Set up in 1986, NIFT is the pioneering institute of fashion education in the country and has been in the vanguard of providing professional human resource to the textile and apparel industry. It was made a statutory institute in 2006 by an Act of the Indian Parliament with the President of India as ‘Visitor' and has full fledged campuses all across the country. Over the years NIFT has also been working as a knowledge service provider to the Union and State governments in the area of design development and positioning of handlooms and handicrafts.