During the winter session of Parliament, the Government plans to introduce a bill giving National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFT), status of an institute of national importance.
In addition, its Board of Governors would be given more autonomy.
The bill has been drafted after an exhaustive discussion with several ministries. The bill would be introduced in the winter session, informed Shankersinh Vaghela, the Textile Minister.
He also added that the status of NIFT would be no less than All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Indian Institute of Technology.
Till the date, NIFT has been conferring diplomas on its students, but with the passage of the proposed bill would enable it to award its students degrees. Thus the bill would satisfy a long-standing request of the students.
At present, there are seven NIFT centres and the Government is planning to start two more - one in Uttar Pradesh and the other in Kerala.