Public Session of Annual General Meeting 2022

The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized 5th edition of one of its flagship events- “India Economic Conclave 2022” on the occasion of The Bengal Chamber’s 168th Annual General Meeting 2022 on 29th September 2022 at the heritage premises of the Chamber.

India Economic Conclave is a thought-provoking platform for highest level of policy makers, industry leaders, research institutes and the Governments.

The Conclave’s theme this year was “A mid semester look at the Indian Economy” - the objective being catalyzing an insight on the trajectory of the Indian economy.

It was a memorable experience for us having overwhelming participation virtually across geography. The Digital footprint was more than 1 lac.

This year, the Conclave featured:

• Overriding Disruptive Changes In The Global Economy
• Scripting India Growth Story For Global Play

Mr. Abraham Stephanos, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Managing Director, Tata Steel Downstream Products Ltd. formally welcomed all and set the context for the days proceedings.

Chief Guest of the Conclave - Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon'ble Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution and Textiles, Government of India delivered the Keynote Address through video. Hon’ble Minister, during his address stated that:

The Opening Session featured a panel discussion on “A Mid Semester Look At The Indian Economy”. The Panelists were:

• Mr. Shashank Srivastava, Sr. Executive Officer−Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
• Mr. Subir Chakraborty, President Designate, BCC&I and Managing Director & CEO, Exide Industries Ltd.
• Mr. Sudip Mazumder, Head − Digital Manufacturing & Special Projects, LNTECC
• Mr. Abhijit Roy, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Berger Paints India Ltd.
• Mr. Nitin Jain, Managing Director & Vice President− India and South East Asia, Vesuvius India Ltd

Mr. Abraham Stephanos, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Managing Director, Tata Steel Downstream Products Ltd. moderated the Session.

The Session highlighted:

• The organizations should focus on continuous digitalization and transforming of operations by investing in analytics and new technologies since these have huge potential to provide new revenue and value−producing opportunities.
• Disruptive moments in Industries should be looked at as avenues for new opportunities rather than something to be lamented. For example, the pandemic introduced the concept of Work from Home.
• Digitalization can lead to unparalleled & unimagined efficiency in company processes.
• The future endeavour of the automotive industry should be to focus on technologies that can be used in vehicles to bring down the carbon foot−prints. Adoption of Electric Vehicles (EV) will pickup in the future.
• For easy availability of credit, MSMEs should tap the Fintech sector and make use of supply chain financing.
• In order to develop and support the MSMEs, the industries need to have stated, well trusted vendor management programmes.
• Well organized industries with sufficient resources must be able to extend the expertise suggestions, down to the MSMEs, involving Supply chain, quality or other manufacturing process suggestions. Promoting and encouraging the MSMEs will in turn help the large industries to get benefitted from extending the facilities.
• For the long run strength and wellbeing of the MSMEs, there must be investments by large companies in products, technologies, trainings etc., hence would help in terms of improving the process and operations of MSMEs.

Session 2 : “Overriding Disruptive Changes in The Global Economy”

Dr. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) was in discussion with Dr. Ajitava Ray Chaudhuri, Chairperson, Economic Affairs Committee, BCC&I and Former Professor of Economics & Former Head and Coordinator, Centre for Advanced Studies, Department of Economics, Jadavpur University.

The session emphasized :

• India should formulate policies to grab a large chunk of the global supply chain as China has done.
• Export producing manufacturing industries should be provided with technology, lower transaction cost and banking support, and infrastructure if they are to survive and thrive. Also, in those sectors where tariffs are high, there we should have a sunset clause to manage the tariff.

Session 3 : “Scripting India Growth Story for Global Play”

In conversation with

• Mr. Atanu Chakraborty, Chairman, HDFC Bank Ltd.
• Mr. K V Kamath, Former Chief, New Development Bank of BRICS and Former Chairman, Infosys and Former Non−Executive Chairman, ICICI Bank (Virtual)
• Dr. Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Adviser, State Bank of India
• Mr. Ranen Banerjee, Partner, Government Sector Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Limited

Moderated by :

Mr. Tamal Bandyopadhyay, Author & Journalist and Mentor, Finance and Banking Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The session highlighted :

To push India's growth 3 key determinants are required :

• The first one is a planned investment path for the future. We have to invest more in agriculture and animal husbandry to be self−reliant.
• The second one is that there is a lot of scope in infrastructure development. In the current scenario we see the western countries rapidly expanding their highways and railroads, this is an investment in the growth of these countries. So, we need to follow the same route.
• The third one is about manufacturing. Balance sheet transparency is needed.
• Digital architecture could be the biggest employment in the future provided we invest seriously in it now.
• The Government should become more transparent with its budget−making
• The Government needs to boost consumption at the bottom of the pyramid. Also, construction is very much essential for real estate activity and if the government is spending on CAPEX, then construction will pick up.

Dr. Ajitava Ray Chaudhuri, Chairperson, Economic Affairs Committee, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Former Professor of Economics & Former Head and Coordinator, Centre for Advanced Studies, Department of Economics, Jadavpur University delivered the formal closing remarks.