CII CONFERENCE

Inclusion and integration of people from the marginalized sections into the economic mainstream is extremely important. For bridging this gap, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organized a conference, “Bridging the Gap: Building Ecosystem for Inclusive Value Creation” on 27th November 2014 at Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi. Ms. Saroj Pamulapati from Information Technology Department represented Dronacharya College of Engineering, Gurgaon in the event.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is leading Indian industry’s efforts on building Inclusive India. Through this conference, CII encouraged member companies to pursue the agenda of inclusivity within the organizations and to create sustainable models.

The conference was focused on some of the most important threads of affirmative actions, such as Promoting Inclusivity: Critical for Organizational Growth, Being Socially Responsible- Role of Leader and embracing 4E's - Education, Employability, Employment, Entrepreneurship. The welcome address was given by Mr. Shreekant Somany, Deputy Chairman, CII Northern Region & Chairman & Managing Director, Somany Ceramics Ltd. Then, Mr. S Chakraborty, Chief Executive Officer, Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt Ltd talked about employability, social and financial inclusion. After that, Mr. Milind Kamble, Chairman, DICCI gave the special address in which he focussed on entrepreneurship. He also discussed about Henry Ford, the father of affirmative actions and New Procurement Policy 2012. The concluding remarks were given by Mr. Kartik Bharat Ram, Chairman, and Regional Committee on Affirmative Action, CII Northern Region & Deputy Managing Director, SRF LTD.

The First Session was on “Promoting Inclusivity: Critical for Organizational Growth”. It was moderated by Mr. Kartik Bharat Ram. In this session, Dr. Bimal Arora, CEO, Centre for Responsible Business talked about inclusion for organizational growth, development of training teams and helping the poor sections of the society. After that Mr. Ranjit Singh, GM, CSR Maruti Suzuki India Ltd threw light upon the steps taken by industries. He also focussed on bridging the gap & giving them the equal opportunities and relevant skills to help them in employability. The last speaker of the session was Mr. Anshu Gupta, Founder Director, GOONJ, also known as “Clothing Man”. He discussed that how the GOONJ is helping the poor and weaker sections of society by “work for clothes” and in other possible ways such as meals and education.

The second session on “Being Socially Responsible- Role of Leader” was moderated by Dr. Sudhir Kapur, Chairman, Regional Committee on CSR, CII Northern Region & MD & CEO, Country Strategy. In this session Mr. Vijay Chadda, CEO, Bharti Foundation focussed on the steps taken by the Bharti foundation to help the poor children. Mr. Pooran Pandey, Executive Director, UN Global Compact discussed about seven points that a transformational leader should possess, and Dr. Belinda Bennet, CEO, Change Alliance focussed on empowerment of women in various sectors.

The Third Session was on “Embracing 4E's - Education, Employability, Employment, Entrepreneurship”, which was moderated by Mr. Ajay Vij, Managing Director Geographic Operations, Accenture India. The eminent speakers such as Mr Gangacharan Sharma, Country Head-CSR, TUV Rheinland India, Mr Ashok Chakravorty, GM- CSR, NTPC and Mr Vipin Vijayan, Sr. Manager Resource, Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt Ltd shared their views and ways how their companies are helping the weaker section of the society. In the end, Mr. Ajay Vij, summed up the ideas shared during the conference by various speakers.