IE celebrated its Golden Jubilee on 15 March at the ITC Grand Chola, Chennai. A ringside report.
We planned the golden jubilee celebrations with the theme of India 2030. Over 30 tall leaders graciously consented to be members of the IE golden jubilee committee. An equal number of business celebrities, spread across the globe, contributed well-researched articles on the theme. We planned a day-long seminar to discuss industry, infrastructure, financial services, technology, innovation, agriculture, education, jobs and skill development and public health. We requested an expert each to take care of a session and presented 3-5 specialists to discuss each subject. We had 36 expert speakers who made high-quality presentations. We had the great lead of N Lakshmi Narayanan, B Santhanam, R Seshasayee, V Sumantran and R Thyagarajan helping us with planning the structure of the sessions. Our past employees, Sangita and Bala, flew in from the US to ensure the seamless progression of the 11-hour-long programme.
The speakers and the moderators helped us stick to the tight schedule as also in keeping the quality of presentations high. We were overwhelmed by the presence and participation of Swarn and F C Kohli, Isher and Montek Ahluwalia, former Tamil Nadu Governor P S Ramamohan Rao, scientists Dr G Thyagarajan and Dr Mohsin Khan, TN Industry Minister M C Sampath, President-CII Shobana Kamineni, senior IAS officers – K Gnanadesikan, J Radhakrishnan, C V Sankar and T V Somanathan – and two technocrats from the US – Dr. Anand Tanikella and Dr. Bhamy
Shenoy and other illustrious speakers.
Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, lent CII’s support and expertise. CII southern region headed by Sathish Raman helped us with the services of its experienced team. Ramesh Mangaleswaran and his colleagues at McKinsey extended support with their vast knowledge base. Senior officials of the Tamil Nadu government provided invaluable guidance. K Jayaramakrishnan (TCS), Kavithalaya’s Kandaswamy Bharathan and his team helped us greatly.
The galaxy of speakers included Ruby Ahluwalia, Dr M Anandakrishnan, Dr K M Cherian, Kalyan Chakravarthi, Shivanshu Gupta, Shobana Kamineni, Suresh Krishna, N Lakshmi Narayanan, Dr G Ravi Prasad, V Pattabhi Ram, Dr K Ramasamy, C V Sankar, B Santhanam, M V Satish, Rajani Seshadri, G Srinivasan, H R Srinivasan, Dr Prakash Subbarayan, Dr V Sumantran, R Thyagarajan, A Vellayan, Dr R Venkataswami and S Viswanathan.
We endeavoured to make our celebration purposive and different. We are thankful to God for all this.
The venue ITC Grand Chola was grand. This premier hotel and its staff made the event more memorable.
We are grateful to our Board of Directors – R Thyagarajan, S V Mony, P Vaidyanathan, A S Narayana Rao and V Padma and SV who were supportive of all our endeavours.
Organising this event on this scale received great support from our
sponsors – Coromandel Fertilizers, L&T, Padmanabh Mafatlal Group, Saint Gobain, Shriram Group, Star Health, Super Auto Forge, Sundram Fasteners, Tata Steel and United India Insurance. Add to this our advertisers who have stood by us for long.
The delegates, especially the younger ones from colleges and academies, the ones who would be in charge of development in 2030, lent great value to the deliberations.
We are grateful to our regular contributors of articles on different sectors; few of these came especially for the function like Dr Mohsin Khan and Dr M R Iyer.
Our readers and well-wishers who have stood by us all these years and dozens of our ex-employees, who have helped build this institution were also there.
We express our gratitude to all these.
The IE staff invested a lot of passion and dedication and worked on this for several weeks. We all cherish this
golden day. – SV
