‘Textile, footwear sectors to be 2nd largest employers in Jharkhand, Chief Minister urged for Footwear Design Development Institute to skill youth

Ranchi : Chief minister Raghubar Das on Friday urged the Centre to start a footwear design development institute in Jharkhand to develop skills in youths of the state.

Das, who was speaking at the valedictory session of the Global Investors’ Summit, said Jharkhand has immense potential to grow in textile and footwear sectors.

Textile, apparel and footwear sectors are expected to be second largest employers in Jharkhand after agriculture, said the investors and experts participating in the second-day session of GIS.

At the technical session on textile and footwear on Friday, Dr Ajit Kumar Sinha, director, Central Tassar Research and Training Institute, said merely tassar culture has employed 1.80 lakh farmers and 30,000 weavers in the state. “Jharkhand is progressing fast in tassar production. The state’s tassar production increased to 3,238 metric tonnes in 2016-19 from 143 metric tonnes in 2007-08,” Sinha said, adding that byproduct of it generally go waste.

“The byproduct of it could be used in making of various products such as cosmetic, biomedical items and fertiliser, which would not only fetch revenue but also generate large scale employment,” he said.

Sudhir Dhingra, chairman and managing director of Orient Craft Limited, said the business captains on Thursday promised to invest lakhs of crore in Jharkhand. “We may not invest such amount but can promise to generate lakhs of jobs in the state,” Dhingra said, adding, garment and footwear are most labour intensive sectors.

“We had started Orient Craft in 1972 with merely four people and investment of Rs 15,000. Now, over 32,000 people are working under the company,” he said, adding, I see a great future of Jharkhand in garment and footwear sector, which will attract domestic as well as foreign buyers. Dhingra said that his company will invest Rs 3,000 crore and open six skill development centres.

Lauding the Jharkhand textile, apparel, footwear policy 2016, the investors said the state could contribute a lot in meeting the apparel and footwear demand of domestic as well as foreign markets.

Adesh Gupta, chief executive officer of Liberty Shoes Limited, said, “India currently produces 125 crores shoes. Additional capacity of 400 crores will require in next 10 years,” he said.

Jalandhar Giri, director of Shahi Exports Pvt Ltd, said the baby elephant-logo of Momentum Jharkhand would fly in Jharkhand. “We have opened our units in nine states and recently started one in Odisha. We will soon open a unit in Jharkhand as well,” he said.

Jharkhand minister Louis Marandi welcomed the investors to textile, apparel and footwear sectors. “We want to assure the investors that they will face no trouble in setting up industry here,” she said.

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