Six month training program on design and manufacture of leather goods and garments was inaugurated at CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine branch Srinagar. Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director CSIR-IIIM, inaugurated the “Employability to Women through Skill Development and Entrepreneur Support in Manufacturing & Designing of Leather Goods and Garments” programme which is supported by Central Electronics Limited (CEL) through its CSR initiative. Under the program, 10 trainees shall be provided training for 6 months with a monthly stipend of ₹5000. The training will be imparted at the leather training centre of CSIR – IIIM, Srinagar which is equipped with high-end machinery and facilities required for the course. The programme includes comprehensive theory and practical classes for manufacturing leather goods and garments like pouches, jackets, sling bags etc.
While speaking on the occasion, Director CSIR-IIIM said that the leather training programme is a part of CSIR-IIIM’s initiative in the area of Leather technology which would be pivotal to support the local economy and generate livelihoods for many others. He hoped that the trainees would setup innovative startups and impart their learnings to others after the completion of the program. He further added that the institute has also established an Atal Incubation Centre which is focused in the areas like leather training, medicinal mushroom cultivation, value addition of essential oils, fermentation-based products etc., keeping in view the richness of natural resources and available expertise, so as to provide ideal incubation support to the local budding innovators. Dr. Zabeer also expressed his gratitude to Dr N. Kalaiselvi, Director General CSIR and Secretary DSIR and Chetan Prakash Jain, CMD Central Electronics Limited (CEL) for supporting this important initiative for the umemployed women of Kashmir.

Dr. Syed Muzamil Ahmad, Principal Scientist & Deputy Head, CSIR – IIIM (Br.) Srinagar, informed that further training programs of two months duration will be conducted subsequently. He thanked Director CSIR-IIIM for his constant endeavour to impart employable skills to the local people of J&K and become self-sufficient. The technical support for the programme would be provided by Syed Abdul Basit Andrabi, Coordinator AIC-IIIM.