• NEW DELHI: Italy will invest over € 3 million for a project aimed at developing India's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and make them globally competitive. The three-year project, called Consolidated Project for SMEs Development in India, will be overseen by the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido) will be the implementation agency. Sectors identified for the project are leather, including tanning, footwear, and leather goods, and auto components. The leather industrial clusters to receive project support are Chennai for tanning and footwear, Agra for footwear and Shantiniketan in West Bengal for leather goods. In the auto component sector, the cluster in Chennai will receive support. Italy is among the world leaders in the SME cluster development model, and is the leading shoe manufacturing country in the EU with a 40% world market share.