Inclusive growth seems to be on top of the mind when corporates come together. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will this year focus on the social sector by giving them more jobs, procuring more from their businesses as well as imparting skills to the backward communities.
Speaking at a media briefing after the meeting with the CII Western Region, Mr B Muthuraman, President of CII, said that affirmative action, skill development and governance will be the key focus areas of the industry chamber's work in 2011-12.
“In affirmative action, our chamber members will voluntarily look to hire 50,000 people from scheduled caste/scheduled tribe (SC/ST) communities. Member companies will also increase procurement from SC/ST entrepreneurs by 20-30 per cent. For this, we are working with the Dalit Chamber of India which will provide us the list of reliable entrepreneurs,” said Mr Muthuraman.
Skill development hubs
He added that 50,000 SC/ST youth will also be trained during the year through CII's skill development initiatives. The CII President also announced creation of four new CII Skill Development Hubs and setting up of 30 new district level skill Gurukuls that are Skills Development Centres of which five will be in Western Region.
“The gurukuls will have a capacity to train 100-300 people per quarter and initially, they will be given training in the manufacturing sector,” said Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director-General of CII.
Better governance
Commenting on the need for transparency and governance, Mr Muthuraman said that for an inclusive development model, the quality of governance must be improved. “Simplification of rules and procedures for transparent operations, carrying out police and judicial and electoral financing reforms are necessary for improving governance,” he said.
Mr Muthuraman said the CII would develop a code of conduct on integrity and transparency and encourage its members to adopt the code. In addition, he also mentioned that a CII task force on integrity and transparency in governance, chaired by Mr Adi Godrej, President-Designate, CII, would spearhead CII's and industry efforts in this area.