Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has received a purchase order from Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) to supply 1.80 lakh face masks. The execution of this order will need over 20,000 metres of fabric, which will generate 9000 additional man days for khadi artisans. Khadi face masks are becoming popular due to fine quality and affordable price.Pic: KVICThe IRCS masks will be made of 100 per cent double-twisted handcrafted cotton fabric in brown colour with red piping. KVIC has especi

EDINBURGH – Lost Stock, the UK-based initiative which was launched in May to support garment workers impacted by Covid-19 in Bangladesh and other underdeveloped countries, has announced new national charity and clothes swap partnerships in a bid to encourage its customers to make sustainable choices and reduce waste.The company is asking its customers to consider donating, swapping or recycling any unwanted items they receive in their ‘Lost Stock boxes’ and have teamed up with the British Heart

In an exclusive Q&A withEcotextile News (ETN), Kate Heiny (KH), director, sustainability, at Zalando SE reveals why the Berlin-based ecommerce giant wants its partners to align with its own environmental and social objectives – before they can sell on its platform.ETN:Your recent initiatives on carbon emissions and the Higg Index suggest you've managed to convince top-level management to run with environmental initiatives post-Covid? How did you manage that?Source:Eco Textiles

Scientists in China have developed a material that cools the wearer without using any electricity. The fabric transfers heat, allows moisture to evaporate from the skin and repels water. Thermal conductivity of the new fabric is higher than that of many other conventional or high-tech fabrics. The research is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.Pic: ACSCooling off a person’s body is much more efficient than cooling an entire room or building. Various clothing and textiles have be

Kleinert’s, a division of Hygienics Industries, unveils Fabrapel!Image Courtesy: www.schwing-technologies.comWhat’s Fabrapel all about? It’s a technical textile facial mask with two-way, two-layer protection, wherein the multilayered cotton mask ensures fluid-repellency, stain-repellency, and stops bacterial growth.The mask has been evaluated by Northeastern University College of Engineering ensuring its resistance to penetration by aerosols of virus-like nanoparticles.The comfortable mask provi

Andritz , an Austrian-based international technology group, has reported 5.7 per cent sales growth to €1,662.8 million in its second quarter (Q2) FY20 ended on June 30, 2020 compared to sales of €1,573.2 million in same period last year. However, order intake during the quarter were down 42.2 per cent to €1,183.8 million (Q2 FY19: €2,047.1 million).“All of our business areas have been and still are being affected by the weakness of the global economy albeit to different extents. We introduced co

Due to a change in marketing strategy, khadi sales figures have jumped from ₹1,070 crore in 2014-15 to ₹3,215 crore in 2018-19—a quantum jump of over 200 per cent, according to Vinai Kumar Saxena, chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), who said the total turnover of khadi and village industries products last year was ₹74,315 crore.Pic: ShutterstockSimilarly, in the village industries sector, sales increased from ₹31,965 crore in 2014-15 to ₹71,100 crore-a growth of over

LONDON – The newly relaunched Good Work Investor Coalition (GWC), the worker rights arm of responsible investment charity, ShareAction, says it’s exploring ways to influence privately owned companies to engage more openly in tackling poor employment practices and lack of transparency in the textile sector.Martin Buttle, head of the GWC, toldEcotextile News: “Scrutiny of the investment chain up from the private equity funds to theinstitutional investors who invest in them, would be a key componen

A sharp fall in both domestic and exports demand because of the COVID-19 pandemic, lower profitability and elongation of working capital cycle are expected to impair the credit profiles of Indian readymade garment (RMG) makers this fiscal, according to CRISIL Ratings, which recently said the impact will be felt more by exporters owing to higher revenue de-growth and stretched receivables.Pic: ShutterstockThe company analysed over 180 RMG manufacturers.The prolonged lockdown and lower discretiona

Austria based family-run footwear brand Giesswein has claimed to have launched the world’s lightest merino wool sneaker with its latest product launch.The brand said the new ‘Wool Sneaker’ is only 160g, almost half the weight of an average running shoe, and the equivalent to 100 paper clips, 150 jelly beans, or even 65 pennies.Figure:Giesswein has claimed to have launched the world’s lightest merino wool sneaker with its latest product launch.The purpose of the new unisex sneaker is to revolutio