FICCI Secretary General Resigns

Eyeing to be the next Finance Minister in West Bengal, FICCI's Secretary General  for 15 years, ( 1994-2011), Dr. Amit Mitra has resigned with the intention of preparing a larger role at the state level,  an official communiqué  of FICCI informs.  He has defeated CPI(M) veteran and state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta by a big margin from the Khardah Assembly constituency  According to a FICCI spokesman, Mitra's resignation, tendered on 16th May, has been accepted today by the FICCI leadership in Delhi who have "unanimously lauded (his)stupendous contribution to FICCI's evolution as the country's pre-eminent industry and commerce chamber over the last two decades".

A PhD in economics from Duke University, Mitra took over the reins in FICCI, it was struggling to sustain its historical legacy built since its founding in 1927.  He however, almost singlehandedly took on the task of rebuilding FICCI and restore it to its former glory. A task in which he perhaps exceeded even his own very high expectations, as FICCI's reputation and credibility as the voice of the Indian industry was restored to its pristine levels well before he decided to take the political plunge earlier this year. FICCI's revenues, less than a true  indicator of its rising influence on policy making,  increased from about Rs 3 crore per annum to their current level of about Rs 110 crore. During his tenure, FICCI built up a strong in-house talent pool that has given it the ability to contribute to policy formulation and disseminate the new ideas. Mitra also ensured that FICCI's infrastructure capacities - by far the best for any national or regional chamber — located in the very heart of Delhi, were expanded and refurbished to keep up with FICCI's evolving needs as it expanded its national reach took on wider range of international engagements. He thus leaves behind a solid basis for FICCI to make another qualitative shift to the next level in influencing policy and to contributing to India's engagement with the rest of the world.

Mitra would be first non communist FinMin in the last 35 years in history of West Bengal. The son of freedom fighter parents Haridas and Bela Mitra, he draws his linage from Subhas Chandra Bose's family as well; in fact his parents were part of the Azad Hind Fauj and worked for the secret services wing of this freedom army. Belanagar, a railway station on the Howrah-Bardhaman chord line, is named after his mother, to mark her contribution to the struggle.