Nagpur :- The Vidarbha Economic Development Council (VED) held its Annual General Meeting on Sat. 20th April 2024, when the baton of the President was passed on to Rina Sinha by outgoing Devendra Parekh, and the oath-taking conducted by Shivkumar Rao. Rina Sinha announced the names of the committee of new Office-bearers:
Devendra Parekh -IPP,– Vice- Presidents – Pankaj Mahajan, BK Shukla & Rahul Upganlawar, Amit Parekh – Secretary-General, Varun Vijaywargi – Treasurer, Jt. Secretaries – Dinesh Naidu, Ashish Sharma, & Amit Yenurkar.
The new team of Executive Committee members included Amit Parekh, Amit Yenurkar, Ashish Sharma, Atul Tajpuriya, Bhupesh Shukla, Devendra Parekh, Dinesh Naidu, Govind Daga, Jagoba Salve, Navin Malewar, Navin Mithal, Narayan Gupta, Nidhi Gandhi, Pankaj Mahajan, Rahul Upganlawar, Shivkumar Rao, Varun Vijaywargi, Vikas Jain, Pramod Batraa, Dr Preeti Pendharkar, Dr T S Rawal. New members, Nidhi Gandhi and Vikas Jain, were inducted into the Executive Committee. 
Eleven new members were inducted to VED at the AGM, namely Hetal Sampat, Dr. Rita Dhodapkar, CA Sanjay Agrawal, CA Rajendra Singh, Manish Aurangabadkar, Tawinder Rawal, CA Rajeev Chand, Mohd. Master, and Abhay Deshpande, Nidhi Gandhi and Vikas Jain.
Rina Sinha made her Presidential address on taking over. She thanked the honorable trustees, Vilas Kale and Govind Daga, of the Vidarbha Jankalyan Va Vikas Sanstha, Nagpur, for reposing faith in her for taking VED ahead.
Rina Sinha has held responsible posts in her dynamic professional life. She was business partner of NIIT, Director of Metlok and now founder of Rina’s Gourmet Foods, and leading social organisations as taking over as President of Rotary Club of Nagpur and President, Rotary Means Business.
Rina Sinha outlined the plans of her goal of VIDARBHA 2030! for her tenure on which she would be working diligently.
“Vidarbha is endowed with rich Natural Mineral, Historical and Bio-diverse resources, besides being placed in the geographical centre of India. It is also an important educational hub of Engineering, Medical, Management and Law. It has world class research institutes. Our vision for VIDARBHA 2030 will endeavour to leverage these intrinsic advantages and conduct workshops, seminars, invite businesses, and be an integral part of various policy makings, where ideas will be formulated and at each such an event a specific ASK will be made on the spot to the representatives of the government – the ministers and secretaries. The VED Task team will then take this to fruition.
Logistics has been one of VED’s thrust areas. We will work on a framework for developing this sector looking at the future requirements.
Gadchiroli is the buzz-word. It is poised to become the biggest steel city of the country. VED will conduct workshops for the development of spin-off sectors which will be required to support the steel sector and generate employment. Other avenues of development will also be explored, like rice to ethanol industry and industries arising due to its rich bamboo and other forests.
Aerospace and Defence. Nagpur is slowly but surely becoming a hub for this sector. We will invite businesses who can look at investing in this sector with help of MIDC.
SSI: Making Vidarbha a safe haven for small-scale industries for entrepreneurs who wish to set up units that will result in overall economic development of the region.
Tourism: VED has done tremendous work on this thrust area and we now propose to have tourism as the umbrella under which we take the following:
Medical and Health Tourism: Give our expertise and support to the Health Department and approach The Health Secretary to prepare a study report on the same for development of health and medical tourism in the area. Air ambulance and transport from airport to the many peripheral medical facilities around Nagpur and VISA-free schemes to attract foreign patients are a few ideas.
Heritage: Continuing the good work that we have already been doing through Nagpur@2025, a VED initiative, which we will be actively participating in it. We propose to further the heritage tourism of Nagpur and Vidarbha as also a Pilgrimage Circuit and Bio-Diversity tours.
Education– Vidarbha and Nagpur specifically is an educational hub with premier institutions already making a mark here where VED has contributed tremendously. We will further strengthen our support towards Skill Development, Employability Programs, and promote Startup Culture in the region. And of course, can we ignore AI? The proverbial buzz-word technology enabled impact on various existing and upcoming industries will be our focus.
RTS – Right To Service: – A User-Centric Conference – that we propose to organise in Novemeber 2024, and bring all stake-holders together to make the best use of the facility to bring about an administrative change in the way business is done in the digital arena, using Maitree app.
VED needs to work on a Rice research institute as Nagpur is a major export hub, Textiles for the cotton growers and promoting cotton seed oil industry, and food Industry with specific emphasis on organic and healthy farm-to-table initiatives.
Environment: A check and balanced approach to the rapid industrial growth with the impact on environment is a topic that is dear to us. We propose to work extensively with NEERI and other organisations to see the best way forward to make our region green and developed.
Petrochemical complex viable in Nagpur
The techno-economic feasibility study Report prepared by Engineers India Ltd. (EIL), which stated that the complex was viable in Nagpur, was handed over to Dr. Vipin Sharma, IAS, CEO – MIDC in Mumbai. Now we are eagerly awaiting a decision after the Deputy Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis pursues the issue with the Hon’ble Prime Minister about announcing the setting up of the complex once the elections are over.”
Sinha further informed that she would send communications about VED to all the Secretaries in the Government, informing them of our rich legacy and work and our future intentions.
VED’s endeavour would be to get the best of the speakers and dignitaries to address us on matters relating to our economic development and actionables regularly. Vocational visits to VED’s thrust areas establishments will be the order of the day, thus fostering networking, inspiration and bonhomie amongst us all!
Sinha wished also to add more members with the common interest of developing the economy of Vidarbha to the VED fold.
Founder President, Govind Daga and Past President, Vilas Kale, were present and wished Rina Sinha and her team the very best.
Secretary-General, Amit Parekh, proposed the vote of thanks.
