Nagpur :- In the competent hands of VED President, Rina Sinha, began the all-members’ first meeting on 12th May 2024, after her taking over as President, in order to provide a platform, once a month, to all VED members to come together, connect and network with each other.
The meeting was very well attended by old and newly-inducted members alike. Some of the new members who were inducted and presented with a kit and the VED lapel pin, were Nidhi Gandhi, Hetal Sampat, Jayesh Parekh, Naresh Jakhotia, Rajeev Chand, Rajesh Salkotia, Vidyasagar Fulzele, Vikram Labhe, Tavinder Singh Rawal, Amit Yenurkar, and ‘ghar-wapasi’ of old member, Sachin Mukewar.
The monthly e-magazine, “Progress Pulse” initiated by Sinha and compiled and created by new member, Ali Asger, was released on the occasion by VED members, Vilas Kale, Devendra Parekh, Shivkumar Rao and Ashish Kale.
The Speakers at the programme were Vilas Kale, Past-President of VED, who spoke on “Know All about VED: Its genesis and the Way Forward”, and Speaker, Ashish Kale gave an account of the event, “Advantage Vidarbha”.
V. Kale gave an interesting exposition of the genesis of VED, which happened in 1994, when it was conceptualized by Govind Daga, eminent industrialist, and then Past-President of VIA, who felt the need for such an organization that took into account not any individual agenda dealing with personal professional problems of members, but that worked on a macro-economic agenda for the economic development of the region, since no association had, until then, spearheaded such a concept at the marco-economic level. Also, it was a sort of giving back something to the region, where they had prospered and flourished. He spoke of the genesis of MIHAN too. He mentioned politicians like Nitin Gadkari, Vilas Muttemwar and Ranjit Deshmukh, who had lent invaluable support to VED in its initial days. Since VED members kept aside their own gains and worked for the benefit of the region, people willingly supported an organization as selfless as this.
Kale informed about some of the points of their agenda that had become reality today like the expressway between Nagpur and Mumbai; in tourism VED’s rooting for declaring Vidarbha as the Tiger Capital of the World, and Nagpur as the Gateway to Tiger Country; the Consumer Expo, which was a runaway hit, VED’s initiating studies on the Bhiwapur Chillies and Waigaon Haldi, which are now the proud possessors of the GI Tag (Geographical Indication). also logistics for which Nagpur is a logical and natural hub; exploring minerals; VED’s demands for higher study institutions, medical hub and so on.
Devendra Parekh, Immediate Past-President, gave an update on the petrochemical complex being pursued by VED.
Speaker Ashish Kale, MD, Provincial Automobiles, and President, Association for Industrial Development, (AID, conceptualized by Nitin Gadkari) gave some details of the Event held by AID, “Advantage Vidarbha”. He informed that potential sectors got highlighted at the event, it marketed Vidarbha as a market with potential – the key objective being to promote this region and try to showcase to the youth the wide variety of industries here. At this 3-day Event, there were delegates from the US, 240 exhibitors from Vidarbha, right from agarbattis to solar power; there were venture-capitalists, startups (there are 135 in Vidarbha), 7 MoUs were signed, collaboration between academia and industry and 26 sectors stressed, a good diversity of industries and some fantastic success stories related. In startups, Shashikant Choudhary got together 25 investors who invested 25 lakhs each. The Event brought out a coffee-table book showcasing the work of 40 top industrialists of Vidarbha. A lot of the people felt inclined to take this region seriously for its vibrant ecosystem. He said they were here to collaborate in the economic development of Vidarbha – VED & AID.
VED Member, Jagoba Salve suggested that the Wainganga-Nalganga river-linking project was very important for the region.
Sinha said VED would take forward the medical tourism aspect, policy-making, starting a woman’s wing, and seeing all the work come to fruition.
Amit Parekh, Secretary-General, proposed the vote of thanks.
