Suneil Chawla and Vikas Chawla from our member company, Social Beat were recently covered by Geeta Padmanabhan in The Hindu Metro Plus on how digital media is changing the social landscape in India.
Read the full article “Driving Social Change” at http://ow.ly/tO8GP
BBG Chennai undertook a modest trade mission of 8 delegates into Dubai, between 25/28 January 2014 (two members were from BBG Goa and BBG Bangalore respectively). Whilst the visit clashed with annual January Shopping Festival and Arab Health Week, our delegates undertook their business contact work whilst joining the program organised by David Burns, Deputy Chairman & COO of BBG Dubai and Claire Boosey at BBG Offices.
On 28th January, we were joined by David Burns and very well received at the Dubai Chamber in a formal meeting with their Senior Director, Atiq Juma Faraj Nasib and Madhi Al Mazim, Director – Member Relations. Atiq Nasib opened the proceedings, speaking of the Chamber’s long and close relations with BBG Dubai and his own experiences on visiting Chennai for an eye operation. He had also visited our website and seen our activities. Madhi Al Mazim then related all the functions and sectors of the Chamber and offered all help to delegates in making trade contacts.
Christie Cherian was able to present BBG Chennai and introduce the delegates. He explained the activities of BBG and the initiatives being undertaken from other Chennai trade missions, including “Bristol” forests around Chennai and apprentice-ship schemes for skilling-up young technicians in few Chennai industries, as also of our charity work.
The Chamber has an elegant building and from 12th floor Conference Room, overlooking the scenic Dubai Creek and the old areas Burdubai / Jumeriah. The Chamber has a vast membership data-base of over 153,000. BBG Chennai will be sending across the details of the delegates and the Dubai Chamber has offered to make connections with their relevant members. On hearing of Annual BBG conferences in India, Atiq Nasib offered to support BBG Dubai in holding an International BBG Meet in 2015. In appreciation of the meeting, Christie presented Atiq Nasib with our 2012 Conference folder and in turn Atiq Nasib presented him with the Chamber’s memento.
In the evening, BBG Dubai Committee hosted the delegates over drinks at Rodent’s Return, the club at the British Embassy, where we met Focus group Heads, UKTI’s Ian Gibbons and Karen Williams amongst others including Joe Hepworth, the newly appointed CEO of Brit Biz Centre UAE.
On 28th January, the delegation attended the BBG Dubai monthly breakfast meeting at Al Murooj Rotana and networked with 60 members. Chairman Jonathan Davidson opened the meeting, introducing Christie Cherian and invited him to say a few words on the trade mission. Christie introduced his delegates and briefly spoke of BBG Chennai and other BBGs in India. He then spoke about the British PM’s initiative since end-2012 and meetings in January 2013 which got the ball rolling to established the British Business Centres in India and 20 other locations around the world. The Gurgaon-Delhi BBCentre and smaller satellite BBCentre at Connaught Circus, Delhi opened in Sept 2013. Christie was happy to hear of new BBCentre in Dubai and wished it success.
Jonathan Hepworth then spoke about his appointment as CEO of Brit Biz Centre and it’s role and functions / relations with BBG Dubai and expressed how lucky they have been to have ready-made premises in Deira at Dubai’s own Business Incubation Centre, thanks to the co-operation extended by UAE Government’s Department of Economic Development. David Burns closed the meeting with a presentation to the Chairman. Formal meeting was followed by networking, when contacts were made with members in telecom/ energy / facilities / law / metals & scrap trading / digital media. We did also re-connect with Barry Clarke of Invest NI, covering India-ME Africa.
A brief wrap-up with follow-on actions closed the mission – altogether a very eventful trade mission.
At the January monthly meet, the company presentation was made by Sandip Mookerjee, Deputy CEO of Hand in Hand India and the Guest Speaker was Dr Kalpana Sankar, Chairman & Managing Trustee of Hand in Hand India. Their presentation and video can be seen below:
V. Shankar, Executive Director & CEO of Europe, Middle East & Africa for Standard Chartered makes his predictions for the global economy in 2014. Read the full article below:
Who says Britain doesn’t make things anymore? For decades the public has believed in the popular myth that Britain – once a powerful industrial force – is now nothing but a nation of bankers, service industry workers and shoppers. But they’re wrong. The British manufacturing industry employs around 2.5 million people and generated £139 billion in 2012. That’s 10% of the country’s economic output last year, and a bigger impact on the economy than financial services. Read more at MSN on British Companies that are pioneering in the manufacturing industry
Our Committee Member, R. Balajee shares his article from last year on the Dynamics of Renewable Energy Certificate Trading and the experience so far. Please read the full article by downloading it from the below link.
Our Committee Member, R. Balajee shares his recent article on “Wind Power Development in India: Current Perspectives and Future Trends”. You can download the article from the below link.
On 5th of Dec 2013, BBG Chennai had its Christmas Party at Vivanta Connemara in association with British Airways & JDS Foods.
More details and images to follow.
During the 2013 BBG National Conference Christie Cherian and Beryl Nassé discussed the possibility of a joint meet between BBG Chennai and Goa, these discussions resulted in four BBG Chennai members visiting Goa on the 29th and 30th November to investigate possible links between activities in Goa and how they could interact with BBG Chennai members.
The members from Chennai were
1. Christie Cherian – MD – – Red Sky – property services/ MCI Consulting – corporate finance
2. R Balajee, Director – Converging World Renewable Energy – wind / solar/ biomass
3. Ravi Kumar – Zanec Softech – Healthcare IT and Related Software
4. Nagendran Annamalai – Tirupathi Green Energy – Renewable Energy
It was agreed that this would be an ideal opportunity to visit the two incubation centres based in Goa the Centre for Innovation and Business Acceleration (CIBA) and Goa IT Innovation Centre (GITIC) and give the entrepreneurs an opportunity to showcase their projects.
The overall consensus was that the time spent at the incubation centres by BBG Members from Chennai and Goa was valuable with the members from both groups considering the possibility of mentoring options to some of the entrepreneurs.
The day closed with a dinner for all BBG Goa members to meet with the delegation from Chennai.
On the 30th November a meeting with Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry was organised and BBG members met with members of the Chamber. BBG Chennai members introduced themselves to the meeting followed by a round table discussion which ended in an agreement that more interaction between BBG groups and GCCI investigating commercial ventures rather than government projects could be beneficial to all concerned.
All BBG members who took part in the 2 day event agreed that it was time well spent and believe that this will lead to more activity between the groups in both states.
The President of GCCI hosted a lunch for all who attended the meeting and is very keen to follow up on the discussion and for GCCI participate in a visit to Chennai.
