India has been elected as the chair of the International Rubber Study Group (IRSG). The decision was made at a meeting of the Heads of Delegations (HoD) held at Singapore on Thursday last.
The head of Indian delegation to IRSG, Sheela Thomas, who is also the chairperson of the Indian Rubber Board, will officiate as the chair of IRSG representing India. She will remain the chairperson for two years. European Union would hold the position of vice-chair for the next two years.
The group was formed in 1944 and the constitution was formulated then. The headquarters of the group was shifted from London to Singapore in 2008. This necessitated changes in the constitution with regard to administrative and logistic matters.
There was also need to change the structure of the organisation and its work pattern, in accordance with the changing trends in world rubber industry, developments in commodity organisations and requirements of stakeholders. This revised text had to be approved by the governments of member countries before formal adoption. The Indian government approved the revised text in February 2011.
The revised constitution was formally adopted by the HoD meeting, which also took several decisions to move the group forward and make it more useful to rubber industry stakeholders. One such decision was to organise the World Rubber Summit as a mega event in Singapore during the next three years on an annual basis. The summit scheduled to be held in May 2012 would be organised by IRSG in association with International Enterprise, Singapore.