Confederation of Indian Industry: Building India for a New World

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What is CII?

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group, founded in 1895. CII engages business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas. It is a membership-based organization. CII is a body registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 of India.

It has over 9000 members from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 300,000 enterprises from 294 national and regional sectoral industry bodies and is headquartered in New Delhi, India.

A brief history of CII

In 1895, 5 engineering firms decided to form the Engineering and Iron Trades Association (EITA) to promote the interests of Indian manufacturers. EITA was renamed as Indian Engineering Association (IEA) in 1912. In 1942, the Engineering Association of India (EAI) was founded to promote the interests of small and medium engineering firms. In 1974, EAI merged with IEA and formed the Association of Indian Engineering Industry (AIEI) which in 1986 became the Confederation of Engineering Industry (CEI). In 1991, CEI became the present Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In 2020, CII completed 125 years of its inception.

What are the missions of CII?

To access more markets for Indian Industry, and create a business to business opportunities for its member companies, the CII website reads.

By leveraging inter-departmental synergies, CII aims to take India’s international economic relations to new levels, across the entire spectrum of economic cooperation from agriculture to manufacturing, from services to knowledge based industries, from nanotechnology to FDI, from infrastructure to the setting up of SEZs.

How does CII work?

It works on behalf of the Indian Industry in making representations to governments and intergovernmental organizations. It occupies the highest-level consultative status with the government and its specialized agencies.

By developing global partnerships, CII maintains a unique worldwide network of partnerships with governments, legislators, industry institutes, academia, think tanks, media, Indian Diaspora, and multilateral agencies. It has a vast network of counterpart organizations to help the Indian Industry reach out to all parts of the globe. With 240 counterpart organizations in 101 countries, CII provides access to an enormous resource base to develop fresh linkages.

What are the roles of CII in the post-COVID economic order?

In 2020, PM Narendra Modi gave the plenary speech at CII’s 125th Annual Session. He focused on building an Atmanirbhar Bharat and bringing India back on the path of rapid development. Other initiatives like Made in India and Enterprise India Exhibitions are organized in key markets to display Indian products abroad.

There have been collaborations with the World Economic Forum for over 20 years to host the annual India Economic Summit (IES) in New Delhi. The IES attracts increasing numbers of Business Leaders from across the world and maps the economic development of the country while raising awareness about investment opportunities.

Whereas, The Partnership Summit is an annual event where world leaders are invited to address delegates from diverse countries. Now in its 26th year, it is a flagship event of the International department.

Another tool used by CII International is to undertake research and bring out publications, guides, and background papers pertaining to different countries for members and delegates.