Abysmal demand conditions and technological obsolescence in India's weaving machinery manufacturing

• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Author: Sanjaya Kumar Malik
• Date: 01 February 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2312

ACADEMIC PAPER

Abysmal demand conditions and technological obsolescence in

India's weaving machinery manufacturing

Sanjaya Kumar Malik

Institute for Studies in Industrial Development,

New Delhi, India

Correspondence

Sanjaya Kumar Malik, Institute for Studies in

Industrial Development, New Delhi, India.

Email: mksanjaya@gmail.com, sanjaya@isid.

edu.in

Weaving machinery is a sine qua non for fabric manufacturing because the former

lies in the heart of the process of generation and diffusion of technological change in

the latter. Nevertheless, the technological change in India's weaving machinery

manufacturing, measured by patent count, is seen to be very dismal. The technologi-

cal catch-up model examines this dismal technological change. The model maps out

two important building blocks—technological regimes and demand conditions—to

explain the technological change in the weaving machinery manufacturing. This paper

underscores that demand conditions, which is found to have relied largely on cost

edge, is very crucial in explaining the entire process of technological obsolescence in

the weaving machinery manufacturing. Further, it unravels that the restrictions on

organised weaving mills during the mid-1950s through the mid-1980s and the liberal

import policy since 1991 are found to have worsened the demand conditions in the

domestic weaving machinery manufacturing, and thereby worsening the technologi-

cal efforts and technological change in the weaving machinery manufacturing.

1|INTRODUCTION

Weaving machinery has an important bearing on generation and diffu-

sion of technological change in fabric manufacturing.

1

Any infinitesi-

mal technological change in fabric production requires an improved

weaving machinery, produced by weaving machinery manufacturer.

The improved weaving machinery is also essential for successful diffu-

sion of innovations in the fabric manufacturing. Notwithstanding the

above, production and innovation in weaving machinery manufactur-

ing are very dismal in India. The production of domestic weaving

machinery is found to have declined to $52 million from $83 million

between 2004–2005 and 2013–2014, registering a negative growth

rate of 4.86% during this period (Textile Machinery Manufacturers

Association [TMMA], 2007-2013). The patent data shows that

domestic weaving machinery manufacturers were not awarded with

any international patent during 1976 to 2015; and, according to

Indian patent information, only four Indian patents were granted to

local patentees between 1995 and 2010. Furthermore, in terms of

productivity, the domestic weaving loom manufacturers are lagging

far behind the foreign weaving loom manufacturers. For example,

weft insertion rate of loom of Dornier (Germany) is up to 2,400 m per

minute (m/min) that is 4.5 times more productive than that of domes-

tic looms (Laxmi textile stores and Dynamic Autoloom of Ahmedabad,

Gujurat), which have weft insertion rate of up to 525m/min.

2

The

aforementioned facts on production, patent and productivity indicate

a technological obsolescence in India's weaving machinery

manufacturing. This paper therefore examines the technological obso-

lescence in the weaving machinery manufacturing.

The rest of the paper is organised as follows. Section 2 discusses

data and framework of the study. Section 3 reviews the historical evo-

lution of Indian weaving machinery manufacturing. The process of

technological obsolescence in the weaving machinery manufacturing

is delineated in Section 4. The last section concludes the discussion

and presents some useful policy implications.

2|DATA AND FRAMEWORK

2.1 |Data

There is a serious data constraint to study weaving machinery

manufacturing in India. Various data sources, namely, Annual reports

Received: 6 May 2020 Revised: 8 July 2020 Accepted: 18 July 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2312

J Public Affairs. 2022;22:e2312. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 1of9

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2312