In its continuous zest to drive footwear sector development related activities in India, Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI) in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) is organizing a series of virtual webinars titled ‘Walk the Talk’.
As part of this series, the first webinar on ‘Building Scale and Capacities in India to Achieve Economies of Scale and Enhance Global Competitiveness in the Footwear Sector’ was held on 17th May 2021.
Ms. Nidhi Mani Tripathi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India and Mr. Praveen Mittal, Senior Director, FICCI opened the session by tracing the different development phases of the Indian Footwear Sector.
The other panel members of the webinar included eminent industry and institution personalities namely, Mr. Tauseef Mirza, Director, Mirza International Ltd., Mr. Puran Dawar, President, AFMEC, Mr. Virender Awal, Managing Director, Mochiko Shoes Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Arun Kumar Sinha, IAS, Managing Director, FDDI and was moderated by Mr. Mohit Bhasin, Partner, KPMG India.
The panelists raised pertinent issues hampering the growth of the footwear industry in India and discussed the key determinant for sectoral growth and need of a holistic strategic action plan.
The suggestions included introducing plug & play infrastructure facilities for footwear manufacturing firms, undertaking cluster development initiatives around existing footwear clusters for ensuring overall migration towards organized segment in the country, rationalization of import duties on key raw materials for achieving the dream of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ as well as introducing Free Trade Agreements with key markets, among others.
The webinar which gave meaningful insights & inputs for putting the sector back on the growth trajectory witnessed more than 830 registrations including students, faculty members, industry and institution professionals.
