appointment to the Advisory Directorate International in December, 2009.

The Textile Association (India), Mumbai Unit plans to hold an International Seminar on Organic Textiles: Ensuring Product Integrity on March 12, 2010 at Hotel ITC Maratha, Sahar, Andheri (E), Mumbai.

GTZ, a German development assistance organisation mandated by the German Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development in association with The Textile Association (India) Vidarbha unit Nagpur conducted one day Training of Trainers Programme on “Stain Removing without Carbon Tetra Chloride (CTC) in Textiles” for textile faculty as well as textile professionals from industry of Nagpur region recently at Audio Visual room of Government Polytechnic Nagpur.

The textile industry is one of the most polluting industries. It utilises a wide variety of hazardous and polluting chemicals and dyestuffs. The effluent generated by the textile industry during the production, usage and disposal stages has proved to be hazardous for the environment as well as human beings.

The Textile Association (India), Mumbai Unit organised a One Day Seminar on “Opportunity for Weaving Industry in the Emerging Textile Market” in Vapi, Gujarat recently. Mr C Bose, president, TAI, Mumbai Unit welcomed the Chief Guest Mr A B Joshi, textile commissioner, Ministry of Textiles, Guest of Honour Mr S N Kuchhal, director-operations, Creative Garments and Mr Ajay C Kapadia, president, Umargam Industries Association, speakers and delegates.

Rockline Industries environmentally friendly Regenerated Cotton Wipe has bagged the prestigious 2010 Visionary Award presented recently at the VISION 2010 Consumer Products Conference in New Orleans.

The Rieter Group was severely affected by the impact of the economic and financial crisis in the 2009 financial year. Orders received by the Rieter Group in the 2009 financial year declined by 24% (21% in local currencies) to 1935.1 million CHF.

A leading fibre in the bed linen category, TENCEL® can be found in mattresses, mattress pads, bed spreads, comforters, sheets and pillow cases, making a more natural, botanic bed a dream come true. Now all the textiles used in the bedroom can be more natural in origin. After all, TENCEL® comes from Nature and returns to Nature.

The Ministry of Textiles has released Rs 9,000 crore to the textile industry under the Textile Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS). I hope more women entrepreneurs would avail of facilities under TUFS and other schemes like Scheme for Integrated Textile Park.

Seeking to aggressively pursue export of products to China and Japan, the Union Government has recently announced inclusion China & Japan in the Market Linked Focussed Programme (MLFP) scheme and released incentives worth Rs 450 - 500 crore for exporters, especially those in the labour intensive sectors.

The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) launched ‘Source India 2010’, a strategic initiative aimed at changing the dynamics for the man-made textiles exports from India. Source India 2010 was inaugurated by Mr A B Joshi, textile commissioner in the presence of Mr P K Dash, joint secretary, Ministry of Commerce.

October 2009 recorded the most emphatic growth in spun yarn exports ever since the global crisis set in 2008. However, this was much to the expectations given the low base of October 2008. Nevertheless, the positive aspect is that the almost all major segment of spun yarns recorded growth, excepting the few non-seasonal ones.

Continuing with its Technopak Workshop Series, Technopak Advisors organised the second edition in New Delhi recently. The event with the theme “Global Meltdown – Opportunity in Diversity” discussed current challenges, strategies and way forward on various issues related to current changing global and domestic textile and apparel scenario.

The production of technical textiles in India is expected to grow from Rs 37,100 crore in 2007/2008 to Rs 62,420 crore in 2012/2013: An increase of 11% per annum, which makes technical textiles a promising sector of the Indian textile industry.

Crude oil prices neared US$ 80 per barrel as the dollar fell and the market weighed US Federal Reserve’s increase of interest rate for emergency loans for banks.

Crude oil prices recovered its losses of the previous week in early part of this week only to dive on Friday on China’s move to tighten monetary policy. Snowstorm conditions in the northeast of USA had propelled prices back to above US$ 75 earlier in the week.

Crude oil prices, which started in the first week of February, on a firmer note fell sharply toward the end of the week in a general market sell-off as the dollar became a safer haven for investors amid worries about European Union economies.