‘ India Size' garments on the way

New Delhi, Feb 17: Soon, an Indian buyer would be able to walk into a shopping mall and try on clothes with the ' India Size', tailored to suit the body measurements of the country's populace.

In March, the government will launch an exercise to measure a group of people to prepare a comprehensive ' India Size' chart, which can be adopted by the country's apparel industry.

"We want that we should have Indian size for two things. It can boost our retail market. South Asian size will also get a fillip, and we will become influence drivers for foreign companies also. We are actually rolling out the exercise in March itself," Textiles Secretary Raghvendra Singh told PTI.

He said the government is trying to complete the "sizeable" project early so that a standardised size chart can be prepared for the ready- to- wear industry, based on body measurements of the domestic population.

The project approved earlier by the government will entail measuring of 25,000 male and female Indians in six cities across six regions of the country: Kolkata ( East); Mumbai ( West); New Delhi ( North); Hyderabad ( Central India); Bengaluru ( South); and Shillong ( North- East). Devices like 3D whole body scanners and computers will extract hundreds of measurements from the scan.

Providing well- fitting garments is a big challenge for the domestic textile and apparel industry, which is projected to reach $ 123 billion by 2021. — PTI