Last Friday, India’s largest garment hub, Tiruppur, came to a standstill with owners of over 6,000 knitwear and garment and allied industries downing shutters and sitting on a hunger strike. They were demanding relief on rising cotton yarn prices for the last 10 months and the ban on its exports.

       The issues they were protesting were evidently serious enough to agree to collectively absorb a loss of around Rs 120 crore on that day. At the heart of the problem is soaring input costs — of cotton and cotton yarn — which has caused a 20 per cent price rise in garments ...