Jitendra Singh offers seed funding to prospective leather startups and entrepreneurs

Addressing senior scientists and officials of CSIR-CLRI (Central Leather Research Institute), Kanpur and college students at Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh Singh said that India’s leather industry is offering world-class opportunities for StartUp and entrepreneurship. He further said that leather industry in India has exhibited consistency in high export earnings and is one of the top ten foreign exchange earners for the country. 

He said that CSIR-CLRI (Central Leather Research Institute), Kanpur will be instructed to organize specific activities like Survey of leather and allied industries, Practical demonstrations, Trade counselling, Vocational and Tailor-made Training Programmes, Consultancy Services, Students’ Internship at regular intervals for promoting leather start-ups and businesses. 

Singh highlighted that India is the second largest producer of footwear, second largest exporter of leather garments, fifth largest exporter of leather goods and third largest exporter of saddlery and harness items. He said, the global leather goods market size is valued at $424 billion in 2022 and expected to reach USD 744 billion by 2030 and added that India must tap the huge potential in the global leather pie. 

Abhinandan Kumar, Scientist-In-Charge made a presentation on the status of Kanpur Leather cluster and the activities of the CLRI Regional Centre Kanpur, showcasing various technologies available with CLRI for pollution abatement and value addition in leather making, which would help the industry in achieving environmental compliances and help in better unit value realisation.

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