The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently organised in Chennai the MSME CEO Summit 2017 with its theme “Enabling Business Owners for the Future”.
In his special address, Mr. Ravichandran. P, Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu, and President, Danfoss Industries Pvt. Ltd., observed that 60% of CII members are from MSMEs, of which Tamil Nadu contributes 65%. Hence MSMEs played a major role for the country’s GDP growth. Recently CII opened its 10th office in the South, in Tirupur, which has several MSMEs.
Further, Namakkal in Tamil Nadu is considered the lifeline for India, particularly for the trucking community. Considering the major trucking activities taking place in Namakkal, there should be a national policy on poultry and truck transportation. Today, as many as 40,000 trucks are remaining idle all over India due to shortage of drivers.
He also pointed out that innovation is the only way forward for survival of both large and medium-scale enterprises. For this, MSMEs should be prepared to go where the world goes, he added.
Mr. X. Arokianathan, Convenor – MSME Panel, CII Chennai Zone, and Managing Director, Vitech Enviro Systems, highlighted the various activities of CII and its future plans.
In his special address, Mr. M. Ponnuswami, Vice Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu, and Chairman and Managing Director, Pon Pure Chemical India P. Ltd., complimented the chief guest, Mr. Mangat Ram Sharma, Principal Secretary to the Tamil Nadu Government, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Department, for his able support and guidance. He also said that the State Government is keen to offer a very transparent tender for various projects, and that it continues offering a lot of benefits to MSMEs.
In his keynote address, Mr. Mangat Ram Sharma pointed out that MSMEs played a major role by taking the country forward. There are one crore people employed by MSMEs, and hence the sector requires better support and encouragement. Keeping this in mind, his department has come out with several key subsidy initiatives.
Earlier, Mr. B. Visweswaran, Chairman, CII Chennai Zone, and Vice Chairman, Sanmar Engineering Technologies Ltd., welcomed the gathering.
During the day-long summit, CEOs from different organisations shared their experiences and views.