The thermal cost of India’s textile surge

India is currently winning the global trade shuffle. As political instability rocks traditional hubs such as Bangladesh, international buyers are pivoting toward Indian textile clusters. But as factories in Tiruppur and Bengaluru take on these surge orders, they are walking into a thermodynamic crisis they haven’t budgeted for.

The crisis is personal before it is industrial. A textile worker in Tamil Nadu loses 50% of her work capacity on a 40°C afternoon; and as she does not have any sick leaves or cooling breaks, she also loses 50% of her day’s wages. She absorbs the cost of a warming planet so that global supply chains remain ‘efficient.’ However, the biology of labour is hitting a wall, and India’s textile industry is quietly cracking under the weight.