The Twelfth Five Year Plan will focus more on scientific and industrial research, said K.V. Raghavan, Chairman, Research Council, Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI), Chennai, here on Saturday.
Delivering the presidential address at the inauguration of Leather Research Industry Get-Together (LERIG) 2012, Dr. Raghavan said that zero solid discharge, which would avoid environmentally unfriendly land filling; establishing bioscience and biotechnology research; integrated fashion styling design of leather products; a new world-class environmental quality assessment facility with the support of the Centre and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research were some of the new research initiatives proposed in the Plan.
The Indian leather sector had exhibited remarkable resilience in the past.
The leather sector in Tamil Nadu had taken pioneering efforts.
One among them was the adoption of zero liquid discharge, under which six common effluent treatment plants in the State were using the sophisticated reverse osmosis technology for water recycling. This would reduce more than 80 per cent of water consumption for every kilogram of leather made. This is the first of its kind project in the country.
The CLRI had established a State-of-the-art automated shoe design facility, which would cut and optimise the use of material, based on laser technology.
Apart from this a three-dimension shoe design and development facility were also created on the CLRI campus in Chennai, he said.
In his inaugural address Governor K. Rosaiah said that the Indian leather industry had scaled new heights with export target set at $14 billion by the end of the 12 Plan period.
The leather sector not only offered ample opportunities for leadership with the country enjoying a natural endowment by way of raw hides and skins.
A well developed technology and expertise base with vast human capital and market credibility, the country is one of the largest employment providers, he said adding that it had the capacity and capability to increase its share in global trade and facilitate gender and social empowerment by leveraging technology tools, through planned development of the sector.
