Unravelling the Potential Implications of the EU CSDDD for India’s Textile and Clothing Value Chains

The European Union (EU) has been at the forefront of advocating global social and environmental governance through its sustainable supply chain initiatives under the ambit of the EU Green Deal. The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is a unilateral policy initiative that aims to mitigate potential adverse human rights and environmental impacts of companies’ global supply chain operations. Noting that the CSDDD may be streamlined in European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen’s second term, this study examines the potential implications of CSDDD as currently framed for India’s textile and clothing (T&C) value chains and their existing governance structures. The study findings demonstrate that the directive raises serious concerns related to the privatization of regulatory and compliance costs, consolidation of suppliers, higher investment requirements for due diligence compliance, development of information and data management systems, risk of supply chain networks’ restructuring, coordination costs, and technical capacity constraints.