India@75 week brought together a mélange of views on a single platform so as to facilitate informal interactions; thus
enabling stakeholders to participate, collaborate and co-create by leveraging mutual knowledge, skills and experience all converging with a singular aim of seeing a developed India by 2022.
1. Activity Dashboard
Conclave on ‘Role of Innovation in Achieving India@75 Vision of a Developed India by 2022’.
Workshop on Pro Bono
Late Prof. C K Prahalad in 2007 gave us a vision for India@75 and strategy to achieve it. Now that we have only 7 years to go
until 2022 for meeting our dated objectives; it’s time India@75 accelerates the efforts on ground to create a significant impact.
In order to realign the focus of the stakeholders towards the vision objectives of India@75 and rejuvenate their efforts;
India@75 week was celebrated, from 8 August 2015. The date was so chosen to coincide with the birth anniversary of Prof C
K Prahalad. After weeklong activities across India, the celebrations culminated on 14 August 2015, the eve of our Indepen-
dence Day, which also happens to be India@75’s milestone. However, the highlight of the week was the Independence Day
speech of the Hon’ble Prime Minister on 15 August 2015 from the ramparts of the Red Fort; which had convergence of the
objectives outlined by the Prime Minister with the vision elements of India@75, for a developed India by 75th year of its
independence in the year 2022 which is also proposed to be celebrated as ‘Amrut Mahotsav’.
India@75 week brought together a mélange of views on a single platform so as to facilitate informal interactions; thus
enabling stakeholders to participate, collaborate and co-create by leveraging mutual knowledge, skills and experience all
converging with a singular aim of seeing a developed India by 2022.
3 August 2015
8 August 2015
9 August 2015
11 August 2015
13 August 2015
14 August 2015
Coimbatore
Mumbai
Gurgaon
New Delhi
Kolkata
Chennai
Confab on ‘Transforming Engineers into Entrepreneurs’.
Confab on ‘Harnessing India’s Demographic Dividend’.
Cyclothon: Freedom Ride
Confab on ‘The Importance of Youth Entrepreneurship in Shaping India's Economy’.
Date City Activity
In 2022, we wish to have an India that will actively shape the new world order
collaboratively, through Economic Strength, Technological Vitality, and Moral Leadership.
Late Professor C K Prahalad (8 August 1941- 16 April 2010)
India@75 Week – 8-14 August, 2015
Special Edition Newsletter
September 2015
2. Mr. S Gopalakrishnan addressing the students. Seated L-R: Mr Shankar Vanavarayar, Member CII - Council on India@75, Mr. Krishnaraj Vanavarayar, Chairman,
KCT, Mr. M Manickam, Vice Chairman, KCT and Executive Chairman, Sakthi Sugars.
Participants at the Freedom Ride 2015
Confab on ‘Transforming Engineers into Entrepreneurs’
As a precursor to the India@75 Week, a Confab was organized in Coimbatore on 3 August. Mr S Gopalakrishnan, Past
President CII and Trustee, India@75 Foundation, spoke on the importance of becoming future entrepreneurs. He gave
them an overview of the India@75 vision and its thrust on skill development and job creation. He urged the students to
invest in their own businesses and create employment opportunities for others. The students got an opportunity to
interact and get inspired from his personal experience, journey and methodology of overcoming the challenges of
entrepreneurship.
One of India’s biggest corporate cycling extravaganzas
was organized on 9 August, 2015 for the very first time in
Gurgaon. Freedom Ride 2015, inspite of the incessant
rains, witnessed participation of hundreds of cycling enthu-
siasts from Corporates and Enterprises from Delhi and
Gurgaon who participated in the multiple ride segments.
A 68 km Signature Ride of the Event, conceptualized to
coincide with the 68 years of India’s Independence evoked
encouraging response of riders from over 20 companies.
Cyclothon: Freedom Ride
S. Gopalakrishnan
Success is not about you; success is about the people around you, making them
succeed in life because of you.
Coimbatore, 3 August 2015
Gurgaon, 9 August 2015
3. Seated L-R: Mr Adi Godrej, Past President CII and Chairman, India@75 Foundation;
Mr. Subramaniam Ramadorai, Chairman, NSDA & NSDC; Mr Rajan Navani, Chairman,
CII-Council on India@75; Mr Virendra Gupta, Deputy Director General, India@75
Confab on ‘Harnessing India’s Demographic Dividend’.
The Confab provided a platform for youth from different backgrounds to listen and interact with some of the best minds
from the Corporate and Government. The Confab focused on the need for action in achieving the various vision
elements of India@75, and deliberated on some of the positive powers that need to be nurtured in making India@75 a
movement of committed and passionate people participating with zest, energy and eagerness in the exercise for
making India become a developed nation by 2022. Mr Subramaniam Ramadorai, Chairman, NSDA & NSDC, was the
keynote speaker at the event.
The discussions centered around the theme on skill development and jobs creation to gainfully engage the youth in
India as well as develop a pool of skilled workforce to meet the global demands. Mr Ramadorai apprised the audience
with the various innovative schemes of the Government. Mr Godrej shared the industry experience and its contribution
towards skill development, Mr Rajan Navani highlighted the endeavours of India@75 in plugging the gaps and
facilitating the convergence of Industry, Government and Civil Society for economy of efforts, augmentation of
resources and also highlighted the need for industry and higher education connect.
Mumbai, 8 August 2015
Adi Godrej
I n d i a @ 7 5 h a s
uniquely positioned
i t s e l f s o a s t o
make innovative
interventions for
bridging the gaps
in the endeavors of the Government,
Industry and Private players for skill
development, entrepreneurship and
employment generation to translate
India’s demographic profile into
dividend not only for India but
globally.
To meet the aspirations
of the youth and to
realize our full potential
we have to be ready with
a skilled and talented
human pool. ‘Skill India’
is hence a national
imperative and India@75 must make it
happen.
Subramaniam Ramadorai
Besides skill
development and
vocational training
there is an urgent
need to create
synergy in the
higher education curriculum and
ever evolving industry requirements
to enable our millions of graduates
to be industry ready.
Rajan Navani
4. Conclave on ‘Role of Innovation in Achieving India@75 Vision of a Developed India by 2022’.
The Conclave on 11 August at Delhi, endeavoured to bring together the domain experts and stakeholders to introspect
with a paradigm shift in their perspective, so as to view the implementation and execution of the India@75 vision
elements through the lens of innovation. Sessions were designed to brainstorm on disruptive and unconventional
approach to leapfrog the process, so as to meet dated audacious objectives within the time constraints. Each of the
three sessions focused on need for innovation in, Skill Development, Technology and Urbanization to give impetus to
various initiatives of the Union Government like ‘Skill India’, Digital India’ and ‘Housing for All’, respectively.
Shri. Suresh Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister for Railways, Government of India, has had a long association with India@75 as
a member of its Apex Council. Whilst addressing the audience he commended CII / India@75 for creating the vision of
India@75 and driving the initiative. Mr Chandrajit Banerjee highlighted the innovative interventions made by India@75
in skills, volunteering and especially in Pro Bono. He lauded the efforts of India@75 in bringing the diverse stakeholders
on a common platform for various issues; thus creating conducive environment for collaborative and participative
approach. Audience comprised eminent industry leaders along with participants from Government / Diplomats,
Corporate, Non-Profits, Academia and Students.
New Delhi, 11 August 2015
Shri. Suresh Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister for Railways, Government of India
addressing the audience at the Conclave. Seated L-R: Mr Rajan Navani,
Mr. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII & Trustee, India@75
Foundation
The session “Skill India - Challenges & Need for
Innovation” focused on the skill development
scenario in India and the need for innovation in
critical aspects of the “Skill India” mission. The
panelists delved about training, assessment,
certification and other key aspects of various
Government's skill development schemes and
interacted with participants.
Ms Jyotsna Sitling, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development &
Entrepreneurship and Director General, NSDA addressing the
audience. Seated L-R: Mr. Nish Acharya, Ex. Director US President’s
National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship;
Mr. Rajan Navani.
“The Digital India – New Frontier” session focused
on the “Digital India” initiative. The panelists
deliberated on some key features like infrastructure
as utility, governance & services on demand and
public internet access programme; besides possible
challenges in implementation of various aspects
under the initiative and possible solutions.
Seated L-R: Mr. Manoj Davane, VP & Head - Technology, Government &
Industry Relations, Sustainability & Corp Responsibility - Ericsson India;
Ms. Deepti Dutt, Leader - Government & Smarter Cities, IBM; Mr.
Gaurav Dwivedi, Joint Secretary & CEO, MyGov; Dr. Rishi Mohan
Bhatnagar, Global Head - Digital Enterprise Services, Tech Mahindra.
CII had done commendable job
in adopting the vision of Late
Prof CK Prahalad and creating
a platform like India@75. There
is need for extending the same
with a long term perspective
for India@100, especially with respect to
innovation in the field of water and land usage –
like multiple usage of the same land and
conservation and optimum utilization of water.
Suresh Prabhu
5. Chandrajit Banerjee
The innovative initiatives of CII / India@75 in the field of Skill Development, Urbanization
and Volunteerism have found convergence with the objectives of the Union Government
and hence there is a renewed impetus on these three critical aspects that impact
livelihood.
Sanjiv Goenka
Entrepreneurship is no longer restricted to those who have capital. There
are many means and sources – venture capital, angels. Without young
people taking the risk and striking out on their own, one wonders where the
entrepreneurs of the future will come from.
Rajan Navani
Mr Prabhu has had long association with India@75 and has guided us towards the
achievement of the vision. As suggested by the Hon’ble Minister we will be looking
at creating a vision for India@100.
Confab on ‘The Importance of Youth Entrepreneurship in Shaping India's Economy’.
Mr Sanjiv Goenka, Past President, CII & Chairman, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, in his Keynote address urged students
to take upon the exciting and challenging path of entrepreneurship. He also said that elders have the responsibility to
give youngsters the freedom of operation, thinking and, to actually just go out and perform without being bounded by
convention, rules or regulation. He highlighted the changes happening in replacing non- renewable energy with
renewable sources such as wind and water and the immense scope of growth in the sector with opportunity for
entrepreneurs. Mr Goenka also had an interactive session with the students and members of the Kolkata chapter of the
Young Indians and students who shared their aspirations regarding their future goals and sought his views on the
challenges for an entrepreneur.
Kolkata, 13 August 2015
The session “Innovation in Urbanization” deliberated and explored solutions for some of the key concerns in the
“Smart Cities” initiative. Besides the challenges and strategies to achieve the vision of ‘Housing for all by 2022’, the
panelists also discussed best case studies from various parts of the globe.
Seated L-R: Mr. Premjit Lal, Director, Ministry of Housing
and Urban Poverty Alleviation; Mr. Abhijit Pawar, Member,
CII Council on India@75 & MD Sakal Media; Mr. Rajan Navani;
Prof. Amitabh Kundu, Chairperson- Technical Advisory
Committee on Housing Start up index at RBI Committee to
Estimate Shortage of Affordable Housing
Mr Sanjiv Goenka, Past President, CII, addressing the
audience. Seated L-R: Saurabh Sureka, Chair, Yi Kolkata
Chapter & Director, Pashupati Ispath Pvt. Ltd.; Aloke
Mookherjea, Past Chairman CII ( Eastern Region); Mr Anil
Vaswani, Vice Chairman, CII - West Bengal State Council
6. Pro bono Workshop
India@75 has an ambitious volunteering programme in the form of ‘National Volunteering Grid (NVG)’ to connect
various forms of volunteers to a cause they are passionate about. Pro Bono is the main pillar of NVG. Pro Bono is the
niche area of volunteering wherein skilled volunteers from corporates with core competencies are connected to the
NGOs for their intrinsic capacity building, so that they can scale up their operations, enhance geographical reach and
deliver with enhanced efficiency. India@75 envisages the corporate and NGO connect by leveraging technology for
which a web portal has been designed and developed by Infosys.
A day long program was organized on Pro Bono volunteering in Chennai. It comprised workshop for the NGOs, with
focus on articulation of the Pro bono concept, introducing the web portal, and addressing the potential challenges that
Non-Profits may face in understanding skill based projects and posting them on the Pro bono web portal. The workshop
aimed to bring together volunteering intermediaries to enable mutual learning and foster strategic collaboration. This
workshop was fifth in the series of workshops conducted in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune. Sessions on Pro bono
were also held to sensitize the corporates and NGOs on scope of India@75 Pro bono initiative with focus on the
corporate perspective as well as dwell on volunteer management.
Mr Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions was the Chief Guest at the inaugural session.
Dr. Mukund Govind Rajan, Brand Custodian and Chief Ethics Officer, Tata Sons, addressed the gathering over video
conference from Mumbai. Audience comprised representatives from Non-Government Organizations, Intermediaries
and Corporates.
Chennai, 14 August 2015
Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan addressing the audience at the Pro Bono Workshop
Participants Interaction during the Pro Bono Workshop
India@75 Pro Bono initiative could play a pivotal role in nation building as it intends to
build capacities of organizations working at ground level and thereby fulfill the
India@75 vision of Late. Prof C K Prahalad.
Sanjeev Jain
Employee volunteering is
an effective and powerful
way for businesses to
invest in their people and
communities as it gives
more meaning to their
jobs, much beyond taking home a monthly
paycheck. It keeps the culture of giving
alive.
Mukund Rajan
Lakshmi Narayanan
Pro Bono and
Volunteering
are essential
for moral and
ethical growth
of the society.
Industry leaders must lead by
example and promote Pro Bono
volunteering in their respective
companies.
8. For more information contact India@75
India@75 Foundation
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
249-F, Sector 18, Udyog Vihar, Phase IV, Gurgaon - 122 015, Haryana, India
Tel: +91 124 - 401 4060-67 (Board) | www.cii.in | www.indiaat75.in
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