NEWS-INDIA: Now design your own sari with Co-optex

[Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>]

Now design your own sari with Co-optex

By Papri Sri Raman, Indo-Asian News Service

Chennai, May 7 (IANS) With the press of a button and click of a mouse, you
can now design the sari of your dreams. And Tamil Nadu textile giant
Co-optex will weave that dream to life for you.

A computer-aided design centre at the state-run textile corporation in
southern India, popularly known as Co-optex, will let women people design
their own saris. The customer would be able to sketch her own design at the
centre in Chennai and Co-optex weavers would weave it to her specifications.

Two other such design-your-own centres would be set up soon in Madurai and
Erode, Textiles Minister V. Somasundaram announced. There are plans for a
similar centre in Coimbatore as well.

New designs would be created with the help of the National Institute of
Fashion Technology, Chennai, and the National Institute of Design,
Ahmedabad, the minister said.

An exclusive showroom for power loom products would be set up in Chennai and
two export-oriented readymade garments parks will open in Chennai and the
textile town of Madurai, about 600 km south of here.

The textile parks, which will cost Rs.480 million and come up with federal
assistance, would provide space to 200 entrepreneurs and employment to
20,000 people.

Last year Tamil Nadu produced textile goods worth nearly Rs.7 billion and
exported products worth Rs.1.46 billion, Somasundaram said. The export
target for this year is Rs.1.75 billion and would be achieved through
participation in international fairs, he added.

--Indo-Asian News Service