CII Annual Session 2018 “Building A better India Together:
Responsible, Inclusive & Ahead”
8th April, 2018
An Annual Session and Conference “Building A better India Together: Responsible, Inclusive & Ahead” was organized by Confederation of Indian Industries in association with AVAADA, Apollo Hospitals, Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. at Hotel Taj Diplomatic Enclave, Sardar Patel Marg, New Delhi on 8th April’2018.
Dr. Sahab Singh, Associate Professor & Head-Department of Management Studies, and MBA students from Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida, attended this conference.
The objective of this session was to provide a platform inviting larger group of CII Members, Renowned Policy Makers, Strategic Thinkers, Eminent Academicians, Intellectuals, Media, Bankers, Industrialists, Central Vigilance Commissioner, Government Spokespersons etc. from several Departments to address the success story of CII and to discuss some key challenges like Fiscal Conundrum, Making India a World Class Nation for Ease of Doing Business, Delivering Better Governance, etc.
The session began with Smt. Shobana Kamineni, President-CII & Executive Vice Chairperson Apollo Hospital, welcoming Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, President Designate-CII, Mr. Uday Kotak, Vice President-CII & Executive Vice Chairperson & Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd., Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General-CII, Secretary and other delegates.
Smt. Kamineni extended her greetings to Mr. Arun Jaitly, Union Finance Minister, for his insightful video message to the Nation on the occasion of CII Annual Session,
In her key address, Smt. Kamineni suggested that all industries must promote practice of female participation in an ethical and transparent manner either small or large and must disclose a minimum percentage of profit to spend over the Research & Development for the sustainable development of India. Sharing her belief, that 225 Million Indians earn a meager amount of Rs.150 a day; she reiterated that it is tough for families to manage.
Smt. Kamineni emphasized on “Building Bridges and not to Build the Business” by saying that Private Public Partnership (PPP) Model must be given more importance by the Government of India rather investing directly in the infrastructure like Road, Sea, Port, etc, and GOI must come in partnership with private stakeholders to do so.
Mr. Krish Iyer, President & CEO, Walmart India Pvt. Ltd. said that “Ease of doing business in the Indian market is a monumental factor that attracts foreign investors
Mr. Shishir Priyadarshi, Director, World Trade Organisation said that India is a big market, however, the world market is even bigger. He said that in order to penetrate global markets, the Indians industry must excel in technology and in the other key areas.
Reflecting similar sentiments, Mr Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) stated that the Prime Minister has identified Ease of Doing Business as an important priority of the Government.
Speaking at the same session, C.K. Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change highlighted that when it comes to environment, the world sees India as a responsible country.
Dr.K P Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship noted that there is a twin problem in the skilling ecosystem viz with regard to scale wherein the demand for skilled labour exceeds supply and the low employability of the products of our skill ecosystem.
Mr. Uday Kotak appraised the initiative of Govt. of India to link every citizen with Aadhar to make nation corruption free and said that loans must be taken for the creation of goods and services and not for the running of household expenditure and political funding.
Prof. Soumitra Dutta, Prof. of Management, Cornell University, stressed upon the serious problem of managerial inefficiency, poor investment habits of Indian industry in the R&D, increased expenditures of GOI as compared to its income etc., and requested to follow the German and Japanese in order to make the Indian managers more competent.
Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairperson, NITI Aayog, shared his opinions that there is an urgent need of balanced Fiscal Reforms in India for the better tomorrow of Indian industry.
Prof. Deepak Nayyar, Emeritus Prof. of Economics, JNU, New Delhi emphasized upon the minimum use of finance to satisfy the unlimited wants of society.
Mr. Kenichi Yokohama, Country Director, Asian Development Bank, seemed concerned about the huge Infrastructure Financing Gap especially in urban India. He advised a holistic approach of Urban Development along with Rural part of it.
Mr. Dhruv V Sawhney, Past President, Chairman & Managing Director, Triveni Turbine Limited, also advocated a genuine fact that every single person must have the spirit of honesty because the first step of corruption and good governance starts from our own home.
The session ended with informal get together.