IIA Organized 29th National Annual Conference

Indian Industries Association (IIA), the apex body of MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), successfully organized the 2-day National Annual Conference from 5 to 6 February 2021 at Hotel Courtyard by Marriott Agra. IIA organized National Annual Conference every year, usually in August, but due to SOCIAL DISTANCING during the COVID-19 disaster this year, the conference could not be held in August Month. The conference was held when conditions came on a normal stage.

During the conference, IIA Varanasi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Noida, Unnao and Saharanpur chapters were awarded for their outstanding performaces. Shri Kartik Hazela, son of IIA's distinguished office bearer Shri Arun Hajela, was awarded with the Technology Innovation Award for the achievement of designing new technology to operate an electric car.

On 5th February 2021 in the evening, IIA Central Executive Committee meeting was also held in the same hotel. 29th Annual General Meeting was held on 6 February 2021. About 160 IIA Office Bearers and members from Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi participated in the Annual General Meeting and Central Executive Committee meeting.

The main purpose of the national annual conference was related to discussing the annual activities of the members, the development and progress of the association. On the first day i.e. 05 February 2021, the annual conference was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Shri Kapil Dev Agarwal State Minister, Independent Charge of Skill Development and Vocational Education, Government of Uttar Pradesh. To accelerate the trade of its members and purchase/sale of goods produced among the members, an online B2B Portal IIA MART was successfully launched by the Chief Guest. The initiative was appreciated by the members and thanks were presented to the IIA's central officials for this portal.

269th Central Executive Meeting held on 05 February 2021. During the meeting, activities of the respective chapters were discussed by the Office Bearers and the chapters which performed well in the last month were appreciated by the members present in the meeting.

National Annual Conference was organized on 06 February 2021. In this conference, a report on various activities and achievements accomplished by the IIA during the year 2019-20 was presented by the former General Secretary, Mr. Manmohan Agarwal (2019-20) and discuss the work to be done in the year 2020-21 with all the Office Bearers. All the IIA members present in the AGM expressed their views for the problems and suggestions related to MSMEs and for the upliftment of the IIA. Subsequently, former General Secretary, Mr. Manmohan Agrawal (2019-20) formally handed over his Chair to Mr. Ashwani Khandelwal for the year 2020-21. Mr. Ashwani Khandelwal discussed his activities for the year 2020-21 in detail and presented his hard work towards his responsibilities to the members.

President, Shri Pankaj Kumar, while addressing the gathering said that, in an epidemic like COVID, IIA effectively maintained continuous coordination with the government and members through webinars and presented all the problems that were received from the members from time to time. It is a matter of pride that the dominance of the IIA continued even in an epidemic like COVID and from time to time letters have been sent by our association to the State Government and Government of India on various subjects and the Government has taken cognizance of many of them. The result of coordination with the government is that many problems were solved by the government through the IIA. On the various suggestions sent to the government, the government showing a positive response on it and also revised several rules and introduced new guidelines as per the suggestions given by IIA.

President also said that suggestions and problems have been presented by the members in this AGM, this will help in improving the functioning of the IIA and quick action will be taken on the problems. Webinars are a good medium in today's time when we can present our words to our members, office bearers and the government at any time. Gradually, we have adopted entrepreneurial technology very well in our working system.

On 06 February 2021 in the evening, Symposium on "MSME-THE GROWTH ENGINE, OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN CURRENT SCENARIO" was organized. In the discussion, the senior members and experts of their field expressed their views who had come from different fields. The problems raised by the members in the past and what strategy should be adopted in the present were discussed. With unanimous determination, a proposal will be prepared by IIA. The report will be presented to the Government of Uttar Pradesh and the Government of India in the context of post-COVID.