For a country with a vast source of cheap labour, India has often been a somewhat late participant in the global supply chains that snake around the globe. Even in clothing, one of its traditionally strong areas, some of the disadvantages that have prevented its challenging China for supremacy in international manufacturing continue to hold it back.
And like all other low-cost producers, it is also facing the increasing challenge of ensuring that the goods it produces are not just cheap but also satisfy the ethical considerations of western shoppers. The pressures of such ethical sourcing, however, run the risk of excluding some of the poorest workers from the benefits of the global economy.
