Govt to soon launch INDIAsize initiative, says Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh

INDIAsize initiative: The government will soon roll out the much-awaited 'INDIAsize' initiative, which aims to establish standardised measurements designed to better suit the Indian body types, Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh said on Thursday.

Presently, international and domestic brands available in India use measurements from the US or the UK for garments, having 'small', 'medium' and 'large' sizes.

However, Western body types differ from Indians in terms of height, weight or specific measurements of body parts, which sometimes causes fitting issues.

The Ministry of Textiles sanctioned the INDIAsize project to develop standard body sizes for the Indian apparel sector to address the prevailing disparities and inconsistencies in provided fits.

"On IndiaSIZE, I'm trying to get the Prime Minister to inaugurate it, it should be launched soon," Singh told reporters here on the sidelines of the launch of VisioNxt.

VisioNxt is India's first-ever initiative that combines Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) to generate fashion trend insights and forecasts.

Its mission is to identify, map, and analyse geo-specific trends, reflecting the positive plurality, cultural diversity, and socio-economic nuances of India while collating comprehensive trends and insights.

"In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision, this VisioNxt portal has been launched. Earlier America and Europe used to do fashion design forecasting, but under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership for the first time the Textiles Ministry in collaboration with NIFT ... have launched this historic initiative," Singh said.

At the Global Textile Summit in 2017, the Prime Minister highlighted the gap in the availability of India-specific real-time trend insights for industry stake-holders.

Recognising the necessity for a tech-enabled trend prediction system, India aims to engage in a dynamic dialogue' drawing inspiration from within while projecting its influence outward' to understand the mindsets and aspirations of Indian citizens.

India's entry into the forecasting space offers multiple advantages: it reduces dependence on global forecasting agencies, provides unique insights into domestic fashion consumers, integrates the country's strength in information technology with textiles, and combines artificial and human intelligence.