The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Monday opened its fourth chapter in Karnataka at Mangaluru within 10 months of its announcement.
Interacting with media during the inauguration here, CII Mangaluru Chapter chairman K. Prakash Rao said the Chapter would dedicate itself for the all-round development of the coastal city. He said the focus through the six sub-committees would be on production excellence, finance and taxation, industry-academia interaction, information technology (IT) and ITeS, basic infrastructure and transportation and tourism.
CII Karnataka president Aman Choudhary said the four chapters in the State have 621 members in all. Stating that Mangaluru Chapter has drawn plans to increase its members to 100 within the next year, Mr. Choudhary said CII with its representation from the district to the State and national level has enough pull to influence the Central and State governments.
Sense of competition
It is imperative to infuse a sense of competition in trade, Mr. Choudhary noted, and said that without this, it would be difficult to face competition from other countries, especially China. He stressed that Mangaluru, despite its development potential, had not realised the same to the extent that it should have had and the opening of an exclusive Chapter would help the coastal city achieve the same with concerted focus.
Former CII Karnataka president N. Muthukumar said CII has set up 11 centres of excellence across India and is committed to providing value addition that is representative of any sector of industry needs. CII, through its well-knit network of buyers and sellers, is also in a position to provide market linkages to industries. He said it was a matter of pride that the Mangaluru Chapter was opened in the 125th year of the organisation.
