Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor and Development Corporation (DMICDC) on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with six Japanese companies including Hitachi, Mitsubishi Corp, Tokyo Electric Power Company and Toshiba. The Industrial Corridor runs through six states, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra and is being developed as an international manufacturing and trading center.

Three state governments, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra, too signed MoUs with the Japanese companies on the sidelines of the seminar ‘India-Japan Business Potential: Exploring New Opportunities’ organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

According to the MoUs signed, Japanese consultants will carry out feasibility studies to set up smart communities in Manesar-Bawal region of Haryana, Changodar and Dahej of Gujarat and Shendra industrial region of Maharashtra. Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said that the first phase of the $100bn project will be completed by 2018.

The first phase of the Industrial Corridor project will involve seven cities across the six states. Each city will require an investment of $9-10bn. “We expect industrial output to triple and exports to grow four times on its completion,” Mr. Sharma said. “These will have significant impact on employment generation, industrial production and exports.”

DMICDC chief executive Amitabh Kant elaborated the concept of the project, “A smart community means a city in which citizens, business and government live, work and interact in a sustainable manner through delivery of integrated, low carbon products and services. The industrial corridor provides India a unique opportunity to adopt futuristic smart city concept of minimal pollution, maximum recycling and reuse of finite resources and optimization of energy supplies.”

Mr. Naoshima, Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry said that India’s growth potential is unlimited with its dynamic middle-class and young population. The smart cities will embrace Japanese model of utilizing all industrial waste as raw materials for its other industries resulting in a zero emission environment and an independent recycling-based community.

India has the second largest footwear industry after China and exported around USD 1.53 billion in 2008-09. With improving economy the exports are expected to more than double to USD 3.37 billion by 2013-14. Currently India produces about 2.06 billion pairs of shoes in different categories. About 40 percent of the exports include leather and leather products. Per capita consumption has also increased from .5 pairs to two pairs in India. This is because of the competitive pricing, better quality and the wide range of designs available in the market.

President of Indian Footwear Components Manufacturers Association B D Bhaiya told that, “With the quality and price competitiveness that has been proved, I am confident that India will fast become a major player in the global footwear market, as more and more companies are shifting their sourcing needs as well as production basis towards us.” Several international brands like Nike, Addidas and Reebok source footwear from India. The country’s major export markets are the US and Europe. With a 100 percent foreign direct investment in the footwear sector several foreign companies have set up production base in India. Companies like Formas Kunz (Brazil), Feng Tay Enterprises (Taiwan) and Apache Footwear (China) have their production base in India.