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India's textile industry is among the largest in the world and contributes significantly to India's GDP and economic growth. As the second largest total exporter globally after China with more than 45 million workers, India's textile industry has long been the subject of criticism concerning labour exploitation and environmental damage. Since 2016, nevertheless, Narendra Modi's government has started to take a different yet somewhat perplexing approach to introducing and environmentally friendlier and more sustainable direction in its textile industry. This article aims to comprehend the reasons behind India's new policy arguing that—despite such changes—environmental sustainability has not become India's full concern in the textile sector at the moment. Such a shift was part of India's international market expansion strategy towards the European Union market which had imposed non—tariff import restrictions on India's textile products. This article also shows contradictions and tensions in the government's eco—friendly textile policy concerning its high production costs and India's yet dependence on conventional production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic characteristics are outlined of the UN's Gender Inequality Index (GII) and its Gender Development Index (GDI). Their trends in relation to India's real Gross National Income (GNI) per capita indicate a decline in its gender inequality with its economic growth. However, these trends give a distorted and incomplete picture of changes in Indian gender inequality. Several assumptions underlying GII and GDI are questioned in the Indian context, for example, within India more education of females is not associated with a reduced wage gap between males and females, and greater access of females to the labour market can raise gender inequality. The effects of economic growth (absent in the above indices) are assessed on Indian male–female ratios and on violence against women. Variations in gender inequality in India within households are also considered. New data results in the questioning of several existing hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]