North East textile products to get global platform soon

Itanagar: The exotic indigenous textile products of North-east is all set to get a global platform soon with the British Council and IMG Reliance, inking an operational alliance agreement in August this year for a project to support female textile artisans in North-east India.

Under the agreement, The British Council’s global ‘Crafting Futures’ programme will be coming to India in collaboration with IMG Reliance, Director of the British Council in India Alan Gemmell said.

The project named as ‘A Telegram from Tripura’ will bring UK designer Bethany Williams and Indian designer Aratrik Dev Varman of the label Tilla together to explore new fashion systems and approaches with female textile artisans in the North East Region.

The aim is to grow their livelihoods and economic opportunities through responding to a creative brief set by Fashion Revolution. The final work will be presented at the February 2019 Lakmé Fashion Week likely to be held in Mumbai before appearing in Fashion Revolution’s biannual fanzine.

The work will showcase female textile artisans and demonstrate how design innovation can promote a fairer, more inclusive fashion industry, Gemmell said.

“We want friendship and build a relationship with India and Northeast in particular by bringing art and culture, educational opportunities from our country,” the director said.

He said, the council, in its endeavour to provide a platform for Indian students to study in reputed universities of UK like has been funding scholarship to 500 students every year.

This year, to mark the 70th anniversary in India, the British Council awarded fully-funded scholarships to 100 Indian women to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects at UK's premier, higher education institutions.

“This included 6 women scholars from Northeast India. These scholars will be studying subjects in STEM fields including computer sciences; biological sciences; and physical sciences in Heriot-Watt University, Liverpool Hope University, The University of Sheffield, University of Glasgow, University of Reading and University of Southampton,” Gemmell disclosed. “2018 marks our 70th anniversary in India. We’ve been inspired by India every day of the last 70 years – by its artists, students, and its teachers. This year we want to inspire young people across Arunachal Pradesh and the Northeast to think about the UK as a place to study and the British Council as the organisation to help you get there."

Earlier this year in March, the British Council brought Premier Skills to the Northeast in partnership with the Sports Authority of India.

In Guwahati, 60 coaches and referees from the eight states of Northeast India received expert training from qualified Premier League coaches from the UK, giving them the skills and support to develop their own community football projects. British Council’s global partnership with English Premier League, “Premier Skills”, builds capacity among community leaders and coaches through face-to-face football coaching, English language and leadership skills. There were 10 participants from Arunachal Pradesh – 4 girls and 6 boys.