Indians may soon be able to shop for 'INDIAsize' garments, says textile secretary Rachna Shah

The Textiles Ministry will soon rollout 'INDIAsize' -- measurements and standards designed to better suit the Indian body types, Textiles Secretary Rachna Shah said on Tuesday. Once the initiative is launched, Indians will soon be able to shop for clothes that would fit them better. 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.

"We are hoping... That will happen very soon," Shah told PTI when asked about the rollout of the INDIAsize initiative.

The Textiles Secretary said the government's goal is to take the domestic technical textiles segment to USD 40-50 billion in the next five years or so, from USD 22 billion at present.

"Our exports of technical textiles is presently at USD 2.5 billion, our objective is to enhance it to USD 10 billion during this period," Shah added.

The technical textile market globally is to the tune of about USD 250-260 billion and is expected to increase to about USD 320-325 billion by 2025-26, she said.

The Textiles Secretary shared that the government is working in the technical textiles sector with a multi-pronged approach.

"There is focus on R&D activity in the technical textile segment including fibre and in development of various applications. There is also focus on developing a skilling ecosystem and skilled manpower for this sector. The government is promoting investment in technical textiles through its flagship schemes namely the PLI scheme for textiles as also the PM-MITRA Mega Textiles Parks," Shah said.

She informed that the Textiles Ministry is working very closely with various user Ministries and Departments within the government and state governments to increase demand and increase the penetration of technical textiles.

One very critical element of the approach is focusing on developing standards and regulations for technical textiles, she said while addressing a Ficci conference.

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.

The project entails gathering anthropometric data pan-India from more than 25,000 male and female persons between the age group of 15 years and 65 years using human safe 3D whole-body scanning technology.

The created body-size chart will help national and international retailers and manufacturers to produce goods which are best suited for Indian body types and create a balance between demand and supply of well fitted garments.

Apart from apparel, the findings of the study will have ramifications across various sectors such as automotive, aerospace, fitness & sport, art, computer gaming, etc. Where the insights from this data can produce ergonomically designed products which are well suited for the Indian population.