A landmark collaboration between the Footwear Design & Development Institute (FDDI) and the Quality Council of India (QCI) marks a significant step towards strengthening quality, testing, accreditation, certification, and skilling across India's footwear sector. This strategic partnership aims to create a robust quality ecosystem that will support industry growth, enhance workforce capabilities and improve global competitiveness.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Vivek Sharma (IRS), Managing Director, FDDI, and Chakravarthy T. Kannan, Secretary General, QCI, in the presence of officials including Dr. A Raj, Chief Executive Officer, QCI, Amit Singh, Joint Director, QCI, Heads of NABL, NABET, NABCB and NBQP, from FDDI Headquarters, Prashant Kumar Saxena, Head Business Development, Ms. Rashmi Asthana, Head International Testing Centre (ITC), and Sharad Srivastava, Head Centre of Excellence (CoE).

The collaboration will focus on strengthening major footwear clusters across India through capacity building, workforce assessment & certification, laboratory ecosystem development, accreditation awareness, testing infrastructure enhancement, MSME outreach and cluster-specific skilling programmes. Together, FDDI & QCI will work towards building a future-ready manufacturing ecosystem that promotes quality excellence, innovation and sustainable industrial growth.

This partnership reflects a shared vision of empowering India's footwear and leather industry through world-class standards, skilled manpower and quality-driven practices, contributing meaningfully to the national goals of Make in India, Skill India & Viksit Bharat.