Call to focus on fashion education

Governor K Rosaiah on Saturday stressed that focusing on capacity building activity in fashion higher education is the need of the hour.

Delivering his convocation address at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) here, he said, according to FICCI and Techno-park, India’s total textile and apparel industry size was estimated at 89 billion US dollars during 2011. It is projected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.5 per cent to reach 223 billion US dollars by 2021, he added.

Pointing out that this would certainly create the demand for more trained manpower for the fashion industry to achieve this target, he said that the arrival of brands like Zara, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, IKEA, Jimmy Choo, etc. might bring more flavours to the Indian apparel market, which would provide more job opportunities for young designers.

Lauding the initiatives taken by NIFT in Tamil Nadu in the recent years by providing tremendous contribution in terms of project and consultancy, he said,  “I am happy to learn that this institute has been providing professionals to the fashion industry to compete in the domestic and international markets.”

The initiatives taken by NIFT, the Governor said, to achieve excellence and to encourage its faculty to continuously upgrade their knowledge base, so as to make their students to equip themselves to address the challenges and to compete globally deserve commendation. I am told that NIFT is the only institute in the world, which offers degrees and other academic distinctions on its own, he added. Earlier in his address, NIFT Director S Devadoss said, at present NIFT offers six UG courses and one PG course. “Keeping the demand in view, Bachelor of Design (Fashion Communication) and Master of Design courses will be introduced from the next academic year,” he said.