Growth Performance of Leather Industry in India

In the 1980’s and the 1990’s the importance of leather industry stemmed from the fact that it was the sixth or seventh largest foreign exchange earner of the country. The focus of the government clearly is on generating inclusive growth and the nature of employment provided by the leather sector indeed meets this objective. Major problem faced by the industry is with regard to availability of developed industrial plots at affordable prices. There has been talk about developing exclusive leather industrial parks but unfortunately during the last plan period, not much progress could be made. The XI plan have also provided for the establishment of many leather parks. The leather industry growth has been sustained by the country’s large livestock population, which claims a unique position in the world, “estimated at 425 million cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goat.” (57 per cent made up of buffaloes, 16 per cent of cattle, 20 per cent of goat and 4 per cent of sheep population in the world). Liberal imports of raw materials, leather machines, chemicals and auxiliaries have been the major highlights of the new policy. The leather industry has faced many problems i.e., input of raw materials and environment management practices, water consumption and waste water consumption. But leather industry has shown negative growth rate through the manufacturing sector has recorded the highest positive growth rate after liberalization. This position has urged to the study and analyzes the Indian leather industry