Confederation of Indian Industry

Confederation of Indian Industry

Abbreviation	CII
Predecessor	Engineering and Iron Trades Association
Formation	1895
Type	Non-governmental trade association
Headquarters	New Delhi, India
Area served	Worldwide
Services	Policy Advocacy Nurturing Competitiveness International & Business Development Connecting with Society
Members	Direct 7,900+ Indirect 200,000
Key people	Naushad Forbes (President) Chandrajit Banerjee (Director General)Shobana Kamineni (Executive Vice Chairperson)
Employees	1,000+
Slogan	Building Business Leadership
Website	www.cii.in

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

CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization, playing a proactive role in India's development process. Founded in 1895, CII has over 8000 members, from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 2,00,000 enterprises from around 240 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.^[1]

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

With 64 offices, including 9 Centres of Excellence, in India, and 8 overseas offices in Australia, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Singapore, UK, and United States, as well as institutional partnerships with 224 counterpart organizations in 90 countries, CII serves as a reference point for Indian industry and the international business community.

The CII Theme for 2014-15 is ‘Accelerating Economic Growth,to strengthen a growth process that meets the aspirations of today’s India, while the theme for 2016-17 is building ' Building National Competitiveness' among industries.^[2][3]

Dr. Naushad Forbes, Co-Chairman, Forbes Marshall, is the President of CII for the year 2016-17.^[4][5] He succeeded Mr Sumit Mazumder, Chairman and Managing Director, TIL Limited as the new President. Ms. Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Limited (AHEL) is President-Designate and Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Bharti Enterprises is the Vice President. Chandrajit Banerjee is the Director General.^[6]

Policy Advocacy

A country's policy environment must be conducive for firms to achieve efficiencies that will enable them to reach their full potential and be globally competitive. CII has over 500 ‘Intellectual Groups’ – Councils, Committees, Task Forces, Working Groups, among others – working at the national and regional levels,across industry sectors. These Groups give shape to and articulate Member concerns to Government policy makers, Regulators, Think Tanks etc. They work pro-actively with Government to formulate policies that would empower businesses.^[7]

International & Business Development

CII aims to sustain India’s international worldwide and also perform towards building CII as the first port of call for foreign delegations that wish to enlist with India and for the national industry that wish to approach traditional and emerging markets overseas.^[8]

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

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

From 2013, CII has broadened its focus of work through more Regional and Country Committees like: Africa, ASEAN + ANZ, East Europe, GCC, LAC, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea and Sri Lanka.^[9] CII's International work is backed by seven overseas offices in Australia, China, Germany, France, Singapore, United States and UK that helps us propagate important information pertaining to markets and joint venture possibilities to both Indian and global companies.

Nurturing Competitiveness

Centres of Excellence

In 1995, as CII celebrated its Centenary, it took a major step ahead to enhance the competitiveness of Indian industry to enable it to meet the challenges of a rapidly globalizing marketplace. It began offering customised advisory and consultancy services and training programmes through its Centres of Excellence. Today, CII has 9 Centres of Excellence across India, each focusing on different aspects to offer wide-ranging services to industry from diverse sectors.^[10]

• CII Institute of Logistics, Chennai^[11]
• CII Institute of Quality, Bangalore - CII Institute of Quality promotesawareness of Quality for enhancing the competitiveness of Indian industry; provides education, training and counseling services in 'soft technologies', relevant to the Quality process; recognizes organizations for excellence in quality; and provides a knowledge sharing platform of best practices, performance and strategies for enterprise competitiveness. The institute conducts research in select thrust sectors for the development of implementation models on Quality.^[12]
• CII - ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development, Delhi - The Centre provides direction to the business community towards achieving sustainability with the right tools to build their business and frame their policies such that they attain the social, environmental and economic objectives.^[13]
• CII - AVANTHA Centre for Competitiveness for SMEs - The Centre works exclusively to enhance the competitiveness of MSMEs in India and provide consultancy and trainings in areas such as Manufacturing Excellence, Energy Efficiency, Cost Management, Total Employee Involvement, e-Learning, Corrosion Management etc.^[14] By the ‘Cluster Approach’, the Centre enables SMEs to learn through sharing of knowledge with other cluster companies.^[15]
• CII - Naoroji Godrej Centre of Excellence, Mumbai - CII - Naoroji Godrej Centre of Excellence, Mumbai organizes short duration management development programmes for the middle and senior level executives of Indian industries covering manufacturing sector. The centre also offers MSc in Engineering Business Management of University of Warwick, UK and Programme for Visionary Corporate Leaders in Manufacturing (VLFM).
• CII - Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, Hyderabad - CII - Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre offers advisory services to the industry in the areas of Green buildings, energy efficiency, water management, environmental management, renewable energy, Green business incubation and climate change activities.^[16] The CII Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre, with its headquarters in Hyderabad and representative wings in several places in India focuses on an internationally accepted pattern for construction of buildings in the ‘green' category.^[17] After spearheading green buildings concepts the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry hopes to enthuse developers and authorities to go for green towns.^[18] Over the last decade, the IGBC has promoted the concept of green building in India. Compared to a conventional building, these save up to at least 20 per cent of the resources and can go up to 40 per cent saving. The council has facilitated the creation of over 1,745 green buildings with a footprint of 1.21 billion sq. ft. These include commercial and residential spaces, hospitals, retail, factories, townships and SEZs. IGBC standards for green homes are of international standards.^[19]
• CII - Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership, Kolkata - The CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership serves as a facilitator for development of leaders in India. The Centre works to establish partnerships with similar organisations and global institutions for maximum mutual benefit. The centre currently organizes special programmes on leadership development for Government officials, including managers of public sector undertakings and institutions to meet their special needs.
• CII - Triveni Water Institute, Jaipur - CII-TRIVENI Water Institute is the first of its kind in the world where government, industry and civil society have come together to address the water related issues in a holistic manner. The Institute provides, consultancy, training and research on water and waste water management in industrial, domestic, agricultural and environmental sectors.
• CII - Jubilant Bhartia Food & Agriculture Centre of Excellence, New Delhi- CII - Jubilant Bhartia Food & Agriculture Centre of Excellence works closely with government, industry, farmers and consumers to improve on and off-farm productivity through the introduction and dissemination of global best practices and technological innovation,enhance capacity building by providing training and consultancy services in the area of food safety, and strengthening linkages across the agriculture and food value chain with an objective of reducing spoilage, increasing value add and farmer incomes.^[20]

Awards/Recognition

Good achievement can be stimulated through acknowledgement in the form of accolades. CII and Exim Bank collaborate on contributing the CII-EXIM Bank Award for Business Excellence through the CII Institute of Quality.^[21] CII works with the World Economic Forum, Geneva,^[22] to offer the Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the yearly India Economic Summit. Woman Exemplar Awards are bestowed to underprivileged women annually who have favorably conquered challenges to establish themselves as leaders in social or economic realms.

CII also takes an active interest in certification and CSR-related evaluations in order to improve corporate values and business image. The Sustainability Awards, instituted by the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development in 2006, identifies and recognize exemplary performance in economic, social and environmental dimensions of Indian business.^[23] Instituted in 2002, The Leadership and Excellence Award in Environment Health & Safety (EHS) Award aim to recognize, motivate and facilitate corporates to adopt innovative practices in EHS.^[24] In order to create a positive and competitive work environment, CII Southern Region also organizes the 5S Excellence Award annually to motivate and recognize member companies which successfully implement and sustain 5S practices in the organization.^[25][26]

Corporate Social Responsibility

As a business federation that engages intensely with society at large, CII’s work spreads to aid members in gathering their social improvement aspirations.^[27]Corporate Social Responsibility is now emerging into a pivotal area of interest for companies that hope to give back to society and contribute their benefits. It is a confirmed fact that companies with leading social engagement deliver greater value to their stakeholders.

CII correlates with Government, NGOs, and civil society to help industry flourish effective programs for social development.^[28] It provides numerous stances through which representatives can undertake on various issues, such as gender equality, microfinance, development of backward districts, HIV/AIDS and public health. Through focused interventions, CII endure to mainstream economically and socially challenged entities and bring them into a phase of growth, development and empowerment. All these interventions are launched under CII’s broad canvas of "Development Initiatives".

Membership

CII has direct membership of over 8000 organisations and indirect membership of over 200,000, from around 240 national and regional sectoral associations.^[29]

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

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

CII has an updated Directory of Members which is an essential reference document for every business. The Directory has several features to fulfil the aspirations and business needs of the dynamic and emerging corporate sector of India. It provides details of around 8000+ CII Member Companies – large, medium, and small – both from the public and the private sectors, as well as MNCs & Associations affiliated to CII, which together form the powerhouse of India’s business leadership. The CII Directory of Members has introduced the QR Code to capture updated information about CII Members which will be a valuable document in the years to come.

myCII - Online Knowledge Resource Centre of CII

CII as a part of its knowledge management initiatives has developed a unique Knowledge Portal 'myCII' which is a state-of-the-art online knowledge resource centre of CII.^[30][31] This includes premium research reports, recordings of conference proceedings, thousands of sector specific presentations, online master class videos, Webinar recordings, Investment and Policy Trackers, B2B Opportunities and online database of member companies.

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

References

1. http://www.cii.in/About_Us.aspx?enc=ns9fJzmNKJnsoQCyKqUmaQ==
2. "CII". www.cii.in. Retrieved 2016-06-15.
3. "GDP growth can reach 6.5% in 2014-15 with reforms: CII President". DNA. 1 April 2014.
4. "Naushad Forbes appointed as new CII President". Economic Times. 5 April 2016.
5. "Ajay Shriram takes over as new CII President". Hindu Business Line. 6 April 2016.
6. "Confederation of Indian Industry warns plunging industrial production index can hit growth, employment". The Times Of India. 12 December 2011.
7. "Accelerate MSME growth– Financial Express". financialexpress.com /. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
8. "There's Might in Manufacturing – The Indian Express". newindianexpress.com/. 20 April 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
9. "Over 100 Indian firms in Libya trade fair seeking business – Daiji World". daijiworld.com/. 1 April 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
10. "Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development". cii.in/.
11. "CII's course in supply chain management – The Hindu". hindu.com/. 20 Dec 2004. Retrieved 20 Dec 2004.
12. "CII Institute of Quality – The Hindu". hindu.com/. 10 November 2005. Retrieved 10 November 2005.
13. "Who We Are". sustainabledevelopment.in/.
14. "Q&A: Gautam Thapar, Chairman, CII-Avantha Centre for Competitiveness for SMEs – Business Standard". business-standard.com/. 30 August 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2011.
15. "Rs 5 crore saved by Ludhiana based Industries under CII Cluster Project – The Times of India". timeofindia.com/. 21 May 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
16. "Council sets target of 5 billion sq.ft. of green buildings by 2017 – The Hindu". hindu.com/. 15 February 2014. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
17. http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-propertyplus/time-to-go-green/article2401577.ece
18. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/real-estate/growing-spaces-into-green-towns/article5272241.ece 25 October 2013 Retrieved 29 May 2014
19. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/real-estate/growing-spaces-into-green-towns/article5272241.ece 25 October 2013 Retrieved 29 May 2014
20. "About FACE". FACE.
21. http://www.bobsguide.com/guide/news/2014/Apr/3/eclerx-wins-make-india-award-for-third-consecutive-year.html
22. "World Economic Forum to work for solutions to tackle crisis – The Hindu". hindu.com. 15 November 2008.
23. "Tata Housing bags CII-ITC Sustainability Award 2014". sify.com/. 24 December 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2014.
24. "EISAI India Wins CII Excellence Award". indiaprwire.com/. 17 April 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
25. "CII Southern Region Awards for Manufacturing Excellence". thehindubusinessline.com/. 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
26. "THE JURY'S TAKE: Committed to promoting skills". Official CII Website. 10 March 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
27. "CII president designate in favour of mandatory CSR spending – Live Mint". livemint.com/. 16 December 2011. Retrieved 16 December 2011.
28. "CII, Unicef ink pact for corporate social activities – The Hindu". thehindubusinessline.com/. 10 December 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
29. "About us". cii.in. CII. 3 June 2016.
30. "The Membership Directory of Confederation of Indian Industry is now available Online on www.myCII.in – Times of India". timesofindia.indiatimes.com/. 4 November 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
31. "myCII.in - Click into a new world of Business Opportunities!". indiaprwire.com/. 2 May 2012. Retrieved 2 May 2012.

External links

• Official website