Mumbai,  24^th  January – Listen to the latest episode of the Quint podcast ‘Land of a Billion’ which sheds light on the various challenges that deny women farmers access to land rights.

In this podcast, “Why Do Women Farmers Still Lack Access to Agricultural Land Ownership”  Shipra Deo, Director of Women’s Land Rights at Landesa India and Pranab Ranjan Choudhury, Researcher and Founder, Center for Land Governance, Associate Director, Intellecap , talks about the various challenges that deny women farmers access to land rights and the hurdles they face in being recognised as farmers. 

The 2011 census suggests that four out of five women workers in rural India work in agriculture as owner-cultivators or wage workers.

However, women farmers continue to be disadvantaged when it comes to access to agricultural land ownership, compared to men. This often denies them their rightful recognition as farmers which, in turn, inhibits them from accessing the welfare benefits that are entitled to farmers.

Lack of reliable data and poor policy framework are some of the key factors contributing to the disempowerment of women farmers.

About the Podcast

 ‘Land of a Billion’ brings you expert conversations about the most contentious of the holy roti-kapda-makaan trinity – the makaan over our heads – and the larger ecosystem that governs it.

From administrative tussles to understanding the conflicts on ground, catch these episodes every alternate Friday for a rundown on the latest charcha around land and property rights in India. In case you missed it, you can also catch up on Season 1 of this series here.

Hosted by Bhargavi Zaveri, a researcher interested in land and access to finance, Land of a Billion is a fortnightly podcast series produced in association with the Property Rights Research Consortium.

About the Guests

Shipra Deo leads Landesa’s work for gender-equal and inclusive land governance in India. She is passionate about the gender dimension of social development and specialises in designing and implementing gender-responsive strategies and programmes, including those related to land. In recent years she has done intensive research on inheritance by women and gendered aspects of land laws.

Pranab is a researcher and consultant on natural resources management and governance, with more than 25 years of experience. First, as a land use scientist with the Indian Council of Agriculture Research and, later, as an independent practitioner, he has worked with governments, donors, NGOs, and communities across South Asia, across landscapes, uses, and tenures. He also founded the Center for Land Governance in 2015. He presently works as an Associate Director with Intellecap.

Mumbai,  13 January – Read the article, ‘Towards Gender-Inclusive Investing: A Co-Design Approach’ Co-Authored by Amar Gokhale, AVP, Intellecap with Jona Repishti, Social Entrepreneur Manager, MIT D-Lab and  Saida Benhayoune, Programme Director, MIT D-Lab.

This article is the first of a 2-part series that captures learnings from a ‘co-design’ exercise conducted with investors in India to help the move from intention to action on gender-inclusive investing. The co-design exercise comprised of five 3-hour sessions conducted virtually in October 2021.

Gender Inclusive Investing, or Gender Lens Investing (GLI), is an approach to investing into companies, organizations, and funds that takes into consideration gender-based factors across the investment process to advance gender equality and better inform investment decisions.^[1] Many of the funds deploying capital with a gender lens — approximately 65% of them — are newly established first-time funds (Project Sage 4.0). To close the gender financing gap, we need to bring larger pools of money, more quickly into this space. Activating well-established, mainstream investors to integrate gender into their work holds an opportunity to accelerate impact.

Could co-design — a method of bringing together users and stakeholders to generate more equitable solutions — play a role in building the field?

Inspired by MIT D-Lab’s 15-year track record in organizing design summits around the world and a small grant from Aspen Network Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), the authors of this article went on a listening tour. We interviewed 20 impact investors and 12 ecosystem actors in India looking to learn: What incentivizes fund managers to build gender equity in their work? And also, could we leverage collaborative methods to help them unpack the challenges they face in the very early stages of their gender lens adoption journey?

Bridging the chasm between intentionality and action

We discovered multiple investors in India that were actively experimenting and trying to customize strategies for becoming more gender-inclusive. Despite growing demand, progress was slow. The reason? Creating a gender lens strategy and then leading internal reform can be time-intensive, expensive, and complex. Even the most well-intentioned and well-connected gender-pioneers struggled to bridge the chasm between intentionality and action.

Additionally for new entrants in the gender-inclusive investing space, there is a paucity of Indian role models and actionable guides to draw from. Between the DIY option of using case studies and reports, and the pay-for-support option of working closely with technical assistance providers, there is not much to draw from if neither option worked for you.

D-Lab realized that there was a unique window to use co-design to deliver value to fund managers looking for learning opportunities, actionable toolkits, and peer networks.

We teamed up with Intellecap^[2], a catalytic ecosystem player in India, and organized the Co-design Sprint: Towards gender inclusive investment practices in October 2021. We invited six impact investors: Aavishkaar Capital, UC Impact, Acumen, Villgro, Omidyar India, and Accion Venture Lab, to join us. All six investors were in the process of exploring how to develop more inclusive gender investing practices, and we spotted an exciting opportunity to open up their process to participatory design frameworks and creative collaboration.

Accelerating GLI innovation and equity with co-design

Bringing co-design – the collaborative and creative process of convening a diverse set of actors to unpack complex challenges and ideate together – into the GLI space is quite new. Since GLI work at the fund level has multiple entry points, we focused on three themes: how to improve sourcing, due diligence, and gender data practices. Co-design offers a unique set of advantages for unpacking these challenges:

Inclusive: Co-design brings in diverse voices and perspectives fostering a deeper understanding of the barriers, richer ideation, and more suitable solutions.

Agile: Sprints hinge on a disciplined, facilitated, experiential process that is suited for breaking down complex problems into manageable and addressable challenges, encouraging quick experimentation and iteration to shorten the learning curve towards concrete outcomes.

Collaborative: In addition to solutions, co-design helps build relationships, incorporate different perspectives, and allows for cross-pollination of ideas – all with a focus on building understanding, fostering adoption, and community buy-in along the way.

The Co-design Sprint experience

Over the course of 5 sessions, our co-design summit welcomed 100+ participants – gender lens practitioners, entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders – from around the world to support our investors in the design and development of solutions. The workshop series validated that co-design delivers unique benefits to investors that are new to the GLI space:

Seeing the forest and the trees. Most of the challenges to GLI adoption stem from the difficulty of grappling with deeply rooted societal norms, unconscious biases, and long-established industry practices. Our co-design sessions focused on building mindsets for empathy, bias awareness, creativity, optimism, and openness as prerequisites to exploring challenging themes around power dynamics, privilege, and implicit biases. A participating investor noted “[because of] this workshop, I got a very different perspective on GLI and I realized how many conscious and unconscious biases are embedded in investing practices that I wasn’t aware of…” By inviting cross-pollination of different perspectives and a beginners’ mindset, co-design can offer a holistic yet disciplined approach to help fund managers detect and manage blind spots – both internal and external to the funds – in a progressive and systemic fashion.

Finding the needle in the haystack. It is not always easy to know where to start and where to focus reform efforts when you have never done such work before. The challenges and barriers that GLI advocates uncover are complex, interwoven, and systemic. This explains the analysis paralysis that many fund managers face in moving from intention to action. By emphasizing problem framing over solution ideation, co-design can help investors visualize what to prioritize first (among many possible points of entry) and discover different pathways for intervention. One investor noted: “When we started the whole exercise, the ideas were very jumbled; and now when I am seeing everything in a structured manner, it makes it easier to pick where to focus on first.”

It will take a village. After the co-design sprint, one investor noted: “My biggest takeaway is that there are many others in the ecosystem dealing with similar questions on gender and that we can get a lot more done from working with each other.” Whether it is by pooling gender performance data to build a stronger business case for GLI to LPs, co-developing industry standards for gendered due diligence processes, or collaborating on building pipelines of female-led and gender forward businesses, impact investors realized that they could reap additional benefits from taking a collaborative approach to GLI. By continuing to position forward-thinking fund managers within networks of like-minded peers and ecosystem actors, we can maximize the returns on their individual efforts and accelerate the pace of GLI adoption.

The way forward

Sometimes, co-design feels like a big upfront investment in terms of planning, coordination, and time commitment, but time and time again, we have seen that it pays unique dividends to those that engage in it. Co-design sprints may be less suitable for delivering ready-to-implement gender lens solutions, but they can serve as enriching and generative exercises that build a strong foundation for catalyzing change at both the fund and the ecosystem level.

To move the needle on GLI we should continue to leverage inclusive, disciplined co-design methods that bring industry champions together to build confidence, gain new insights, and build relationships for addressing some of the most complex challenges.

[1] As defined by the Gender Lens Investing Initiative, GIIN (Global Impact Investing Network)

Mumbai, 16th December– In yet another significant milestone Circular Apparel Innovation Factory got an extensive coverage on a detailed and in-depth story around Circular Economy and India by ET Prime .

The detailed article quotes Circular Apparel Innovation Factory with insights and perspectives from Venkat Kotamaraju, Director, CAIF and also features their Partners and Collaborators with inputs from Dr. Rachna Arora, Team Leader, GIZ, Marine Litter & EU-REI among other experts and industry leaders.

Synopsis : For a country where reusing and sharing of products isn’t new, India has been unable to streamline or organise the unstructured secondhand market. Such a move will have environmental and economic advantages that can help multiple industries.

In 2007, Rohan Gupta, then a techie with SAP Labs in Bengaluru, decided to upgrade his laptop to one that can keep up with his hectic work requirements. But he didn’t know how to discard the used one in a data-secure and environment-friendly way. So, he called his older brother Nitin, who was doing an MBA from the Stern School of Business in New York, for help.

After some basic research, the brothers were disappointed to find that India had no electronic waste recycler. This led them to set up Attero Recycling in 2008.

Today, the Noida-based Attero collects and safely disposes of e-waste from over 1,400 cities in India. It has tied up with electronics manufacturers such as Samsung and LG and automobile manufacturers such as Hyundai and Maruti Suzuki to process used devices and parts — either to recycle or dispose of these safely. It wouldn’t be imprudent to call Attero one of the pioneers in formalising the circular economy in India.

Circular economy involves reusing, recycling, repairing, refurbishing and sharing of products. It encourages reusing or recycling a product instead of throwing it away and causing pollution and triggering climate change events. This practice has become a necessity in today’s world. A 2018 FICCI-Accenture report said, “Given the current resource constraints, business-as-usual is not sustainable and there is a need to decouple growth from resource requirements.”

Apart from mitigating environmental problems, the circular economy can also give the country’s economy a boost. The report said that $0.5 trillion ($500 billion) worth of economic value can be unlocked through circular economy business models in India — and $4.5 trillion globally — by 2030. For example, reusing and recycling will help India get access to good-quality raw materials that the domestic industry can use, reducing the dependence on imports.

Potential in Sectors

Giving a glimpse into the potential economic benefits of a circular economy, the study says India can generate $1 billion worth of gold from e-waste. In plastics recycling, it can create 14 lakh jobs and present a $2 billion economic opportunity. Steel recovery from end-of-life vehicles can give 8 million tonnes of steel in 2025, representing a $2.7 billion opportunity.

For Attero Recycling, all this translates to good business potential and also becoming an earth[1]friendly company. The company claims to extract pure gold, silver, copper, iron, aluminium and others, and putting these back into the market for reuse. “More than 90% of the quantity is extracted from Li-ion batteries, and more than 99% from e-waste. Which means that from one gram of gold used in a product, we extract more than 0.99 gm of gold,” Gupta says.

Textiles — a segment where the country is a leading global player — can gain a lot by embracing a circular economy. A research by Water Footprint Network showed it takes 22,500 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton in India; the global average is 10,000 litres. The fashion industry produces 10% of all humanity’s carbon emissions and is the second-largest consumer of the world’s water supply, according to the World Economic Forum. No one is going to stop buying clothes, and most of the discarded clothes end up in landfills. This makes textiles a prime candidate for a circular economy.

There is increasing awareness and a gradual rise in the interest of apparel waste recycling by fashion and lifestyle brands, experts claim. However, sustainability can be challenging, as the sector has several unstructured and informal players. In India, firms and organisations such as the Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF), Apparel Export Promotion Council and Canvaloop have been working with MSMEs, suppliers, manufacturers and other stakeholders to help them transition towards a circular economy

CAIF — which has tied up with some big apparel players — is focussing on decarbonising the industry and getting to zero-leakage of textiles waste. Venkat Kotamaraju, Director of CAIF, says they are trying to build circular textile waste management models that focus on building skills and capacities among waste collectors. The project is expected to create over 5,000 green jobs, while saving at least 20 million kg of textile waste from ending up in landfills by 2026. While waste collection already happens in textiles, he says they want to create and train a team of informal and underserved waste workers to responsibly collect and segregate waste. The whole aim is to make use of the waste as an input in the upcycling ecosystem.

Surat-based firm Canvaloop is also on a similar mission. It develops fibres by using agro waste and plant materials such as hemp. Canvaloop, founded in 2017 by Shreyas Kokra, claims its fibres require minimal water and have no pesticides or insecticides. It also claims to process around 30 tonnes of agricultural waste every month.

Ship recycling is another segment with immense potential. Maersk, for example, has an initiative in Alang — the world’s biggest ship breaking yard — to collaborate with shipowners and other stakeholders to explore opportunities and incentivise a circular economy. Prashant Widge, Head of Responsible Ship Recycling at Maersk, explains that India has about a third of the global ship recycling market. “About 80% of a ship is steel and 20% is equipment, machinery, the engine, spare parts, etc. A large chunk of the steel is melted and turned into ingots and steel rods, which are then used in domestic construction. This is marine-grade steel. Even after being in the sea for 20 years, it is still strong enough to be reused,” he says. Materials from the rest 20% of the ship are also refurbished and reused. Widge says they use skilled workers to remove hazardous materials and transport these to a downstream waste management facility.

MSME Centric

A circular economy cannot be functional without the participation of India’s 60 million MSMEs and ancillary units. The model is meant for small businesses and MSMEs, claims Manoj Kumar, founder, Social Alpha, an incubator for social entrepreneurs. While large businesses and corporations only drive linear businesses, there are endless opportunities and employment potential among small businesses for circular business.

The challenge is getting them all on a platform to share knowledge and resources. That is what German development agency GIZ is trying to address, in association with the European Union’s Resource Efficiency Initiative (India) EU-REI. Rachana Arora, the leader of the team at GIZ that is involved in the initiative, says, “Small businesses are usually struggling with compliance issues, bureaucracy, etc. But if they actually get a platform where they can actually innovate, create products that are much more efficient, then there is an appetite for this.”

GIZ already works with the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) — which has a lot of SME suppliers in smaller cities — to share the tools for cleaner production practices. A global inclination to reuse and recycle is pushing the auto sector SMEs towards a circular economy. Arora says ACMA came to them and said global auto companies were asking vendors and suppliers about their supply chain and manufacturing practices. “What are the kinds of primary or secondary materials they are consuming? How do they validate their supply chain? There are also questions regarding the greenhouse gases’ mitigation potential. ACMA is working with us on that part, because they would like their SME or suppliers to adopt these practices,” she says.

Even apparel brands, says CAIF Director Kotamaraju, are helping their supply chain partners by giving them access to low-carbon technologies. This way, suppliers avoid the huge cost in acquiring the know-how and there can be a significant reduction in carbon emissions, too. It also makes them a preferred supplier of European brands.

Thriving Informal Market

India has an inherent advantage when it comes to implementing a circular economy. Reusing and sharing of products and a frugal culture are not alien to us. There are several thriving secondhand markets across the country selling reused and refurbished products, from electronics to clothes. Some of these unstructured markets are actually doing very well, says Arora, pointing to Delhi’s Mayapuri as an example. “You can see people coming from across the country to buy a particular part for an old vehicle.”

However, a structured circular economy cannot take root and thrive in the country unless we address some issues. Companies may say they will use a percentage of scrap in production, but that is easier said than done, says Arora. “A lot of industries would like to just go and collect

used materials in the wake of policies like the scrappage policy. But they will require trained manpower to handle those equipments. We need to look at those processes.”

SMEs have to learn to address the occupational health risk before a circular economy can take root. This is because in a passenger vehicle, for example, 75-80% of material can be recovered, but 15-20% of it is toxic that has to be handled in a specialised way.

Attero’s Gupta says the internationally accepted Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulation ensures that companies manufacturing and selling products are made responsible for collecting end-of-life waste and making sure it is recycled right. Prior to this and even right now, he claims, a large portion of electronic waste is recycled in the informal sector using hazardous and non-scientific processes. “The average lifespan of people working in the processing of unscientific ways of electronic waste is less than 27 years. Typically, they’re women and children. They’re exposed to cyanide, sulfuric acid fumes, lead fumes…”

But the code has its loopholes. “EPR was passed as a regulation in 2013, but there were no targets fixed. So even if, let’s say, Apple collected one cell phone back, they were compliant. If they collected 100,000 cell phones, they were compliant,” he adds. In India, EPR was made mandatory and targets were rolled out in 2018.

CAIF’s Kotamaraju points out that there is no EPR policy for textiles, though it is the second largest employer and the third most polluting industry in the world. “We need a very considered and well-articulated policy around EPR for textiles.” The lack of policy framing and advocacy is the biggest obstacle in faster adoption of the circular economy, says CAIF’s Kotamaraju.

Kokra says there are infrastructural challenges as well. These can only be solved at an institutional level and not at an individual or a company level. “You cannot go to a farmer and say do like this and give him a contract. You have to be with them.”

People Matters

CAIF is in conversation with industry stakeholders to create visibility on how waste is flowing across the ecosystem. Kotamaraju says it is important to look at how these transitions will affect people.

In Alang, the focus is more on health hazards as ships have a lot of toxic material. Maersk’s Widge explains the company had to take many initiatives including creating a standard framework around ship recycling. While the company has a downstream waste management facility, not all hazardous materials on a ship can be handled at the facility. There are gaps and lapses that need to be fixed. “But having said that, I also know that the Gujarat maritime board and the Indian Red Cross are working on a hospital. I also know that the pollution control board is working on trying to fix these findings. So, there’s work in progress in this regard from the Indian authorities, which is encouraging,” he adds.

Apart from the focus on reuse and recycle, it is time to take the circular economy up by a notch. Developing non-toxic materials such as biodegradable plastic and recyclable textiles has to be a priority.

We don’t live in an idealistic world, so we have to ensure things are balanced well. Fast fashion, for example, is not going to go away, says Canvaloop’s Kokra. “People will always want to buy new things. What we can do is make it more sustainable, more circular. We can sell the same piece of clothing three times by recycling it, by making it biodegradable, by getting into secondhand fashion.”

In short, it is time that all industries become greener if we all want a rosier future.

Bangalore and Kolkata,  22^ND Nov– Intellecap’s Investment Banking Group is thrilled to announce a landmark M&A deal in the e-pharmacy space.  This is the second transaction in the  healthcare space in recent times.

Intellecap IBG acted as the exclusive sell-side advisor to Sasta Sundar Health buddy Limited in its majority divestment & joint venture with the Flipkart Group.

SastaSundar.com offers a digital healthcare and pharmacy platform supported by a network of more than 490 pharmacies, and aims to address the issues of access to affordable and quality healthcare in India by providing original products from authorized sources and delivering them across the country.

The launch of Flipkart Health+ & the majority stake in Sasta Sundar Marketplace Limited will enable the focus on providing consumers access to affordable & convenient healthcare across pan India.

ICap’ IBG equity team worked with Sastasundar group from ideation stage to finding global partner in the most exciting e-pharmacy and internet backed healthcare services space in India.

In the pic Intellecap IBG MD Pramod Kasat with Leaders from Flipkart and Sastasundar

Walmart-owned Flipkart on Friday said it will acquire majority stake in Kolkata-based Sastasundar Marketplace that owns and operates online pharmacy and digital healthcare platform, SastaSundar.com.

While the deal size was not disclosed, Flipkart said it is foraying into the healthcare sector through the launch of Flipkart Health+. ”As part of this development, the group has signed definitive agreements to acquire a majority share in Sastasundar Marketplace which owns and operates SastaSundar.com, an online pharmacy and digital healthcare platform, as it focuses on providing consumers access to affordable and convenient healthcare,” a statement said.

SastaSundar.com offers a digital healthcare and pharmacy platform supported by a network of more than 490 pharmacies. The company is backed by investors from Japan, namely Mitsubishi Corporation and Rohto Pharmaceuticals.

Flipkart Health+ will leverage the combined strengths of the Flipkart Group, which includes its pan-India reach and technology capabilities, with SastaSundar’s deep expertise to provide consumers end-to-end offerings in the health-tech ecosystem, it added.

Flipkart Health+ will endeavour to give millions of Indian consumers access to quality and affordable healthcare, starting with e-pharmacy and will add new healthcare services such as e-diagnostics and e-consultation over time, the statement said.

Flipkart Health+ will report to Ajay Veer Yadav, Senior Vice President, it added.

The consumer internet ecosystem in India is growing rapidly as consumers recognise the opportunities and convenience that digital adoption is enabling in their lives, Flipkart Senior Vice President and Head – Corporate Development Ravi Iyer said.

He added that with growing awareness and focus on health heightened by the pandemic, there is a large opportunity and demand for affordable healthcare and ancillary offerings. ”We are excited to enter this space through this investment in SastaSundar.com, a company that has established itself as a trusted partner for lakhs of consumers through genuine products, a technology-powered platform and a wide network.

“The synergies between the Flipkart Group and SatsaSundar.com, combined with our commitment to prioritize our customer’s needs, will help us grow and transform online healthcare in India,” Iyer said. SastaSundar was founded in 2013 by B L Mittal and Ravi Kant Sharma.

In a regulatory filing on the BSE, Sastasundar Ventures Ltd said Sastasundar Healthbuddy Ltd (SHBL) has entered into a share subscription and purchase agreement and a shareholders’ agreement on Friday with Flipkart Health Pvt Ltd, pursuant to SHBL’s divestment of its equity holding in Sastasundar Marketplace, a wholly owned subsidiary of SHBL.

SML is a step-down subsidiary of Sastasundar Ventures Ltd and post the transaction, it will cease to be a step-down subsidiary of the company.

The filing noted that the company will not be receiving any consideration sale/disposal in relation to the proposed transaction under the agreements.

”The total consideration defined in the Definitive Agreements will be received by subsidiary and step-down subsidiary of the company upon completion of the proposed transaction. The total consideration will not be less than the fair market value determined based on the report by the registered valuer,” it added.

As per the filing, SML’s standalone turnover was Rs 2.58 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2021, while its net worth was Rs 4.17 crore.

“At SastaSundar.com, we are focused on developing innovative ways to provide access to affordable healthcare easily and conveniently, building a trusted network for authentic medicines, diagnostics and wellness,” SHBL founder and Chairman BL Mittal said.

Through this partnership with Flipkart, the company sees an opportunity to further grow and reach a larger consumer base, using complementary technologies and logistics infrastructure, he added. “This partnership with Flipkart is a strong validation of the capabilities we have built and will accelerate SastaSundar’s mission to provide affordable healthcare to all Indians in a convenient manner,” SHBL founder and CEO Ravi Kant Sharma said.

To read the coverage from Mint – Click Here

To read the coverage from Tech Crunch – Click Here

Find more coverage of this transaction –

Economic Times – Click Here  

Hindu Business Line – Click Here

CNBC Coverage – Click Here

Mumbai, 5th November– Recently Circular Apparel Innovation Factory got an extensive 3 page coverage titled, ‘The Textile & Apparel sector looks to build capabilities to drive the transition to a circular economy’ by Assistant Edito Arbind Gupta, Assistant Editor, Business India, for their Special Edition, November Issue.

This is now available both Online and on Print.

The textile and apparel (T&A) manufacturing is considered to be one of the most polluting industries. In fact, the T&A industry is the second most polluter globally. Over 20 per cent of industrial water pollution occurs due to garment manufacturing. Globally, 80 per cent of textile waste generated is not recycled and often sent to landfills or incinerated. In fact, the industry is responsible for polluting over 8 per cent of global climate. With growing economy and changing demographics, the consumption of textiles and clothing has gone up by more than 60 per cent today as compared to that in 2000 and this has significantly aggravated the whole situation. In the past 15 years, the textiles production has almost doubled.

Amidst all this, the industry is finding itself in a quandary as it is struggling to balance between its mainstream targets of productivity & production and the sustainability goals. The current linear system of production, distribution and usage of T&A is not sustainable as there is less regard for environment impact. Experts are of the view that the current `take-make-dispose’ approach does not only adversely impact the environment and society, but also the future business of the T&A industry.

While there are a few sporadic interventions across the value chain happening in order to address the issues and making the value chain more sustainable, the concerted effort is missing. In order to deal with these issues in a more holistic manner as also set the goals and achieve them in a time-bound manner, an industry-led platform – Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) – has been put in place recently in India. Started in 2018 and formally launched in November 2019 at Sankalp Forum’s 11th Global Forum in Mumbai, CAIF is a global initiative of Intellecap, the impact advisory arm of the leading impact investing organisation, the Mumbai-headquartered Aavishkaar Group, which works to build businesses that can benefit the underserved segments across Asia and Africa. Intellecap builds enabling ecosystems and channel capital to create and nurture a sustainable and equitable society.

CAIF is supported by the DOEN Foundation, a Dutch foundation supporting initiatives in the field of culture and cohesion and in the field of green and inclusive economy, as also Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd (ABFRL) as its founding anchor partners. To accelerate the shift of the industry from its current ‘take-make-dispose’ approach to one that is more circular across the lifecycle, CAIF works with a diverse group of stakeholders from across the value chain.

Circular goals

“As an industry-led platform, CAIF’s mission is to build the ecosystem and strengthen capabilities to drive the transition to a circular economy in the apparel and textile industry. The platform is building the textile industry’s innovation infrastructure by bringing together key stakeholders to collaborate and work together on achieving the five key circular goals: increasing the use of sustainable inputs and material; maximising the utilisation of clothing & textiles; increasing the recycling of clothing; boosting production through renewable inputs; and minimising negative social impacts and increasing social responsibility,” says Venkat Kotamaraju, director, CAIF.

“We are pleased to partner with Intellecap to accelerate sustainable fashion concept through CAIF and build an industry level platform for a circular textile ecosystem. We intend to bring forth ideas and innovations to add more strength to our pioneering work around sustainability. The association with Intellecap will help us create, collaborate and mainstream the conversation around circular economy and sustainable fashion,” states Ashish Dikshit, managing director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.

The industry lacks an infrastructure to deal with textile waste

The industry-led body has over the years, partnered with a host of like-minded organisations with whom it is building a body of work spanning the ecosystem. For example helping identify the key circularity levers and mapping them against policy interventions that needed design (a policy-led programme in partnership with Centre for Responsible Business) and building a body of evidence on how designing for inclusion into circular business models can help deliver both ecological and social outcomes (a collaboration with Netherlands-based The Laudes Foundation).

Over the last three years, CAIF has been actively working with over 15 Indian and global brands through different pilots and initiatives, and has identified and mapped over 400 innovators across different dimensions of circular economy relevant to the textile and fashion industry. CAIF aims to have 50 to 60 partners in India and globally in the next 2-3 years and expand its presence beyond India and Bangladesh to others parts of the world especially global south economies like South Asia, like Sri Lanka and Nepal; East African countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia and South East Asian countries like Indonesia and Vietnam.

The T&A platform is targeting these regions because they are critical from the global value chain in the fashion industry. They are critical since global south accounts for a significant amount of manufacturing for the global value chain of the global industry. For example, India is one of the biggest importers of textile waste from the US and the Europe. The country recycles it and sends it back. Besides, more than 50 per cent consumption of fashion and apparel is in global south. Global South is economies outside the developed economies like the US and the Europe.

“With the global south economies being significant contributors to sourcing, manufacturing, exports, recycling and consumption, in the complex global value chain, it was crucial for the global south to have a voice and a seat at the table. While there was growing momentum globally (especially in Europe) from individual organisations, we saw an opportunity in taking an ecosystem approach that will not just surface the dots (gaps and stalemates) but also help connect the dots (mobilising capital, knowledge and networks to build the ecosystem) in interesting ways for impact to happen at scale. More importantly, while the dominant narrative globally around circular economy emphasises economic and ecological value creation, CAIF aims to alter this narrative that also includes how we ensure no individual or group is left behind on this path towards progress,” explains Kotamaraju.

Kotamaraju: building the ecosystem

CAIF is looking to make the work of the apparel, textile and the fashion industry more sustainable (resource efficient, resilient and responsible) through reducing carbon emissions (both avoidance and removal), while creating green and circular jobs for those employed across the value chain. Some of the partner brands and manufacturers have very clear and ambitious targets like for e.g. moving to recycled water usage (away from fresh water) by 70-100 per cent between 2025 and 2030, eliminating energy usage and consumption by 30-50 per cent by 2030, replacing virgin material usage with recycled material use by 50-70 per cent by 2030 etc.

World changing companies

In the last three months, the industry platform has created a showcase of circular innovations and sustainable innovations to at least 60 suppliers of the top 3 brands and manufacturers. In fact, it has recently entered into partnership with IKEA Foundation along with Enviu (the Netherlands-based social organisation that together with partners, builds world-changing companies that address social and environmental issues) to support innovative interventions that are designed to not just deliver on environmental outcomes but also help create green livelihoods. Through this partnership, CAIF is looking to build a circular textile waste management model in the next five years. The IKEA Foundation is funding the initial and seeding phase of the five-year project, which will be implemented as a joint initiative of Enviu and CAIF.

In the next five years, the programme aims to deliver on clear outcomes, one, on environmental outcomes, it is looking to divert 20 million kg of textile waste away from the landfill and help recycle them and find its way back into the value chain. By recycling it and reclaiming value from the textile waste, the project is reducing the dependence on natural resources by replacing some amount of virgin material with recycled materials. Through this programme, CAIF is looking to create at least 5,000 new green jobs for base workers. In the first phase of this ambitious programme, Enviu and CAIF will be seeking partnerships with manufacturers, brands and innovators to scale and replicate solutions to manage textiles waste; as well as NGOs and other civil society actors to build skills and capacities amongst the waste workers in India.

Creating better livelihoods

“The IKEA Foundation has always worked towards supporting people living in underserved communities to afford a better life. There is huge potential in the textile waste sector not only to become more sustainable but also to create better livelihoods for a large number of people at the bottom of the pyramid. We believe that green and circular entrepreneurship in India’s textile waste sector offers an opportunity for vulnerable workers to lift themselves out of poverty while protecting the planet. That’s why we are happy to be part of this initiative,” says Vivek Singh, Head of Portfolio – Employment and Entrepreneurship, IKEA Foundation.

Avers Ankie Van Wersch, CEO, Enviu, “We believe building impact-driven companies that prove and showcase it is possible is key to achieving a new normal: a textile industry that serves people and planet. Enviu’s top-down impact-driven venture building approach, combined with CAIF’s bottom-up ecosystem building amongst waste workers is a winning combination, maximizing impact. We look at the obstacles to change in the textile industry and fill in the gaps with new ventures, while CAIF starts from the capabilities of the waste workers. The ventures we build create income for the waste workers. I have seen the impact our circular ventures create on families first-hand.”

Textile and apparel manufacturing is considered second most polluter globally

It may be noted that India is one of the world’s largest textile producers and importers of used clothing, but lacks an infrastructure to deal with textile waste, leaving an estimated 4 million informal waste workers trapped in low-income, unreliable jobs. Enviu and CAIF, together, will build capacities and skills amongst these waste workers, and build successful circular enterprises to reclaim value from textile waste. This will reduce the environmental impact of the clothing industry while enabling the workers to increase their incomes and afford a better life. India is the one of the largest employers of workforce in textile and apparel, only next to the agriculture sector.

CAIF has also been partnering with Lakme Fashion Week for the last two years to co-create and develop two initiatives – Circular Design Challenge and Circular Changemakers. It firmly believes that a credible dent on any of the 2030 SDGs isn’t possible without the role of the private sector. Through the body of work so far and a host of interested and willing partners, the industry body is already shaping work beyond just India.

In Bangladesh, it is building local and indigenous capacity within the apparel manufacturing sector for recycling of blended textiles waste (collection, sorting and recycling) and establishing an ethical and traceable collection mechanism for PET collection and recycling which is free of child-labour. In Sri Lanka, the communities living around and dependent on oceans, play a crucial role in designing programmes that look at how brands and manufacturers can help provide these underserved individuals and communities access to safe drinking water and sanitation, while restoring ocean biodiversity. Such an intervention is anchored in the community working towards zero leakage of textiles and plastics waste into the oceans through responsible and resource efficient collection, sorting and recycling solutions that create economic value for the underserved communities in the mid to long term.

All in all, CAIF’s efforts range from helping decarbonising the textiles and apparel supply chain in the global south, to getting to zero leakage of waste into the environment (from textiles, plastics, agriculture or forest products) while creating circular and green jobs in the manufacturing, recycling and the innovation ecosystems.

Mumbai,  1^st November– The Article, ‘Closing the Loop on Plastic Waste in India’s Textile and Apparel Industry’ by Siddharth Lulla, Lead Corporate Strategy and Enterprise Engagement, Circular Apparel Innovation Factory talks about how due to weak enforcement and the continuing popularity of plastic packaging among retailers and consumers in the absence of any suitable alternative, the country has not been able to achieve  substantial success in reducing the usage of plastics.

This article, was the 5th one as part of a 24 article thought leadership series we have forged with the Business World Group.

India’s plastic consumption has grown significantly over the last decade. As per industry estimates India consumes c. 16 million tonnes of plastic on an annual basis, contributing to generation of c. 9.47 million tonnes of plastic waste annually. Only 60% of the total waste generated is processed while the remaining is unsegregated, littered and ends up in landfills or the natural environment.

Around 43% of manufactured plastic is used for packaging purposes, majority of which is Single Use plastic i.e. used only once and disposed. While plastic packaging plays a key role of protection, marketing and advertising, the complete lifecycle of this is not thought through, resulting is substantial waste generation.

India’s textile and apparel (T&A) industry is one of the world’s largest, and is a major contributor to global textile and apparel production and consumption. The industry is estimated to be worth USD 190 billion by 2025-26.2 It currently employs more than 45 million people making it the second largest employer in India – contributing over 15% of the country’s export earnings, and almost 7% of the it’s industry output. Although the industry exhibits a positive trend in terms of growth on the back of an exponential rise in fashion retail and online shopping, it is a significant contributor to the Single Use plastic packaging waste generation.

Current Policy Landscape around Single Use Plastic in India

The Government of India has announced a number of steps to phase out and eventually completely stop Single Use plastics usage to reduce the country’s plastic footprint. The 2016 Plastic Waste Management Rules put curbs on use and generation of plastic packaging waste. This includes prohibition of carry bags made of virgin plastic less than 50 microns in thickness in order to facilitate ease of collection and recycling of plastic waste. Under the new rules the government now plans to ban bags less than 120 microns by next year.

Additionally regulations for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)4 have also been introduced, according to which the producers (manufacturers, importers and those using plastic in packaging) as well as brand owners would be held responsible for collecting the plastic waste they generate and ensure a minimum percentage of the produce is recycled or used in supply.5 The proposed EPR framework has provisions to impose penalties if producers fail to meet their targeted collection.

Due to weak enforcement and the continuing popularity of plastic packaging among retailers and consumers in the absence of any suitable alternative, the country has not been able to achieve substantial success in reducing the usage of plastics. However, a clear shift from regulatory intent to action is now visible. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has sent notices to 52 companies for not registering and specifying their single use plastic disposal plans under the EPR framework.

It is therefore, imperative for the T&A industry to adopt a strategy aligned with the principles of the circular economy to address challenges posed by single-use plastics waste.

The concept of a single-use plastics free circular economy, which can harness the benefits of plastics while addressing its drawbacks, and deliver significantly better system-level economic and environmental outcomes, is gaining traction in India and the rest of South Asia. Transition to such a circular system therefore, involves keeping useful plastics in the economy but out of the environment. This will entail simultaneous progress on multiple fronts including a re-evaluation of the plastics lifecycle, new commercially viable circular business models, development of alternative materials, new technologies, better land-based and marine plastic waste management solutions, awareness generation and enabling policy interventions.

In order to do so, India must adopt an integrated approach to collecting, segregating and recycling plastic waste that would ensure adequate recovery and collection mechanisms enabling producers and manufacturers to recycle plastic waste through a plug and play model.

There is an emergence of Integrated closed loop solution providers which have a holistic goal of reducing the generation of single use plastic in the ecosystem by collecting the waste packaging material from business/ end consumers, recycling it and converting it back into usable products. Such solutions fundamentally address the habit of waste disposal rather than just replacing the material through programs or mechanisms to collect all the recycled plastic products from various distribution points in the chain.

In an initiative to demonstrate a business case of how the entire plastic waste generated by a fashion brand can be collected, recycled and prevented from going to the environment, the Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF), an initiative by Intellecap, facilitated a pilot project in October 2020 between House of Anita Dongre, a brand at the forefront of sustainability in India and Lucro Plastecycle Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai based enterprise which collects and develops packaging from recycled post-consumer plastic waste.

House of Anita Dongre currently has 1200 retail touch points across the country. The pilot when scaled will recycle c. 6 Million polybags on an annual basis and manage the entire plastic waste generated by House of Anita Dongre at a pan India level. CAIF will disseminate the learnings and insights on best practices from this initiative to the industry. As per Rohan Batra, (Head Sustainability & CSR, House of Anita Dongre) the partnership with Lucro and CAIF has been huge step in making the brand reduce its plastic footprint and bring in efforts to reduce the carbon footprint due to plastic waste generated so far. Rohan points out that the pilot has already been successful in introducing 6.5 lac polybags with 60-75% post-consumer recycled content in the supply chain. Since its inception the pilot has resulted in a monthly average of 500 kgs of plastic waste and 1.25 lac polybags being recycled at House of Anita Dongre resulting in a conservative 30% savings in carbon footprint.

Lucro also provides a blockchain enabled traceability tool called Satma CE, which validates the origin & supply chain process of the post-consumer waste used. Ujwal Desai, MD, Lucro Plastecycle Pvt Ltd mentions that Lucros trademarked Plast-E-Cycle process creates a circular economy for plastic, making the recycling and remanufacture of plastics more efficient and high quality. It definitely helps that Lucro is involved in every step of waste management, from collection and segregation, processing into granules, product design and manufacturing of high-quality, innovative and eco-friendly products.

The partnership between House of Anita Dongre, Lucro and CAIF demonstrates that integrated closed loop solutions are poised to create a cascading effect in India’s T&A industry. It is evident that with the right support, innovative solution providers are ready and willing to drive significant environmental and social impact both in the country as well as demonstrate circular models that can be scaled globally.

Noble laureate and founder of Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday emphasised on the creation of a new law for banking to help microfinance reach unbanked people and encourage the creation of social businesses. He said that currently, there is one banking law that prescribes a number of regulations for banks, most importantly of having collateral for offering loans.

“The first thing that I have been repeating for many years is that in order for microfinance to take hold in business, you have to create a new law for banking.

“Today, there is only one law for banking called banking law which defines what a bank should be. The banking law means that you have to have collateral and other requirements,” Yunus said at the 13th Sanklap Global Summit 2021.

According to him, for having a bank for the poor, there is a need for creation of a new banking structure which is not based on collateral.

“We need a complete redesign of the financial system. And within the financial system, we have to build a social business financial system-social business bank, social business investment funds, social business microcredit banks, and so on,” Yunus noted.

He also raised concerns over concentration of wealth in the hands of very few people.

Yunus said this gap can be reduced if everyone becomes an entrepreneur.

Finance is the oxygen of entrepreneurship and one cannot have entrepreneurs without having connections with the financial set-up, he said.

“Why can’t we create a new financial system, so that everyone has a connection with it. If you have a connection with it, then you change yourself and you can have a share in the wealth,” he added.

Mumbai,  20 September – The article by Shraddha Kothari, Manager, Intellecap  titled, ‘From Local Manufacturing to Digital Tech: How African Organizations are Pivoting to Support Maternal and Child Health During COVID-19’ was featured in Next Billion.

This article is part of NextBillion’s series “Recovery 2021,” which explores how businesses, development initiatives and the communities they serve in low- and middle-income countries are building greater resilience for a post-pandemic future.

Sub-Saharan Africa has witnessed a sustained improvement in maternal and child health outcomes in the last two decades. The maternal mortality ratio in the region has declined from 870 per 100,000 births in 2000 to 534 per 100,000 births in 2017. However, despite this impressive progress, the region still has the highest neonatal mortality rate in the world, with 27 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2019. It also accounts for over two-thirds of all maternal deaths worldwide.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has stressed global healthcare systems and reduced the availability of medical services across the board — and maternal, newborn and child health services are no exception. There has been a notable reduction in the utilization of these services in sub-Saharan Africa, as measures such as curfews and lockdowns have been used to curb the spread of the pandemic across the region, affecting how women seek and access health facilities in these countries.

In Liberia, for instance, the number of women who attended the recommended medical visits during pregnancy dropped by 18%, while the number of women seeking to initiate medical care during pregnancy fell by 16% in Nigeria. In Uganda, a study found that women’s attendance at antenatal services dropped by 26%. In addition, the study also noted a rise in: adverse pregnancy outcomes for Caesarean sections (5%), haemorrhages related to pregnancy (51%), stillbirths (31%), low-birth-weight (162%) and premature infant births (400%). Similarly, in Ethiopia the pandemic affected the utilization of reproductive, maternal and newborn healthcare services, worsening both maternal and perinatal outcomes.

This has, unfortunately, led to a further increase in maternal mortality in various African countries. Consequently, it is imperative to recalibrate and scale models that can prevent the further deterioration of maternal and child outcomes in the region’s already-strained healthcare systems. There have been some organizations that have done just that, benefitting from a reduction in their immediate supply chain vulnerability and also attaining long-term economic and environmental benefits. Below, we’ll explore a few of these organizations’ pandemic responses, and discuss what other healthcare providers can learn from them.

DEVELOPING LOCAL MANUFACTURING TO OVERCOME SUPPLY CHAIN CHALLENGES

The Safe Motherhood Alliance, a for-profit social enterprise in Zambia, sells low-cost delivery kits to expectant mothers for a safer birth experience. As a result of the pandemic’s disruptions in the global supply chain, the enterprise pivoted its model and commenced manufacturing the products that it was struggling to source through its usual suppliers. It has developed the local manufacturing capacity to produce some of the items — such as sanitary napkins and face masks — that were needed for its delivery kits. Moreover, it has leveraged locally available materials, like the fibres of banana skins, to make sanitary napkins, allowing it to produce them at a fraction of the cost of importing them.

When the Safe Motherhood Alliance reaches full production, it will be able to sell these sanitary napkins to other relevant groups, such as adolescent girls. Overall, leveraging local manufacturing and available materials will not only enable the enterprise to support safer births at a lower cost, but it will also allow it to expand its customer base.

ADAPTING TECH-BASED MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH SOLUTIONS

In recent years, organizations have deployed several technology-based solutions to support improved health outcomes for maternal and child health in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result of the pandemic, some of these health-focused organizations have refined their models and formulated partnerships to support expectant mothers. For instance, Child.org, an NGO in Kenya that focuses on improving global child health partnered with MamaTips, a non-profit maternal health organization that has developed a mobile subscription service. The partnership enables Child.org to provide essential information to expectant mothers via SMS texts, in the absence of the face-to-face meetings that were a part of its delivery mechanism. Such partnerships can be effective in scaling existing programs focused on maternal and child well-being, even beyond the pandemic.

Another digital platform, MomCare, increased its offerings to expectant mothers during the pandemic. It provided women in Kenya with details on facilities that could be accessed despite the curfew, and also connected them to transport services so they could access these facilities. MomCare’s mobile phone-based application enables the staff at healthcare facilities to track the progress of expectant mothers digitally and in real-time.

Similarly, in Nigeria, the digital health enterprise mDoc expanded its scope of services to meet the pandemic-fueled increase in demand for digital health services by expectant mothers. This for-profit enterprise hired more coaches and deepened the support offered to these women. Given the limited access to health care facilities, the enterprise refined its curriculum and modified its processes to provide these expectant mothers with further guidance on clinical care and support to manage pregnancy-related health issues like high blood pressure.

These examples demonstrate that there is significant potential to leverage and integrate technology-based health solutions in the region — not only to provide care during the pandemic but also to improve and scale existing health service delivery and support services for expectant mothers.

COVID-19 has already worsened maternal and child health outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa. As the crisis gradually abates it will be critical to evaluate, adapt and scale health service delivery models and support service programs to prevent — and ideally, reverse — any further loss of the previous gains made in maternal and child health outcomes across the region.

Mumbai,  15 September – The Author, Sagar Atre from Intellecap uses his previous work experiences in fostering health innovations in the domain of infectious diseases, to talk about a recent outbreak through this article.

 Sagar’s article, which was covered by Financial Express titled,  Fighting Fever outbreak in Firozabad, UP and Ill preperaed health systems: Need for multi level approach is pertinent given the recent outbreak and gives us a sense of the hinterlands of India, where unsanitary conditions, poor preventive behaviours and a lack of surveillance mechanisms make it a breeding ground for many diseases.

In a recent article, Dr. Raj Panjabi, a noted public health professional and the head of the U.S President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) wrote, “Alarm bells don’t ring in health crises, community workers do.” This is especially true in the hinterlands of India, where unsanitary conditions, poor preventive behaviours, and a lack of surveillance mechanisms make it a breeding ground for many diseases.

The unfolding crisis in Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh is an example of what such micro health crises can do if we don’t work towards enhancing our public health capabilities. Similar crises have occurred in 2015 and 2019, where outbreaks of similar fevers were attributed to dengue and scrub typhus. U.P. ‘s Bareilly has been one of the few urban areas to report a spike in malaria cases, reporting up to 20,000 cases in a span of weeks in 2019, at a time when malaria is nearly non-existent across much of India barring a few scant pockets.

Battling old scourges

Diseases such as malaria, dengue, scrub typhus, and leptospirosis are remarkably good indicators of glaring gaps in health systems. They can lay bare the hollow claims of policymakers by bringing health systems to their knees and giving doctors barely any time to respond. A lack of discipline in implementing prevention programs can lead to spectacular failures such as the one in Firozabad, where according to recent figures, around 5000 people are suffering from symptoms similar to dengue, while more than 100 confirmed deaths have occurred in Firozabad and other districts in Western UP.

Dengue fever is easy to ignore in usual public health systems. It causes mild illness in many people, but can prove to be fatal for the young and healthy with supposedly strong immune systems and wreak havoc among children. Aedes mosquitoes are suited to breed in cleaner water, in small water collections such as water coolers, among others and they bite mostly during the day, making bed nets and ointments redundant.

Another threat is scrub typhus, caused by a bacterium (O. tsutsugamushi) and spread through bites of small insects called larval mites which dwell in dry scrubs and bushes near the fields in rural areas, where children often play and many of those practicing open defecation need to go. Unlike Dengue and Malaria, scrub typhus has remained largely off the radar, and no real estimates can be gleaned from public health data. The third purported culprit of this outbreak is leptospirosis, usually contracted through contaminated water, soil or food. While scientific evaluations are unavailable, the Delhi government’s effort at making Sunday a day of clearing stagnant water in domestic settings was a doable task for most households.

Ill-prepared health systems

Most of India, especially the rural and semi-urban parts are ill-prepared to deal with most of these diseases. Most labs in such places struggle to perform tests which can differentially diagnose these ailments. The international pressure to control malaria helped the discovery of rapid diagnostic kits, but others such as dengue, scrub typhus, leptospirosis remain undiagnosed, or need a skilled diagnostician. Investments that are needed are often missing, and that means that most of the tests performed for diagnosing diseases remain inaccurate. While multiple forms of dengue tests are available, the RTPCR remains the most reliable. Tests for scrub typhus and leptospirosis remain unreliable and it is unlikely that they will be performed even in district hospitals in the country due to the facilities required. In sum, India’s In sum, India’s scientific efforts need to be directed towards developing tests which can help in diagnosing these diseases, or at least providing a provisional diagnosis for them.

The need for multi-level approaches

The key challenge remains the lack of a holistic thought process for tackling the challenge at multiple levels. Impact of infectious diseases on public health can be dealt with at four key levels. Primarily, it is our inability to implement basic practices of hygiene, sanitation and build strong primary health systems. The second issue is identifying and building strategies and strategic capabilities specific to India’s regions. The third is a lack of focus on developing innovative solutions which can tackle these health challenges through the country’s growing scientific capabilities as was done for COVID-19. Many of India’s institutions such as BIRAC, the DST, the IISc, IISER’s and IIT’s are now proving to be useful in creating innovative solutions for diagnosis and management. They need to be given the mandate of building solutions to tackle them. The final, and probably most complicated challenge is designing interventions which inculcate appropriate health behaviours and improve uptake of health services by the community. Many NGOs and institutions across India have been at the forefront of designing such initiatives across challenging geographies in India.

It would probably be appropriate to say that for India, apart from the fundamental capabilities to ring the alarm bells, we also need the capabilities to nimbly tackle the cause of the alarm, and prevent such incidents in the future.

Mumbai,  9 September – Currently, the textile industry is estimated to be worth USD 103.4 billion and is expected to grow up to USD 190 billion by the year 2025-2026.

As part of the Pro MFG Sustainable Circular Economy Series – Doing Well by Doing Good, powered by BiofuelCircle,  Siddharth Lulla, Lead – Corporate Strategy for  Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF), Intellecap, shares key insights on the need for stakeholders to come together towards bringing about circularity in the textile industry.

The Indian textile and apparel industry is one of the world’s largest, and is a major contributor to global textile and apparel production. Currently, the industry is estimated to be worth USD 103.4 billion and is expected to grow up to USD 190 billion by the year 2025-2026. Today, the Indian textile industry employs more than 45 million people, making it the second largest employer in India. It contributes to over 15 percent of the country’s export earnings, and almost 7 percent of the country’s industrial output (India Brand Equity Foundation, 2018).

Although the industry exhibits a positive trend in terms of growth, the question of sustainability looms large. The Indian textile and apparel industry has two broad issues related to sustainability. First, it is one the most polluting industries in the world. Secondly, it is plagued by social inequities.

More than 80% of textile waste generated is sent to landfills or incinerated instead of being recycled or reprocessed. At the same time, India is increasingly facing the pressure to match supply and demand due to resource constraints in core areas like cotton production. There is, therefore, a critical need to ‘self-disrupt’ existing practices and transition towards pathways, and Circular Economy (CE) is the ideal model to be followed.

Aligning with the principles of the CE entails adopting a more strategic and future-oriented mindset to the entire lifecycle of products from material production, manufacturing, use, and closing the loop on waste. A CE is an emerging phenomenon with the potential to completely change the textile & apparel system.

Products in such a system are designed to be used more; made to be made again and made from safe and recycled or renewable inputs. While prioritizing the rights and equity of everyone involved are not highlighted in the CE literature, this is another critical area that needs attention in the journey to ‘going circular’.

The need for transformational leadership

Companies and manufacturers at the forefront need to lead this transformation. With increasing awareness of environmental and social issues, global brands have started implementing sustainable strategies, which include adoption of sustainable materials, reduced use and wastage of resources across the manufacturing process, etc.

On the other hand, individual designers, small companies and grassroot initiatives are demonstrating alternative ways to more sustainable businesses. There exist several examples of how to design, manufacture and do business in the context of the circular economy, the scaled adoption of which would need a systemic perspective and collaboration between different stakeholders, i.e, designers, producers, manufacturers, suppliers, business owners and even the consumers. This, in turn, would lead to new perspectives and networks that open different business and design opportunities.

Key challenges involved

The transition to a circular economy clearly requires significant changes in both production and consumption models. Some of the factors that impede stakeholders in this transition include:

● Lack of knowledge, awareness of the range of solutions and best practices, capabilities to deliver circular business models that can seamlessly integrate with current systems

● Risks associated with adopting circular solutions and models such as technology risk, high capital investments, high transition costs in order to switch to new solutions

● Capturing value requires both recyclability and durability. Refurbishing products can be an expensive process, if done reliably. Similarly, most garments are composed of a mix of materials (e.g. cotton, viscose, polyester), which makes recycling difficult

– Enabling circularity involves a complex and expensive network of logistics both in terms of collection and recycling waste (textile, apparel, packaging, etc.) establishing customer-facing retail models like rental, e-commerce, subscription, etc.

● Consumers too, are required to overcome stigmas in using upcycled, repaired and refurbished products

● Lack of reskilling and up-skilling initiatives to make workers future ready

Given these risks, despite a rise of innovation by new startups/ innovators leveraging technologies and processes to create sustainable solutions, a very limited number of them have been able to scale and thereafter mainstream their solutions.

There is a need to work collaboratively so as to bridge the gap between innovators and manufacturers to promote large-scale uptake of green solutions, not only by leading brands and manufacturers but also by small and medium enterprises to move towards sustainable practices.

Given the fragmented nature of the industry, standardized solutions are unlikely to emerge anytime soon. Hence, we are more likely to see a diverse range of strategies centered around the following fundamentals:

1. Embracing sustainable design:

● Train and reskill design teams on the principles of circular design
● Invest in, incubate and experiment with alternative materials and fibers
● Reduce leakage in the system by concentrating on material recovery at both a pre and post consumer level
● Develop efficient supply chains with reduced demand of resources (energy, water) and packaging

2. Optimize waste-to-value processes:

● Adopt new technologies and solutions that use waste to manufacture new input materials such as fibers and yarns.
● Adopt innovative solutions to optimize sorting and recycling technologies.
● Partner with logistics partners and solution providers to collect and recycle waste (textile, plastics) generated in the supply chain.
● Develop collection points and home pick-ups to improve accessibility.
● Eliminate single-use packaging by using sustainable / recycled alternatives.

3. Drive Customer Adoption:

● Project sustainability and circular practices at the center of branding decisions
● Offer alternative business models such as rental and subscription
● Provide traceability information about the products to build customer awareness and buy-in
● Enable strategies and systems to encourage returns and recycling
● Use data analytics and tools to help customers make informed decisions and reduce waste

Given the ambitious sustainability goals set by brands globally, circularity is likely to be one of the key business trends of the next decade. The onus is on global brands to encourage action and behavioral change of their suppliers and customers. Today, more than ever, a collective effort of brands, the government and consumers is required to scale circularity in the textile industry, which is the key to a more sustainable future.