The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I) had organized the third edition of its two day Annual Manufacturing and MSME Conclave titled "Long Term Approach towards Quality Manufacturing with MSME Focus" and Eleventh edition of The Bengal Chamber MSME Excellence Awards held on 22nd and 23rd February 2019 at Williamson Magor Hall, The Bengal Chamber, Kolkata.

The Conclave was organized with the help of Senior representatives from the Government, Industry leaders, MSMEs, Academia, Experts, etc. The objective of organizing this conclave was to create a platform for the large industries and the MSMEs to come and share with us about their best practices, the opportunities and challenges being faced by them in their regular business operations. Besides, the objective was to understand the vision of the manufacturing units, particularly the MSME manufacturing units and to prepare a "way forward" on what would be the long-term approach of the manufacturing industries with MSMEs in particular in achieving Quality Manufacturing which would help in further developments and growth of the entire manufacturing fraternity of our country.

The Key Speakers of the Conclave were:

Shri Biplab Roychowdhury, Chairman, West Bengal Small Industries Development Corporation Limited (WBSIDC Ltd), Government of West Bengal

Lt. General Aniruddha Chakraborty, (Retd), Indian Army, Ministry of Defence, Government of India

Vice Admiral Pradip Kumar Chatterjee, PVSM, AVSM, NM (Retd), Former Commander - in - Chief, Andaman Nicobar Command, Indian Navy, Ministry of Defence, Government of India

Ayudh Bhusan Dr Rajiv Chakraborty, IOFS (Retd), Former Sr General Manager, Gun and Shell Factory, Cossipore, Ordnance Factory Board, Ministry of Defence, Government of India Commodore Ratnakar Ghosh, IN (Retd), Former Director (Shipbuilding), Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE Ltd)

Shri Ajoy Bandopadhyaya, Director - MSME Development Institute (MSME DI), Kolkata and Director - MSME Testing Centre (MSME TC) Kolkata, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC, Former Air Chief Marshal, Indian Air Force, Ministry of Defence, Government of India

During the two-day programme, the emphasis was given to the MSME sector since this is the most important segment for the developments and growth of industry post globalization. The small scale industries play a pivotal role for further industrialization and they are driven by technology, integrated business networks, cluster initiatives, etc.

Apart from the above, the programme has focused this time mainly on Quality Manufacturing with MSMEs in particular, highlighting mainly the Defence sector which would lead to further developments and growth of the MSME sector leading to significant developments and growth of the Indian Economy.

Apart from the above and the Chamber, as part of the two- day programme had organized the annual MSME Excellence Awards and the objective of organizing this award programme was to acknowledge and reward the MSMEs based on their best Case Study Presentations and also to create a benchmark for them for nurturing their own developments and growth.

The panel of judges for this year's award programme was headed by Dr. Anjan Ghosh, Former Vice President, Total Quality Management, Exide Industries Limited and the other panel of judges were Mr. Pritish K Sen, CE & Management Consultant, Director and Jt. Editor, Steel Tech and Former Head - Market Research and External Affairs, M&S Division, Tata Steel Limited, Mr. P N Gupta, Former Consultant - Industrial Engineering and Productivity, Tata Steel Processing And Distribution Limited (TSPDL), Prof. (Dr.) Siddhartha Das, Professor - Metallurgical & Materials Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT, Kharagpur) and Dr. Suman K. Mukerjee, Director General, Bhawanipur Education Society College (BESC).

The judges selected the three best case study presentations under Steel & Manufacturing Category and one best case study presentation under Service Category out of a series of presentations made by the participating MSMEs. Following were the MSMEs which won the Award along with the Certificate of Best Case Study Presentation.

Steel & Manufacturing Category:

- Mittal Technopack Pvt Ltd
- Lumino Industries Ltd
- Precision Transmission Chain

Service Category:

- Orion Edutech Pvt Ltd

The panel of jury has awarded the above companies under the Steel and Manufacturing Category and Service Category because the jury has found that this company has performed "The best" in comparison with other manufacturing companies (who participated for the MSME Award) in areas like General Presentation, Quality Upgradation, Improvement of Services, Enhancement of Production and Productivity, Growth and Profitability and Compatability of the Best Practices with Sustainability, Ambience, Environment & Pollution control and Energy Management.

Besides, the Chamber had circulated the feedback forms at the Conclave and had received lots of feedback from the delegates. The Chamber, after analyzing the feedback forms came to a conclusion that the feedback from the programme was extremely positive as it was an excellent learning experience and networking forum.

The Conclave was attended by well over 150 delegates from industry representing sectors like engineering, manufacturing, financial institutions, bankers and others.