CII to shed Delhi-centric approach

BANGALORE: In a move that will have far-reaching implications for its operations, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has decided to distribute different areas of work to different CII centres.
CII Deputy Director-General N. Srinivasan said, "We are going to see a major transformation in the CII, from being a very Delhi-centric national body to a decentralised one.Various key committees of CII''s national level activities are being set up at various emerging centres."
The decision on what work to allocate to which centre has been taken on the basis of the inherent strengths of the region.
Thus Bangalore, which will also function as the southern headquarters (HQ) of the organisation, will be the focus of all competitiveness-related activities of CII, such as quality, family business issues, HRD, technology and technical education and training.
The CII in Chennai will now be the centre for all activity concerning logistics. A logistics institute has also been planned in Chennai, and this is expected to be ready in three years. However, training programmes in logistics will begin in the next 6-8 months.
The Hyderabad centre will focus on energy and environment-related work. As part of this, the CII is setting up a Green Business Centre for which the Andhra Pradesh government has allotted five acres of land near Hi-Tech City.
"We are planning a building which we expect will be the first in Asia to get the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) platinum rating. LEED is a premier rating system for buildings in the US," Srinivasan said.
Kolkata, another major CII base, will be the hub for manufacturing industry specific committees, which has been Delhi-centric for a long now.