Let me begin by wishing you a happy and prosperous 2020! New year brings new energy and new hope in everything that we do. I hope this year helps you realise your business goals in building capacity through skilled workforce. As we are aware, most of the leather industry operates through MSMEs that depend on unskilled or semi-skilled people to produce footwear and fashion products. Being unorganised, often their knowledge and skills are limited and they don’t know how to grow and scale business. Most importantly, they need to understand that skilled people are essential to improve quality and productivity – the key parameters for success in the leather industry.

This year, I wish to focus on how we can help the MSME sector in actively participating and getting benefited by various skill development programs. This includes PMKVY, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and adopting National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS). As a country, we lag way behind in the number of apprentices. Engaging at least one apprentice in each MSME could considerably widen the reach and help the industry in grooming talent as per their requirements. Alongside, we need to improve the skills and knowledge of the trainers by imparting them training in the latest methods, techniques through practical exposure. I look forward to your participation and support.