India’s Leather Sector Gets a Quality Overhaul: QCI and FDDI Join Forces

The Quality Council of India (QCI) and the Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that could quietly reshape the competitiveness of India’s leather and footwear industry. Signed in New Delhi, the agreement marries QCI’s expertise in quality standards and accreditation with FDDI’s deep reach into India’s footwear manufacturing clusters — and the combination has the potential to address one of the sector’s most persistent weaknesses: inconsistent quality.

The partnership is structured around a practical, cluster-based approach. Instead of issuing broad national guidelines that gather dust, QCI and FDDI will deploy targeted programmes in India’s major footwear hubs: Agra, Bahadurgarh, Ranipet, Chennai, Calicut, and Kanpur. Each of these clusters has its own profile, specialisation, and challenges — and the MoU’s architecture acknowledges that a one-size-fits-all quality strategy would fail.

The initiative spans the entire quality ecosystem. It will develop training programmes for workers, supervisors, and MSME owners; promote personal certification frameworks; strengthen quality management practices; and crucially, improve access to testing facilities. For an industry where thousands of small manufacturers operate without reliable quality control, the last point is especially significant. Without testing infrastructure, quality becomes a matter of guesswork — and guesswork does not win export orders.

The MoU also introduces a Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) framework, which is important in ways that might not be immediately obvious. India’s leather workforce includes millions of semi-skilled and experienced workers who possess genuine craft knowledge but lack formal qualifications. Without certification, these workers are trapped in the informal economy, unable to command higher wages or access better employment. RPL provides a pathway to formal recognition — and with it, the possibility of economic mobility.

The signatories are notable: Chakravarthy T. Kannan, Secretary General of QCI, and Vivek Sharma (IRS), Managing Director of FDDI. That an IRS officer leads FDDI signals the government’s seriousness about the institute’s industrial mandate. FDDI will take the lead on cluster-specific skilling and training programmes, mapping testing and calibration laboratories, identifying gaps in laboratory access, and developing knowledge resources for industry stakeholders. QCI will provide the technical backbone: guidance on accreditation principles, quality management systems, and relevant standards.

There is a broader context that makes this partnership timely. India is positioning itself as a manufacturing alternative to China, and the government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for footwear and leather has attracted significant interest from both domestic and foreign investors. But investment in production capacity without corresponding investment in quality infrastructure is a recipe for disappointment. The QCI-FDDI MoU begins to close that gap.

The agreement also includes provisions for joint research, white papers, and case studies — elements that suggest a long-term institutional relationship rather than a one-off collaboration. For India’s leather sector, which employs over 4 million people and generates substantial export revenue, the quality dividend could be substantial. As international buyers increasingly demand certification, traceability, and consistent quality, the clusters that invest in these capabilities will capture market share. Those that do not will be left behind. QCI and FDDI have laid the groundwork; now the hard work of implementation begins.

Source: https://leathernews.org/qci-and-fddi-sign-mou-to-strengthen-quality-and-skilling-ecosystem-in-indian-leather-and-footwear-sector/