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Leather is one of the prominent sectors in Indian economy with employment of 2.5 million workers and contribution of US$ 6 billion to the value of manufactured goods. The majority of this output is contributed by the SMEs clustered in 5-6 major locations.
Given the importance of SMEs and clusters, SIDBI has launched a programme to enhance the competitiveness of SME clusters through strengthening of Business Development Services (BDS). This project, launched in 2006, is being co-funded by Department for International Development (DFID) of UK and GTZ of Germany.
In view of the leather sector and pre-dominance of SMEs, Kanpur leather cluster has been selected as one of the clusters for the project. Kanpur leather cluster comprises of about 1600 SMEs providing employment to more that a lakh persons and contributing Rs. 2900 crores of production annually. The exports have doubled over the last 5 years from Rs 1068 crores in 2000-01 to Rs 2039 crores in 2005-06. The cluster has created a niche for processing buffalo leather and stands out as the only center in the country producing saddlery items and safety shoes for export markets. It is also a global player in upholstery leather, footwear and leather goods.
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