Fashion designers from the UK and India will collaborate for a project aimed at benefiting women textile workers of Northeast region.

The British Council and IMG Reliance signed an agreement last month to help exotic indigenous textile products of the region get a global platform through the project, ‘A Telegram from Tripura’, a senior official of the council said.

“The project will bring UK designer Bethany Williams and Indian designer Aratrik Dev Varman together to explore new fashion systems and approaches with women textile workers of the Northeast region in focus,” informed Director of the British Council in India, Alan Gemmell.

IMG Reliance is a joint venture between IMG Worldwide of the US and Reliance Industries.

The UK designer would come to India and meet Aratrik Dev Varman, who hails from Tripura.

The final work, to be presented at the Lakme Fashion Week in February next year, will showcase female textile artisans and demonstrate how design innovation can promote a fairer, more inclusive fashion industry, Gemmell said.

“We want friendship between India and the Northeast, in particular by bringing art and culture, and educational opportunities from our country,” he said.

The British council has given scholarships to 500 students from India for academic exchange programme in 44 universities of the UK, the official said.

To mark the 70th anniversary of the council in India, it also awarded scholarships to 100 Indian women, to study STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) subjects at premier higher education institutions in the UK, Gemell said.

“Out of these 100 women, six are from the Northeast… This year we want to inspire young people across Arunachal Pradesh and the Northeast region to think about the UK as a place to study,” he added.