Rajesh Shah took over as CII President, and my own name was added to the long list of CII Past Presidents. Rahul Bajaj was there to bid me farewell on the CII’s behalf and he did so in a generous speech.
So, what were the CII and I looking back on, as the train slid to a halt at my own station, at the end of my 1997-98 term? A year in which the frustrations perhaps outweighed the achievements. Or at least, a year in which the political and economic health of the country was so poor in general that each achievement was hard won, had to be fought for, tooth and nail.
The frustrations were caused by factors beyond our control. There were financial crises all over the world, and these especially affected our important trading partners and South East Asia. Most disastrously, there was the crazy game the political parties were playing—with each other, with the country. Like children discovering some new creature and worrying it to extinction, Indian politicians had discovered the amazing and convoluted things that could be done with coalition politics. They were monkeying around with policies and plans, firing off allegations at each other, doing their best to prevent the country and its industry from settling down into productive consensus and the kind of stability that allows room for real growth.
If the fiftieth year of our independence was marked by anything, it was political irresponsibility and corruption, the failure of our leaders. But I am getting too negative. We must not forget the achievements, while regretting the fact that these were not more numerous. This was the year in which ASCON scored a century: it crossed the landmark figure of a hundred sectoral members. ASCON tied up with CII’s Trade Fair Division to introduce new sectoral shows on petroleum, steel and railways. There were new sectoral initiatives in telecom and electronics. The focus was on finance, demand and competitiveness, across sectors, and ASCON orchestrated events in which inputs in these areas were made accessible to its sectoral membership.
This was also the year in which the CII really girded its loins for entry into the information age. We launched the CII Connect, a countrywide computer network to streamline communications, improve our organizational productivity, and make access to our information banks quicker and easier for our members. 219 new entrants, incidentally, were added to our list of members, bringing the total membership by December 1997 to well over 3700. It was the year in which the CII’s China and South Africa offices became functional.
It was despite everything, a great year, a learning year, a year of meeting many personalities, a year where India completed 50 years as a nation, a year when I met with Queens and Princes and Prime Ministers and Presidents. It was a year of world leaders of industry and leaders of tomorrow, a year in which I travelled to all corners of the world: America, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle east. A year during which I went to all corners of India and met leaders of business, and colleagues from small and large companies, politicians and bureaucrats.
A year I saw all the cars, machine tools and agro products and processed foods anyone can imagine. It was a year in which we discussed insurance, steel, world politics and nuclear issues, defence matters and technology; quality and productivity.
This year I outlasted a PM of our country in office; indeed saw two PMs and two Presidents take their oaths. A year of great difficulty for our economy even though we had all the fundamentals going for us as a nation. A year that saw world trade suffer and the South East Asian tigers plummet and currencies tumble. A year when, in the US, scandal captured the headlines. A year in which war almost came. Definitely not a year I would like to forget, whatever the economists say!
The CII train has put me down at my destination and has carried on, 1998-99, the year Rajesh was President, turned out to be a bad year for the organisation. Now, Rahul Bajaj is guiding that train through the tunnels and the stations, patches of light and darkness.
As I heard its staccato engine receding into the distance, I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of loss. Natural, of course: it had been such a full and exciting two years that anything subsequently was going to be a let-down. For a little while, I felt strangely at a loose end; then the earlier rhythms of my life re-established themselves. I still make my contributions to the organization as Past President, but with less and less involvement as time passes, and this too is right. Autre temps, autre choses, as the redoubtable M Chirac might say. Other times, other interests!
(Excerpted from N Kumar’s recollections of his year in office as CII President)