The Union Ministry of Textiles is setting up a design resource centre at the weavers’ service centre in Chennai.
According to an official press release, the Ministry has taken up new initiatives to promote the handloom sector. It is setting up 10 design centres through the National Institute of Fashion Technology, including one in Chennai. The other centres include Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Kannur.
The aim is to build and create design-oriented excellence in the handloom sector and to facilitate weavers, exporters, manufacturers and designers access design repositories to improve samples/products. The Ministry has roped in NIFT as it is an in-house organisation of Ministry of Textiles, of which handloom also is a part, and also the expertise of NIFT in fashion and design trends that can be used by the handloom weavers for better market linkage.
Similar resource centres were set up in seven centres earlier and one was inaugurated at Kancheepuram recently.
