As the new President of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce,  I offer a pledge to all its members, stakeholders and sponsors: Your new board will bring about constructive changes in our four-decades-old institution that we all proud of.

Our new board comprises a fundamental shift in the composition of the Chamber’s leadership – we are all relatively new to the Chamber, all of us have been involved with the Chamber for just about a decade, or even less. This is significant considering that over the last four decades of the Chamber’s history, its leadership has comprised of a small group.

Our leadership represents a new dawn in the Chamber’s history. We will encourage and reinforce this trend in the Chamber’s operations by encouraging new members to take up pole positions in our committees – both statutory and non-statutory.

This proposal neatly dovetails with our board’s plan to go full throttle ahead with membership engagement. We will customise our programming so that it appeals to specific segments of our membership. This will ensure that members from different professional and entrepreneurial backgrounds find resonance with our programs and become more active in participating in the Chamber’s activities.

In simple terms, this will ensure that you won’t see the same faces at all our programs.

Member engagement will also mean providing value through our affinity program. Soon, we will be announcing a slew of affiliations and associations with service providers who will offer substantial benefits in terms of dollar value to members of the Chamber.