Ashish Gujarati

Ashish Gujarati, president of Pandesara Weavers’Cooperative Society Ltd, was recently elected the vice president (VP) of the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SGCCI) for 2020-21. Dinesh Navadia, SGCCI vice president for 2019-20 and presently the Gujarat region chairman of Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, is now the new president.

The SGGCI vice president becomes president once the one-year term of the president ends.

Gujarati told a newspaper he would give priority to the textile industry, mainly the power loom sector, and focus to create brand of Surat in terms of technical textiles and garments.

In an earlier interview with Fibre2Fashion, Gujarati had said that factories were operating at 30 per cent production capacity and shortage of cash and migrant workers was the main hindrance for textile factories. The shortage of workers is likely to end by November, he said.

The Pandesara Weavers Cooperative Society employed about a lakh migrant workers before the lockdown, but only wround 25,000 have returned, he said.

The estimated direct loss for the Surat textile industry due to lockdown and subsequent cancellation of orders and slowdown in business was around ₹500 crore. The production loss was worth ₹3000 crore, Gujarati added.