-TheNewsMinute.com Workers in these industries are prone to several health vulnerabilities including hearing loss, respiratory illnesses, and musculoskeletal discomfort, that need to be better understood and addressed. Bronchitis, tuberculosis, weight loss and hearing loss are oft-heard health problems among workers of fine-dust producing industries in the Tirupur-Coimbatore region in Tamil Nadu. With a plethora of cotton spinning mills, garment units and power looms, these fine dust producing industries are the primary employers...

-The Indian Express Decentralised industrialisation, entrepreneurship from below have been absent in states that have seen recent unrest among agrarian communities. “The soil here is very saline with electrical conductivity value of 9. We can grow only chloride-loving crops like coconut and the MR-2 variety of mulberry.” That was Tamil Selvi, recently telling this correspondent about the 5.75-acre land farmed by her father Natarajan Gounder at Velayuthagoundanpudur, a small village around 25...

-The Hindu Industry seeks control on yarn prices, permission to export cloth Nearly three-fourths of the 9 lakh powerloom units in Maharashtra’s Bhiwandi have been on strike since Monday, leaving as many workers jobless and per-day losses of about Rs 150 crore, estimate textile industry associations. The strike has brought half of India’s powerloom sector to a halt, they say, since it comes over and above the production cutbacks in place since...

-The Hindu Uzramma, supports decentralisation of cotton textile production chain to benefit farmers Hyderebad: Absence of affordable technology that can turn indigenous cotton into textile is one of the main reasons for cotton farmers’ suicide in the country, said Uzramma, a noted exponent of the handloom industry. Specific variant Delivering a talk on handmade fabrics and process organised at Jiddu Krishnamurti Centre here on Saturday, Ms. Uzramma said farmers are forced to grow only...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Indian weaver is dismissed in high places as an embarrassing anachronism, despite demand for his or her skills and products. In the new millennium, globalisation and a mindless acquiescence to imported notions of a good life threaten to take over, even as the West looks East for better concepts of sustainable living. Analysing today's crisis in the handloom sector, plagued by low-cost imitations from power looms,...