Communiqué November 2009 | 1 - CII

egionsCII, in association with PwC, has undertaken a studyin select states of the region to identify the skill setsrequired by the new recruits in the year 2015, aswell as to identify and analyze the functional andbehavioural skill set gap perceived by industry. Thestudy was released at the Meet by Mr Satish Ch.Tewary, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, WestBengal. Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, IIM, Kolkata,as well as senior representatives from corporates likeInfosys, IBM, and Tata Steel addressed the delegates.At a VC discussion panel, VCs of leading universities ofthe region expressed their views on industry-academypartnership.The deliberations pointed to the need for radical changesto overhaul the higher education system,and for industry-institute collaborationsto convert potential youth pool toemployable resources.Interaction on UAE23 October: KolkataMr. Mohamed Sultan Abdalla Al Owais,Ambassador, Embassy of the UnitedNorth EastMeet on Higher EducationMohamed SultanAbdalla Al Owais,Ambassador, UAEGenerating Awareness on WTO Agreements23 October: GuwahatiCII organised a ‘Workshop on WTO Agreements: ACapacity Building Initiative,’ jointly with the Centre forWTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) on 23October in Guwahati. The initiative was supported by theMinistry of Commerce and Industries,India. Industry stakeholders and,central and state agency officials,as well as academia attended theworkshop which disseminatedinformation on technical barriers toDr Bhupati K Das, trade (TBTs) and other non-tariffChairman CII Assammeasures (NTMs) within the ambitState Councilof the WTO Agreements.Arab Emirates spoke about business and investmentopportunities with UAE for industry in West Bengal. Mr.Mukul Somany, Chairman, CII Eastern Region, deliveredthe welcome address.Company Law24 October: KolkataAn interactive session on Company Law was organizedwith Mr. R Bandyopadhyay, Secretary, Ministry ofCorporate Affairs, to collect views and suggestionsfrom the members to serve as feedback for theParliamentary Standing Committee. Mr Bandyopadhyayhighlighted the objectives of the Bill, and assured that therecommendations of CII members would be discussedat the committee and given due consideration.Family Governance27 October, KolkataThe CII FBN India Chapter organized a Workshopon Family Governance and the (New) Constitution ofthe Family, on 27 October in Kolkata, to help familiesin business understand the process, challenges andcommon pitfalls in developing family governance. Theworkshop was conducted by Mr. Anil Sainani, DirectorEmpowering Solutions Private Ltd, who is a FamilyBusiness Advisor and Consultant to many Indianbusiness families.Session on Lateral Thinking27 October: KolkataA Session on Lateral Thinking was held to bring inawareness about Lateral Thinking and its usefulness inan organization. The faculty was Prof. Vidyanand Jha,Associate Professor of Behavioral Sciences, IIM Kolkata.Dr. Bhupati Das, Chairman, CII Assam State Council,and Managing Director, Numaligarh Refinery Ltd, whochaired the sessions, reiterated the developmentmandate of the Doha Round of negotiations at theWTO and the growing use of NTMs. Prof. MadhukarSinha, IIFT, Dr. Murali Kallummal, Consultant, IIFT andMr. Ankur Mahanta, Trade Faculty, CII, made elaboratepresentations on various aspects of the WTO.The workshop is part of a special initiative by theCentre for WTO Studies, IIFT, in collaboration with CII,to disseminate WTO and trade-related issues in 25 to 30cities across India. It is supported by the Governmentof India’s outreach and capacity building initiative oninternational trade.Communiqué November 2009 | 77