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119th Annual General Meeting of the Bharat Chamber of Commerce

Bharat Chamber of Commerce organised the 119th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the chamber on January 11, 2020 in Kolkata. The theme of the Annual General Meeting was ‘Countdown for a New Economic Era’. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Steel, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India honoured the occasion as the Guest-in-Chief and inaugurated the programme. Anil Kumar Chaudhary, Chairman, Steel Authority of India Ltd. graced the inaugural session as the Guest of Honour.

At the Presidential address Sitaram Sharma congratulated the minister for the recent approval of `5559 crore by the Government of India towards Indradhanush Gas Grid.  He also congratulated SAIL for the highest ever sales in December, 2019, at nearly 47% more over the correspondent period in 2018.

Pradhan at the meeting said, “With PM Urja Ganga and Indradhanush Gas Pipeline we are expanding the gas infrastructure in this region as well. PM Urja Ganga will bring UP, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Chattishgarh to the gas pipeline map of India. It will bring new opportunities of employment, create new avenues for the steel industry in the region and provide cleaner and cheaper fuel to the people.”

Chaudhary at the AGM said, “Steel industry is very important for the growth of a country. The government is helping the steel industry to grow at its highest pace.”

CII organises Destination East 2020

The Department of Tourism, Government of West Bengal in collaboration with Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) organised the ‘Destination East 2020’ at Biswa Bangla Convention Centre, Rajarhat in Kolkata from January 13, 2020 to 19 January, 2020. Destination East focused on helping the tour operators to look beyond the normal tourist destinations and expand their business by promoting new destinations. Also at present, West Bengal is witnessing a significant growth in meetings, incentives, conferences/conventions
and exhibition (MICE) tourism. The foreign tourist arrival (FTA) has increased substantially in West Bengal, from 12.19 lakh in 2012 to 16.17 lakh in 2018 which is an increase of 33%. While addressing the media Nandini Chakraborty, IAS, Principal Secretary, Department of Tourism, Government of West Bengal said, “Through our continuous efforts, Destination East has emerged as one of the largest travel marts in the country.”

mjunction organises Global Procurement Conference on digitisation excellence

mjunction services limited organised its third one-day Global Procurement Conference in December at the Swissotel, Kolkata. The theme of the conference was ‘Driving up Procurement Excellence through Digitizationʼ, which focuses on digitisation tools and methods that bring about efficiency and excellence to procurement processes. The conference provided a platform to procurement professionals across industries to come together to share and exchange learnings, ideas, and developments in digital technology for improved efficiency and greater agility. Vinaya Varma, MD and CEO, mjunction said that though digitisation holds infinite opportunities, many of them are at an experimental stage.” Vijayanand Chowdhury, Global Procurement Head of Tata Technologies said, “Our future will be based on Artificial Intelligence where machines will take decisions for us, and that includes procurement as well.”

The Rising Studentpreneurs 2019- 2020

“The Rising Studentpreneurs 2019- 2020 - The Annual Ideal Hunt” was held in January, 2020 at the Bengal Chamber. Projects which synchronise with the current needs of the industries and have the potential to disrupt the current course of business were recognised and felicitated. Out of total 200 applications, 10 applications were shortlisted by the Aloke Mookherjea, Chief Jury, Past President, BCC&I and other jury members.