 "Mistry may no longer lead UK-India CEO forum")
A group photograph clicked last November at 10, Downing Street shows Prime Minster Narendra Modi flanked by then Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry on one side and then UK PM David Cameron on the other. The setting for such a picture would be quite different when UK Prime Minister Theresa May visits India from November 6 to 8, her first bilateral visit outside Europe. Besides May replacing Cameron, Mistry, co-chair of the UK-India CEO Forum, would also go out of the frame.
A decision on the new co-chair will be taken early next week, sources said. Following Mistry’s replacement as Tata group chairman, the CEO forum in all probability would be chaired by another chief executive for India. Although Mistry continues to chair the boards of many Tata companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tata Global Beverages, Tata Steel and others, chairing the CEOs’ forum may not be feasible, a source said.
An industry executive associated with international business meetings told Business Standard that any member of the CEO forum must be a CEO/chairman of a company and should be directly connected to the market. “The government is currently grappling with the issue of finding a replacement so close to the event,” the executive said.
When contacted, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which is the secretariat managing the forum, declined to speak on the matter. Several members of the CEO forum told Business Standard that there was no information yet on who would replace Mistry, if at all. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which will take a call on the CEO forum co-chair, did not respond to a query on the matter.
The CEO forum is an initiative driven by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the ministry of commerce and industry. It is possible that the government may nominate another Tata group chief executive to co-chair the forum, along with the counterpart from the UK, Sir Gerry Grimstone, chairman, Standard Life. It could also select one of the other members of the forum to replace Mistry. The forum has 15 members including Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Bharti Mittal, Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi and Piramal group’s Ajay Piramal among others.
The CEO forum is an initiative driven by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the ministry of commerce and industry. It is possible that the government may nominate another Tata group chief executive to co-chair the forum, along with the counterpart from the UK, Sir Gerry Grimstone, chairman, Standard Life. It could also select one of the other members of the forum to replace Mistry. The forum has 15 members including Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Bharti Mittal, Sun Pharma’s Dilip Shanghvi and Piramal group’s Ajay Piramal among others.
The membership to this forum is open-ended without a timeframe attached. Ratan Tata, now the interim chairman of the Tata group, headed several business forums prior to Mistry holding those positions.
India-UK strategic partnership review and free trade agreement are likely to be among the focus areas of discussion between Modi and May during the visit. Post-Brexit scenarios too will come up for deliberations, it is learnt. Since May is coming with a large business delegation, the role of UK-India CEO forum will be in the spotlight.