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
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