Multifibre agreement (MFA)–endorsed safe textile export markets were abolished in 2005. For India, scholars anticipated both enormous potential gain from the post-MFA free market and the threat of inevitably increasing competition. Researchers also emphasized selected channels to succeed, including effective exploitation of scale economies and technological upgradation, for fruitful market gain in this regard. Against this backdrop, we study the Indian textile industry from 1999–2000 through 2014–2015 to examine (1) the role of economies of scale to achieve efficiency gain and therefore competitiveness, (2) the industry's efforts toward technological upgradation, and (3) its overall sustainability through net export expansion, profitability, and total factor productivity (TFP) growth. Results show that (1) size-efficiency nexus is positively significant and therefore the industry can achieve further efficiency gain and competitiveness by expanding scale of operations at the firm level; (2) despite considerable increase in R&D investments, the industry's overall production technological status has deteriorated in the post-MFA regime and therefore has substantial scope of improvement, possibly through more effectively using the prevailing technological upgradation funds scheme (TUFS) and other official arrangements; and (3) although India achieves sizeable net export expansion and TFP gains, the industry's profitability scenario seems bleak and requires further attention for its better sustainability.

中文翻译：

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退出多纤维协议和印度纺织业：担忧、努力和成就

多纤维协议 (MFA) 认可的安全纺织品出口市场于 2005 年被废除。对于印度，学者们预期从后 MFA 自由市场中获得巨大的潜在收益以及不可避免地加剧竞争的威胁。研究人员还强调了成功的选定渠道，包括有效利用规模经济和技术升级，以在这方面取得丰硕的市场收益。在此背景下，我们研究了 1999-2000 年至 2014-2015 年间的印度纺织业，以检验 (1) 规模经济在实现效​​率提升和竞争力方面的作用，(2) 该行业为技术升级所做的努力，以及 (3) ) 通过净出口扩张、盈利能力和全要素生产率 (TFP) 增长实现整体可持续性。结果表明：（1）规模-效率关系正显着，因此该行业可以通过扩大企业层面的运营规模来进一步提高效率和竞争力；(2) 尽管研发投资大幅增加，但在后 MFA 体制下，该行业的整体生产技术状况有所恶化，因此有很大的改善空间，可能通过更有效地利用现行的技术升级基金计划 (TUFS) 和其他官方安排; (3) 尽管印度实现了可观的净出口扩张和 TFP 增长，但该行业的盈利前景似乎黯淡，需要进一步关注其更好的可持续性。