Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry EVKS Elangovan presenting the Rasayan Rathna award to N Sankar, Chairman, The Sanmar Group. Goutham Chand Mehta, President, Tamil Nadu Dyes and Chemicals Merchants’ Association (extreme right) and Wang Xin, Secretary, Commercial Office, Embassy of China (left) look on.
On the occasion of the golden jubilee of the Tamil Nadu Dyes and Chemicals Merchants’ Association, EVKS Elangovan, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, presented the first Rasayan Rathna Award to N Sankar, Chairman of the Sanmar Group on 5 August, 2005. In his address, the Minister said that Sankar belonged to one of the ten families instrumental in the industrialisation of Tamil Nadu. But for their efforts, the state would not have attained its present position among the forerunners in attracting
foreign investment, he added.
Accepting the award, instituted to recognise outstanding contributions to the chemical trade and industry, Sankar said that the chemical industry has the potential to become a US $ 100 billion industry by 2010. He remarked that its turnover now was US $ 28 billion which is six percent of the country’s GDP and accounted for 10 percent of total exports.
Noting that he was accepting the award on behalf of his company’s past and present employees, Sankar hailed the role of Tamil Nadu Dyes and Chemicals Merchants’ Association in the development of the industry. The Association, he added, played a significant role in the development of various sectors in the state, including textiles, paper and pharmaceuticals.
He also expressed happiness that Chemplast had been associated in its own way in servicing the critical industrial segment of textiles. He added that the company had been one of the earliest manufacturers of caustic soda, an input in the textile sector and servicing this market for over six decades.
N Sankar, Chairman, The Sanmar Group was one
of the awardees, along with A C Muthiah (SPIC), Venu Srinivasan (TVS Motors), Suresh Krishna (Sundram Fasteners) and ten other industry leaders.
Speaking on the occasion, Arun Puri, The Editor-in-Chief, India Today, said, “With about 92 per cent road connectivity, 42 per cent urbanisation and an astounding 78 per cent literacy, Tamil Nadu is well placed and is bagging investments.”
The Big Barons: A C Muthiah (Chairman, SPIC), Venu Srinivasan (Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Motors), N Sankar (Chairman, The Sanmar Group), Suresh Krishna (Chairman and Managing Director, Sundram Fasteners), M A Alagappan and A Vellaiyan (Murugappa Group), K M Mammen (Chairman and Managing Director, MRF), Jayawardhana Velu (Chairman and Managing Director, Lakshmi Machine Works). Service czars: Dr Pratap C Reddy (Chairman, Apollo Group), N Ram (Editor-in-chief, The Hindu Group) and Kalanidhi Maran (Chairman and Managing Director, Sun Network), Global challengers: Shiv Nadar (Chairman, HCL Group), V Chandrasekharan (Chairman and CEO, Pentamedia Group) and Arun Jain (Chairman, Polaris Software Lab Ltd). Retail pioneers: Nalli Kuppusamy Chetty and R Subramanyam, Chairman, Subhiksha.