Logistics has moved from the backroom to the boardroom, becoming central to strategy, risk and resilience in India, according to Mumbai-based Rubix Data Sciences Pvt Ltd.

In just a decade, India has expanded its National Highways by 60 per cent, overtaken the United States to become the world’s second largest rail freight carrier and set sights on tripling air cargo capacity by 2030. Ports are on track to push India into the global top five shipping nations, the September 2025 logistics (transportation) update released by the company noted.

Highway construction has accelerated by 2.5 times, from 11.6 km/day in fiscal 2013-14 (FY14) to 29 km/day in FY25, with aspirations of 100 km/day.

Logistics has moved from the backroom to the boardroom, becoming central to strategy, risk and resilience in India, according to a recent report.
In just a decade, India has expanded its National Highways by 60 per cent, overtaken the US to turn the second largest rail freight carrier.
E-commerce is projected to catapult air cargo from $5 billion to $200 billion by 2030.

The length of National High-Speed Corridors (HSC) has increased 26.6 times from 93 km in 2014 to 2,474 km at present

Rail has emerged as a new force in automotive transport: from a 1.5 per cent share a decade ago to nearly 25 per cent today, powered by 170 dedicated rakes and double-decker wagons.

India’s ports handled 1,594 million tonnes in FY25 (6 per cent compounded annual growth rate since FY22), while a $20 billion investment push is set to expand capacity six-fold by 2047.

E-commerce alone is projected to catapult air cargo from $5 billion to $200 billion by 2030, driving demand for freighters and faster handling.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is rolling out a ₹3.4 trillion pipeline of 124 projects spanning 6,376 km, backed by record-high capital expenditure of ₹2.5 trillion in FY25.

But growth is only one side of the story. The other is disruption. The 50-per cent US tariffs are reshaping trade flows, driving a 9-per cent surge in India’s containerised exports in the first half this year before duties kicked in.

Logistics costs have fallen from 16 per cent to nearly 10 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), with the government pushing for single-digit costs by year-end, the report added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

The next-generation GST reforms have provided much-needed relief to the Indian textile and garment industry by introducing a uniform 5 per cent tax rate. The reforms have also resolved the long-standing issue of an inverted duty structure for the textile value chain. However, they have simultaneously burdened expensive garments, including artisan-made ethnic wear, with higher taxes—disappointing a section of the industry.

Before GST restructuring, garments priced above ₹1,000 were taxed at 12 per cent, while those below that threshold attracted 5 per cent GST. The GST Council has now raised the price threshold to ₹2,500. Under the new system, garments priced up to ₹2,500 attract 5 per cent GST, while those priced above fall into the next slab of 18 per cent, as the 12 per cent slab was removed. This has effectively increased the tax rate on expensive garments. Branded apparel, premium winter wear like coats and suits, wedding attire, and traditional ethnic wear—often priced above ₹2,500—are now costlier for consumers.

India’s next-gen GST reforms have simplified taxation with a uniform 5 per cent rate and resolved the inverted duty structure.
However, garments priced above ₹2,500 now face 18 per cent GST, making premium apparel, artisan-made ethnic wear, and wedding attire costlier.
Industry bodies warn this will hurt affordability, promote grey market activity, and urge a review of price-based slabs for garments.

Industry bodies have expressed concern over price-based GST slabs for garments. The Retailers Association of India (RAI) stated, “Price-based thresholds will create distortions and promote grey market activity. They will lead to misreporting, compliance challenges, and harm organised retail—especially mid- and premium-priced products.” RAI added that the new tax structure could discourage domestic manufacturing, undermine Make in India, and artificially force consumers to downgrade purchases rather than expand demand.

The higher 18 per cent tax rate on garments above ₹2,500 is expected to hurt middle-class affordability, weaken the organised retail sector, and impact categories like wedding apparel, winter wear, artisan-made products, festive clothing, and traditional weaves.

RAI said that all garments should ideally be taxed at 5 per cent, or at the very least, a more reasonable price threshold should be established.

The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India (CMAI), however, welcomed the increase in the price threshold for the 5 per cent tax rate, calling it a “positive move”. But it urged the GST Council to abolish price-based taxation altogether. All garments, irrespective of price, should be taxed at 5 per cent, or at least a more reasonable and realistic price level should be set, CMAI said.

It further noted that garments above ₹2,500 are also widely consumed by the middle class, including woollen clothing, occasion wear, Indian traditional clothing, handlooms, and embroidered artisan-made products. All these will now see a significant price rise due to the revised GST rate. CMAI strongly urged the GST Council and government to review this aspect.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (KUL)

The action in New York Fashion Week was concentrated in Brooklyn on Monday with distinctive and distinguished shows by Tory Burch and Diotima, after the day had opened with Zankov in Chelsea.

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Tory Burch: Fashion in a cathedral of finance

No one can ever fault Tory Burch’s excellent sensibility when it comes to staging a show, especially this season, when she presented inside the luxury condominium skyscraper One Hanson Place.

Originally the HQ of Williamsburg Savings Bank, the main lobby in this former cathedral of finance built in the 1930s contains elements of Romanesque ad Byzantine architecture. Making it the ideal location for this eclectic collection, which blended snappy American sportswear, distressed fabrics and kicky imperfections.
 
Though diverse in its references, the collection was nevertheless coherent its fashion statement and target. Few creators today better understand the needs of busy working women than Burch. Her clothes have polish but are never prim.
 

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She takes risks – like a great series of dropped waist skirts and dresses – but manages to pull them off with aplomb. She creates monogram silk sweaters but keeps them playful with myriad letterings. She drapes plissé flared dresses in liquid viscose with gusto.
 
Tory’s aesthetic is cool, cerebral and feminine, but never saccharine or insipid. Her cast looked like busy women brimming with panache armed with a great new Lee Radziwill handbag – each marching with supreme confidence.
 
Little wonder her front-row boasted Naomi Watts, Qin Lan, Tessa Thompson and Emma Roberts.
 
“We were thinking about the complexity of women and different facets of their style. Femininity and strength, precision and imperfection. The clash of pristine tailoring with naïve florals, seed beading with distressed leather,” opined Burch, who took a bow with a huge smile, the sounds of loud clapping echoing off the gilded mosaic ceiling.
 

Diotima: Rejecting colonialism through Carnival

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Colonialism, and Caribbean culture’s fightback against that evil via the tradition of Carnival, was the theme of an innovative and intriguing collection from Diotima this season.
 
Yet though riffing on carnival archetypes, the collection was far from being clothes for a pageant. Diotima’s founder Rachel Scott referenced many carnival characters – with names like Baby Doll, Dame Lorraine – but the results were very wearable, cool clothes rather than theatrical statements.
 
Blending elements of active sport and couture: like a hooded sleeveless mesh top and pants finished by a layered skirt in shards of chiffon; or mini waistcoats accompanied by matte viscose crepe knit skirts. Her chevron-finished sequinned mesh bodies will have a huge impact and be copied by lesser talents and high street stores.
 
Scott can drape and sculpt with the best of them, her skill highlighted in some fab crepe lapel-free redingotes, layered asymmetrically below the waist. 
 
Combining all her tricks and techniques into a super series of evening looks, they were worn by a cast with J’Ouvert pre-dawn street festival make-up with daubs of silver mud. That was before a bravura finale of feathery gowns with interior light weight petticoats.
 
Carnival couture received an enormous cheer when Scott took her bow inside a battered old warehouse in Greenpoint.
 
Last year’s winner of the CFDA’s 2024 American Womenswear Designer Award, Scott was recently appointed creative director of Proenza Schouler. In a word, Jamaica-born Scott is also the single most original fashion designer in the Americas today. 
 

Zankov: Knits and stripes in Chelsea

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Monday began with a runway debut for Henry Zankov, whose knitwear-driven collections have been attracting a lot of attention of late.
 
Zankov is another recent prizewinner, nabbing the Google Shopping Emerging Designer of the Year title in 2024.
 
So, even though this was Zankov’s catwalks baptism, the show managed to attract buyers from Neiman Marcus, Harrods, Selfridges, Bergdorf and Sherri McMullen, whose chain of boutiques around San Francisco have earned her a reputation as a savvy diviner of coming trends.
 
Presented inside an all-white art gallery in Chelsea to an audience of barely 150, the collection was pretty and pleasing, even if the show never took off.
 
Boasting some eye-boggling fabrics – bonded burlap linens or wrinkled checkerboard intarsias – Zankov’s clothes look novel, though also oddly retro. With too many football jersey carwash stripes, and predictable sequin mesh sheaths. Plus, styling that featured headscarves and daffy sunglasses only managed to remind one of Alessandro Michele’s early Gucci shows a half decade ago. Not exactly a very now look.