BCC&I organized the 6th edition of its Leadership Lecture Series with Dr. Purnendu Chatterjee, Founder Chairman, The Chatterjee Group. Former President of BCC&I Mr. Aniruddha Lahiri was in conversation with Dr. Chatterjee.

Sharing snippets of his life in an hour long freewheeling chat, Dr. Chatterjee shared the stories of his Mothers influence in his life, and how, in spite of contrary views expressed by many, he wrested back control of Haldia Petrochemicals Limited, a Company he co founded in 1994. In the course of his deliberations, he also recounted the efforts put in by Former Chief Minister of West Bengal Shri Jyoti Basu and renowned industrialist Shri Sadhan Dutta’s to have him invest in a greenfield petrochemicals plant in West Bengal.

Since its investment in West Bengal in 2014, it has been a remarkable journey for The Chatterjee Group. After turning around HPL, which had closed down due to the want of working capital, Dr. Chatterjee acquired the PTA plant from Mitsubishi and turned it around, too.

Then came the $2.725 billion acquisition of Lummus Technology, a giant in process technology with several patents, followed by the acquisition of Garden Silk Mills and Nagarjuna Oils among others.

Dr. Chatterjee has now set his eyes on developing a university in Calcutta to do frontier research which can also find applications in real life.

On this occasion, The Chamber also handed over to Dr. Chatterjee “The Bengal Chamber − Sardar Jodh Singh Award for Igniting Minds”. The Chamber had created this Award as an Annual and most prestigious Award which The Bengal Chamber would like to bestow on an iconic personality every year. The awardee would have played a role as a true visionary and leader, cutting across any Business, Cultural, Philanthropic or Social spheres, and stand for values and ethics that have helped in “Igniting Minds” of Indians. The Award is named after Sardar Jodh Singh, a visionary and far−sighted personality, who always aspired to bring about a positive transformation in the society by educating minds. Apart from education, Sardar Jodh Singh also developed industries in various sectors like diary, cargo, telecom, infrastructure, etc. Sardar Jodh Singh’s hard work and progressive activities have led to the global eminence of JIS Group, which has generated employment to more than 22000 people in the recent years.