The Minister's statements occurred at the inauguration of the India International Footwear Fair. According to Mr Gangwar the Indian Government has recognised footwear as a priority sector and will continue assisting its development. The authorities underlined the favourable policy reforms recently implemented.

According to the most recent edition of the World Footwear Yearbook, in 2016, India was responsible by 9.6% of all pairs of shoes produced in the world (slightly above 2 250 million pairs). This made the country the second largest producer in 2016, just after China. However, according to the same source, China owns a share in worldwide production above 55%, making India's ambition quite a challenging one.