IIT Delhi’s venture claims to have designed an all-weather durable tri-colour

IIT Delhi's startup SWATRIC claimed to have developed an advanced fabric structure for the monumental national flags, that can stay even in extreme weather conditions. 

At the lab scale, the researchers have enhanced the strength of the fabric by 100%, said an IIT Delhi statement.  

Last year, SWATRIC and the Flag Foundation of India (FFI) had teamed up to achieve the “best possible fabric design and structure for the monumental national flags to suit India’s diverse climatic and geographical conditions.”  

“The FFI has already installed two different prototypes of the monumental national flag on the field, one in Delhi and another one in Ladakh,” it said.  

“The aim is to make the monumental flag material durable for extreme weather conditions without being too heavy. Next month, we are also sending 10 different prototypes to different locations in the country for installation. So far, our research is at the prototyping stage, the exact durability of the flag will be known in the next few months,” said Prof. Bipin Kumar, Textile and Fibre Engineering Dept., IIT Delhi & Mentor, SWATRIC.  

IIT Delhi is also working to install a monumental National Flag in its campus. It is expected that by March 2022 the project should be complete, it said.  

“IIT Delhi faculty members have been closely interacting with the Flag Foundation of India. They are looking at multiple aspects related to the flag. They are working closely to develop material standards for monumental flags and a lot of field trials are currently on. I am glad to know that the initial results are encouraging,” Prof V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi, said.