The voice of industry
M. S. S. VARADAN
BUILDING INDIA WITH PARTNERSHIP — The Story of CII 1895-2005: Sharmila Kantha with Subhajyoti Ray; Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11, Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017.
Rs. 595.
The book is all about the rise of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) from a small engineering association way back in 1895 to an apex body representative of India by 2005. With a membership of 5300 companies from all the industries and the services sector and about 300 affiliated national and regional sectoral associations, it is the voice of over 80,000 companies. The CII has become the acknowledged platform for constructive government-industry dialogue.
The text is divided into two parts depicting the CII's efforts before and after liberalisation in 1991. The first part deals with the chronological history covering important events of that era and the second emphasises the contributions made by the CII in respect to policy, competitiveness, external relations and development.
The beginnings
The initial chapters dwell on the beginnings of the Engineering and Iron Trades Association (EITA), driven mostly by the British entrepreneurs in India at the height of the colonial era. This transformed into the Indian Engineering Association (IEA) with the inclusion of Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) to widen the base to manufacturing companies as well. The orders placed by the expanding railways played an important part. The next chapters deal with pre- and post- Independence development. Pre-Independence saw the support of national leaders to the emergence of Indian Industries, resulting in the Indian firms forming the Engineering Association of India (EAI). The merger of these two into what came to be known as the Association of Indian Engineering Industry (AIEI) required vision and adjustment.
The one event that catapulted the CII on to the centre-stage was the Indian Engineering Trade Fair (IETF) in 1975. Building upon this, the CII has emerged as the "king of trade fairs". The interactions with government and various agencies of the CII in developing this trump card have been enumerated in the book.
Transformation
The transformation of the AIEI to the Confederation of Engineering Industry (CEI) in the 1980s depicts the emergence of partnership initiatives with the government. Maintaining a distance from the politics of the times, the CEI soon carved a name for itself as a professional, impartial body and this in no small measure helped its image to grow by leaps and bounds.
The dramatic turnaround of the economy came in 1991 with liberalisation. Industry-government cooperation is an institutional prerequisite for growth and the CII's aims such as globalisation, deregulation, professionalism and strong partnership approach integrated well with the needs of the modern industry. This paved the way for CEI to become CII — an apex body. The CII's initiatives in extending its interactions to the global stage were noteworthy. Centres of excellence on quality and logistics were set up, helping industries to enhance competitiveness.
Interesting narrations by various presidents during their tenures enliven the book. On the whole the book makes for interesting reading of the historical developments interspersed with efforts of leading figures from time to time in shaping the institution to the stature that it has acquired now. The secretariat had played a pivotal role, guided ably by its leader, Tarun Das. The key organisational development interventions of the CII to fulfil its charted destiny could have been better documented. The chapter titles, though made with good intent akin to "lean manufacturing" terminology appear a bit contrived. Photographs could have been placed at the appropriate places rather than being bunched together somewhere in the middle.
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