Texprocil and Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) have expressed their condolences following the passing of renowned industrialist Karumuttu T. Kannan on Tuesday in Madurai.
“The textile business has suffered a great loss with Kannan’s passing. He was very involved and always brought up problems the sector was having, according to Ravi Sam, SIMA’s chairman.
The European Economic Community imposed anti-dumping duties on yarn in an effort to reduce imports of yarn from India, which the Association successfully lobbied against at the highest level, according to the SIMA.
He took over as SIMA chairman at a time when licences were no longer necessary for textile mills to develop or establish new mills. By implementing scientific work practises, he concentrated on increasing labour productivity and took the endeavour to release audio-visual resources for use by textile mills around the nation in a variety of regional languages. During his administration, the idea of a specific Technology Mission on Cotton was floated.
He played a key role at Texprocil in ordering a McKinsey study to make a breakthrough in cotton textile exports in the post-quota period, or after 2004. During this time, the Council commissioned the first study on benchmarking the costs of producing cotton textiles in India in comparison to rival nations. This study was widely praised by the government and industry for its insightful findings, and it successfully thwarted repeated attempts by the European Union to impose anti-dumping duties on bed linen imports from India. The bedlinen case went on to become a landmark decision. in WTO jurisprudence. “He was a visionary leader,” said the Texprocil.
