Jems and jewellery Industry has shown biggest increase in the employment sector after the recession. The sector, which had been affected the most during the recession period and hundreds of units were ruined during the period throughout the country, has bounced back with a bang.
According to the data made available by the Ministry of Labour and Employment this sector has registered 5.07% growth in providing employment during the third quarter of 2009. It is notable that -8.05% employment growth was registered during the period of the recession last year. It is notable that considering the recent growth in the gems and jewellery sector National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) has signed an MoU with Delhi’s National Institute of Jewellery Design Technology (NIJDT) for course exchange and co-branding.
The other sectors who have registered a positive trend in the employment generation include textiles, auto and metal sectors

Sunita Nanda is a different kind of fashion designer. The fashion world may not be aware of her name but she had walked on the ramp at United Nations in New York last year. She used to go five-star hotels and attend high level seminars to share her experience as an international fashion designer.
But at the same time she also sells papad, pickles, handicrafts at the stalls of these five-star hotels. Her life in the tinsel town is not glamorous like a professional designer. But she is happy and contented. She does not even remember that top models like Indrani Das Gupta, Jessy Randhawa, Mehar Ali, Aryan Vaid, Sheetal Malhar, Carol Gracia had wore dresses stitched by her and women like her.
They learned fashion designing from one of the best fashion designers Abdul Halder, who used to design dresses for Michael Jackson.
These are old stories for her and over a two dozen women who also walked on the ramp in United Nations but when you start talking about these you will find a victorious spark on their faces.

Talking to fachcha.com at Delhi’s famous hotel Lalit (earlier known as hotel Inter-Continental) Sunita Nanda says that she is very happy now. She earns about rupees 2500/- to 3000/- per month now. Her husband is a photographer and he also earns 5000/- to 6000/- per month. Speaking about past life she says that she could hardly earn rupees 500/- to 600/- per month through scavenging at various homes. It was a demeaning and humiliating practice for her and her friends. She is among those who have been liberated from inhuman practice of manual scavenging last year. She and other women came here this month on during a function of Sulabh International.

Sharing her experience about the UN visit Usha Choumar, another woman liberated from scavenging at Alwar, says “It was a funny experience for us. Most of the women had dressed in short skirts and nobody appeared in sari. We were laughing on them and they were laughing on us.”

Sushila Chauhan, who also visited UN says that it is better to forget past life of scavenging rather than making it a memory. According to her now they are regularly getting work for designing of sari, and other dress materials. The work includes stitching, embroidery and others. But sari takes much time as it needs collective efforts. The rate for sari is ‘high’ too (about rupees 2000 to 3000). According to Sunita Nanda it takes about eight days to finalize a sari and it needs five to six persons to complete the task.

Was the showcasing of skill of fashion designing on ramp at UN just token? Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder of Sulabh International, says no. “All of us were busy in the Herculean task of making Alwar completely scavenging free. As it has completed now they will go back on the ramp again and you will find them in fashion week too”, says Pathak.
(Pix courtsy: Sulabh International)

Students of India’s prestigious National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) may soon go for Switzerland for a complete semester under students’ exchange programme.

A leading College at Switzerland has offered semester exchange programme with National Institute of Fashion Technology. This was told by Union Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran today during his address to 15th Convocation of the NIFT. Though he did not revealed the name of the institution but said that the offer had come during his interaction with a leading College of the Switzerland during his recent Europe visit.

The Minister has also emphasised the need to open National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) specialized centres throughout the country to cater to the specific needs of traditional and emerging textiles clusters. “We should take step to bridge the gap and open NIFT specialized centres to cater to the specific needs of traditional and emerging textiles clusters,” said Maran. He said that there is a sustained demand for NIFT intervention different cities like Dodbhallapur, Anantpur, Kohlapur, Surat, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Bhagalpur and Tirupur. He also called upon the NIFT designers to be equally concerned about the handloom weavers, khadi weavers and handicrafts artisans and ensure that the design interventions help them too.

About 1500 degrees and diplomas were conferred in the convocation of the NIFT. (Pix: courtsy PIB)

National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and National Institute of Jewellery Design Technology (NIJDT) have come together to co-brand their courses. This will help to augment branding of their courses as well as utility and employability of the courses. An MOU will be signed between NIJDT and NIFT on Monday the 9th November in New Delhi for the purpose in presence of Delhi’s Industry Minister Haroon Yusuf.
According to government sources the idea is to not just co-brand both the institutes but also start programmes like student exchange, organising seminars, teacher exchange for betterment of the courses as well as their students. “NIFT has expertise in fashion technology while NIJDT has expertise in jewellery desinging. Both the institutes will be benefitted with the proposed MOU”, a senior official of the Industry department told fachcha.com.
NIJDT has been established by Delhi Government and promoted by Delhi State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) The institute currently run several diploma and certificate courses including Gemology, Jewellery Design, CAD, Dimond identification and other to cater the demand of gemstone, dimond and jewellery industry. NIFT is an established name in the fashion industry and run several graduate and post-graduate courses like fashion designing, apparel designing, leather design, accessory designing, textile designing and several others.

Salman Khan, Sushmita Sen, Urmila Matondkar, Ranbir Kapoor, Katreena Kaif, Deepika Padukon… This is not star cast of any upcoming movie but the some of the names of Bollywood who walked on ramp during Wills India Fashion Week 2009, Delhi. Though some of the designers and fashion experts had clear stand on the issue that design is more important and not the faces but the increasing number of Bollywood faces show that these celebrities are equally important to provide glamour to the event. If go by the names of such Bollywood stars the list is long enough. The list include Abhay Deol, Jayaprada, Malvika Tiwari, Neha Dhupia, Riya Sen, Raima Sen, Sohail Khan and several others. Even Olympic winner and boxing champion Vijender too has been walked on ramp to add more punches in the Fashion Week.