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Dear Members,

Startups– A boom/boon to boost the economy

It is a pleasure to greet you all, through this column, in my second year as the President of the Chamber. As you all may be aware, on 1st July 2015, the General Committee and Expert Committees have been reconstituted to provide the necessary support and guidance to the Chamber to take forward the activities to greater heights! We had a successful AGM and the public session was addressed by Mr T V Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services and Mr. Rajiv C Lochan, MD & CEO, Kasturi & Sons Ltd. Both the addresses were extremely thought provoking and aligned well with the Chamber’s focus for the next year.As briefly mentioned in the my address at the 178th AGM held on 1st July 2015, I would like to review the Startups scenario and the role our Chamber can play to encourage the Startups to take advantage of the demographic dividend in India and to address the challenge of job creation for the next gen. India is ranked 5th in the world in Startups after the US, the EU, Canada and China and the space grew by more than 400 per cent last year. Tech Startups seem to be an ideal hunting ground for investors as it struck more than 200 deals totaling $5 billion in this space in the year 2014-2015. Entrepreneurship and startups are only a recent phenomenon in the country. It is only in the last decade and half, that people in the country have moved from being job seekers to job creators. Indian Startups now at 3000 and likely to cross 11000 mark in the next 5 years is bound to define the economy of our nation. The current start-up scenario in India is an organically grown ecosystem. It has all the ingredients to take it to the next level and is attracting global capital and talent despite regulatory uncertainties. It has the momentum and all three basic ingredients that are needed for an ecosystem to thrive—talent, market and capital. Talent is capable, ambitious and abundant. Market dynamics are in favor. Capital is not scarce any more. Now the Indian Start Up industry is in overdrive. With our Prime Minister promoting the make in India campaign all over the world, entrepreneurs in India are leading by example. The budding Startups have started making use of the global reach of internet to spread their ideas like wildfire. In terms of maturity, the Indian start-up scene has so far only seen the first wave of e-commerce businesses - MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Naukri, Shaadi, Snapdeal, Flipkart, etc. These start-ups have created a lot of awareness on what technology can deliver. Now it is time for the next wave of start-ups to enter the arena. Most of the innovators are slowly moving away from sustenance-earning service businesses to make it big in the world of product creation. This is a very healthy trend. The local markets are sizeable enough to support technologies solving local problems. The small and medium enterprises are looking for solutions that are customized to their needs. Silicon Valley is not likely to build these technologies. Hence our Startups have to build them. Likewise, there are various sectors such as agriculture, logistics, healthcare and finance which are crying for local innovations. It is time to “Build local, go Global” in the coming years. The announcement of Rs.10000 crore fund for risk capital investment in Start ups, Rs.100 crore to fund technology ventures, besides setting up a nationwide incubation

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infrastructure for start ups, and a committee to monitor the flow of funds to small businesses in the recent budget has elicited cheers from the Start up community. These measures are helping start-ups attract the attention of some of India’s top corporate houses and wealthy individuals.With the recent move of SEBI to ease listing norms and the recent relaxations in the Companies Act, 2013, (placed before both houses of Parliament) notified by the Ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) for private companies, such as flexibility in issue of share capital, ease in raising debt from shareholders and reduced compliance burden, It has caught the attention of budding entrepreneurs to plunge in Start ups. As a minimum share capital is no longer required at the time of incorporation, entrepreneurs are increasingly looking at setting up a private company, rather than opting for other legal forms of entities - such as limited liability partnerships. Taking the cue from multinational giants such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc., Tata Sons, Infosys and Wipro are investing in or acquiring startups and have set aside huge funds to invest in high-risk, early stage tech Startups that can give them a competitive edge. Though these seem to be silver linings, these Startups cannot thrive without a proper place and funding. Realizing these challenges as well as recognizing the potential of startups to build fortunes & drive economies we find a lot of organizations, communities, universities apart from the governments are leaping forward to lend a helping hand to encourage Start ups. The Chamber would like to play its role in encouraging the Startups and have come up with an important plan of setting up a Start up Entrepreneurial Eco System (SeeS). The Chamber will provide a platform for facilitating Startups and promoting entrepreneurship in collaboration with like minded business groups. As we are aware, Tamil Nadu is known for its strong and diversified Manufacturing sector. Hence, the aim is to encourage Start Ups in Non-IT sectors, especially in manufacturing and other sectors and strengthen the already existing base and make Chennai the Non-IT Startup Capital of India! The State has a great talent pool with innovative ideas looking for opportunities to get into entrepreneurship foray on the one hand and on the other, the Chamber has members who have the capacity to nurture new and young entrepreneurs and act as a mentor which is essential for startups. Let us connect the two dots though the SeeS! The groundwork for setting up SeeS has started and I will keep you informed of the developments and will reach out to all of you to support this new endeavor of the Chamber in the coming years!

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Chamber’s Activities1st July 2015179th Annual General Meeting

The 179th AGM of the Chamber was held on 1st July 2015 at Hotel ITC Grand Chola, Chennai.

The Business session conducted at 10.00 am had a few important resolutions passed and newly constituted Committee for the year 2015-16 was announced.

The Public Session was held around 11.45 am. The Chief Guest, Mr. T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services addressed the audience and the special address was by Mr. Rajiv C Lochan, MD & CEO, Kasturi & Sons

Both the Business and Public Sessions were well attended by nearly 200+ participants.

Mr.S.G.Prabhakharan welcoming the Members during the Business Session of 179th AGM. Others seen are Ms.K.Saraswathi and Mr.Ram Venkataramani

SPECIAL PROGRAMS

A view of the audience

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Chamber’s Activities

179th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGProceedings of the Business Session

Time: 10.15 am, Date : 1st July, 2015Venue: Hotel ITC Grand Chola, Guindy Chennai 600 032.

Present: Mr S G Prabhakharan - President Mr Ram Venkataramani - Vice President Ms K Saraswathi - Secretary General

Representatives of Members :

Mr N Srinivasan Mr T T Srinivasaraghavan Mr T ShivaramanMr R Anand Mr G V Raman Mr R Raghuttama RaoMr Vijay Chordia Dr K Nirmala Prasad Mr Ishwar AchantaMr R Subramanian Ms Gayathri Sriram Mr N K RanganathMr K Vaitheeswaran Mr J Krishnan Mr M R VenkateshMr A R Subramaniam Mr R Vittal Raj Mr B C DattaMr Ramkumar Shankar Mr Pankaj Gadhia Mr R RamkumarMr K Suresh Ms Bhavani Balasubramanian Mr S VenkatachalamMr P R Subramaniayan Mr Sriram Seshadri Mr D Ravi KumarMr S Balaji Mr S Madhavan Mr T KarthikeyanMr V Sriram Mr R Narasimhan Mr V KrishnanMr D Ravi Mr S Venkatesan Ms P R MeenakshiMr V Thirupathi Mr R Subramanian Mr A P NarayananMr S Suresh Mr N Sridhar Mr IniyanMr N Ramesh Mr K Balachandran Mr P SankaranMr K Chandrasekar Mr R Ramesh Babu Mr K SrinivasanMr M Rajaram Mr Padmanabhan Ms Mahathi ParashuramMs Varsha Mr S Arun Kumar Mr K L ParameswaranMr N Srinivasan Mr K Ancelys Mr S MohanMr A Nataraja Murthi Mr R Mohan Mr A R ParthasarathyMr Rakesh Sharma Dr T S Ravi Mr R PandianMs Uma Devi Mr M Govindarajan Mr P A JayaramanMr V Vijay Kumar Mr P Baskar Mr C V S Krishna KumarMr Jerry Mr Ravi Shankar Mr J V Siva PrasadMr Venkatesh V Mr S Chandrasekar Mr S ThomasCol.C.Sukumar Raju Mr S Krishnan Mr Amit KotyalMr R Mahadevan Mr V N Rajasekaran Ms V G AravindanayagiDr Balaji Mr L Ashok Mr JitheshMs V Visalakashi Mr G Balakrishnan Mr VenkatesanMr Rajiv Nathan Mr S Balakrishnan Mr R RajaMr P Balaji Mr Bijay Singh Chouraria Mr K AdityaMs V Shyalaja Ms S Bhuvana Mr Alex KoshyMr S Chandrasekar Mr A Mahadevan Mr A P NarayananMs S Subhashini Mr Sivalai Senthilnathan Mr T S RajagopalanMr S Prabhu Mr S Gururajan Mr G SundararajanMr Prabakar Mr M V S Srinivas Mr S MurugesanMr S Mahesh Anand Mr A V Vijayakumar Mr P SubramaniamMr Sankar Kailasam

Mr. S.G. Prabhakharan, President Chaired the meeting and conducted the proceedings. Before taking up the agenda items for discussion, he apprised the members about the various initiatives and activities of the Chamber during the year.

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The Chamber had the privilege of honouring two of its Past President along with Madras Management Association for their respective achievements. Ms. Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman and CEO, TAFE for being conferred the Padma Shri by the Government of India and Mr. N.Srinivasan, MD, India Cements Ltd., upon his appointment as the First Chairman of the revamped Interactional Cricket Council (ICC). Both the programs were in grand scale attended in huge numbers.

As you are aware, the Chamber has always had a good rapport with the Governments – State and Central. The Chamber had an exclusive interactive session with Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Government of India during her visit to Chennai in June 2014. Critical issues relating to EXIM, Direct Taxes. In Direct Taxes, the Companies Bill were highlighted to the Minister with a request to review the same to ensure the seamless growth of Trade and Commerce.

The interactive session with the Hon’ble Minister, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways and Shipping organised in November provided a platform to escalate the issues relating to transport sector and provide our pointed suggestions for improvement . It was well presented by Mr. J.Krishnan, Chairman, Logistics Committee and Mr. Nitin Gadkari’s address was well appreciated by the participants and the meeting was covered extensively by the media. The Logistics committee also spearheaded a study on the Development of a Large Multi User Non Major Port in Tamil Nadu, which was subsequently presented to the State Planning Commission. The study received a positive response from the SPC.

In recognition of the efforts towards Exim Trade, the Chamber became a proud recipient of the South East CEO Conclave Award in the year 2014 and now have the privilege of being the Conference Partner for the 3rd Cargo Scope 2015 – An International Conference to be held in the second week of July 2015 at Chennai with the theme being Ease of Doing Business in Maritime & Logistics sector.

The Chamber’s flagship events, such as Post Budget workshop, All India Workshop on Indirect Taxes,

I welcome you all for this 179th Annual General Meeting and I am happy to muse over the past one year activities of the Chamber.

This year has been yet another eventful year for the Chamber. The Chamber’s activities have been diverse, ranging from an exclusive program for Women Directors, Felicitation functions for two of our Past Presidents, launch of Diploma course on Global Trade Management with University of Madras, a study on Ports for State Planning Commission and crossing 120 seminars, meetings conferences etc catering to the varied needs of the members.

The Women Directors’ Forum is a pioneering initiative of the Chamber in line with the recent Companies Act which brought a mandatory provision to have at least one Women Director for certain categories of listed and Public Companies, to bring the much needed diversity in Board Governance. Great Lakes Institute of Management (GLIM) was the Knowledge Partner in organizing an exclusive training program for aspiring Women Directors .

The aim is to create a pool of competent, board ready women directors, who would be equipped with necessary knowledge and skills to be inducted into corporate boards.

Ms.Gayathri Sriram, MD, Ucal Auto Pvt. Ltd, Member, General Committee of the Chamber took the lead and initiated this high level training program with the Sub Committee having Mr. V. Ranaganthan and Mr. P.Viswanathan as its members.

The first program conducted in February 2015 was a huge success. The Chief Guest for the Inauguration was H.E. Mr. Achim Fabig, Consul General, Germany and Ms. Ranjana Kumar, former CMD, Indian Bank and currently Chairperson Advisory Board on Bank, Commercial and Financial Frauds (ABBCFF) launched the Women Director’s Forum. There were 26 women participating from diverse fields. Joint Certificates by MCCI and GLIM were issued to the participants. Pushed by the success of the inaugural program, we have even conducted a follow-up program to equal success. Preparations are on to launch the program for the next batch sometimes in August.


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The Chamber also had the privilege and honour of high profile bureaucrats across the world, visiting the Chamber and having interactions with the Members, exploring business opportunities between India and their respective countries. Delegations from Korea, Netherlands, the Government of Ras Al Khaimah, France, Bavaria, Portugal, Belgium, UK, Iran and Indonesia were some of the high profile delegates who visited us recently. We have also signed a MoU with the Turkish Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

I personally had the great privilege of representing the Chamber at the meeting of the British Business Group (BBG) and address at the House of Parliament, London, as part of a conference organized by the British Business Group (BBG).

The MCCI Vocational Training and Skill Development Centre continue to offer its regular training programs on basic Fitter Course, Computer Skills etc. We are slowly expanding our activities under Skill Development and are in talks with NSDC, New Delhi for their suggestions to develop the MCCI Institute. In fact one of the major focus areas for the Chamber for the coming year, in my opinion, has to be this and I intend to discuss with all of you more on this in the coming weeks.

One of the major activities which we launched this year is the Diploma in Global Trade Management for the year 2015-16 with the University of Madras. The course is going on currently and I am sure we would have more such programs in the current year.

The Chamber is honored to be a partner to the Tamil Nadu Government in the Global Investors Meet scheduled in the month of September 2015. We are doing a major seminar during the event on our favourite subject “ The Ease of Doing Business” immediately after the inauguration of the event. The Chamber will strive for the success of the event to encourage more investments and businesses to the State of Tamil Nadu.

In conclusion, I can confidently state that the Chamber has had a very successful year. Undoubtedly, the success has been because of the unstinting support

Trade Meet with the Kamarajar Port were organized successfully this year also.

A host of programs, including a Seminar on Inclusive Urban Prosperity with the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), New Delhi had been held under the Sustainable Chennai Forum. The Chamber also showcased its activities of SCF at the Water Expo 2014 held at Chennai Trade Centre. The SCF is slated for a much more exciting year ahead as we get ready to launch our pilot project, the Green Practices Audit, for industries looking to make the transition towards eco-friendly business practices and an exclusive Training on Resource Efficiency and Cleaner Production (RECP) for Industries. We are also on continuous dialogue with NIUA and discussing the possibility of partnering with them in creating an Urban Sustainable observatory for Chennai.

The Chamber’s Study on Manufacturing in Tamil Nadu – A Regulatory Road Map, released last year, looked at various regulations like the labour, environment and taxation laws and gave short term and long term remedial measures for the State to revive the manufacturing sector in the state. This study was well received by the industrial sector and the Government. The Chamber has moved one step further to do an extended study on specific changes required in the Labour Laws in the State to improve the ease of doing business in the State. The Chamber had discussions with the Commissioner of Labour Department along with their officials to lobby for appropriate changes in the policies. The Chamber has plans to do a similar exercise for the labour Laws in the domain of Central Government.

The Chamber, as part of its initiative “Food for Thought” organized few major programs this year, one on Balancing Environment & Economic Development, How Smart a city can be ? and to commemorate International Women’s Day, Is Entrepreneurship Gender Neutral ?

The Chamber also had the privilege of the Chairmanship of the CCCCC and had called for a meeting to discuss collaboration. The joint efforts of the CCCCC resulted in a very successful meeting with the Consul General of Turkey.


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b. To adopt the Audited Statement of Accounts for the year 2014-15:

The President referred to the Audited Statement of Accounts for the year 2014-15 sent to members as part of the Annual Report.

Since there were no questions, he suggested that the audited accounts be adopted.

Mr.G.V.Raman proposed that the Audited Statement of Accounts for the year 2014-15 be adopted. This was seconded by Mr. T.T.Srinivasaraghavan.

President thanked M/s RGN Price & Co. for auditing the accounts of the Chamber.

c. To declare the elec�on of Members of the General Commi�ee for the year 2015-16

The President informed the General Body that the Chamber’s activities have been growing phenomenally in all areas and also a number of new companies across various sectors were taking membership in MCCI.

He requested the Secretary General to announce the results of the election to the General Committee for 2015-16.

The Secretary General read out the names of the elected members for the respective offices for the year 2015-16 as follows: -

President: Mr.S.G.Prabhakharan, Chairman, XS Real P

from the General Committee Members, Expert Committee Members and all our members who are the actual backbone of the Chamber. I would also like to take this opportunity to commend the Chamber’s Secretariat for all their untiring efforts in bringing the laurels to the Chamber.

I have a great dream for the current year for the Chamber! To spearhead and set up a platform to facilitate start ups in mainly non IT fields,with the support of current members who have the capacity to rear and bring in innovative business ideas which our State requires to boost its economic growth. This way we would also do justice to our Gen Next who come with lots of talent, hopes and ideas and who are the future of the State and the Nation.

Let us all continue this amazing collaboration in reaching new heights together!

a. To adopt the Report for the year 2014-15:

The President referred to the Annual Report for the year 2014-15 which had already been forwarded to the Members, detailing the activities of the Chamber during the year 2014-15. He mentioned that the report is fairly exhaustive and gives details of the various meetings, seminars, etc. organized during the year.

In the absence of any queries, he proposed that the Report be adopted.

Mr G. Suresh seconded the proposal. Put to vote, the general body unanimously adopted the Annual Report.


Vice-President: Mr.Ram Venkataramani, Managing Director, IP Rings Ltd

Committee:

Mr.R.Anand Partner Ernst & Young LLP

Mr B C Datta Asst. Vice President Hyundai Motor India Ltd.

Ms.Gayathri Sriram Managing Director Ucal Auto Pvt.Ltd

Mr.Ishwar Achanta Managing Director Portman India Pvt.Ltd

Mr.P.Kaniappan Managing Director Wabco India Ltd

Mr.J.Krishnan Partner S.Natesa Iyer & Co

Mr.S.Parthasarathy Chief Executive Officer Rane (Madras) Ltd.

Dr.K V Rajendran Advisor Neophyll Agrisciences Pvt.Ltd.

Mr.G V Raman Executive Chairman Shriram Group of Companies

Mr.R.Ramkumar S r. Vi c e P r e s i d e n t - M a r k e t i n g & Corporate Affairs

Cognizant Technology Solutions

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excellent work. There were many programmes organized by various Expert Committees on topics of current relevance.

To deal with major subjects of importance and to broad base the activities of the Chamber and to have more sector specific interactions, the Chamber had identified 20 expert Committees and had invited nominations for those expert committees. As usual, substantial number of nominations was received for core expert committees.

He further said the Chairmen and Co-Chairmen for some of the Expert Committees have been selected on the basis of their seniority, knowledge of the subject and ability to represent the Chamber before the concerned authorities, meetings etc. For rest of the Expert Committees, the Chairmen & Co-Chairmen will be selected at the first meeting of the respective Committees.

d. To appoint auditors for the year 2015-16 :

The President informed that M/s RGN Price & Co., have been auditing the accounts for the Chamber for many years and they may continue as auditors for the current year 2015-16.

He proposed that RGN Price & Co. may be re-appointed as auditors for the Chamber for the year 2015-16 on a remuneration of Rs. 35000/- per annum plus out of pocket expenses & service tax. This was seconded by Mr. R.Anand

e. To declare the appointment of Members of the Expert Commi�ees for the year 2015-16:

The president informed the General Body that the Expert Committees have been a great source of strength to the Chamber. They have been doing

Properties Pvt.Ltd.


Mr.A.R.Subramanian Execut ive Direc tor & Company Secretary

Schwing Stetter (India) Pvt.Ltd.

Mr.R.Subramanian Managing Partner R.Subramanian & Company

Mr.K.Suresh President & CEO India Cements Capital Ltd.

Mr.K.Vaitheeswaran Advocate & Tax Consultant K.Vaitheeswaran & Co.

Mr.Vijay Sankar Deputy Chairman The Sanmar Group

Mr.Vijay P. Chordia Director Stone Colour Exim Pvt.Ltd.

Mr.R.Vittal Raj Partner Kumar & Raj

Mr.P.Viswanathan Secretary & Compliance Officer Sundaram Finance Ltd.

The Secretary General then read out only the names of the Chairmen and Co-Chairmen of the Committees as follows :

Expert Commi�ees for the year 2015-16

S.No Expert Commitees Chairman Co- Chairman 1 Company Law /

Corporate MattersMs.Bhavani Balasubramanian, Partner, Deloitte

Mr.P Viswanathan Secretary & Compliance Officer, Sundaram Finance Ltd.

2 Banking, Finance & Insurance

Mr. V.Sriram, CEO ICRA Management Consulting Ltd

Mr. P. Gopalakrishnan, Sr.VP & CFO, TVS & Sons.

3 Creative Arts, Media and Entertainment

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4 Corporate Social Responsibility

Ms. Rama Kashyap, Head CSR, The India Cements Ltd.

Mr.V. M.Rajasekaran CEO, ITC

5 Direct Taxes Mr. Sriram Seshadri Ms. Vidya Nagarajan, Partner E & Y

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6 Economic Affairs Mr. V. Balasubramanian VP- Corporate Communication, The India Cements Ltd.

7 Education & Skill Dr. S. Venkataraman VP( Education & Training) The India Cements Ltd.

Mr. Karaiadiselvan MD- CADD Centre Training Services Pvt Ltd.

8 Energy including Renewable Energy

Mr.S.Venkatachalam MD, Orient Green Power Co. Ltd.

Mr. P.B. Varadharajan REHENA

9 Environment, Pollution, Prevention and Control

Mr. R.Kulothungan Sr.VP, Orient Green Power Co. Ltd.

Mr. Dananjaya GM- Environment TVS Motor Co.

10 Healthcare / Pharma - -

11 Human Resources & Industrial Relations

Mr. Anand Gopalan, Partner, TS Gopalan & Co.

Mr. P.S.Ponnapa Sr.VP, Employee Relations Management, TVS Motor Co.

12 Indirect Taxes Mr. K.Vaitheeswaran Advocate & Tax Consultant

Mr. K.K.Sekar Dy.GM – Indirect Taxes Ashok Leyland Ltd

13 Industrial Development / Infrastructure

Mr. Anand Madhavan, DGM, ICRA Management Consultants Ltd

14 Information Technology & IT Enabled Services (IT/ITES)

Mr. J.Raghunathan Founder –Director Knowledge Capital Investment Group (KCIG)

Mr. Ravi Veeraraghavan Partner, Deloitte

15 Legal Affairs Mr. Anand Gopalan, Partner, TS Gopalan & Co.

Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan Sr. Associate Advocate, Altacit Global

16 Logistics & Supply Chain

Mr. U. Udayabhaskar Reddy Wholetime Director, Sanco Trans Ltd

Mr. Pankaj Ghadia CEO Lee & Muirhead

17 Manufacturing including Engineering

Mr. P. Jeganathan VP- Manufacturing and Logistics, Wabco India Ltd.

Mr. Ravishankar Director – Commercial Super Auto Forge

18 Small and Medium Enterprise (SME)

- -

19 Travel & Tourism - -

20 Value Added Tax (VAT) Mr. P.R. Subramaniyan Dy G.M- Corp, Indirect Taxes, L & T Construction

Mr. T.Amarnath GM- Indirect Taxes TAFE Ltd.


f. General Commi�ee Cons�tu�on - Resolu�ons

The President informed that the next item on the agenda is to consider a few changes in the constitution of the General Committee.

i. The President informed that the Chamber is expanding its activities and there has been a substantial increase in membership from different categories of members in the recent years.

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in a block of 6 years, with a cooling off period of 2 consecutive years, before being eligible for re applying or re nominating. This would be introduced with effect from the year 2016-2017; ie.2016-2017 would be the first year in the block of 6 years for the Committee. However, this provision will not be applicable in the case of persons holding office of Vice President or President.

The President sought the approval of the General Body. The General Body unanimously approved. After obtaining the approval of the General Body unanimously, the following Resolution was passed

Resolved that “the maximum tenure for elected members to serve in the General Committee in a block of 6 years, would be 4 years with a cooling off period of 2 consecutive years, before being eligible for reapplying or re nominating. This would be introduced with effect from the year 2016-2017. However, this provision will not be applicable in the case of persons holding office of Vice President or President”

c. While discussing the tenure of the General Committee, with the exception of the Vice President or President, there was a proposal from the members to have a maximum tenure for holding the position of President and Vice President.

It was unanimously agreed by the General body to have a maximum tenure of 2 years.

The President said that the Chamber Secretariat will soon convene the first meeting with the nominated members and then decide the plan of action for the respective expert committees.

Since there were no other issues for discussion, the President thanked the Members of the Chamber, Members of the General Committee, Members of the Expert Committees and the Chamber Secretariat for the excellent work done during the year and requested for their continued support.

Members were requested to join the Public Session scheduled at 11.45 pm wherein Mr. Mohan Das Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services was the Chief Guest followed by lunch.

Chennai K.Saraswathi 1st July 2015 Secretary General

Being a Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he informed that the Chamber needs to have more industries in our fold. However, Professionals contribute immensely to the Chamber through their intellectual inputs. Hence in order to have the right balance of representation of the Industry and Businesses and Professionals and Consultants in the General Committee the proposal is to have a maximum percentage of representation of elected members for Industries and Businesses to be 75% & Professionals and Consultants to be 25%. If the nominations received exceed the above mentioned percentage in any of these categories, elections would be held for that particular category to adhere to the norms.

The President sought the approval of the General Body. The General Body unanimously approved. After obtaining the approval of the General Body unanimously, the following Resolution was passed.

Resolved that “the representation of elected members in the General Committee would be a maximum of 75% from Industries and Businesses and 25% from Professionals and Consultants. It is further resolved that “If the nominations received exceed the above mentioned percentage in any of these categories, elections would be held for that particular category to adhere to the norms”. This would be introduced with effect from the year 2016-2017. This will not be applicable in the case of persons holding office of Vice President or President.

ii. Tenure of Elected Members of the General Committee

The President informed that as per the present Rule 32 in the Memorandum of Association and Rules of the Chamber “All Elected Office bearers of the Chamber shall retire at the Annual General Meeting. The retiring officers shall be eligible for re-election”. However, there is no ceiling or cap fixed for the elected members to serve in the General Committee.

With the increase in membership and expansion of activities of the Chamber and in order to give opportunities for the new members to be a part of the General Committee, the President informed that the proposal is to have the maximum tenure for elected members to serve in the General Committee as 4 years


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In the Public session of the 179th AGM, Mr.S.G.Prabhakharan, President gave the welcome address.

He extended a warm welcome to Mr. Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services and Mr. Rajiv Lochan, MD & CEO, Kasturi & Sons. Ltd

He briefed the participants on a few major activities conducted during the year. He touched upon


Mr. Rajiv C Lochan, MD & CEO, Kasturi & Sons Ltd. delivering the Special Address

Mr.S.G.Prabhakharan welcoming the Chief Guests and the Delegates. (l to r) Ms.K.Saraswathi, Mr.Mohandas Pai, Mr.Rajiv C Lochan and Mr.Ram Venkataramani

necessary support to Startups as the Chamber has members who are capable of mentoring the Startups and it would help the State of Tamil Nadu to get back its favored destination for industrial development.

The President concluded by stating that he would require the members support for this initiative and he would seek their help as and when required.

Mr. Rajiv Lochan,, MD, Kasturi & Sons, the guest speaker, highlighted on the 3 major discontinuity that are present today –Demographic, Technological and Attitudinal. He stated that if these discontinuities are taken advantage of, to accelerate the prosperity, lots of good things will happen to different parts of the society. If the large democracy embraces prosperity and drives it thoughtfully, the path to success is simpler.

the unique program conducted by the Chamber for Women Directors, the follow up study on ease of doing business and the important meeting the Chamber had with the Labour Commissioner to take the study to the next stage. Further, he highlighted the work done in the Logistics sector the Port Study for the State Planning Commission, the South East Conclave Award for the contribution to the EXIM Trade and the privilege of being a Conference Partner in the 3rd Cargo Scope event.

After briefing about the activities, he spoke about the development of the Indian economy by comparison with other countries such as Russia, Italy and Brazil and stated that the demographic dividend is going to be an advantage for India with 29 years being the average age for Indians in the year 2020. However, the challenge would be to have skilled employees. The Chamber is giving training in its Vocational Training Centre for Skill Development and is in the process of entering in to a MoU with Procat, Training Institute in UK to provide global level training program for increasing the skills of the labour force.

He went on to add that the challenge in the coming days would be to create the million jobs to reap the benefits of a demographic dividend and Startups would provide a pervasive level of employment to people across the country. He thought aloud about the Chamber’s role in bringing an eco system for Start ups, especially in the non IT sector apart from IT sector. The Chamber would act as a catalyst to provide the

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He urged all the participants to embrace prosperity that is available to us and in respective spheres, sow the seeds, fertilize to encourage prosperity and to nurture the start ups.

He mentioned the 3 challenges that he is facing and requested the participants to share the solutions, if any. He stated that he has two lenses to look after his business. One is a telescope that has to take care of the major changes, technological advancement, adapting to news etc. and the microscope to look into circulation, bug in the software and day to day activities. He stated that it is disorienting and asked for suggestions to deal with it. The 2nd challenge is to operate as a tri athlete, to be a part of public sector, private sector and to take care of the social sector. He sought advice to crack the code to operate as a tri athlete. The 3rd challenge is to insight conversations, dialogues around values. He stated that when the stakes are high, the temptations are high and when it is right vs wrong, it can be dealt with. However, when it is right vs right, such as trust vs loyalty, there is a huge dilemma.

He requested the Chamber and organizations to act as catalysts in driving young talent with values and nurture them to accelerate growth

The Chief Guest Mr. T.V. Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services addressed the audience for nearly an hour. He compared our Indian Economy to various countries in the world. He said, India needs to innovate and create products that have a competitive edge in terms of design and technology.

and creative people. India has an enormous pool of engineering talent with high design capabilities and it should leverage that talent.

Pointing to India’s demographic dividend, he said while most other countries, including Japan, Russia and several European nations, are grappling with an ageing population, India should cash in on its strength.

Startups are important and should be encouraged since the revolution which is capable of creating three million jobs in the next 10 years could change the Indian Economy. India currently has 16,000 start-ups, and in the next 10 years it is expected to cross the 1,00,000-mark, translating to over $500 million business, he said. He further said, that in the next 10 years, we would have the startups revolution that is going to change the country.

He stated that they are talking to the government for a nine-point policy to increase startups to 1,00,000, create $500 billion value in 10 years and 3 million young people to be employed.

He further informed that Business to Customer (B to C) is going to create new ways of reaching customers and cutting cost. Costs are going to come down, middlemen are going to be eliminated and price discovery is going to be much easier. He concluded by stating that the whole of India is going to be part of this entire revolution happening.

Both the Business and Public sessions were well attended by nearly 200 participants.

Mr. Ram Venkataramani presenting the Coffee Table Book to the Chief Guest, Mr. Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services.

Further, he added that India needs to invest more on research and development to move forward and compete with the rest of the world. The educational institutions need to focus more on research than just teaching, in this age of technology where every piece of information is available at the click of a mouse, he said.

Mr. Pai stated that Design is a critical component in innovation and if we have to move forward, we have to invest in design, research

12

Mr.S.G.Prabhakharan, President, MCCI welcoming the Hon’ble Minister and the gathering. Others seen (l to r) Ms.K.Saraswathi, Mr.K.Vaitheeswaran, Mr.Jayant Sinha (third from left), Mr.Ram Venkataramani and Mr.R.Raghuttama Rao


11th July 2015Meeting with Mr.Jayant Sinha, Hon’ble Minister of State for Finance, Government of India

The Chamber organized an Interactive Meeting with

Mr. Jayant Sinha, Hon’ble Minister of State for Finance, Government of India, during his visit to Chennai on Saturday, July 11, 2015 between 5.00 p.m and 7.15 p.m

The Objective of the Interaction Meeting was to give our views and suggestions for improving the ease of doing business, more particularly on the reforms required on taxation, finance, etc, which is vital for fast tracking our economic growth and to hear the Government’s plans for ensuring ease of doing business.

The third is to build the Innovation ecosystem and the research and entrepreneurship.

The fourth is to increase the capabilities of the Institutions such as SEBI, RBI, IIRD, TRAI, Competition Commission of India that ensure rule of law.

He added that to sustain high GDP growth, it is essential to create jobs and remove the bottlenecks that inhibit the growth and improve the lives of every Indian through the following Policies.

1. To be Pro poor – He mentioned a few initiatives of the Government in this regard.

2. To be a Pro market Government.

3. To ensure Minimum Government, Maximum governance, by driving down corruption, crony capitalism

4. To ensure cooperative federalism by giving importance to all States and having a Team India

He further stated that the Inflation has been running high for nearly 7 years over 8% and the GDP has been below 5% for 2 consecutive years for the first time in 25 years and with the current account deficit hovering at 4% , the World and India had lost confidence and

Mr. Raghuttama Rao made a quick presentation on the concerns of the Industries and the expectations followed by Mr.Vaitheeswaran on the GST as Mr. Jayant Sinha informed that the most of the issues raised were relevant to the current situation and as he is continuously dealing with the same, he would answer them in the Q & A session.

Mr. Jayant Sinha in his address informed that he would give the cardinal principals that underline the economic policy making, the achievements of the present Government in the last year and the growth drivers and the risk factors.

He informed that the overall objective is to build India’s productive capacity and the approach of the present government to policy making is supply side investment driven view and they have a clear set of policies to drive the economic growth.

The first is to build the India’s hard assets which includes road, bridges, highways, factories and the manufacturing capacity and capabilities that are required

The second aspect is to improve the soft asset which is the skills and capabilities of young force as India has the advantage of a big demographic dividend.

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Hon’ble Minister Mr.Jayant Sinha addressing the gathering A view of the audience

hence it is up to present Government to revamp the system and bring a macro economic stabilisation. He informed what takes 3 to 4 years have been done in a year by the Government and if the business condition are tough, he accepted it and stated that they have set 3 parameters for robust sustainable growth which are as follows:-

1. Easing phase - Interest rates are coming down

2. Major investments being encouraged

3. Structural reforms which include FDI, labour laws, etc.

With regard to GST, he informed that all steps are being taken for implementation and mentioned 3 risk factors which would have an effect on their objectives

and action. 1. Monsoon, 2. Politics which is vitally important for implementation of the Government’s initiatives – example – GST. 3. Global macro situation which India cannot control , such as situations in Greece and China

He concluded by stating that this is the broad economic landscape of the Country and asked the participants to seek clarifications in the Question and Answer session.

There was a lively interaction as more than 10 pertinent questions were raised and answered by the Hon’ble Minister. Mr. Ram Venkataramani, Vice President, MCCI delivered the vote of thanks. The Minister joined the participants for Dinner.

T h e C h a m b e r h a s a conference room which can accommodate 25 p e r s o n s w h i c h c a n be used as a training hall for a nominal rent. LCD Projector with screen i s ava i l a b l e fo r u s e . For more details, contact t h e C h a m b e r v i d e email : [email protected] or call 044 24349452/24349871.

FACILITIES

14

PRESIDENT

MEMBERS

S G PrabhakharanChairman

XS Real Proper�es Pvt. Ltd.

Ram Venkataramani Managing Director

IP Rings Ltd

R AnandPartner - Tax & Markets

Ernst & Young LLP

Mr N S Balachandra Da�a Asst.Vice President

Hyundai Motor India Ltd.

Gayathri Sriram Managing Director Ucal Auto Pvt.Ltd.

Ishwar Achanta Managing Director

Portman India Private Limited

J Krishnan Partner

S. Natesa Iyer & Co.

S. Parthasarathy President

Rane (Madras0 Ltd.)

Dr K V RajendranAdvisor

Neophyll Agrisciences Pvt.Ltd..

G V RamanExecu�ve Chairman

Shriram Group of Companies

P. Kaniappan Managing Director Wabco India Ltd.

General Committee

2015-16

151515

T ShivaramanManaging Director & CEO

Shriram EPC Ltd.

Ramkumar RamamoorthySr.Vice President

Corp.Marke�ng, Research & Communica�ons Cognizant Technology Solu�ons

R.Subramanian Managing Director

R.Subramaian & Co.,

K.SureshPresident & CEO

India Cements Capital Ltd.

A.R.SubramanianExecu�ve Director –

Finance & Company Secretary, Schwing Ste�er India Pvt.Ltd.

K VaitheswaranAdvocate & Tax Consultant

Vijay ChordiaDirector

Stonecolour Exim Private Limited

Vijay Shankar Deputy Chairman

The Sanmar Group

P ViswanathanSecretary & Compliance Officer

Sundaram Finance Ltd.

R.Vi�al RajPartner

Kumar & Raj

MCCI Congratulates you on your election to the respective offices and looks forward to your active support and co-operation to take the Chamber to greater heights.

MEMBERS

EX�OFFICIO

General Committee

2014-15

16

Mr. Anirudh Krishnan & Mr.Rahul Balaji interacting with Participants during Technical Session-1

Mr. S.F.Akbar, State Information Commissioner, Tamil Nadu Information Commission briefing on Right to Information Act, 2005 during the Technical Session-3. The other speaker is Ms Madhri Guruswamy.

6th June 2015Legal Conclave 2015 – March of Jurisprudence

The Chamber, under the ausp ices o f the Lega l

Affairs Committee organized “Legal Conclave- March of Jurisprudence” on June 6,2015.

The objective of the Legal Conclave 2015 was to bring to light the changes in law and jurisprudence on selected topics viz., arbitration & conciliation, right to information etc. to the corporate sector.

Mr.S.G.Prabhakharan gave the welcome address. Mr. Anand Gopalan, Chairman, Legal Affairs Expert Committee briefed the participants about the theme of this Legal Conclave.

The key note address was by Mr. G.Masi lamani, Senior C o u n s e l , H C , C h e n n a i . Mr. Masilamani thanked the Chamber for inviting him and said it was his privilege to address the members.

He quoted various case laws from his experience and shared his views on the amendments and the interpretations of laws in the recent times. He urged the participants to be aware of the changes in law to avoid stringent penalties that are imposed. He requested the Chamber to analyse the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill and present the representations of the Industries.

The Chief Guest Hon. Justice Mr. T.Raja, Judge, HC, Chennai, in his address expressed his

SOWING THE SEEDS

Mr.S.G.Prabhakharan welcoming the Chief Guest Hon’ble Justice, Mr.T.Raja with a bouquet of flowers. Others seen are Mr.G.Masilamani & Mr.Anand Gopalan

Mr Anand Gopalan, Chairman, Legal Affairs Committee briefing the Theme Presentation


a p p r e c i a t i o n t o t h e Chamber for arranging this conclave with varied topics. He reiterated Mr. Masilamani’s words to be aware of the changes in the various laws, to implement and to avoid legal hassles. He wished success for the program.

The 5 Technical Sessions were addressed by eminent Advocates as given as follows:-

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Mr. Saif Jamali, Regional Legal Manager, HUL ; Mr.P.Raghunathan, Partner, TSG & Co., and Ms.V.Karthika, Head-Legal, Ford India making a presentation during Technical Sessions.

Technical Session 1: Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 - Approaches and Interpretations

Mr. Anirudh Krishnan, Founder Partner, A.K. Law Chambers

Mr. Rahul Balaji, Advocate, Madras High Court

Technical Session 2: A look into the Legal Metrology Act, 2009

Mr.Saif Jamali, Regional Legal Manager, Hindustan Unilever Limited

Technical Session 3: Right to Information Act 2005 – a tool or bane?

Judge Mr.S.F.Akbar, State Information Commissioner, Tamil Nadu Information Commission

Ms. Madhri Guruswamy, Advocate, T.S.Gopalan & Co

Technical Session 4: Consumer Protection – Quo vadis?

Mr.P Ragunathan, Partner, T.S.Gopalan & Co

Technical Session 5: Privacy laws and global practices

Ms. V. Karthika, Head – Legal, Ford India Private Ltd.

The program was well received by 40 participants

20th June 2015Seminar on Works Contract-Taxing Principles and Issues

The Chamber organized a full day Conference on

Works Contract on the auspices of the VAT and Indirect Taxes Committee on June 20th 2015.

The welcome address was delivered by Mr.T.Shivaraman, immediate Past President, MCCI

The key note address was by Mr. B Ramakrishnan, Executive Vice President (F&A), L & T Construction, Chennai. He elaborated on the concepts of works contract and the implications.

Mr.B.Ramakrishnan, EVP, L&T Construction delivering the Key Note Address

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Sale or Works contract – An analysis with reference to latest Supreme Court decisions in L&T & Kone Elevators case, GD Builders and L&T 5 member decision.

Mr. N Venkataraman , Senior Advocate

Taxation of Works contracts (indivisible contracts, divisible contracts, composite contracts, single bid but split contracts, split contracts involving multiple legal entities) & analyzing transactions of:

1. Local procurements within project State

2. Imports including sale in the course of import and high seas sale

3. Inter-state procurement from outside project State including in-transit (E-1) sale

4. BOT and BOOT contracts

Mr. K Sivarajan, Chartered Accountant

VAT and service tax challenges on some typical contracts

1. Joint development agreement with land owners for residential construction

2. AMC contracts

3. Software implementation contracts

Mr. K Vaitheeswaran, Advocate & Tax Consultant, Chennai & Chairman, MCCI Indirect Taxes Committee

Mr.N.Venkataraman, Sr. Advocate

Mr K.Vaitheeswaran, Chairman, MCCI Expert Committee on Indirect Taxes

Mr.K.Sivarajan, Chartered Accountant


A view of the audienceMr Arvind P Datar, Sr.Advocate, Chief Guest addressing during Inaugural Session

Mr. P.R. Subramaniyan delivering the vote of thanks.

Mr.P.Purushotham, Advocate

Mr.Satish Sangameswaran, Director – Indirect Taxes, PwC,Mumbai

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The Chief Guest for the seminar Mr. Arvind Dattar, Senior Advocate, HC, Chennai, stated that he was honored to be invited to address the participants. He cited a few case laws on works contract which created an impact on the industries and gave his candid remarks on the implementation of GST.

Valuation of works contract and eligibility to input tax credits under different options for payment of VAT and service tax (actual values, abatements, composition schemes)

Mr.P R Subramaniyan, Head – Indirect taxation, L&T Construction, Chennai & Chairman, MCCI VAT Committee

Compliance requirements under the VAT and service tax laws for project owner, main contractor and sub-contractor & liability to tax in case of sub-contracts, exemptions to sub-contractor if main contract exempt, sub contracts for SEZ projects

Mr. P Purushotham, Advocate, Chennai

GST – Current status of Implementation

Mr.Satish Sangameswaran, Director-Indirect Taxes PwC, Mumbai

Concluding remarks Mr.P R Subramaniyan

The inaugural was followed by Technical Sessions wherein presentations were made on specific topics by the experts. The Program was attended by 70 participants.

23rd June 2015Recent E initiatives by PF Department-Interaction Meeting with PF Commissioner, Chennai

The Chamber organized an interactive program with the

PF Department to bring awareness to the members regarding the recent e-initiatives from the PF Office at Hotel Savera on 23rd June 2015

Mr. P.Viswanathan, Co Chairman, Company Law Commit tee welcomed the participants.

Mr.V.Chandrasekhar, Asst .Director (IS) and Shri.S.Sankar, Accounts officer from the PF Department made presentations on the recent e-initiatives to the participants.

Mr P Viswanathan welcoming Mr.S.D.Prasad, Regional PF Commissioner-1 with a bouquet of flowers.

Mr. S.D. Prasad, Regional P F Commissioner-I, Chennai clarified the queries raised by the participants.

The program was appreciated and attended by 48 participants.

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24th June 2015Program on the Impact of Companies Amendment Act 2015 – Exemptions & Implications

The Chamber had organized a Program on the Impact of

Companies Amendment Act 2015 and Notifications issued on the Applicability of the Act to Private, Section 8, Nidhi and Government Companies by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) on June 24th 2015 at Hotel Savera, Chennai.

The Companies (Amendment) Bill 2015 was published in the Official Gazette of India after getting the assent from the President of India, became Law as Companies (Amendment) Act, 2015. This program was organized to understand the implications and to discuss the positive/negative aspects of the above mentioned notifications & amendments.

Ms. Bhavani Balasubramanian, Chai r man, Company Law Commit t ee we lcomed the participants and Mr. P.Viswanathan delivered the vote of thanks.

The following presentations were

made in the program

Ms.B.Chandra interacting with participants Ms.CS Swetha Subramanian making a presentation

Mr. P. Viswanathan answering the queries of the participants. Others seen are (l to r : Dr B Ravi, Mr.CS.P.Sriram and Ms.Bhavani Balasubramaniam)


Exemption to Private Companies and its Impact Ms B Chandra, Practicing Company Secretary

Exemption to Section 8 and Government Companies and its impact

Ms CS Swetha Subramanian, Practicing Company Secretary

Exemption to Nidhi Companies and its impact Mr CS P.Sriram, Practicing Company Secretary

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6th July2015Seminar on Corporate Governance

The Chamber organised a Seminar on “Corporate

Governance – The Next Steps” on Monday, the 6th July 2015 at Hotel Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park (formerly Park Sheraton), Chennai. Mr. Damodaran IAS Retd. and former Chairman SEBI was the key speaker. This was a follow up of the interactive session with Mr. M.Damodaran, held in May. Following the important points deliberated, the Chamber decided to have a more focussed Seminar on Corporate Governance.

M r. S . G. P r a b h a k h a r a n welcomed the participants. In his address, he congratulated Mr. Damodaran, for getting the Lifetime Achievement Award in Ethics in Leadership and Governance from the Asian Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability apart from his other awards. He gave a briefing about the Chamber and stated that Corporate Governance gained

Mr.S.G.Prabhakharan welcoming the gathering. Others in the picture are Ms. Bhavani Balasubramanian, Mr. S. Ramakrishnan, Mr. N. Srinivasan, Mr. M. Damodaran & Mr. N. Ramanathan.

attention in India in the early 1990s when globalisation or liberalisation took place. Companies that existed scrambled to get into the fold of Corporate Governance & it was Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) which set the norms for Corporate Governance. He informed that global economic crisis happened because of absence of Corporate Governance. He mentioned that leaders of the organisations have to set the right culture and lead by example to maintain Corporate Governance which will help Corporate in turnover, profitability, and sustainability and concluded by saying that if we follow what we and others think is right, then we will comply with 90% of the changes in the Companies Act 2013.

Mr. N. Srinivasan addressed on the Role of Independent Directors. He elaborated on the definition of Independent Directors in clause 149(6) of the Companies Act 2013. wherein except for the line that the

.N.Srinivasan, Senior Partner (Retd.), Fraser & Ross & Past President, MCCI addressing the audience.

Mr S Ramakrishnan, Partner, PKF Sridhar & Santhanam making a presentation.

Mr N Ramathan, MD, Ponni Sugars Ltd. making a presentation.

Mr.M.Damodaran, IAS (Retd.), Former Chairman, SEBI addressing the audience.

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A view of audience.


Mr. M. Damodaran IAS. Retd. & Former Chairman, SEBI, Key Speaker in his address stated that as the 3 eminent speakers have touched upon everything in Corporate Governance, he would strike a different note and strengthen the opinions by taking a contract view. He commented that the Committee set up to review the most criticized Companies Act 2013 would only pick on a few major sources of discord and amends the same and hence it would not be proper to anticipate major changes.

While referring to the new Companies Act 2013 which seeks to improve the ease of doing business, he said all the intentions are honorable. They have addressed stakeholder’s democracy and if the objective is protect the interests to stakeholders, then there is a huge disconnect between what they wanted to do while drafting companies Act and what they have done. He added that it is not possible to legislate for honesty as there are several loopholes in the Act which will be taken advantage of, by dishonest people.

With respect to CSR, the UK principle of “Comply or Explain” is used where they have no constitution, whereas we have a much amended constitution.

He touched upon Schedule IV which is a guide to Professional Conduct for Independent Directors. He stated that it should not be in Companies Act for various reasons as it is a knee jerk reaction to Satyam. One of the changes that you would need in Companies Act is to junk Schedule IV. With respect to Protection for Independent Directors, the provision in Companies Act protects the Director but, he is not protected under other Acts such as Negotiable Instruments

Independent Director should be a person with ethical standards, experience and expertise, all the other points are negative about what he should not do. He mentioned that schedule IV which has been made an integral part of Companies Act 2013 has a code for Independent Directors though it is not available for promoters, whole time directors etc. The preamble of Schedule IV talks about guidelines and standards.

However, there is no clarity about the code. There are no qualifications specified for Independent Directors, however it states that they should have professional background. He informed that if an Independent Director is a professional abiding by the norms of the profession, then Schedule IV will be irrelevant. He stated that Schedule IV is a sad reflection on Independent Directors and shared the concerns and responsibilities of Independent Directors.

Mr. S. Ramakrishnan, Partner, PKF Sridhar & Santhanam LLP made a presentation on Board Evaluation, Roles and Responsibilities of Audit Committee. He gave a broad framework for a Board Evaluation, discussed the summary of Qualitative and Quantitative assessment of Board Effectiveness evaluation in detail and explained the Board Competencies. The Practical aspects of the Audit Committee were addressed while presenting the Roles and Responsibilities of Audit Committee. Further, he explained about the responsibilities of audit committees and the Ten Commandments for the Audit Committee to function efficiently.

Mr. N. Ramanathan, Managing Director, Ponni Sugars Ltd., made a presentation on the Emerging Trend and Challenges of Corporate Governance. He analysed the broad framework of Corporate Governance in Clause 49. He explained about the Related Party Transactions and compared the same between CS 2013 and SEBI Mandate under Clause 49. He also covered the broad based and additional disclosures under Companies Act 2013. He concluded by stating that Governance is the linchpin of Corporate.

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He added that Company Law needs Clarity, Continuity and Certainty. It would be difficult to follow and implement if the rules are changed often. Explaining the way how Korea was able to improve their rank in ease of doing business by chopping off 60% rules he added that if the same is done at our end, the resultant law would definitely be better.

Mr. Damodaran concluded by saying that investing in investor education which is the ultimate safeguard for the company’s interest would definitely take us to the next steps in Corporate Governance and urged Chamber to have a retail investor to talk about why they had invested in a particular company.


Act, Packaging Act, Shops and Establishment Act, Factories Act, etc. Hence the Companies law should be amended to protect them from other acts also, to have Independent Directors in Boards. He also elaborated on the Board Evaluation process which would destroy the cohesiveness of the Board by giving an example.

He also stated that the 4 Committees, namely Audit committee, Nomination/Remuneration committee, Stakeholder relations committee, & CSR committee have not been given the importance in terms of their constitution as the act or rules does not define who should be appointed etc.

TOGETHER WE GROW3rd July 2015Seminar on IND-AS jointly with Deloitte

Mr.N.Srinivasan, Pas President, MCCI welcoming the gathering. Others in the picture Ms.K.Saraswathi & Ms.Bhavani Balasubramanian

The Chamber organised a full day program on the Overview

of Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) on July 3, 2015 at Hotel Savera, Chennai. Deloitte was the Knowledge Partner for this program.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs notified the Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules, 2015 on Feb 16, 2015. Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) conversion is a strategic issue. The rules specify the Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) applicable to certain class of companies and sets out dates of applicability. Conversion to Ind AS is challenging, and the board of directors and management need to explain to the stakeholders on the changes and impact arising from the Ind AS conversion. Hence this program was organized to understand the challenges in the transition to Ind AS, and to

strengthen the controls, formulate policies and procedures and enhance the knowledge on Ind AS.

Mr. N.Srinivasan, Past President, MCCI in his opening remarks gave an insight on Ind AS and Ms. Bhavani Balasubramanian, Chairman, Expert Committee on Company Law introduced the speakers and topics to the participants.

Speakers from Deloitte, namely, Mr. Vikas Bagaria, Mr. K.N. Krishnan, Mr. V.P.Manikandan and Ms. Gayathri addressed the participants.

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10th & 11th July20153rd CARGO SCOPE 2015 – An International Conference

Mr.S.G.Prabhakharan, President, MCCI welcoming the gathering in the Inaugural Session

The Exhibition was inaugurated by Shri A. Sakthivel - Southern Regional Chairman of Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO). This was followed by the inaugural session of the conference. Shri S.G.Prabhakaran, President, MCCI welcomed the participants. The chief guest of the conference, Mr. Atulya Misra, IAS , Chairman, Chennai Port Trust, addressed the gathering and declared the conference open. Mr. J. Krishnan, General Committee Member of the Chamber and past Chairman of the Logistics committee delivered the vote of thanks .

There were three technical sessions held on both the days having the following topics for discussion

Mr. J. Krishnan, Member, MCCI General Committee delivering the vote of thanks

General of Foreign Trade’s office.

The South East Cargo & Logistics Award 2015 was conducted in a grand ceremony on 10th July 2015. The regional players in the logistics industry were duly recognized for their performance in this event that covered various categories of the EXIM Logistics activities . The event was followed by networking cocktails and dinner .

The meeting witnessed the coming together of all logistics players across South India and both the conference and exhibition provided an excellent networking opportunity . The technical sessions also provided critical insight on the conference theme “Ease of doing business in Maritime and Logistics sector“.

A delegate interacting at MCCI Stall in the Exhibition

The Chamber and EXIM INDIA Shipping Times jointly organized an International Conference & Exhibition concurrent with 7th South

East Cargo & Logistics Awards 2015 on 10th& 11th July, 2015 at Chennai Trade Centre, Conventional Centre, Chennai.

The theme of this conference was Ease of Doing Business in Maritime & Logistics Sector .

The central idea of organizing this conference was to discuss on the ease of doing business in Maritime & Logistics Sectors and to chart the action plan for the benefit of trade. The Chamber was the Conference Partner for this event.

The participants of this conference were from the logistics industry handling export- import goods. All categories from, Shipping lines to Container owners to Over dimensional cargo to Project cargo to Equipment suppliers participated in this conference. This is Bi-Annual event. Along with the conference, the 7th SOUTH EAST cargo and logistics awards - 2015 was also held.

1. Ensuring seamless connectivity in port & logistics sector in South East India - challenges & solutions

2. Ease of doing business in project cargo & other cargoes

3. Ease of doing business in dry bulk sector & growing importance o f educa t ion and training

After the first technical session an open house with the participants was organized by FIEO. The session was addressed by officials from Director

252525


24th July2015MCCI – ICICI Bank CEO Knowledge Forum

CEO Knowledge Forum is one of ICICI Bank’s flagship programs in the Beyond Banking

Space. The Chamber in association with ICICI Bank organized the third edition of ICICI Bank –CEO Knowledge Forum on 25th July at Hotel Park, Chennai. The theme for the third edition was “Leadership in volatile Times”

Mr.Ram Venkataramani, Vice President, MCCI welcoming the gathering

Mr. Ram Venkataramani, Vice President, MCCI gave the welcome address. Mr. S.Varadharajan, CFO, VA Tech Wabag, was one of the speakers in the Panel Discussion.

Mr.S.Varadarajan, Promoter & Director, VA Tech Wabag Ltd. interacting in the Panel Discussion. (Thrid from left)

31st July2015Presentation by Krishnapatnam Port & Meeting

Mr. Anil Yendluri, Director & CEO, KPCL addressed the participants.

The Business presentation with the Officials from Krishnapatnam Port was organized

on July 31, 2015 at Hotel Taj Vivanta, Chennai.

Mr. S.G. Prabhakharan welcomed the Participants. Mr. Anil Yendluri, Director & CEO, KPCL addressed the participants. Ms. Vinita Venkatesh, Director, KPCL made a detailed presentation on the facilities and services offered by Krishnapatnam Port. Mr. Suresh Anand, Executive Director of East Coast Logistics supplemented Ms. Vinita’s presentation on the advantages of KPCT.

The meeting was followed by an interactive session with 60 + participants.

Mr. S.G.Prabhakharan welcoming the participants

26

Chamber's Activities

16th April 2015Meeting with Busan Chamber of Commerce & signing of MoU

The Madras Chamber had a meeting with a 22 member

delegation led by Mr. Cho Sung Je, President, Busan Chamber of Commerce & Industry on 25th June 2015 at the Chamber. A MoU was signed between the Chamber and Busan CCI to foster economic development between the two regions.

The MoU between the Madras Chamber and the Busan Chamber is to strengthen the co-operation in promoting trade and investment flows between Tamil Nadu and Republic of Korea through knowledge sharing, holding joint trade and investment promotion events, establishing direct contacts and developing business relations, seeking potential investors and business partners.

T h e P r e s i d e n t , M r S G Prabhakharan, while addressing the delegates said that the Chamber is keen to expand its business relations with Korea, especially with Busan, the second largest city of South Korea termed as the “City of Tomorrow.”

He also mentioned about the proposed Delegat ion f rom manufacturing and logistics sector this year to Ulsan, Busan and

S.G.Prabhakhara, President, MCCI & Mr.Cho Sung Je, President, BCCI signing MOU

MCCI Team with delegates from BCCI

DOING THE HONOURS

Seoul to explore the business opportunities apart from visiting Ports, Airports, Ship Building yard etc and also to select Automobile and Electronics Industries, to get to know the emerging good practices and technologies in the manufacturing and logistics field.

The Chamber deeply mourns the demise of our Former President,

Dr. A.P.J. Kalam, a visionary, a great leader, exemplary scientist and above all,

a fine human being. His contribution to the Nation would remain unparalleled.

He has been an inspiration to millions of people, particularly youth in India

and abroad. On behalf of our members, we pledge to work towards his vision

of making India a superpower. May his soul rest in peace.

CONDOLENCE MESSAGE

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT

5th June 2015FFT on Climate Change – Is it a Hype or a Reality? Ms. K. Saraswathi, Secretary General of the Madras Chamber kick-started the program with an introduction to the Food For Thought (FFT) series. The FFT series was started as part of the 175th year celebrations and around 35 have been conducted till now. The series was conceived to serve two objectives. First, to look at issues from a perspective that goes beyond business and second, to tackle issues that require larger debate.

This FFT on Climate Change was organized to commemorate World Environment Day on June 5th.

Dr.K.Palanivelu

The focus of Dr. Palanivelu’s was on the science of climate modelling and its application in climate change studies. He began his presentation with an overview of global trends in temperature changes, temperature extremities, sea level rise and changes in precipitation patterns.

After a brief look at the latest IPCC report and its analysis of natural resources impact, Dr. Palanivelu proceeded to illustrate climate models specific to India and Tamil Nadu with predictions of warmer summers and decreased rainfall. He concluded by stating that India needs better adaptation capabilities to cope with climate change.

Ms.Vidya Soundararajan

Ms. Soundararajan began by quoting IPCC, “we have evidence that climate change is real” and proceeded to cite studies by the World Bank and the Met Office. The estimate of 1.50C above pre-industrial levels by mid-century is already locked-in and cannot be changed even with ambitious mitigation action. Ms. Soundararajan flagged changes in agricultural productivity and the melting of the Greenland ice sheet as some of the critical issues that require immediate attention.

After discussing the world view on climate change and the UNFCCC negotiations, she concluded by stating that solutions are common sense actions and it will be beneficial to adopt them even if we assume that climate change is a hype.

Ms. P. Tara

Ms. Tara spoke on the topic “Coping with climate change – a starting point for businesses” and began by stating that we have missed the boat on prevention but mitigation is still possible. The focus of her presentation was on businesses and she made the following observations

1. Businesses reliant on coal, oil and gas should expect more regulation of use and less regulation of price

2. Cost of capital for carbon intensive projects will increase

3. Cost of credit will increase due to credit downgrading

She concluded by listing the possible solutions that businesses should consider

1. Diversify into less resource intensive products and services

2. Invest in efficiency and climate resilient infrastructure

3. Identify risks and mitigate

4. Diversify product streams

5. People in finance should invest more in companies that have planned resilience

The FFT concluded with a lively interaction session with the panellists mainly centred on the theme of how individuals can contribute to mitigation efforts.

Dr. K. Palanivelu interacting with Participants. Others seen are (l to r : Ms. K. Saraswathi, Ms.P.Tara & Ms.Vidya Soundararajan

28

General Committee

The Committee held its monthly meetings in June and July 2015 and discussed the following issue

among other issues

Special ini�a�ve for facilita�ng Start Ups

The Committee was informed of the Chamber’s focus for this year being facilitating Start Ups. The Chamber would be a catalyst to develop Non - IT Start

ups, apart from IT, in Tamil Nadu and this initiative would be named Startup Entrepreneurial EcoSystem (SeeS). To start with, an advisory board would be set up which would provide support by evaluating the project, suggest possible tie ups with financial institutions, provide guidance for statutory and legal compliances

The experts would be available on specific days in the Chamber for handholding these start ups.

Expert Committee

Other Meetings

The first meeting of the Chairman and Co-Chairman of the Expert Committees with the

President, Mr. S.G.Prabhakharan, was held on 4th July 2015.

Mr. S.G.Prabhakharan extended a warm welcome to the Chairmen and Co-Chairmen of the Expert Committees, especially to some of the members who have assumed Chairmanship of some of the Committees for the first time.

Ms. K. Saraswathi attended the NIWE Program on Launching of Indian solar radiation atlas & Stakeholders Meet on 3rd June 2015

Ms. K.Saraswathi attended the 11th Managing Committee of ASSOCHAM at New Delhi on 10th June 2015

During her visit to New Delhi, she also met the following officials to discuss possible collaborative opportunities

• Ms. Gayathri, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs

• Mr. Pooran Pandey, ED, UN Global Compact Network India

• Mr. Jagan Shah,Director, National Institute of Urban Affairs

• Dr. Atul Chaturvedi, Joint Secretary, DIPP

• Mr. Dilip Chenoy, National Skill Development Corporation

• Mr. Joe Phellan, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Some of the Chairmen elaborated on their plans for the future while the others agreed to share their plans shortly. It was agreed that a similar meeting would be held every 3 months to review the work done and to be done.

The following reconstituted committees for the year 2015-2016 had its first meeting in the month of July 2015 and discussed their work plan for the current year.

Company Law, Logistics, VAT, IT/ITES, Direct Taxes and CSR.

Based on the work plan given by the Committees, the event calendar of Chamber for the year is being prepared..

Ms. K.Saraswathi and Mr. K.Vaitheeswaran attended the meeting of the Select Committee of Rajya Sabha which was on a study visit to Chennai on the 122nd Constitutional Amendment Bill 2014 for GST on 22nd June 2015. Mr. Vaitheeswaran’s presentation on GST was noted with interest by the Committee.

Ms. K.Saraswathi attended the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievance, Law & Justice who was on a Study visit to Chennai, on the subject of Commercial Courts Bill on 23rd June 2015.

Members of the Logistics Committee had a meeting with Mr. Masayoshi Shinomiya, Japan Economic Research Institute (JERI) to provide necessary information for the study done by JICA on Cross-border Maritime Traffic in South Asia on 21st July 2015.

Mr. S.G. Prabhakharan and Ms.K. Saraswathi attended the luncheon Meeting with Dr Raghuram Rajan, Governor, RBI.

Ms. K.Saraswathi attended the Singapore Symposium 2015 - Interactive session with Mr.K.Shanmugam at Hotel Taj Coromandel on 27th July 2015.

Ms. K.Saraswathi and Mr. S.Sankaranarayanan attended the periodical GIM meetings conducted regularly by the Government of Tamil Nadu for follow up on the Seminars and other arrangements.

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FLASH NEWS

Intro: New Members

Swap : (change in company’s name)

Name of the Company Classification

Marwa Impex Private Limtied Exporters of Building Materials

Ryan Logitech Private Limited Logistics

Broekman Logistics India Private Limtied Logistics

Sudit K Parekh &Co. Chartered AccountantIntellect Design Arena Limited BFSI – Product Business

SRM University Educational Institution

NPS Technology & Engineering Services Pvt. Ltd IT/ITES

Seawaves Institute of Logistics Logistics

Group Fio India Private Limited IT/ITES

Shri Kailash Logistics Ltd Logistics

Gemini Fertilizers Chemicals/ Fertilizers

HLL Biotech Ltd. Healthcare/ Pharma

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas Legal

Saint Gobain India Limited

Saint-Gobain India Private Limited

Mitsubushi Elevator ETA India Pvt. Ltd

Mitsubishi Elevator India Pvt. Ltd.

30

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313131

Expert's Corner

Expert Commi�eesThe Chamber has 14 Expert Commi�ees with domain experts on varied subjects. They act as think tanks and assist the Chamber in proac�vely lobbying for business friendly policies both with the State and Central Governments, periodically discuss new policies and their impact on industries and commerce and prepare suitable representa�ons, if needed to redress the grievances of the members. They also help in organizing seminars/workshops/round tables/conferences for the benefit of the members. The Commi�ees also counsel and advise members on their specific issues.t h i s s p a c e f o r

articles from these Experts in this feature Experts’ Corner.

Dr. S. VENKATRAMAN, Vice President, Educa�on & Training, The India Cements Limited, Chairman-Educa�on & Skill Commi�ee

within the development process to match the skills imparted by the education sector and the employment opportunities generated by other sectors, including the industries sector. For purposes of this discussion, the term ‘industries sector’ is used to include the tertiary services sector as well.

With the advent of globalization with its concomitant modernization of information technology, the employment market of any country is influenced almost instantly by any significant change that takes place in the demand for goods or services anywhere in the global economy. That being the case, the composition of the industries sector also undergoes changes in tune with such changes in the global demand pattern. Again, such changes in the demand pattern of industries include matching changes in the skill requirements of the workforce. The issue here is that such a matching in the supply side of the workforce is not seen to be instantaneous but dawdling, particularly in the context of developing economies, given the general intransigence of their people arising out of long years of social and cultural conditioning. The immediate effect, though, is a mismatch between the skills of the youths seeking jobs and the demand for the same from employers, particularly from the industries. In developing economies, which are also traditional, such a time-lag can be quite desultory and growth-retarding. The resultant losses can be particularly frustrating to the job seekers.

A digression at this point on how the youths make career choices would be in order. Most youths in India who are at the cross-roads of education and employment still feel lost and clueless as to what exactly they should do further. Most of them, particularly the youths in rural areas and the ones

YOUTHS, SKILLS AND WORK: ADDRESSING THE MISMATCH AND MEETING INDUSTRY EXPECTATIONS

The World Education Forum 2015 held in Incheon, Republic of Korea, in the month of May, declared its vision for education towards 2030 of transforming lives through education, recognizing its important role as a main driver of development. The participants of the Forum committed themselves, with a sense of urgency, to a single, renewed education agenda, “that is holistic, ambitious and aspirational, leaving no one behind”. This new vision is fully captured by the proposed Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, namely, “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all”. The Forum has also recognized the importance of education as a key to achieving full employment and poverty eradication. In support of this recognition, the Forum has, inter alia, attributed several reasons for this, one of which elaborates on how education equips people with knowledge and skills that they need to increase incomes and expand employment opportunities. While this is quite a valid point, its realization depends to a great extent upon the availability of a functional mechanism

32

Expert's Corner

hailing from lower income strata even in urban areas are overwhelmed by the conundrums of choice of the right road map in terms of what they should do. Should they pursue studies further or enter upon whatever job that comes by? They have very little options known for making the right choice. Given the high competition for both higher learning as well as for jobs, the situation becomes almost impossible, given again that each such choice may involve further choices on what, where, when and how. Their problems get exacerbated by the flood of advice that they face coming as they do from peers, parents, mentors and other known sources. Unfortunately most of such advice, though well-meant, are still avuncular and subjective in nature, depending upon the perceptions of each such group of advisors and constricted by their limited experience of and exposure to the world of work. As compared to the thousands of occupational possibilities listed in the National Classification of Occupations (NCO) , juxtaposed with their industrial interspersion among the various industrial classifications, such advice usually gets extremely limited to a few traditionally known occupations only, in sharp contrast to the possibility of a wider view of the world of work perceived from the belvedere of comprehensive information on a wider range of occupations. Professionally done vocational guidance based on comprehensive career information is still something either unknown to most of the traditional groups mentioned above or it remains something that the youths have to seek outside of their own known circle, involving problems of access and costs.

The Education sector can step in to help such youths by taking timely action to address this mismatch, as part of its vision to ensure inclusion, equity and quality of education. It is worthwhile to note here that the Education 2030 agenda has been agreed to by all countries present in the Forum, including donors and civil society. It is of interest to note in this context that one of the critical issues identified in the Forum relates to youth skills and the world of work. The Government of India have taken several steps to improve the skill levels of the youths with a view to enhancing their employability. However,

there is scope for doing more particularly in the area of establishing synergy between institutions of higher learning including technical and vocational education, policy makers and the industries themselves. Some of the implications of this scope are examined below at some length.

The first set of such implications relates to course curricula followed by institutions of higher learning. A close look at them would reveal as to how most of them still remain outdated and jejune, not keeping pace with the changes that have taken place in the current discourse on most of the topics covered. There are also crucial omissions that have direct bearing on prevailing field situations. Whatever is taught is not of much significance to prevailing work situations in industries. For example, English learning even at graduate level does not prepare the students for performing even simple tasks such as writing a proper letter and using modern technologies of communication to complete the task. Similar examples can be given in respect of learning other subjects such as commerce, economics, mathematics, social sciences, etc. Their curricula seem to be rather heavily burdened with archaic theories, which may be obfuscating to the youths trying to relate them to currently prevailing environments of the related areas. The scenario does not seem to improve even at post-graduate and research level. Though there are exceptions, the above scenario also seems to apply to most of the institutions. The case of engineering education is of particular concern as it is dogged by problems of over-supply of graduates, inadequacy of teaching staff, inadequacy of workshop machinery and equipment for doing practical lessons, inadequate exposure to industries and technology on field, high tuition fees and inadequate job opportunities. It appears to be a typical case of supply adjusting to a perceived increase in demand rather late in the day, resulting in an unnecessary flooding of the job market with far too many job seekers chasing far too few jobs. There are instances where graduate engineers have to end up in jobs that need only a diploma or certificate level of education in that specialty. It is not uncommon to see such graduates even taking up jobs that have no relationship to their subjects of graduation.

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The next set of implications relates to what may be referred to as skills of application of knowledge to work situations. This may also include attitudes like self-confidence and a spirit of competition to succeed. There is a current terminology which refers to ‘21st century skills’. In practical terms, this set would include all the skills needed in a modern knowledge society which skillfully uses information technology to learn and survive. There are also references in the current discourse on other allied skills such as life skills and soft skills. What is important to note here is that such skills are rarely imparted in educational institutions. Urgent steps appear warranted to remedy this situation. Events like career guidance that are organized are no doubt useful, but their access to youths hailing from rural and poorer economic backgrounds appears to be rather limited. It would be helpful if such services are made a part of the regular teaching-learning processes of all educational institutions though the establishment of Career Guidance Units staffed by well-trained professionals.

Wherever such Vocational Guidance and Employment Counselling services exist already, they may need to be further professionalized and strengthened and made more broad-based, with very close collaboration of industries. There is thus a need to establish synergy between the educational institutions, the employers and the career guidance agencies. The implications of doing this need to be examined and detailed in a separate discussion.

The last and the main concern of this article is to highlight, in the circumstances described, the importance and the urgent need to involve, besides the industries and the educational institutions, the policy makers and planners as well in taking the next steps towards addressing the mismatch explained above. It is pertinent to reiterate here that globally, there is now a loud and clear call for better collaboration between industry and the education planners and

policy makers. This concern has been palpably voiced by the World Education Forum. In order to translate this concern into a practical action process, it would be necessary to start with a vigorous advocacy effort to capture the attention of the main stakeholders to this issue of establishment of a mechanism of collaboration between industry and the education planners and policy makers. The advocacy effort could focus on the perceived mismatch between the available youth skills and the job requirements of industries and highlight the importance of assessing the impact of public spending on education. This, in turn, would most likely trigger a process of further studies and discussions of how to derive maximum benefits in terms of every rupee spent on education, keeping in mind the need to create conditions for the achievement of full employment in the economy. As a support process, it would try to eliminate the currently perceived mismatches discussed above. Such a process would, it is hoped, help not only the youths, but also the industries and the educational institutions.

Gradually, the process may involve other stakeholders such as parents, teachers, the media and the community. Such an expansion of scope would be warranted in recognition of the fact that education is an essential engine, besides health, that can propel empowerment and increase the pace of development efforts.

The Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry may perhaps take the initiative in this regard and act as a tenacious platform to trigger this important process which holds the potential of yielding invaluable benefits to the entire nation in its current march towards inclusive development. Incidentally, such an initiative may well synchronize with the World Education Forum’s recognition of the importance of education as a key to achieving full employment and poverty eradication.

Expert's Corner

34

“Only 16% of the directors say the boards they serve on understand the dynamics of their firms’ industries!”

“Only 22% of the boards of directors say their boards know how their firms create value”

Hold on, these are not my numbers nor do they pertain to India!

A Mckinsey survey in 2013 came out with these stats in the US of A, but if we ignite our conscience and ask about the state in India, our answers would not be very different! Post Enron and such high profile corporate debacles, the focus shifted to corporate governance and most of the directors are losing sleep over these issues while giving a slip to their core function – providing effective supervision and strategic support to the management’s efforts to create value.

As a sitting member of a few corporate boards, I am equally guilty of this sin and sheepishly admit to the truth of the observation.

In most of the small and medium sized corporates, the members of the boards are more of convenient positions than of any real need for professional inputs. Consequently, we find the board members are more than anxious to toe the line of the owner-Chairman/MD in most of the issues and the latter too, least expects such inputs from the board.

How does one explain the role of a retired college principal in the board of a software firm except that he was the father-in-law of the company’s banker!

Every member of the board needs to be an independent thinker and the selection of a board member must

address this key criteria. Related to the company’s business, the composition of the board has to have a diversity that would prove useful to the decision making. The board must question the strategies of the management and challenge their strategies and plans which pre-suppose adequate business knowledge and experience from the board members.

As an eminent business leader observed that longevity of any business is more dependent on its ability to change over time rather than continuing with whatever it has got. Companies like IBM changed several times over to stay relevant.

In our own backyard, successful companies like Hindustan Unilever have changed over time. From my personal experience, I can vouch that the strategies and plans that were paramount during my stint there in 1980s are no longer practiced now. Even the product range, business lines and of course strategies have undergone a sea change. No wonder the company has come a long way from its Rs 600+ crore turnover then to Rs 27,500Crores today.

With rapid technology changes and disruptive innovations, even new age companies that are hardly 10 or 15 year old have gone through changes to stay vibrant and successful.

This is possible only when the board members are proactive and spend adequate time on the strategies of their companies. Experts feel that apart from attending board meetings, they must spend at least 2 days in a month reviewing strategies and advising on long term views. There are suggestions that a board member should visit and spend time with sales, R&D, branch et all and there are instances of a few companies where this happens.

In today’s “results-by-the-day” and “rewards-by-the-evening” syndrome, members of the board succumbing to this pressure and working furiously with the management for the quarterly results to the neglect of long term performance and strategies, is increasingly affecting the longevity. It is important to have a board that is able to engage with the investors and explain to them that quarterly results and guidance alone are not crucial.

J Raghunathan, Founder - KCIG Chairman - IT / ITES Commi�ee

C O R P O R AT E B O A R D S C O N U N D R U M – QUARTERLY GUIDANCE OR LONG TERM VALUE CREATION.....?

Expert's Corner

353535

S.Ravi Veeraraghavan, Partner, Deloi�e Co- Chairman, IT/ITES Commi�ee

WHAT IS SMART CITY? Why are we talking about Smart Ci�es?

50% of the world’s population lives in cities today and 70% of the global population is expected to live in urban environments by 2050

Multiple factors are driving economics around the world to move towards Smart City, to name a few:

• Energy Crisis

• Resource Management

• Urbanization

• Population

• Safety and Security

• Sustainability with Social Responsibility

• Connectivity and Communication

What enables a Smart City?

• Smart economy: The Smart Economy refers to cities with “smart” industries, especially in the areas of information and communication technology (ICT) as well as other industries that involve ICT in their production processes.

• Smart people: The differentiating element between a digital city and a smart city is Smart People. People are smart in terms of their skill and educational levels, as well as the quality of social interaction in terms of integration and public life and their ability to open to the “outside” world.

• Smart Governance: Smart Governance includes political and active participation, citizenship services and the smart use of e-Government. In addition, it often relates to the use of new

There is no single definition to describe Smart City as it depends upon City priorities. Few suggest that “A city can be defined as ‘smart’ when investments in human and social capital and traditional (transport) and modern (ICT) communication infrastructure fuel sustainable economic development and a high quality of life, with a wise management of natural resources, through participatory action and engagement”; while few refer Smart City as “An urbanized area where multiple public and private sectors cooperate to achieve sustainable outcomes through the analysis of contextual information exchanged between themselves. The sectors could include hospitals or emergency services or finance and so on. The interaction between sector-specific and intra-sector information flows results in more resource-efficient cities that enable more sustainable citizen services and more knowledge transfer between sectors.”

Deloitte’s view on Smart City: A City government modernized based on advanced information infrastructure to create prosperity, distribute opportunity, and enhances quality of life. It’s a socio-economic concept to improve quality of life and economic vitality through application of Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

Smart city enables citizen’s life in the city environment and provides better sustainability. Also it supports better usage of the existing resources for citizens.

If members of the board must perform this task, their selection and induction need to be of a different yardstick so that they guide the company with a deep sense of understanding of strategic significance rather than short term profits, stock exchange indices and dividends.

After all, the fundamental dictum of any business is to create long term value and reward the investors consistently.

Note: Inspired by an article in Harvard Business Review, January-February 2015, written by Dominic Barton and Mark Wiseman

Expert's Corner

36

communication channels, such as e-government or “e-democracy”.

• Smart Mobility: Smart Mobility has to do with providing the public with access to new technologies, and the use of ICT infrastructure in everyday urban life.

• Smart environment: Smart environment refers to the use of new technologies to protect and preserve a city’s environment. It includes use of ICT based infrastructure like video surveillance to establish a secure environment

• Smart living: Talking about smart living is to compile several aspects that substantially improve the quality of life of citizens, such as culture, health, safety, housing, tourism, etc.

What are reference components of a Smart City?

• Public safety: SMART public safety solutions use sensor-activated video surveillance cameras, video analytics, and workflow to identify and route suspicious or anomalous observations to the appropriate authorities. Better emergency response system with robust connectivity

• Smart Health: Telemedicine applications, electronics records management, health information exchanges, hospital and clinic asset

management, and supply chain optimization. Patients with ID bracelets that include GPS capabilities that track a patient’s location, medication administration, and medical condition. Data from remote diagnostics equipment in a patient’s home to monitor vital signs, blood pressure, and glucose levels and can be used as an alternative to visiting a doctor’s office. Remote monitoring system for disabled, chronically ill, or elderly patients

• Smart Education: eLearning to connected campuses. Increased access to educational content and improved collaboration among students and faculty through connectivity, content management, and unified communication technologies. Leverage broadband, Wi-Fi, sensors, and analytics to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of university services from campus transportation to public safety to administration

• Smart Transportation: SMART transportation solutions use sensors and analytics to predict the arrival of a bus or train, and notify passengers via SMS or through information boards at city bus and train stations. Parking information is also available in response to an SMS query or information signs advertising free parking spaces using sensors to detect available spaces.

Source: Software Group - Smarter Cities Alliances

Expert's Corner

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Expert's Corner

Payment may be made via SMS. Municipal fleet management solutions use onboard sensors in vehicles to detect and notify drivers or fleet owners when there is a problem with the vehicle, if there is an accident, or when maintenance procedures are needed.

• Smart environment refers to the use of new technologies to protect and preserve a city’s environment. Smart environment is characterized by the following factors:

o Security and trust: Using ICT to improve public safety. Which includes video surveillance cameras, capturing the images of red light defaulters, public Wi-Fi spots, police performance management, Monitoring police operations, Installation of PCs in Police vehicles etc.

o Culture and identity: Initiatives for the digitization of heritage assets.

• Smart Energy & Water:

o Smart City water management solutions help water utilities and cities capitalize on advanced technologies to sustain water availability and reduce service disruptions. Deploying sensors will help organizations continuously track water quality and availability.

o Smart grid solutions empower consumers by helping them better manage their energy usage with timely data about their consumption, deliver cleaner energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by incorporating more renewable energy and electric vehicles into the power grid, and by improving the efficiency of both current and future power generation

• Urban Planning:

o SMART building management solutions which use smart meters, monitoring devices, and sensors to connect heating, air-

conditioning, lighting, security systems, and other appliances in homes and businesses, enabling users to better track and control use of electricity and water.

o Smart City Management: Administrations can integrate systems for budget savings; the transportation and sanitation departments leveraging data to resolve joint issues. Planning and technology implementations enable efficiencies across departments, such as the use of surveillance cameras for both transportation and security solutions

What are key challenges?

Smarty City projects should be dealt in much planned manner by defining the clear vison statement, robust strategic plan, right set of eco system partners, and availabilities of the funds.

Some of key challenges with Smart City project as follows:

• Insufficient funding

• Integration of new systems/technologies with existing infrastructure, people.

• Lack of a careful long-term strategy, resulting from a short-term focus

• A perception of difficulty in implementation or stakeholder buy-in

• Policy emphasis on quick results

• A stove piped current state of infrastructure

• Lack of a Smart City governance structure

• Its a long-term commitment that is susceptible to governance chance and political agenda

In summary, SMART CITIES should Leverage BOTH traditional (eg: water supply) and modern (eg: ICT) enablers to fuel sustainable economic development, ensure high quality of life and better management of natural resources.

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Chamber in the News

Invest more in R&D, says Mohandas Pai – BL – 2nd July

OUR BUREAU

TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services Pvt Ltd

‘Design is a critical component of innovation’ CHENNAI, JULY 1: India needs to invest more on research and development to move forward and compete with the rest

of the world, said TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education Services.Particularly, he said, educational institutions need to focus more on research than just teaching, in this age of technology where every piece of information is available at the click of a mouse.Addressing the 179{+t}{+h} Annual General Meeting of the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry here on Wednesday, Pai said India needs to innovate and create products that have a competitive edge in terms of design and technology.“An iPhone costs Rs. 30,000, and people are ready to buy it because of its unique design. Design is a critical component in innovation and if we want to move forward, we have to invest in design, research and creative people.” India has an enormous pool of engineering talent with high design capabilities; it should leverage that talent, he said.Demographic dividendPointing to India’s demographic dividend, he said while most other countries, including Japan, Russia and several European nations , are grappling with an ageing population, India should cash in on its strength.Start-ups are important and should be encouraged since the revolution which is capable of creating three million jobs in the next 10 years could change the Indian economy. India currently has 16,000 start-ups, and in the next 10 years it is expected to cross the 1,00,000-mark, translating to over $500 million business, he said.Earlier, Rajiv C Lochan, Managing Director and CEO, Kasturi and Sons Ltd, said organisations should act as catalysts in driving young talent and nurture them to accelerate growth.SG Prabhakharan, President, the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the problem the country faces is that it does not have enough skilled talent pool, and hence the objective should be to skill people and make them employable.Creating an ecosystem that encourages entrepreneurship by funding and mentoring is the need of the hour, he said.

Talking to government for policy to raise number of start ups to 1 lakh in 10 years, says Mohandas Pai – Business Standard – 2nd July

India has 16,000 start ups out of which 3,500-4,000 start ups are created every year, he said

BS Reporter | Chennai The start up environment in the country is expected to see a growth to 100,000 start up firms employing three million people and creating a value of $500 billion in next 10 years and a recommendation to implement a nine-point policy to promote the start up growth has been

made to the government in this regard, said T V Mohandas Pai, chairman, Manipal Global Education Services and chairman of Aarin Capital Partners.

Delivering his speech as the chief guest of 179th Annual General Meeting of Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), he said, “In the next 10 years, we are going to have this start up revolution and that is going to change the country. India has 16,000 start ups, 3,500-4,000 start ups happen every year. This, we believe in 10 years is going to go up to 100,000.”

“We are talking to the government and telling that we want a nine-point policy to increase start ups to 1,00,000, create $500 billion value in 10 years and 3 million young people to be employed. If 1,00,000 new firms come up, may be 5,00,000 entrepreneurs come up it is going to change,” he added.

“Business to Customer (B to C) is going to create new ways of reaching customers and cutting cost. Costs are going to come down, middlemen are going to be eliminated and price discovery is going to be much easier. The whole of India is going to be part of this entire revolution happening,” he said.

He added that in 1998, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) wrote a 108 point programme for IT, which lead to the creation of a $160 billion industry, 3.5 million people employed and $100 billion of software, and 60 per cent of the world’s outsourcing come to India.

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What's happening

global firms in venturing into the renewable energy sector. “At Bharti, we believe in projects that have a transformational impact on society. In line with this vision, we are participating in a renewable energy venture with SoftBank and Foxconn which has the potential to transform the Indian economy,” Mr Mittal has said. Softbank CEO, Masayoshi Son, who has made several visits to India during the last couple of years also shared the potential of the solar energy sector. “The cost of construction of the solar park is half of Japan. Twice the sunshine, half the cost, that means four times the efficiency,” said Mr. Son.

AIIB Ar�cles of Agreement signed; India has the second largest vo�ng share:

The fifty founding members of the AIIB have signed a historical Articles of Agreement (AoA) on important functional aspects, including the governing structure of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Articles of Agreement of the AIIB looks close to that of the twenty-four Articles of Agreement of the IMF that was signed seventy years back. China, the lead state has a veto power and 26% vote and 30 % capital contribution to the AIIB. It seems that China in the AIIB, is like the US in the IMF. India expectedly got the second largest voting power and capital share. India’s shareholding is 8.52% with a voting right of 7.5%. It was estimated that India’s voting power at around ten percent. But the allocation of shares to non Asian countries has caused a decrease in India’s voting rights.

About the veto power, Vice Finance Minister Shi Yaobin told that China doesn’t seek veto power in the AIIB. He revealed that the veto power is natural because of the high capital contribution. The Vice Finance Minister said the country’s stake and voting shares in the initial stage are natural results of current rules, and may be diluted as more members join.It is clear that non entry of Japan has caused rise in China’s share. More entry into the AIIB will see reduced share for China.

India to become the fastest growing EME, others are slowing quickly; says World Bank

The Global Economic Prospects 2015 by the World Bank forecasts that with the exception of India, all other major economies have fallen into a major slow down. It predicts that the exuberance of the

Make in India push: Mahindra Aerospace wins high tech supply contract from Airbus

In one of the best achievements of Make in India effort, emerging aircraft manufacturing firm, Mahindra Aerospace has won a deal to supply components to European aircraft manufacturer –Airbus. The deal was signed between the Airbus’s German affiliate- Premium AEROTEC and Bangalore based Mahindra Aerospace. The deal is a vote of confidence in India’s high tech component manufacturing industry which is expecting sourcing contracts from big producers of high tech products. It also announces India’s participation in the global aerospace industry at the same time opens the window of opportunities for India’s energetic aerospace and defense eco-system. Airbus is the consortium of European countries and is pitted in strong competition with US’s Boeing in the passenger aircraft segment.

In this context, the deal is a big win for the country’s Make in India especially, given the technological requirements of the aerospace sourcing sector. India has a competitive auto component sector and is a major destination for auto component outsourcing. Many firms in the sector like Bharat Forge are constructing defence equipment platforms to utilize the potentials of the high tech and defence sectors.

Japan’s So�bank to make $20 billion investment in India’s solar energy sector

Japan’s world hit startup financier – Softbank, has announced $ 20billion investment in India’s solar energy sector. Softbank’s global compatriot, Taiwan’s multinational electronic firm Foxconn will be partnering with desi firm Bharti Enterprises in the new investment announced by the Japanese firm.

The new project is one of the biggest renewable energy investments in India. Soft bank became globally known after its breakthrough investment in China’s ecommerce sensation Alibaba; where the Japanese start up financing entity has 19% holding. It has made a $20 million investment in Alibaba fourteen years back and it has grown into $50 billion.Softbank is also the largest investor in India’s ecommerce sector with its commendable holding in Snapdeal..

Regarding the proposed solar project, Bharti’s Sunil Mittal is full of hope in his partnership with the two

40

developing world has almost finished in reviving the global economy. The World Bank has reduced the target growth rate of the world economy at 2.8 per cent for 2015. Adverse conditions indicate that the world economy is slipping into a slowdown quicker than expected.

Developing world is facing a structural slow down which may last for many years to come. Hence the developed economies like the US have to support the global economic revival. In an analytical part, the Report predicts that among the emerging word including India, Brazil, oil exporters and importers; India is the only growth contributor to the word economy. “In India, activity is buoyed by stronger confidence as a reform-minded government implements its agenda and lower oil prices help contain vulnerabilities”- the World Bank observes.The Report notes that in India, gradual implementation of reforms has supported business and investor confidence and encouraged capital inflows. However, credit growth remains modest, reflecting weak bank balance sheets (mainly in public sector banks).

Govt to start centres of excellence in Internet of Things push

The government is looking to set up a network of centres of excellence to give a push to the Internet of Things (IoT) over the next five years. The initiative got a boost with the cabinet deciding to extend capital subsidy to 15 new electronics products.

Starting with Bengaluru this year, information technology industry body Nasscom, the implementing agency for the project, will establish six centres which will allow entrepreneurs and start-ups to use the tools and platforms for developing, testing and verifying connected devices and products.

IoT is a network of “things” that include identifiable devices, appliances, equipment, machinery of all forms and sizes with the intelligence to seamlessly connect, communicate and control or manage each other to perform a set of tasks with minimum intervention.

“Our aim is to make India a hub for Internet of Things,” said K.S. Viswanathan, vice-president, Industry Initiatives, who is in charge of the initiative at Nasscom. “The Internet of Things market is expected to reach $300 billion by 2025 and India’s aim is to grab 20% of it. By 2020, there are going to be 50 billion

IoT devices on the planet, with India having a fair share. India will be among the largest consumers of IoT devices,” he said.

According to the current estimate by Department of Electronics and Information Technology , the IoT industry in India is expected to be a $15 billion market by 2020. It is expected that India will have a 5-6% share of the global IoT industry by then.

India & USA Launch of a New Ini�a�ve “Promo�ng Energy Access Through Clean Energy (PEACE)”; Signs a MoU on Coopera�on to Establish the PACEse�er Fund

India and the United States of America signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cooperation to Establish the PACESetter Fund – A fund to support the Promoting Energy Access Through Clean Energy (PEACE) track of the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) to accelerate the commercialization of off-grid clean energy through early-stage grant funding grants to develop and test innovative products, systems, and business models.The MoU was signed by Shri Upendra Tripathy, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy from Indian side and by Shri Richard Verma, United States Ambassador to the Republic of India from USA side on 30th June, 2015 at New Delhi.

The Government of India and the United States of America have announced the launch of a new initiative “Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy (PEACE)”. This ambitious cooperation is a new tract under the U.S.-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE), a flagship initiative on Clean Energy that combines the resources of several U.S. agencies and GOI Ministries. India-U.S. corpus of about Rs.500 Million ($8 Million U.S. Dollars) have been drawn on 50:50 sharing basis.

Under this, a Steering Committee comprising the Secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the United States Ambassador to India, and three representatives from each side has been constituted. It was agreed to cooperate through technical and commercial innovation and the advancement of clean energy in off-grid space.

What’s happening?

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Mcci intouch june july2k15

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