Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday called upon students of various national designing institutions to look at indigenous products and professions in the country along with global market for innovative business solutions in designing. The Finance Minister asked students to revisit the Indian traditional knowledge in designing of various fields, instead of searching for modern designs, for sustainability and reflecting sustainable lifestyles.

Nirmala Sitharaman also urged National Institute of Design to expand their activities to areas like jewellery designing. She asked the commerce ministry to set up designing centres where there are good goldsmiths engaged in designing.

Speaking on the occasion, Union Commerce minister Piyush Goyal called for concerted efforts by various designing institutions in finding solutions which improve ease of life for common people. He called upon the academia to come out with the proposals for utilising the funds under the National Technical Textile Mission which has about 1400 crore budget allocations. Stating that the Technical Textile field is expanding across the world, he called upon the industry to capture the global market share.

Mr. Piyush Goyal also disclosed that there are over 80 thousand start-ups registered across the country.

Both the Ministers addressed students’ meet of five national Institutes including the Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI), National Institute of Design (NID), National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) and Indian Institute of Packaging (IIP) in Hyderabad. The five institutes of excellence have come together to exchange their ideas and best practices for the first time.