Decision on CII recast likely on Monday

Rajeev Jayaswal

New Delhi, Aug 24: THE Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is expected to take major strategic decisions on its organisational restructuring next week.

The CII top brass is meeting on Monday to take up the recommendations of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which was appointed to advise on the restructuring. CII’s global arm, CII International, would also be formally launched on the same day.

“The role and nature of CII has to alter in the changing economic scenario. In order to serve its members effectively, the CII has already brought in a major structural change in the last couple of years and being a dynamic organisation, it is contemplating introduction of many new elements in the near future,” CII president Sanjiv Goenka told The Financial Express.

The formal launch of CII International is one of the confederation’s major initiatives to represent interests of domestic companies in the international markets, he said, adding that the meeting will also discuss some of the key recommendations of BCG to help the organisation serve its members effectively.

Stating that the new developments would take place under the continued leadership of its director-general Tarun Das, Mr Goenka said, “Mr Das is the man behind the successful organisation and its functioning. He will continue to function as the director-general of the association in the years to come as he is irreplaceable.” Mr Das has been given a three-year extension till 2004. This is his second extension, the first being in 1999.

Armed with the continuity of the leader, the CII would facilitate the domestic companies to set up business operations overseas through the CII International, he said. The CII International is being set up with an objective of guiding the association’s work in the emerging multilateral environments, establish direct links between the country’s supply and the world demand.

The meeting would also chalk-out future strategies for recently created ‘MNC Council’ to address the problems specific to multinational corporations (MNCs).

The number of MNCs in the apex decision-making body of the CII, the National Council, has gone up from 120 to 172 to accommodate Coke, General Electric, Ford, Daewoo, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Digital, Boston Consulting Group, Procter & Gamble, Britannia and CitiBank.
The CII also plans to promote an independent organisation to be governed by eminent personalities for advising members of parliament on key economic and social issues.

It would provide Rs 5 crore to the organisation as corpus fund, however, it will have no control over its functioning.

Monday’s meet is also likely to review the CII’s functioning in the light of its five-pronged action plan for 2001-02, which includes increasing competitiveness of the industry, regulatory reforms, development of infrastructure, strengthening banking sector, capital market reforms and taking advantage of the WTO regime.