During an interaction with industry captains on his book "Crossing Frontiers - the journey of building CII" today, he said, "Working with the government is much more challenging now compared to my time. The environment in the country was so depressing among everybody. Building trust was the toughest thing... Breaking was easier. We worked hard and did it finally."
Das, who was also the director general of CII from 1974 to 2004, said that West Bengal state has a "great future" if the services sectors are properly developed.
His tenure as the director general saw the rise of CII from a small engineering association to the apex industry organisation in India, he has written in the book.
The session, which was organised by CII and Ananta Aspen Centre was also attended by CII president Sumit Mazumder and CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee.
Das, in the book has also pointed out that the post-Independence situation was one of mistrust between the government and industry.