Mr. Jai Hiremath, President, ICC welcomed the members to the First Meeting of the Committee.

The list of the Members who attended the Meeting is given at the end of the Minutes.

LEAVE OF ABSENCE :
The leave of absence was granted to R. Parthasarathy, Mr. S. K. Agrawal, Mr. N. Subramanian, Mr. Ravi Kapoor, Mr. R. P. Sethi, Mr. Ashok M. Kadakia, Mr. P. R. Rathi, Mr. Shankar Ray, Mr. Harish Badami, Mr. Sujit Banerji, Mr. Roop Salotra, Mr. Rajiv Pabi, Mr. S. V. S. Ramaraju, Mr. R. M. Muthukaruppan, Mr. S. R. Mundhra, Mr. D. P. Patra, Mr. A. S. Didolkar, Mr. Hasit Dani, Mr. S. Abhaya Kumar, Mr. N. B. Godrej, Mr. K. K. Maheshwari, Mr. J. D. Palod, Mr. B. Chattopadhyay, Mr. S. Gopal, Mr. G. P. Mohapatra, Mr. T. Malhotra, Mr. Narendra Vachharajani, Mr. Prakash Hiranandani, Mr. S. Ganesan, Mr. S. K. Hazra and Mr. S. K. Ray.

COMPOSITION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE :
Composition of the Executive Committee i.e. elected members, co-option of members and Chairmen of the Expert Committees for the year 2008-09 was noted.

ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN DURING THE INTERVENING PERIOD :
Members noted activities undertaken during the intervening period (copy attached).

APPOINTMENT OF MR. H. S. KARANGLE AS DIRECTOR GENERAL :
Members noted that Mr. H. S. Karangle has joined the services of the Council with effect from 12 November 2008 as Director General and Mr. D. P. Misra will continue to work as Director till 31 March 2009. Members welcomed Mr. Karangle and also noted contribution made by Mr. D. P. Misra in terms of organizing several seminars / workshops and raising resources of the Council.

REMEDIAL MEASURES TO OVERCOME CRISIS IN THE INDIAN CHEMICAL INDUSTRY:
Members' attention was invited to the action taken by the Council recommending remedial measures to the Government for survival and growth of the Indian chemical industry in the context of recent crisis.

ICC delegation led by Mr. R. Parthasarathy, Vice President, ICC, met various Government officials during the last three weeks and voiced concerns of the industry. The discussions have been extremely fruitful. However, Government officials were demanding lots of data (regarding production, imports, exports of chemical products, level of inventory, capacity utilization, price fall, closures, loss of jobs etc. in various sectors) in support of the argument put forward by the Council. Accordingly the Council is considering appointing 'PWC' for the assignment.

Submissions made by the industry and current status of the industry also need to be appropriately brought out in the print and electronic media and therefore Council has approached 'PWC' for data collection, analysis which has credibility. The Council will also be appointing a renowned large Public Relation Agency for helping the Council in projecting the current situation faced by the industry in right perspective to the Media & Government.

Engaging these two agencies may cost the Council approximately Rs. 35 – Rs. 45 lakhs. Therefore it was decided to collect one time contribution from the members depending upon turnover as given below:

Funds so collected will be kept separately as an emergency fund which will be utilized for actions during the crisis.

ORGANIZING ANNUAL GALA DINNER :
Members supported the proposal regarding arranging Annual Gala Dinner which can coincide with the Annual Awards Presentation function of ICC. It will be good platform for the members to meet and improve networking. Lecture from eminent speaker be also arranged which will also add value to such event.

JOINING HANDS WITH TATA GROUP :
President also said that need is felt for initiating steps for improving image of the chemical industry. Industries with unfavourable public perception have always found it difficult to grow and attract talent for pursuing careers in the field. The problem of the chemical industry is that its products are not directly facing the consumer but are used in other industries such as automobile, pharmaceuticals, housing, sports, aviation etc. The efforts are required to be made to develop strategy as to how we can bring contribution of the industry for improving quality of standard of life to the knowledge of the consumers at large. President further said that he had discussion with Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons Ltd & Vice Chairman, Tata Chemicals Ltd and in principle both organizations have agreed to work together for improving public perception of the chemical industry. As mentioned above, Council will appoint reknowned large Public Relation Agency for doing the job on "ongoing basis". Further developments will be informed to the Executive Committee.

ICC WEBSITE :
Members were also informed about extremely powerful website prepared by CEFIC – Europe and American Chemistry Council – USA bringing out importance of chemical industry. It was suggested that ICC should make efforts to make its website similar to that of CEFIC and ACC. Mr. Ravi Goenka accordingly agreed to oversee process of improving website of ICC.

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS :
Conversion of membership of HIKAL LTD from Life Membership to Patron Membership was noted.
Following companies were admitted to the membership of the Council with immediate effect :

Admissions

Life Membership :
National Aluminium Co. Ltd, Bhubaneswar

Ordinary Membership:
Trichy Distilleries and Chemicals Ltd, Chennai

Associate Membership (SSI):
Aria Chemicals Pvt Ltd, Chennai

Associate Membership (Others):
Adeka India Pvt Ltd, Mumbai
LG International Corporation, Mumbai

DATE AND VENUE OF THE NEXT MEETINGS :
It was decided to organize Second Meeting of the Executive Committee on 29 January 2009 at Baroda and Third Meeting on 11 March 2009 at Delhi.

Since there was no other matter to discuss, the meeting concluded with a Vote of Thanks to the Chair.

MEMBERS PRESENT :