The Indian leather industry has many strengths like abundance of raw materials, traditional knowledge and experience and also abundant manpower availability. Needless to mention, the global leather and footwear market is highly competitive. High Quality Standards and Price Competitiveness are prerequisites to consolidate and expand our share in the global market.
In this context, increasing productivity through enhancing skills of the workers assumes significance. The Government of India has taken a number of steps in recent years in the Skill Development arena. The HRD Scheme of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna have provided close to 0.5 million trained workers to the leather industry in the past 5 years. The HRD Scheme under the Indian Footwear, Leather and Accessories Development Programme (IFLADP) envisages to train 4.32 million people in the next 3 years. I am happy that the Leather Sector Skill Council (LSSC) has been nominated as a National Monitoring Unit of the HRD Programme of IFLADP. With its rich experience in developing Qualification Packs on various job roles and also training existing/ new workers, I am sure that LSSC will be playing a major role in the successful implementation of the HRD programme.
Being a consumer oriented industry, we need to keep pace with the ever changing fashion and design trends in the global market. Hence, training institutions like FDDI, CFTI and CLRI may evolve a process of continuous association with overseas institutions as well, so that experts from such institutions can also be invited to India for training students.
With the concerted efforts of the industry, institutions and Government, I am sure that we can take a major step forward on the skill development front in the coming years.