Trump seen in Chennai railway station

Chennai station overflows with migrant workers

• Chennai station overflows with migrant workers returning to UP and Bihar as US doubles tariffs on Indian exports from 25% to 50%.
• Tiruppur’s textile hub in crisis as factories cannot afford to pay idle labourers due to an increase in tariff on Indian exports by the US following India’s purchases of oil from Russia.
• According to industry estimates, migrant workers were the first to be sent packing – weeks before Diwali – with nearly half already unemployed.

Why are business relying on US exports shutting down?

• The blow comes after high tariffs levied by the US on Indian exports, hitting Tiruppur, which supplies one-third of India’s textile exports.
• Out of 2,500 garment units, 20% have shut up shop, and half have scaled back.
• Nearly 50% have laid off large parts of their workforce.
• Tiruppur which exports Rs 39,618 crore worth of garments in 2024-2025, sends up to 35 per cent of its shipments to the US.
• Nearly 5 lakh workers power the industry – over half of them from Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh.
• This downturn threatens the industry and the livelihood of lakhs of families dependent on these wages.
• If migrant workers leave for good, it will take years to rebuild Tiruppur’s labour force.

Madhya Pradesh Tourism

US export tariffs rank as the highest in the world
• The US tariffs on Indian exports rank among the highest in the world and risk undermining the competitiveness of Indian exports, especially labour-intensive goods, against regional competitors Bangladesh and Vietnam.
• According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Monday, the trade deficit decreased to $26.49 billion in August from July’s eight-month peak of $27.35 billion.
• The figure was more than Bloomberg’s predictions, which predicted a $24.8 billion deficit for August.
• August saw a 10.1% decline in imports to $61.59 billion compared to the previous year, while exports increased by 6.7% to $35.1 billion.
• Companies sped up their orders prior to the US tariff implementation, with exports to the United States of America – India’s primary export destination – reaching $40.39 billion from April to August, an increase from $34.21 billion in the corresponding period last year, according to Bloomberg data.

Editor’s Note

• As India faces the full force of the US tariffs, textile businesses in Tiruppur are shutting down and nearly 50% laying off large portions of their workforce. If this continues for a long time, rebuilding Tiruppur’s labour force will take years. It will be interesting to see how the Indian government manages the situation.
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