Tata, Godrej in fair play panel

Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata, Godrej & Boyce chairman Jamshyd Godrej, Bharat Forge chairman Baba Kalyani, Wockhardt chief Habil Khorakiwala and Surinder Kapur of Sona Steering have been included as members of the newly-constituted National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council.

Economists Isher Judge Ahluwalia and Bibek Debroy will also be appointed as members of the council, headed by V Krishnamurthy.

The council will also include two academicians, Professor MS Ananth of the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, and Professor Shekhar Choudhary of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.

The names of the members of the council were cleared by the Prime Minister's office recently. They will be notified shortly. Krishnamurthy holds the rank and status of a Union Cabinet minister.

The council will include as its members secretaries of the ministries of heavy industries, department of industrial policy and promotion, chemical and petrochemicals, steel and the director general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.

It will also have as its members representatives from the three industry chambers: Confederation of Indian Industry, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The NMCC will have the mandate to develop manufacturing strategy with a medium to long term perspective for strengthening and improving the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry in general and export-oriented industries in particular.

The NMCC is an autonomous body under the administrative control of the department of industrial policy & promotion and is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act.

The role of the council includes identifying problems facing the priority sector in respect to size, technology and modernisation needs.

It will also consider strategies for the manufacturing sector as a whole as well as individual industries for enhancing competitiveness, helping to create common infrastructure such as testing facilities and training institutes and providing a forum for dialogue between the public and private sectors, labour and academic sectors.

The functions of the council will include trade and fiscal policies, employment generation, entrepreneurship promotion, innovation and technology development.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had in the Budget announced the proposal to set up such a council. Chidambaram had said the council would be a continuing forum for policy dialogue to energise and sustain the growth of manufacturing industries.