Students from Anna University’s department of leather technology have launched a new initiative called ‘Front line leaders and young entrepreneurs’; a resource for start-ups in leather.
The idea behind the initiative is to seed, nurture and foster start-up culture among students, said Joe Arun J., the initiative’s spearhead, while speaking at the 53rd Leather Research Industry get-together, LERIG 2020, organised by CSIR - Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) in association with the stakeholders of the Indian leather industry. The long-term game plan is to have linkages with start-up promotional centres in the region.
Former ISRO chairman K. Kasthurirangan, who inaugurated LERIG 2020, said: “Visionaries of India chose to locate CLRI at the then Madras when the Madras Port was India’s window to the leather world with more than 85% of exports being made through the city.”
He further stated that while the leather sector has created a vast number of jobs, particularly for women, it is necessary to increase the value of employment in the sector. M.K. Surappa, vice-chancellor of Anna University, suggested that students pick up best practices and ideas from others sectors like textiles with a view to implementing them in the leather sector.
