Delhi to host international fashion technology forum

New Delhi, May 18 (UNI) A week-end get-together of some of the biggest names in global design, technology and management is to give a big push to India's efforts to become the fashion capital of the world.

Union Textiles Minister Shankar Singh Vaghela will inaugurate the International Fashion Technology Forum, the brainchild of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), here on Saturday.

International retail giants Benetton, Carrefour, Gap and Nike, and India's ITC and Pantaloon will be among those attending the two-day brainstorming to put the country on the fast-track to success in fashion technology.

More than 200 delegates from home and abroad will be discussing topics ranging from research and development to supply chain and logistics in the elaborate environs of the Siri Fort Auditorium, a stone's throw from the NIFT campus in the capital.

''India's fashion industry has come of age and ready to take on the world,'' says Prof. Rajesh Bheda, chairperson, fashion technology department at NIFT, Delhi.

According to Prof. Bheda, the forum will provide a platform to bring together all the entities in the fashion value chain for mutual gain and sharing.

NIFT students from all its campuses across the country will also be attending the meet, which the premier fashion technology institute in the country hopes to make an annual event.

Providing glitter to the event will be a Manish Arora fashion show and folk music while NIFT students will be presenting their designs along with exhibitions of seamless garments and intelligent clothing.

Prof Bheda says the idea of the brainstorming originated from a speech made by President APJ Abdul Kalam at the NIFT convocation ceremony last year when he urged the stakeholders to ''make India the fashion capital of the world''.

The mall mania and the expected retail expansion in the country will be another major topic during the forum, which is organised at a time when the nation is debating the government's decision to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail.

''The retail industry in the country is growing rapidly at the rate of 20 per cent and India is one of the most promising markets of the world,'' says Prof. Bheda.

The 40 billion dollar domestic apparel industry is the largest industrial employer in the country after agriculture. The industry employs 35 million people, 4.5 million in garment manfucaturing alone.

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