Confederation of Indian Industry

Confederation of Indian Industry

Founded	1895
Type	Association
Headquarters	New Delhi, India
Area served	World wide
Services	Policy Advocacy Nurturing Competitiveness International & Business Development Connecting with Society
Members	7200+
Key people	Mr. Sumit Mazumder (Chairman) Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee (Director General)
Employees	1000+
Slogan	Building Business Leadership
Website	cii.in

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is an association of Indian businesses which works to create an environment conducive to the growth of industry in the country.

CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization, playing a proactive role in India's development process. Founded in 1895, CII has over 7200 members, from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 1,00,000 enterprises from around 242 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.^[1]

CII works closely with Government on policy issues, interfacing with thought leaders, and enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and business opportunities for industry through a range of specialized services and strategic global linkages.

With 64 offices, including 9 Centres of Excellence, in India, and 7 overseas offices in Australia, China, Egypt, France, Singapore, UK, and USA, as well as institutional partnerships with 224 counterpart organizations in 90 countries, CII serves as a reference point for Indian industry and the international business community.

The CII Theme for 2014-15 is ‘Accelerating Economic Growth,to strengthen a growth process that meets the aspirations of today’s India.^[2]

Ajay S. Shriram, Chairman and Senior Managing Director of DCM Shriram, has been elected President of CII for the year 2014-15.^[3][4] Sumit Mazumder, Chairman and Managing Director, TIL Limited, has been elected as the President of CII for the year 2015-16. He succeeds Mr Ajay Shriram as the new President. Dr. Naushad Forbes, Director, Forbes Marshall, has become the President-designate of CII for the year 2015-16. Ms Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited (AHEL) has been elected as Vice-President of CII for the year 2015-16. Chandrajit Banerjee is the Director General.^[5]

History

The organization was founded in 1895 when 5 engineering firms, all members of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, joined hands to form the Engineering and Iron Trades Association (EITA).

1895 - Engineering and Iron Trades Association (EITA)

EITA established at the end of 1895 with the aspiration of pressurizing the provincial government to place orders for iron, steel and engineering goods with companies stationed in India. The practice back then was to place all government orders with enterprises based in UK.^[6]

1912 - Indian Engineering Association (IEA)

The revision from EITA to IEA in 1912 echoed the association's decision to rule out traders from the membership and fixate fully on promoting the motive of manufacturers.

1942 - Engineering Association of India (EAI)

Till 1942 IEA was the sole all-India association of engineering industry and characterized mainly big engineering companies, especially the British firms.This drove to a situation where the concern of the Indian enterprises (mainly medium and small scale) was not adequately represented. Hence the Engineering Association of India (EAI) was established in 1942 as a branch of the Indian Chamber of Commerce. EAI represented small and medium engineering firms mostly bought and encouraged by Indians, and had different sources and management approaches from the IEA.

1974 - Association of Indian Engineering Industry (AIEI)

After India’s Independence in 1947, the public sector feigned the advantageous role in industrial development. By the 1970s, an advanced foundation of heavy industries had been built, but private companies faced constrictions through licensing demands for fresh units and /or expansion. Keeping in perspective the greater importance of the Engineering industry, in April 1974, the two associations - IEA and EAI - incorporated to form the Association of Indian Engineering Industry (AIEI). For the engineering industry the association meant a stronger affiliation capable of utilizing larger resources and providing a broader range of benefits.^[7]

1986 - Confederation of Engineering Industry (CEI)

Foreseeing the upcoming challenges in the future, the leadership at AIEI felt the need for greater consolidation and solidarity that would put the industry on a stronger footing and would help it meet the challenges of competition and globalization. Thus in 1986 there was a change in name from AIEI to the Confederation of Engineering Industry (CEI), reflecting the growth and expansion of the organisation since 1974. CEI now became an apex body for manufacturing industries at the national level.

1992 - Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

In 1991, industrial licensing was abolished and economic reforms on a wide scale started taking shape. With effect from 1 January 1992, in keeping with the government's decision to opt for the liberalisation of the Indian economy, the name of CEI was changed to Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In a new policy environment, it was natural that there would be inter-sectoral integration through a process of diversification and expansion, where the engineering units would diversify into non-engineering units and vice versa. Since 1992, through rapid expansion and consolidation, CII has grown to be the most visible business association in India.

Policy Advocacy

A country's policy environment must be conducive for firms to achieve efficiencies that will enable them to reach their full potential and be globally competitive. CII has over 500 ‘Intellectual Groups’ – Councils, Committees, Task Forces, Working Groups, among others – working at the national and regional levels,across industry sectors. These Groups give shape to and articulate Member concerns to Government policy makers, Regulators, Think Tanks etc. They work pro-actively with Government to formulate policies that would empower businesses.^[8]

International & Business Development

CII aims to sustain India’s international worldwide and also perform towards building CII as the first port of call for foreign delegations that wish to enlist with India and for the national industry that wish to approach traditional and emerging markets overseas.^[9]

CII International works under CII International Policy and Trade Council. The principal goal of the CII International Policy and Trade Council is to commence activities to relate Indian & global businesses. The council also work towards developing market approach for Indian exporters; identifying the requirements of the minor sectors to make them extra ambitious; promoting cooperation with counterpart systems; adopting an aggressive approach with foreign governments on various international affairs regarding the Indian economy; restoring the industry about the current Round of negotiations under the Doha Development Agenda of the World Trade Organization and the Free trade agreements that India has signed or is negotiating with various countries / regions.

The CII International works at close proximity with the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Indian embassies / missions’ overseas for creating helpful policies and agendas for trade and investment.They also work closely with the foreign embassies / missions in India, international institutions / multilateral agencies, think tanks and the various universities.

From 2013, CII has broadened its focus of work through more Regional and Country Committees like: Africa, ASEAN + ANZ, East Europe, GCC, LAC, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea and Sri Lanka.^[10] CII's International work is backed by seven overseas offices in Australia, China, Germany, France, Singapore, USA and UK that helps us propagate important information pertaining to markets and joint venture possibilities to both Indian and global companies.

Nurturing Competitiveness

Centres of Excellence

In 1995, as CII celebrated its Centenary, it took a major step ahead to enhance the competitiveness of Indian industry to enable it to meet the challenges of a rapidly globalizing marketplace. It began offering customised advisory and consultancy services and training programmes through its Centres of Excellence. Today, CII has 9 Centres of Excellence across India, each focusing on different aspects to offer wide-ranging services to industry from diverse sectors.^[11]

• CII Institute of Logistics, Chennai - CII Institute of Logistics (CIL) provides a platform to create and share intellectual capital for reducing transaction cost and improving competitiveness, in the process to nurture the skills of Logisticians and ensure adoption of best practices in logistics and supply chain management through online and offline activities.^[12]

• CII Institute of Quality, Bangalore - CII Institute of Quality promotesawareness of Quality for enhancing the competitiveness of Indian industry; provides education, training and counseling services in 'soft technologies', relevant to the Quality process; recognizes organizations for excellence in quality; and provides a knowledge sharing platform of best practices, performance and strategies for enterprise competitiveness. The institute conducts research in select thrust sectors for the development of implementation models on Quality.^[13]

• CII - ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, Delhi - The Centre provides direction to the business community towards achieving sustainability with the right tools to build their business and frame their policies such that they attain the social, environmental and economic objectives.^[14]

• CII - AVANTHA Centre for Competitiveness for SMEs - The Centre works exclusively to enhance the competitiveness of MSMEs in India and provide consultancy and trainings in areas such as Manufacturing Excellence, Energy Efficiency, Cost Management, Total Employee Involvement, e-Learning, Corrosion Management etc.^[15] By the ‘Cluster Approach’, the Centre enables SMEs to learn through sharing of knowledge with other cluster companies.^[16]

• CII - Naoroji Godrej Centre of Excellence, Mumbai - CII - Naoroji Godrej Centre of Excellence, Mumbai organizes short duration management development programmes for the middle and senior level executives of Indian industries covering manufacturing sector. The centre also offers MSc in Engineering Business Management of University of Warwick, UK and Programme for Visionary Corporate Leaders in Manufacturing (VLFM).

• CII - Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, Hyderabad - CII - Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre offers advisory services to the industry in the areas of Green buildings, energy efficiency, water management, environmental management, renewable energy, Green business incubation and climate change activities.^[17] The CII Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, with its headquarters in Hyderabad and representative wings in several places in India focuses on an internationally accepted pattern for construction of buildings in the ‘green' category.^[18] After spearheading green buildings concepts the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry hopes to enthuse developers and authorities to go for green towns.^[19] Over the last decade, the IGBC has promoted the concept of green building in India. Compared to a conventional building, these save up to at least 20 per cent of the resources and can go up to 40 per cent saving. The council has facilitated the creation of over 1,745 green buildings with a footprint of 1.21 billion sq. ft. These include commercial and residential spaces, hospitals, retail, factories, townships and SEZs. IGBC standards for green homes are of international standards.^[20]

• CII - Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership, Kolkata - The CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership serves as a facilitator for development of leaders in India. The Centre works to establish partnerships with similar organisations and global institutions for maximum mutual benefit. The centre currently organizes special programmes on leadership development for Government officials, including managers of public sector undertakings and institutions to meet their special needs.

• CII - Triveni Water Institute, Jaipur - CII-TRIVENI Water Institute is the first of its kind in the world where government, industry and civil society have come together to address the water related issues in a holistic manner. The Institute provides, consultancy, training and research on water and waste water management in industrial, domestic, agricultural and environmental sectors.

• CII - Jubilant Bhartia Food & Agriculture Centre of Excellence, New Delhi- CII - Jubilant Bhartia Food & Agriculture Centre of Excellence works closely with government, industry, farmers and consumers to improve on and off-farm productivity through the introduction and dissemination of global best practices and technological innovation,enhance capacity building by providing training and consultancy services in the area of food safety, and strengthening linkages across the agriculture and food value chain with an objective of reducing spoilage, increasing value add and farmer incomes.^[21]

Awards/Recognition

Good achievement can be stimulated through acknowledgement in the form of accolades. CII and Exim Bank collaborate on contributing the CII-EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence through the CII Institute of Quality.^[22] CII works with the World Economic Forum, Geneva,^[23] to offer the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the yearly India Economic Summit. Woman Exemplar Awards are bestowed to underprivileged women annually who have favorably conquered challenges to establish themselves as leaders in social or economic realms.

CII also takes an active interest in certification and CSR-related evaluations in order to improve corporate values and business image. The Sustainability Awards, instituted by the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development in 2006, identifies and recognize exemplary performance in economic, social and environmental dimensions of Indian business.^[24] Instituted in 2002, The Leadership and Excellence Award in Environment Health & Safety (EHS) Award aim to recognize, motivate and facilitate corporates to adopt innovative practices in EHS.^[25] In order to create a positive and competitive work environment, CII Southern Region also organizes the 5S Excellence Award annually to motivate and recognize member companies which successfully implement and sustain 5S practices in the organization.^[26][27]

Corporate Social Responsibility

As a business federation that engages intensely with society at large, CII’s work spreads to aid members in gathering their social improvement aspirations.^[28]Corporate Social Responsibility is now emerging into a pivotal area of interest for companies that hope to give back to society and contribute their benefits. It is a confirmed fact that companies with leading social engagement deliver greater value to their stakeholders.

CII correlates with Government, NGOs, and civil society to help industry flourish effective programs for social development.^[29] It provides numerous stances through which representatives can undertake on various issues, such as gender equality, microfinance, development of backward districts, HIV/AIDS and public health. Through focused interventions, CII endure to mainstream economically and socially challenged entities and bring them into a phase of growth, development and empowerment. All these interventions are launched under CII’s broad canvas of "Development Initiatives".

Membership

CII has direct membership of over 7300 organisations and indirect membership of over 90,000, from around 257 national and regional sectoral associations.^[30]

The membership is open to any company or firm in India engaged in manufacturing activity or providing consultancy services. India Liaison Offices operating with the approval of Reserve Bank of India, without any Sales Turnover in India, are eligible for the "Associate Membership". There is no Individual membership in CII. Companies from the same group can take up membership separately, since there is no group membership.

Their members get access to opportunities like networking with the corporate majors of Indian and global industry to assisting in framing economic and industrial policies, through close linkage with the government. CIIs proactive approach focuses on helping members to increase efficiency and competitiveness.

myCII - Online Knowledge Resource Centre of CII

CII as a part of its knowledge management initiatives has developed a unique Knowledge Portal 'myCII' which is a state-of-the-art online knowledge resource centre of CII.^[31][32] This includes premium research reports, recordings of conference proceedings, thousands of sector specific presentations, online master class videos, Webinar recordings, Investment and Policy Trackers, B2B Opportunities and online database of member companies.

Launched in 2011, mycii.in offers a world of opportunities to information seekers giving them access to CII’s Knowledge Works, information updates, business leads and the opportunity to network. Currently, there are 125,000 registered members who receive daily information alerts on subjects of their interest.

References

External links

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