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India plays a significant role in the textile trade of the world in which the cotton industry enjoys a topmost position. It is estimated that about one third of the country´s foreign exchange earnings originates from the textile industry. In this book, the growth of textile exports in general and cotton exports in particular in terms of regions and the export performance of Indian cotton textile industry at the aggregate and firm level have been discussed. The book concludes with the fact that the cotton textile exports from India are in a depressed state now and so, there are vast prospects for improving the exports of cotton textile industry in the free trade era. For this, there is a need for modernisation of textile industry which involve heavy capital investment and liberalisation of imports. However, all these call for an appropriate fiscal and other policy measures. It is hoped that this book would serve as a ready material for all those who are interested and working in the field of international trade in general and the textile industry in particular with special reference to the cotton textile industry.

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C.P. Jomit is currently a Research Associate at the Madras School of Economics, Chennai, TN, India. He has contributed widely.His area of research interest mainly includes international trade, environmental and agricultural economics.

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