The Quality Council of India (QCI) and the Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen quality, testing, accreditation and skill development in India’s leather and footwear industry.

The agreement was signed in New Delhi and aims to build a stronger quality ecosystem across major footwear manufacturing clusters.

The partnership will create a structured framework for capacity building, certification, testing infrastructure development and quality ecosystem strengthening in footwear hubs including Agra, Bahadurgarh, Ranipet, Chennai, Calicut and Kanpur.

QCI and FDDI will jointly develop and deliver need based programmes for workers, MSMEs, supervisors, industry professionals and other stakeholders across the leather and footwear value chain.

The initiative will focus on improving workforce skills, promoting personal certification, strengthening quality management practices, increasing access to testing facilities and helping laboratories achieve accreditation.

QCI will provide technical guidance on accreditation principles, quality management systems and relevant standards.

It will also support awareness programmes for MSMEs on quality, testing, accreditation and government schemes while contributing to joint monitoring frameworks, research studies, white papers and case studies.

FDDI will lead cluster specific skilling and training programmes based on the needs of different footwear hubs.

It will also map testing and calibration laboratories, identify gaps in laboratory access, support sample collection centres in underserved clusters and develop knowledge resources for industry stakeholders.

The MoU also includes a multi level worker assessment and personal certification framework with Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) pathways for semi-skilled and experienced workers who have industry skills but lack formal educational qualifications.

The agreement was signed by Chakravarthy T Kannan, Secretary General of QCI, and Vivek Sharma (IRS), Managing Director of FDDI, on behalf of their organisations.

The partnership is expected to support India’s goal of building globally competitive, quality driven and future ready manufacturing ecosystems, particularly for MSMEs and workers in the leather and footwear sector.