Typically associated with the crude ‘gunny bag’ used in the bazaars of the Indian sub-continent, jute is now very much up-market with an amazing variety of fashionable products being turned out from ...

The jute industry went through another year of crisis with a sharp raw material shortage, record-high prices and a growing dependence on plastic bags for food grain packaging, unsettling the sector.

Inside a small tiled-roof shed at Shenoy Nagar in Madurai, the sound of sewing machines rent the afternoon air. Half-a-dozen women are at work, their heads bent in concentration on the jute fabric in ...