Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has turned into a catalyst for inclusive growth – to bring underprivileged sections to the mainstream, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited Director (Commercial) T.K. Chand has said.
Mr. Chand, who is the immediate past zonal chairman of the CII, was speaking at an industrial motivation campaign to promote entrepreneurship among SC/STs at a session conducted on ‘Doing business: Opportunities and challenges’ by CII and Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI).
Project Vidya
He said RINL and CII were planning to launch ‘Project Vidya’ – single teacher schools in the tribal areas to help bring the underprivileged sections to the mainstream.
Stating that opportunities for entrepreneurship were emerging in various fields among first generation entrepreneurs, he said with positive growth in steel industry, the SC and ST entrepreneurs would get a major fillip.
He said India, which is placed fourth in the world in steel production, would emerge as the second largest steel producer by 2020. RINL, which has turnover of Rs.15,000 crore, is poised to increase it to Rs.30,000 crore once it completed expansion of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to 7.3 million tonne from existing 3 million tonne per annum.
He said VSP would become one of the largest steel producers from a single location once its capacity was increased to 20 million tonne.
Joint Collector Pravin Kumar said India being a Welfare State, Underlining the role of CII, DICCI and other professional organisations for encouraging entrepreneurship among SC and STs, he said the recent legislation on SC and ST Sub-Plan in Andhra Pradesh would ensure guaranteed flow of funds for their welfare.
He said AP had emerged as one of the leading destinations in the country for investment and explained how various schemes had been launched by the government to encourage SC and ST entrepreneurs. Under Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu, SC and STs were being encouraged for taking up self-employment ventures.