Tarun Das to focus on building brand CII

Six months after stepping down as the Director-General of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Tarun Das is back in business. He is set to take on the role of a chief mentor of the association and focus on building the CII brand.

"I am back after deliberately staying away from CII matters for the past six months and am now ready to take over as a mentor. There is a need to expand geographically and establish new bases and centres of excellence and I will now work closely on that. While Srinivasan will be more at an operational level as the director-general, I will be at the foundational level," Das said.

Das was closely associated with the recently-held India Economic Summit and is now shutting between New Delhi and Kolkata to help CII expand its operation in the state of West Bengal.

The association has bought real estate in the city where a Centre of Excellence will come up. This centre will focus on industrial development and research.

"There are centres of excellence in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai and the new one in Kolkata will complete our presence in the major states. We are constantly focusing on developing our relationship with the industries and are venturing into much smaller cities. The India Partnership Summit, which will be held in Kolkata in January, will primarily focus on this. The CII is also looking at expanding its base in Vadodara, Ahmedabad, and in some more western cities," Das said.

Das is also overseeing the global networking efforts of the association. "I will also be now looking at the CII's networking abroad. There are many NRI's, particularly in the US, who want to network with Indian organisations and industrialists and we want to look into that aspect. We have launched an initiative in the US and will eventually spread it to the UK and Singapore," Das said.

Talking of Das's role in the CII now, the association's deputy director generals said that the transition of Das from the post of director-general to that of a mentor and Srinivasan becoming the director-general had been very smooth.

"Things have not changed much with the new director-general, and the functioning and focus remain the same. Though Das is not taking part in the operational issues, we see him being more associated with promoting the CII as a brand and he is also taking a keen interest in development issues like healthcare and prevention of diseases like AIDS," a senior CII official said.

Das is also closely associated with the CII research initiative and is said to be spending more time on overseeing functions of the India Development Foundation (IDF).

Some officials also said that with a new director-general and an experienced mentor, things have changed tremendously.

"With new heads, we are seeing a different thrust on several issues," an official said.