You can read the full coverage in The Hindu here.
It gives us great pleasure to advise that JDS Food Products won the “Best SME” Award at 1st BBG Awards Ceremony at the National Meet in Mumbai on 21st September 2013.
Devdas Reddy and Bhuvaneswari Devdas have been in the pappadum and related business for two decades. This Award is testimony to many years of steady hard work and perseverance. For information, in 2012 they won the “Gem of India” Award and in 2013 the “Udyog Gaurov” Award from the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi. We commend their achievement and wish them continued success
BBG’s 24th Monthly Meeting held on 21st August 2013 was scheduled as the valedictory meeting for Mike Nithavrianakis, Deputy High Commissioner. The meeting opened with Peter Spackman, Co-Chairman welcoming special invitees/guests and members. The Chairman then addressed members on BBG news. He spoke about recommending our SME, JDS Food Products for the BBG Awards at the National Conference in Mumbai in 20th / 21st September 2013 (JDS Food have since won the SME Award).
Committee Member, Shajee Varghese and Co-Chairman, Ravi Kumar spoke about the special qualities of Mike Nithavrianakis that endeared him to all members. Also how BBG developed from a few networking meetings held at Cottingley towards end of 2010/ early 2011. From those small beginnings, Mike has encouraged and supported the growth of BBG Chennai both in the development of membership and in the various events and in getting good speakers. The biggest contribution came from Mike in the form of his strong support for the 2nd National Meet held in September 2012 which was a resounding success.
Mike Nithavrianakis then took the podium and spoke at length on his experiences and the wonderful times he had in Chennai and relationships he made all over South India as well as the country as a whole
Christie Cherian presented Mike Nithavrianakis with a silver salver and plaque honoring him as BBG’s Founding Patron.
As appreciation of Mike’s popularity, we had the best attended meeting with 84 attendees.
Mike continues in Chennai till 18th October 2013, when he formally hands-over to Bharat Joshi.
Following meeting in November 2012 with Bala Mahendran CEO of Basildon Council, he had extended an invitation for a visit by BBG to Basildon to meet some of local high companies in auto/aviation & technical apprenticeship/ education
On 3rd April arrangements were made for Christie Cherian to visit Basildon and meet Bala Mahendran to discuss co-operation between BBG and Basildon to look at specific areas and meet some local high-tech companies. Basildon Council itself has made improvements in it’s operations and in provision of facilities/ services locally – it was felt some of these could be offered to Chennai’s Corporation if the right connections can be made at appropriate levels. Christie was also able to tell Bala of planned June 13 BBG trade mission which Bala welcomed and said they could field some visits / meetings
Of big interest was the visit to Prospects College which has a commendable apprenticeship scheme to source well trained technicians for the high-tech companies locally. Christie visited the brand new Futures Community College and was taken around an impressive purpose-built building training some 600 technical students – some have been absorbed by local companies. At Gardner Aerospace, Christie was taken around a very high-tech plant with CNC lathes turning out aircraft parts for Boeing and other aviation companies (Gardner recently acquired a company in Bangalore and has 2 factories in Poland). Gardner employs 17 apprentices from Prospects. The third location visited was MIRA a company based in Nuneaton doing auto and aviation components and environment testing.
The tour around industrial estates of Basildon and Wickford revealed a very active business region just 40 minutes out of London and showed that UK still has interesting manufacturing in high-end products.
Airport Director
Airport Authority of India
Chennai Saturday, August 03, 2013
Dear Sir
Re: AAI Chennai – Arrivals/ Departure concourse – control barriers to keep traffic moving: ticketing with 5-minute duration and parking penalty when exceeded at exit of Rs 60 / 100
The new Arrivals/ Departures concourse at Chennai is protected by ticket barriers. Such barriers are not installed or seen at any airport in the whole of India or indeed the world (am just back from Bangkok & Yangon and London/ Belfast and Dubai). What is so backward about Chennai that AAI cannot control traffic flows at this messy entrance and pretty badly maintained front area of this new airport?
I represent UK-related business in this city and would like to comment that it is a shame that AAI Chennai has to have such a ridiculous system in place. Even if it is to control security for terrorist activities, this is not the way to do it!
Passengers arriving by taxis are harassed by drivers to pay parking charges of Rs 60- at least on basis they may be delayed by jams leaving at exit gates. All of us also know it takes a few minutes getting out of cars/ taxis and in taking out luggage. For older people, it can take longer – not sure what wisdom was used by AAI in estimating 5-minutes for dropping and exiting what are poorly designed approaches and gates (some of your people should inspect these)
We may also add that this procedure is a bit rich for a major state-of-the-art institution with ISO 9001 certification which over-ran cost and scheduling way beyond 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 weeks, 5 months……
We would urge AAI Chennai to have these ticketing barriers removed at an early date and meet the standards normal for airports the world over
Yours faithfully
Christie Cherian
Chairman
British Business Group Chennai Trust
The Chairman’s Annual Report can be found below and also be downloaded here:
2nd National Conference
The year started with BBG Chennai bidding at Delhi with other BBGs to host the 2nd National BBG Conference at Chennai. With huge support from many members, 13 of whom sponsored bulk of finance to make event a resounding success. All our Committee as well as the solid backing / support from Mike Nithavrianakis, the Deputy High Commissioner and all his staff at BDHC/ Cottingley. A Sub-Committee headed by Ravi Kumar produced an excellent Conference Report which was distributed to all BBGs and is a useful presentation document
Membership/ New members
We had 85 members last year and now have 134, an increase of 57% (we fell short of target of 150, considering we lost 12 members from last year, level still reasonable) Getting new members is a priority area – all our Committee work to bring new members and we are grateful to Jamie Cribb and his colleagues in UKTI / BDHC in identifying new arrivals.
Monthly Meetings / Committee sittings
Other than major Conference Meeting in September 2012, 13 regular meetings and networking sessions were held.
Your hard-working Committee met more than twice monthly to make Conference happen/ get Report done/ handle issues of UKTI – UKIBC trade initiative actions / UK trade mission. We planned a trip to Mysore which did not happen and alas no cricket match was played with BDHC
Charitable Donations
In pursuit of our charity objectives, BBG Chennai made donations to Hand in Hand India and to Frontier Lifeline Hospital and two smaller donations. The Hand in hand India donation spurred TCS to take action and contribute water filters for 10 centres (under delivery)
Web-site Refresh/ launch
A small Sub-Committee under Peter Spackman worked with our Member, Vikas Chawla (of Social Beat) to completely refresh and rehash the web-site using the National Conference Logo / colours with sliding picture gallery/the Conference film “Old Madras, Chennai Today” as well as regular updated news. Our submission is that all members take an active interest in the web-site and make regular relevant contributions and suggestions to keep it interesting and active
Other New BBGs/ British Chambers of Commerce
We supported Gerry Duggan, our member as he moved to Hyderabad earlier this year with advice and assistance to get BBG Hyderabad launched in April 13 (growing slowly with 30 members)
We have also instigated conveners/ steering team in Bangalore to work into a BBG Bangalore – it took them 3 months and BBG Bangalore formally launched on 5th July 13 (15 members, forming Committee)
We have been in contact with BDHC, Kolkata to see if we can push for a BBG in that city too – not happened yet
The Chairman during a visit to Yangon in Myanmar attended the 2nd meeting of BBG Yangon in May. He has also attended meetings with the British Chamber of Commerce Thailand, Bangkok
Other Activities with BDHC / UKTI
From the outset, BBG Chennai have worked closely with both BDHC and with UKTI – useful regular meeting have taken place. Some of the following have resulted in connections / activity:
Meeting with EU commercial attaches visiting city
London Chamber of C&I visit
Lord Mayor of London visit
UK Health Minister visit
Healthcare delegation
Basildon Council CEO – Bala Mahendran
Chairman addressed UKTI Conference in April 12
David Cameron’s (UK PM) call for increased trade between UK & India – Chennai’s UK business mission
This raised a whole wade of activity during Jan / Feb 2013 including visits by UKTI London and UKIBC, London. A major meeting was held in Delhi and the UK Government committed a budget of Pds 8 million over 5 years in support. UKIBC India has now established and will have new British Business Centres in Gurgoan / Delhi /Mumbai
For our part, BBG Chennai decided to make an independent foray taking a trade/ business delegation into the UK 24/28 June 13. This took place with 13 members participating at opening seminar at UKTI, London. Break-out teams went to Bristol / Belfast and Basildon. Though not any big splash, we achieved modest take-aways with 2 or 3 delegations coming here/ 3 to 4 proposals being worked and individual members getting business done. We plan this to be an annual exercise
BBG Committee
Serving on Committees on voluntary basis can never be everyone’s cup-of-tea. Most times, thankless activity requiring precious time and heavy commitment. But one comes across dedicated supporting members and over time one develops strong friendships in contributing and doing something useful and different from just daily work. This is what we have found in the BBG Committee with all members responding positively whenever calls have been made. We record our appreciation to our Patron and to BDHC/UKTI friends as also to all the Committee members and others who have helped make this very hectic year, a successful one
Christie Cherian
BBG Chennai Trust
BBG Chennai is pleased to provide you with information on the 9th India Symposium, the India Symposium 2013, the leading India specific top & senior management conference, which is scheduled to be held on Friday, September 27th, 2013 in Zurich.
Speakers who have tentatively agreed to speak at this year’s conference include:
(1) H.E. Dr. Linus von Castelmur, Ambassador of Switzerland to India
(2) Sanjay Nayar, CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) India
(3) Sonjoy Chatterjee, Chairman & Co-CEO, Goldman Sachs India
(4) Sushant P. Rao, Director Asia, World Economic Forum
(5) Aashish Kamat, MD & Group CEO, UBS India
(6) Onne van der Weijde Member of Group Management & Area Manager India, Holcim Group
(7) Michael Carlos, Member Group Executive Committee, Givaudan
(8) Dr. Karl-Ulrich Köhler, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Steel Europe
(9) Dr. Armin Bruck, Managing Director, Siemens India
(10) Sunand Sharma, Chairman, Alstom India
(11) Rajesh Nambiar, General Manager, IBM
(12) Erwin Stoller, Executive Chairman, Rieter
(13) David Ross, Chief Operating Officer – ME, India and Africa, FedEx
(14) Jai Shankar, President & CEO, Danaher India
(15) Rajeev Chopra, Managing Director & CEO, Philips India
(16) Rehan Khan, Managing Director, Abbott India
(17) B Balaji, President, Sulzer India
(18) Yasho Saboo, CEO, KDDL
(19) Prof. Arvind Sahay, Professor for Marketing, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA)
(20) Arindam Bhattacharya, Partner & Managing Director, Boston Consulting Group India
(21) Jessie Paul, CEO, Paul Writer Strategic Advisor
(22) Ramkumar Narayanan, General Manager – PDC, eBay India
(23) Søren Lauridsen, CEO, Carlsberg South Asia
(24) Piyush Mathur, President, AC Nielsen India
(25) Pramod Arora, Group President, PVR Cinemas
(26) Gregor Siebert, Head of Established Products, Pfizer
(27) Alok Kumar, Managing Director, Swiss Re Shared Services
For information on the India Symposium, please download the programme or visit the India Symposium
BBG Chennai had its networking evening on 20th June at Gym & Tonic, British Deputy High Commission. The networking evening started with our Chairman, Christie sharing the plan for the BBG Chennai Trade Mission to UK taking place later in the month. You can read more about the BBG Chennai Trade Mission here. Our patron, Mike Nithavrianakis, British Deputy High Commission shared with the gathering the recent ministerial visits including that of the Healthcare Delegation in May. Mike congratulated Christie and the delegation for making the Trade Mission a reality and wished them Bon Voyage.
The Conveners / Steering Committee have been hard at work to get BBG Bangalore formed and in getting together the Governing Committee. The final meeting took place on 12th June 2013 with Christie Cherian in the chair getting the Steering Committee passing charge to the new President, Marc Drew and his Committee BBG-B will be launched in a grand event during the visit of Sir James Bevan, British High Commissioner on 5th July
Our Trade & Business Delegation is now ready with 15 of our members and 3 from Bangalore (to be joined by member’s UK company reps). Jamie Cribb Head of UKTI has kindly arranged with London to provide the venue for the Opening event on 24th June. The next day, Mission moves to Bristol to cover businesses in there arranged by The Converging World. On 26th June small break-out team travels to Belfast. Basildon Council have invited delegates to visit their companies on 27th June and attend a reception hosted by local business group. During the week, all members also attend their own business activities and will gather at St James’s on Friday, 28th June for a warp-up reception at The Old Star. More updates shall follow after the visit.