Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) on January 1 appointed industry veteran Manish Singhal as Secretary General.
Singhal succeeds Deepak Sood, who successfully helmed the chamber for the last five years and has stepped down to pursue other interests, the apex chamber said in a statement.
Singhal earlier worked as Deputy Secretary General of The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
He also worked with various transnational companies, including Tata Motors, Eicher (Volvo), Tata Auto Comp Systems, Moser Baer India and BEML, among others.
“We thank Sood for his immense contributions to rebuilding the Chamber, which now boasts a healthy balance sheet and delivers quality,” said Sanjay Nayar, President of Assocham.
Nayar welcomed Singhal on board. “He has a proven track record in policy advocacy and international business, which will help the Chamber scale greater heights”, said the chamber’s president.
Assocham is India’s oldest apex chamber since 1920. It brings in actionable policy advocacy to strengthen the Indian economic ecosystem by leveraging its network of more than 4,50,000 members, comprising large corporates and MSMEs significantly.
Meanwhile, in the pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the chamber has sought a slew of measures to encourage investment, including extending the scope of presumptive taxation to MSMEs and new-age businesses like data centres, data hosting, cloud computing etc.
According to Nayar, this would help simplify compliances in the hands of such taxpayers by computing income on a pre-determined basis, thereby reducing the apprehension of tax disputes and litigation.
Nayar also stressed the need to establish MSME universities to promote skill development and entrepreneurship training as well as to foster growth within the sector. He also highlighted the need to develop Integrated Infrastructure Townships for MSMEs (a revised version of the old Industrial Estate Development Program) across the country.
