Reports

Threats of consumer backlash and criticism from unions and the media have sensitised many Western companies to pay greater attention to how their Bangladesh suppliers operate. But that's only a starting point, as many have been aseerting. So, what next? This subject has been explored by Motoko Aizawa and Salil Tripathi of the Institute of Human Rights and Business (IHRB) in a paper titled 'Beyond Rana Plaza: Next steps for the global garment industry and Bangladeshi manufacturers' in Business...

When research is narrowed down to specifics, they often narrate an interesting story. So it was with a recent study that looked at the current status of denim imports into the European Union (EU). The findings are clear: it is Bangladesh that emerges as the front-runner, though it does not yet have a stranglehold over the European market; and India is nowhere to be seen among the top exporters. And China, like everywhere else, has been on a steady decline. The findings of the said study 'Les...

On Wednesday last, many news establishments diligently reproduced a press release announcing Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) as the first Indian company to partner with the Global Goals Campaign that aims to reach seven billion people in seven days with news of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Among other things, this campaign seeks to tackle climate change for everyone by 2030. What went unnoticed, however, was that this news came just a few days after RIL figured miserably in...

Textile manufacturers, the obvious target audience of textile machinery manufacturers, have a lot to say – from the brands they use and prefer to the problems they face during the production process. And they have their own set of solutions and suggestions on how machinery manufacturers can make life easier for them. Most are plausible and can be implemented. On issues that machines face There are a number of issues that cropped up when Fibre2Fashion spoke to textile manufacturers. Ravi S Jalan...

Shipments in most of the textile machinery segments experienced worldwide declines in the last year. The deliveries of new short-staple spindles dropped 15 per cent from 2013 to 2014. Shipped long-staple spindles and open-end rotors increased by 70 per cent and 2.6 per cent respectively, and the number of shipped draw-texturing spindles grew by around 12 per cent. Shipments of both shuttle-less looms and new large circular knitting machines also fell by 14 per cent and 22 per cent year-on-year...

Earlier this month, the world's largest PR firm Edelman ended its decade-long relationship with the world's largest oil lobby, the American Petroleum Institute (API). A welcome step, and high time too, as climate change activists would likely assert. API's contracts with Edelman had been big; so massive that it amounted to 10 per cent of the PR firm's revenues. Its Blue Advertising subsidiary helped API run commercials that promoted the idea that oil and gas were plentiful, and were viable too...

The forests scene the world over is depressing, quite depressing indeed. The ones plundering forests are not complying with international benchmarks, and the impunity with which the ravaging of forests is under way will leave one frustrated and in utter despair. There are as few as 250 companies across countries that are engaged in this unfettered loot, and the ones from India come a cropper when it comes to performance. The Global Canopy Programme (GCP), which evaluates and ranks 500...

At a time when an increasing number of decisions made by consumers are being based on recommendations that gush forth from social media, hospitals cannot remain untouched, or for that matter shy away. Hospitals en masse are not really getting there as yet, but some have started taking small, furtive steps into a realm that where a hospital needs to take measured steps. One institution that has a sizable presence is Manipal Hospitals. Certainly sizable if one goes by the 1.5 lakh likes that it...

Purportedly entertaining films that feature global warming and climate change can indeed affect public understanding. But films are often bound up in problematic and limiting identity politics, which commonly reiterate racial, gender and sexual stereotypes positioning as they do white men as being the decisionmakers and the voice of authority. These are findings of Bridie McGreavy and Laura Lindenfeld of the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Maine, who analysed...

If there’s one hurdle that the proposed Ganga project will not run into, it will be water supply. Not till 2050, at least. And there’s going to be an abundance of it. The reasons, however, should be disconcerting — this will be on account of climate change. A projected increase in precipitation and glacier melt due to climate change, in fact, will result in greater runoff from rivers in High Asia until at least 2050, a paper published online in Nature Climate Change has projected. This suggests...