Feature

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz sent shockwaves through global energy markets, but in Surat, India's manmade textile hub, the impact arrived not in boardrooms but in workers' kitchens. With LPG unavailable and alternatives prohibited by landlords, thousands of migrant textile workers have been forced to abandon their livelihoods and return home, triggering a production crisis that the industry is still struggling to contain.

The unassuming minstrel. Rooted. Guwahati-based singer, lyricist, music director, Anupam Saikia’s music is just that — borne of the world he grew up in. As the songster gathers his compositions, a requiem in Hindi for Zubeen Garg, another album, he sojourns, as restless as his verses, from one performance to another in rural and semi-urban pockets where crowds swell to hear him croon. He’s been doing this since the Nineties, having added contemporary music to his oeuvre that spans folk, Bihu...

In an era where authenticity is increasingly elusive, the ancient, hand-engineered craft of zari is caught in a deepening crisis. Pure zari, painstakingly wrought from silver, gold and copper in Surat’s shrinking cottage clusters, is now overshadowed by an ever-expanding tide of cheap metallic substitutes. As precious metal prices soar, purity wavers, and fakes flood the market, the last generation of real-zari makers confronts a future as fragile as the filaments they draw.

His is a classic case of how an artisan from the grassroot level can rise to reach some of the most famed museums in the world. Not many know but he has, stitch by stitch, needle by needle, threaded his way into the cultural mosaic that this country is. His thread is his voice, his loom a battleground for respect. In conversation with Asif Shaikh.

Surat is built by people who arrived with little but resolve, turning hardship into high-growth enterprises. Their stories reveal a city that rewards speed, grit and practical intelligence—a place where partnerships form easily, risks are absorbed quickly and learning never stops. Here, ambition meets an ecosystem that converts effort into scale, making enterprise almost instinctive.

It’s a paradox wrapped in polyester. Surat—the city that spins out 60 million metres of manmade fabric every single day—stands on the verge of an industrial chokehold. With 700,000 looms running and ₹200 billion in turnover, India’s synthetic hub is built on imported muscle: machines, yarn, and know-how. Now, a compliance rule threatens to pull the plug on that ecosystem—testing whether the synthetic capital can truly stitch together scale, self-reliance, and sustainability before the loom slows down.

In Surat’s textile maze, there’s a fast fashion player going sustainable with almost zero minimums, made-to-order fabrics, and size-inclusive garments shipped across India and beyond. Flipping the bulk-first playbook, from one metre to a multi-crore business, Fabcurate’s small-batch smarts with print, cut, stitch, ship is scaling big as it rewrites the e-commerce rulebook.

From bootstrapped beginnings to a ₹230 crore powerhouse, the True Colors story is far from over. Having mastered the art of resilience, the company is now writing its next chapter — one defined by expansion, innovation, and self-reliance. This is the second and concluding part of the story.

From borrowed ₹4 lakh at a 10x15 feet leased basement to a sweeping 2,00,000 square feet with a turnover of around ₹230 crore, Surat-headquartered True Colors Ltd delivers a vertically integrated ecosystem for digital fabric printing, from machinery to sublimation paper, inks, printing services and countrywide support. Read the journey of a start-up as it navigated the choke points to emerge as a cutting force with a country wide imprint.

From farmyard waste to  fabric with a future—Prof. Georgy Sunny of NIFT Kannur has spun arecanut husk into a breakthrough in sustainable  textiles. Born of rural roots and backed by a decade of research, this zero-chemical fibre is now eyeing a saree-sector debut in 2025.