B SANTHANAM, Managing Director, Saint – Gobian Glass India Private Ltd (Flat Glass Business) and a past Chairman CII (SR)
CII (SR) accounts for half CII’s membership and has been way ahead of the rest of the regions in terms of its new initiatives. B Santhanam, who headed CII (SR) five years ago, referred to the continuous introduction of new initiatives. In the initial years, it was on quality, then on cost management, skill development, conscious capitalism, and CSR…
CII helped the state administration to fine-tune the appeal for attracting investments. Santhanam pointed to the recently organised Tamil Nadu Global Investors’ Meet taking a step ahead: Instead of the traditional focus on attracting new investments, the effort also concentrated on flourishing enterprises and encouraged them to invest more. Instead of trying to catch a new fish, the focus also made on growing an existing fish.
Women empowerment received special attention. The Indian Women Network (IWN) was started in 2014 and soon became a national movement. The Young Indians (Yi) focus also evolved a national agenda. CII (SR) has been an incubator for new ideas and a harbinger of change.
CII (SR) is unique for the active participation by talented leaders that included in good measure, MNC professionals and professional executives/leaders from family enterprises. These also included many passionate leaders from the MSME sector like Pon Ponnuswamy and T T Ashok. Today there are welcome changes in the involvement of political and administrative heads of Tamil Nadu government in working with CII on development issues. I hope their participation will expand to events in Delhi also.
