New Look WTTC To Pursue Old Agenda

Jyoti Koul - New Delhi

A classic case of an old wine in a new bottle. WTTC's India Initiative will now enrobe a 'new look' although the agenda will remain the same. It will now become just ‘India Initiative’. At a recent meeting held in the presence of WTTC president JC Baumgarten, the members of the WTTC India chapter decided that the initiative will continue, but it will be funded and managed by the Indian members.

Although WTTC will continue supporting the organisation, it will be ‘run more independently’. The new committee set up recently comprises nine members and the chairman will be selected on a rotational basis. While the restructured WTTC will start functioning from January 2004, Lalit Suri, chairman and managing director, Bharat Hotels will be the chairman of the ‘independent’ initiative for the first six months.

"I will preside over as the chairman for the India Initiative for six months, after which we will have a new chairman," said Suri. When asked whether they will continue with the existing secretariat, he said, "Yes, we want to continue with it. Even the official address will remain the same. We would also like to retain Yogesh Chandra as general secretary of the India Initiative.

Therefore, we have offered him a new package and are awaiting his decision. His earlier arrangement was with WTTC, which has subsequently been withdrawn."

The new office has also decided that it will host retreats twice a year and has even finalised the next retreat. "It will take place in the second week of February 2004 in Kolkata. The venue will be the ITC Sonar Bangla. We have just concluded our Srinagar retreat and will soon sit down to work out an agenda for the Kolkata retreat," Suri informed.