Kerala   

The Malabar Chamber of Commerce - a Profile

CA C. Mohan, Hon. Secretary

P.V. Gangadharan President.

The Malabar Chamber of Commerce which was estbalished 20 years before India became a Republic has emerged as a major chamber of commerce in the country. The Chamber of Commerce is now ready to celebrate its 80th anniversary ; these 80 years have been an eventful period devoted to activities aimed at welfare and upliftment of merchant community as well as social and cultural development of the entire Malabar region. Malabar Chamber of Commerce is now a major agency having 2 000 members; nearly 50 agencies representing trade and industries are affiliated to the Chamber. Its affiliated organisations have on their rolls about 5000 members.

In line with the dictates of its bylaws which require the Malabar Chamber to strive for unity and upliftment of the trader and industrialist community, with commitment to development of Malabar as its motto, the Chamber keeps in touch with the State and Central government establishments.

The Founder - President of Malabar Chamber was Diwan Bahadur P. Somasundaram Chettiar;Sait Nagjee Amarsi and , A.K.T.K.M. Guptan Namboodiripad were guiding forces in its early years. Later Malabar Chamber rose to greater heights under the inspiring leadership of Sri. Hassan Koya, U.K. Shankunni, Leeladhar Mehta, Haji Koyappathodi, M. Ahammed Kutty, and M.A. Unneerikutty who served the Chamber as its president at different times and T.K. Menon, B.V Abdulla Koya, C.C. Vatsan, and V. Hassan Koya who served as its secretary on different occasions.. We respectfully recall the valuable contributions these eminent personalities made for the emergence of Malabar Chamber of Commerce as a major player in the field of business, culture and social development .

Malabar Chamber of Commerce had spearheaded the mass movement started in 1960 for an Airport at Calicut. To strengthen its efforts , the Chamber had brought all political parties, trade union organisations, non-resident Malayalees and local people under one banner and raised a loud and joint demand for an Airport; this movement was finally successful and an airport was sanctioned. It was due to the prolonged efforts of the Calicut Airport Committee, (the late K.P. Kesava Menon was its founder Chairman) that the dream of an Airport became a reality.

The committee continues to work for further development of the Airport. We are also proud that it was Malabar Chamber which first put forward the idea of Konkan Railway. The idea which was initially rejected as an impossible dream, finally got implemented thanks to the technological and administrative brilliance of Sri. E. Sreedharan; it is now the object of admiration of all those interested in railway development. Similarly the Chamber has also demanded an Express Highway, Inland water way, and railway overbridges for Malabar.

The Chamber is now working for the development of the Beypore Port; once development of this port is completed the traders and businessmen of Kozhikode who had migrated to Kochi to be near the port there, would return . It was Sri. P.V. Gangadharan the President of Malabar Chamber who had submitted a memorandum to then Central Minister Sri. Arjun Singh , demanding establishment of an Indian Institute of Management (IIM)in Kozhikode. More recently, when the Central Human Resource Development Minister Sri. Kapil Sibal visited Kozhikode, the Chamber demanded an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kozhikode. The Minister assured us that if the government made available 500 acres of land, the demand would be met. We strongly believe that the dream will come true in the near future.

As part of the 80th anniversary celebrations, we have constituted an award committee with Mr. M.P. Veerendrakumar, Ex. Central Minister as its Chairman and Mr. M.K. Raghavan, M.P. and Mr. Sathyan Anthikkad, Film Director as members and selected Union Finance Minister Sri. Pranab Kumar Mukherjee as the best National Leader, Mr. Anil Ambani as the best Corporate Leader and Bharat Mammooty as the outstanding film personality.

After the inaugural ceremony on 29th January, there will be gathering of poets and a cultural conference. On January 30th there would be seminars, Panel discussions and workshops on Information Technology, Human Resource Development, Tourism, and Health Tourism . Central and State Ministers, Department Secretaries, Engineers and other Officials will deliver speeches, every day. There will be cultural programmes on all the three days.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Security fears over Google mapping party
The Malabar Chamber of Commerce - a Profile
Legendary meeting
Giant strides
On-the-spot assessment
Aruvikkara sand extraction falters
CIAL inks MoU for tour division

Copyright © 2010, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu