Reverse Growth

Demonetisation and GST have pushed back Kanpur, the second largest city in Uttar Pradesh and a leather industry centre, by ten years.

- Venkitesh Ramakrishnan

“THE DISINTEGRATION AND DECADENCE OF Kanpur’s industrial and commercial status has been unravelling for many decades. The city, called the ‘Manchester of the East’ during the British Raj since it was the second biggest manufacturing centre in the country after Calcutta, does not have a single megacorp industrial or commercial enterprise now. In fact, the last of the big ticket companies exited from the town nearly three decades ago. Since then the city and the district have been surviving mainly on industries such as leather, garments and hosiery, fertilizers and chemicals, soaps and detergents, and edible oils. The turnover from these was not comparable to the impressive record of the past. Still, it helped the region provide some employment and earnings to the State and its people. But even that has crumpled by the double whammy of GST and demonetisation,” said Prem Manohar Gupta, chairman of the Trade Committee of the Merchants Chamber of Uttar Pradesh, while discussing the impact that GST and demonetisation has had on the country’s most-populous State’s main industrial centre.

Gupta said the depletion of revenue from these measures was yet to be quantified comprehensively. Informal estimates are that the cumulative overall loss of employment would be 10 to 15 per cent from what existed before demonetisation. In terms of actual numbers, this would run into loss of employment to lakhs of people.

One of the sectors that held on relatively better was the leather industry. A wide range of leather products, consisting not only routine products like sandals, shoes and chappals but also harness and saddlery, were produced here for both national and international consumption. This sector formed an important component of the exports from Kanpur, bringing in considerable foreign exchange to the country.