The South India Textile Research Association Textiles planned on a modern textile research association. The foundation stone was laid on 25 December 1955 by Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and inaugurated by President of India Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on 13 October 1958. The first chairman was R. K. Shanmugan Chettiar, also India's first Finance Minister. Padmabushan Kasturi Sreenivasan, who was the Director from 1955 till 1982 was instrumental in establishing SITRA as a major research institute and would later become chairman of National Textile Corporation. The institute is located on Avinashi Road, Peelamedu, Coimbatore near the Airport. The research center is governed by a Council
Prime Minister of India Front, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) among others—proved a majority in the Lok Sabha, and Manmohan Singh was elected prime minister; becoming the first Sikh prime minister of the nation. During his tenure, the country retained the economic momentum gained during Prime Minister Vajpayee's tenure. Apart from this, the government succeeded in getting the "National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005", and the "Right to Information Act, 2005" passed in the parliament. Further, the government strengthened India's relations with nations like Afghanistan; Russia; the Gulf states; and the United States, culminating with the ratification of India–United States