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The 121st Annual General Meeting of Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry was held today at ITC Royal, Kolkata inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, Honourable Minister of Ports, Shipping & Waterways & Ministry of Ayush, Government of India.
‘MCCI Highlights’ was released on the occasion.
President Shri Rishabh C Kothari, made three important announcements at the 121st Annual General Meeting :
- Launching of MCCI Haldia Zonal Council
- MCCI SHE Awards 2022
- MCCI Economist Forum
- MCCI Economist Forum
MCCI Economist Forum has been formed under the Chairmanship of Shri Suresh Prabhu, Former – Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Railways, Commerce & Industry, Chemicals & Fertilizers, Environment & Forests, and Power and Chancellor Rishihood University with 14 Stalwarts from the field of Economics have already agreed to join the forum and contribute. A Round Table Session will be held on “Development Strategies in the era of disruptions – Taking the bull by the horn” with Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Adviser, Department of Economic Affairs, Government of India as the Chief Guest and stalwarts from Industry, Academics and think tanks on 9th January 2023 at ITC Sonar, Kolkata.
- Launching of MCCI Haldia Zonal Council
MCCI has been organizing Outreach programmes in Haldia every year, since 2017, to take forward the mission to connect with the business community at the zonal and district level. Inspired by the interests generated amongst all the stakeholders, the Chamber has constituted MCCI Haldia Zonal Council with the objective of providing a platform for regular deliberations on issues faced by industry there and to strategize a roadmap for rapid industrialization and further development of Haldia as a vibrant economic hub.Shri A.C. Mishra, Executive Vice President & Plant Head, MCPI [Mitsubishi] has kindly agreed to Chair the Council.
- MCCI SHE Awards 2022
MCCI this year,has instituted annual Awards to recognize the best practices in the areas of Safety, Health and Environment [SHE]. The objective of the SHE Award is to recognize the commitment and excellence of the members and other industrial units in:
- Safety of employees and society;
- Occupational Health of Employees and
- Environmental Protection & Responsibility.
The Awards were screened by distinguished Jury members and presented in 2 categories :
- Micro and Small&
- Medium and Large.
Shri Rishabh C. Kothari, President, MCCI emphasized on the importance of the Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP). He mentioned that the logistic cost in India is between 13 % and 14 % of the GDP, which is very high. Countries like Germany and Japan, which are known for their highly developed infrastructure and systems for logistics, spend just about 8% to 9% of their GDP on logistics. He lauded the launch of the new National Logistics Policy by the Hon’ble Prime Minister as a significant step to ensure last-mile connectivity and address transport-related challenges in a time bound manner.
Minister for ports, shipping, waterways, and Ayush Shri Sarbananda Sonowal stressed that the development of Ayush products has attained a market size of Rs 1 lakh 60 thousand crores in a span of eight years and are fighting new challenges, which mankind is facing at present. The use of Ayush products has increased many folds during the Covid led pandemic period and it was reaching out to the globe massively. He said ecology and economy should go hand in hand and the environment should be protected for the interest of humankind.
On ports, shipping, and waterways, Shri Sonowal said India’s seaborne cargo handling has reached to 1600 million metric tonnes from 800 million metric tonnes in a span of eight years, cargo movement through the inland waterways has grown from 16 million metric tonnes in 2014 to 109 million metric tonnes in 2022. This has been possible for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s integrated approach to multi-modal transport system under the PM Gati Shakti Yojana. India’s exports have touched $ 430 billion in the last ten months of FY 2022, Sonowal said.
He said that the Prime Minister on Friday launched a 3200 kms long river cruise from Varanasi to Dibrugarh, which will attract global tourists to celebrate the aura of Ganga and Brahmaputra. India’s transformation was happening through transportation and the 20,000 kms long inland waterways were acting crucial to it, the minister said.
The Session ended with a hearty Vote of Thanks proposed by Smt. Priti A Sureka, Committee Member, MCCI.
