Footwear's contribution will keep rising
19/09/2008
India’s minister of state for commerce and power, Jairam Ramesh, has said that a recent revival in the leather industry in India is behind a decision by the country’s central government to invest in dedicated leather business parks in Chennai, Kolkata, Kanpur, Agra and Nellore.
Speaking in Chennai about the initiative, Mr Ramesh said the leather industry employed 2.5 million people across India, 70% of whom belong to the castes and minority groups that the government has pledged to help. He said the value of the sector’s exports was $3.5 billion in the last fiscal year. During the current fiscal year, he explained that the figure was likely to touch $4 billion, and suggested that, with a domestic market that is now equal to the export market, the total size of the Indian leather market was now $8 billion.
Pointing to the rising share of footwear in the country’s export of leather products, Mr Ramesh said gone up to 42% this year. It is the government’s intention to help the footwear industry grow to take the share of the exports of leather products to 65% by 2011–12.
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