The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a chamber of commerce

Chamber of commerce

A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...

 based in West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Established in 1853, it is the oldest such institution in India.

The organization has its headquarters at the former Royal Exchange in B. B. D. Bagh

B. B. D. Bagh

B.B.D. Bag , formerly called Dalhousie Square, is the shortened version for Benoy-Badal-Dinesh Bag . It is the seat of power of the state government, as well as the central business district in Kolkata in the Indian state of West Bengal.-Origin of name:B.B.D...

, Kolkata

Kolkata

Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...

, which was once the residence of Robert Clive

Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive

Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, KB , also known as Clive of India, was a British officer who established the military and political supremacy of the East India Company in Bengal. He is credited with securing India, and the wealth that followed, for the British crown...

, the first Governor-General of India

Governor-General of India

The Governor-General of India was the head of the British administration in India, and later, after Indian independence, the representative of the monarch and de facto head of state. The office was created in 1773, with the title of Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William...

.

Membership

The members include corporation

Corporation

A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

s and industries

Industry

Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

 of all sizes, professional

Professional

A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

s, divisions of large multinational corporation

Multinational corporation

A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...

s and service industry organizations. The corporate members are drawn largely from the sectors of agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

, engineering

Engineering

Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

, textiles, leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

, fast moving consumer goods

Fast Moving Consumer Goods

Fast moving consumer goods or Consumer Packaged Goods are products that are sold quickly and at relatively low cost. Examples include non-durable goods such as soft drinks, toiletries, and grocery items...

 and customer service

Customer service

Customer service is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a purchase.According to Turban et al. , “Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer...

s, and are not confined to West Bengal and the Eastern Region

East India

East India is a region of India consisting of the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa. The states of Orissa and West Bengal share some cultural and linguistic characteristics with Bangladesh and with the state of Assam. Together with Bangladesh, West Bengal formed the...

, but are from all over India.

History

The Bengal Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1853, replacing the former Calcutta Chamber of Commerce, which was merged into the new organization. At the outset, it had eighty-six members in Calcutta and eighteen others. Its objects included –

• To establish just and equitable principles in trade;
• To form a code or codes of practice to facilitate transaction of business;
• To maintain uniformity in rules, regulations and usages of trade;
• To communicate with Chambers of Commerce and other mercantile and public bodies throughout the world, and concert and promote measures for the protection of trade and traders.

On 30 November 1857, as a result of the Indian Mutiny, the Chamber appealed to the Government of India to send "a force of Europeans, either sailors or soldiers" to defend Akyab, as it considered the Arracan Battalion not to give enough protection. It was concerned about "the safety of the inhabitants and the security of the public treasury". The Secretary to the Government replied on 2 December, regretting that "there is no European force available at present."

In 1876, at a time when silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 was falling in value, chiefly due to the opening of new mines in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the Bengal Chamber of Commerce was so concerned that it proposed that the Government of India should suspend the coining of silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

. The Economist

The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...

of 5 August 1876 reported that

The Chamber and its business were greatly disrupted by the partition of India

Partition of India

The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...

 and the partition of Bengal

Partition of Bengal (1947)

The Partition of Bengal in 1947, part of the Partition of India, was a religiously based partition that divided the British Indian province of Bengal between India and Pakistan...

 in 1947, with West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

 becoming part of the new Union of India and East Bengal

East Bengal

East Bengal was the name used during two periods in the 20th century for a territory that roughly corresponded to the modern state of Bangladesh. Both instances involved a violent partition of Bengal....

 going to Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. Despite this, changes in the Chamber were later described as "slow and incremental". New businesses joined the Chamber, and its first Indian President of the new era was elected in 1958. It developed from a gentlemen's club

Gentlemen's club

A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...

 of able merchants whose chief concern was with trade into a modern organization with as much concern for industry as for trade. Whereas the officers and committee members had previously been the owners of capital

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

, they were now more likely to be professional senior managers

Senior management

Senior management, executive management, or management team is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibilities of managing a company or corporation, they hold specific executive powers conferred onto them with and by...

.

Notable people

James Lyle Mackay

James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape

James Lyle Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape, GCSI, GCMG, KCIE was a British colonial administrator in India.Mackay was the second son of James Mackay of Arbroath and his wife, Deborah Lyle...

, later first Earl of Inchcape

Earl of Inchcape

Earl of Inchcape is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1929 for the Scottish shipping magnate and public servant James Mackay, 1st Viscount Inchcape. He was Chairman of the P and O Steam Navigation Company...

, was elected president of the Chamber in 1890, and Ernest Cable

Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable

Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable was an Indian-born British merchant and financier.-Background:Born in Calcutta, he was the eldest son of George Hebberd Cable, a superintendent with the Indian Customs and Excise Service. His mother Emily Maria, was the daughter of William Pickersgill, who had served...

 in 1903, followed by Sir Apcar Alexander Apcar

Apcar family

For more than a century the Apcar family was prominent in commerce and industry in India.Aratoon Apcar was the founder of Apcar & Co in 1809 and Senior Member until his death, 54 years later. He came to India in 1795, first to Mumbai and then to Kolkata in 1830...

 KCSI

Order of the Star of India

The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:# Knight Grand Commander # Knight Commander # Companion...

 from 1904 to 1907. Archibald Birkmyre (1875–1935) was vice-president, and John Jardine Paterson

John Jardine Paterson

Sir John Valentine Jardine Paterson was a Scottish business man whose career was mostly in India.He was Chairman of the family firm, Jardine Henderson of Calcutta , from 1963 to 1967, Chairman of the Indian Jute Mills Association in 1963 and President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry...

 was President in 1966.

In 2004, O. P. Jindal

O. P. Jindal

Om Prakash Jindal , popularly known as O.P. Jindal was born in Hisar,Haryana.He established a successful business enterprise under the flagship of the Jindal Organization. O.P. Jindal was the Chairman of the Jindal Organization...

 (1930–2005) was awarded the Chamber's Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contribution to the Indian Steel Industry.

List of Presidents

• John N. Bullen: 1865
• Sir Alexander Wilson (1843–1907): 1885
• Henry Blois Hawkins Turner (1839–1909): 1886–1887
• James Lyle Mackay
  James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape
  James Lyle Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape, GCSI, GCMG, KCIE was a British colonial administrator in India.Mackay was the second son of James Mackay of Arbroath and his wife, Deborah Lyle...
  
  , later first Earl of Inchcape
  Earl of Inchcape
  Earl of Inchcape is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1929 for the Scottish shipping magnate and public servant James Mackay, 1st Viscount Inchcape. He was Chairman of the P and O Steam Navigation Company...
  
  , 1890
• Sir Allan Arthur (1857–1923): 1894–95, 1896–97, part of 1898, 1899–1900
• Sir Montagu Cornish Turner (1853–1934): 1898, 1901, 1902
• Sir George Henry Sutherland (1866–1937): 1900–1901
• Ernest Cable
  Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable
  Ernest Cable, 1st Baron Cable was an Indian-born British merchant and financier.-Background:Born in Calcutta, he was the eldest son of George Hebberd Cable, a superintendent with the Indian Customs and Excise Service. His mother Emily Maria, was the daughter of William Pickersgill, who had served...
  
  , 1903
• Sir Apcar Alexander Apcar
  Apcar family
  For more than a century the Apcar family was prominent in commerce and industry in India.Aratoon Apcar was the founder of Apcar & Co in 1809 and Senior Member until his death, 54 years later. He came to India in 1795, first to Mumbai and then to Kolkata in 1830...
  
   KCSI
  Order of the Star of India
  The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:# Knight Grand Commander # Knight Commander # Companion...
  
  , 1904 to 1907
• Sir Ruthven Grey Monteath (1864–1949): 1914
• Sir Francis Hugh Stewart (1869–1921): 1915
• Sir Edward Hugh Bray (1874–1950): 1917
• Sir Walter Erskine Crum (1874–1923): 1919–20
• Sir Alexander Robertson Murray (1872–1956): 1920
• Sir Campbell Rhodes (1874–1941): 1922
• Sir Willoughby Langer Carey (1875–1933): 1923
• Sir William Crawford Currie (1884–1961): 1924–1925
• Sir John William Anderson Bell (1873–1938): 1926–1927
• Sir Edward Charles Benthall (1893–1961): 1932 and 1936
• Sir George Riddoch Campbell (1887–1965): 1935–36 and 1938–39
• Sir (John) Henry Richardson (1889–1980): 1940
• Sir (Robert) Renwick Haddow (1891–1946): 1942–43 and 1945–46
• Sir John Henry Burder (1900–1988): 1943–1944
• Sir Kenneth William Mealing (1895–1968): 1944–1945
• Sir Harry Townend (1891–1976): 1946–1947
• Sir Hugh Douglas Cumberbatch (1897–1951): 1947–1948
• Sir Arthur Paul Benthall (1902–1992): 1948 and 1950
• Sir Anthony Joseph Elkins (1904–1978): 1949
• Sir Albert Ridgeby Foster (1907–1973):
• Sir Charles Alexander Innes (1902–1963): 1952–1953
• Ernest John Pakes (1899–1988): 1953–1954
• Sir George Mason MacKinlay (1906–1973): 1954–1955
• Sir (George) Alexander Sim (1905–1980): 1955–1956
• Sir Owain Trevor Jenkins (1907–1996): 1956–1957
• Sir Walter Harold Strachan Michelmore (1908–1988): 1957
• Sir John Douglas Keith Brown (1913–2000): 1958–1960
• Sir Henry Morton Leech Williams (1913–1989): 1960
• Sir Nicol Stenhouse (1911–1998): 1961–1962
• Sir Hugh MacKay-Tallack (1912–1989): 1962–1963
• Sir Alec Drummond Ogilvie (1913–1997): 1964–1965
• Sir James Harvey Kincaid Stewart Lindsay (1915–2007): 1965
• Sir John Jardine Paterson
  John Jardine Paterson
  Sir John Valentine Jardine Paterson was a Scottish business man whose career was mostly in India.He was Chairman of the family firm, Jardine Henderson of Calcutta , from 1963 to 1967, Chairman of the Indian Jute Mills Association in 1963 and President of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry...
  
   (1920–2000): 1966-1967
• Sir Cyril Alfred Pitts (1916–2009): 1967–1968
• Sir (John) Michael Parsons (1915–2009): 1968–1969
• Dr Abhijit Sen: 1991
• Mr Sundaresan Radhakrishnan: 2007-2008

Notable corporate members

The present members of the Chamber include Allahabad Bank

Allahabad Bank

Allahabad Bank , , which began operations in 1865, has its head-quarters in Kolkata. Currently the bank has 2500 branches across the country. The Chairman and Managing Director of the bank is Shri J. P. Dua. The bank has a branch in Hong Kong and a representative office in Shenzen.-19th...

, Alstom Projects India Ltd.

Alstom

Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...

, American Reprographics Company

American Reprographics Company

American Reprographics Company is the largest reprographics company in the United States, providing business-to-business document management services to the architectural, engineering and construction industry. It also provides these services to companies in other industries that require...

, Andrew Yule and Company Ltd.

Andrew Yule and Company Ltd.

Andrew Yule & Co. Ltd. is an Indian manufacturing and industrial conglomerate, primarily owned by the Indian Government. It is the main company owned by the Yule Group. It is currently headquartered in Kolkata , and has offices in the main Indian cities...

, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata

Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, Kolkata

Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals is a joint venture between Apollo Hospitals and Parkway Holdings. It is a 325-bed multispecialty hospital.-Location:chandan nagar...

, AREVA T&D India Limited

Areva

AREVA is a French public multinational industrial conglomerate headquartered in the Tour Areva in Courbevoie, Paris. AREVA is mainly known for nuclear power; it also has interests in other energy projects. It was created on 3 September 2001, by the merger of Framatome , Cogema and...

, Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd., Bajaj Allianz General Insurance

Bajaj Allianz General Insurance

-Introduction:Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Limited is a joint venture between Bajaj Finserv Limited and Allianz AG...

, Babcock Borsig Ltd.

Deutsche Babcock

Deutsche Babcock AG was a German manufacturing company based in Oberhausen in the Ruhr District, the center of the German economy. The company was established in 1898 as a German subsidiary of the British boilermaking company Babcock and Wilcox, Limited...

, Balmer Lawrie

Balmer Lawrie

Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd is a Government of India Enterprise which manufactures barrels and drums, greases and lubricants, performance chemicals, functional additives and marine freight containers.It also undertakes tea exports and trading, travel, tours, and cargo and engineering services such as...

, Berger Paints India Ltd

Berger Paints India Ltd

Berger Paints India Limited is an Indian paint company which operates chiefly in India headquartered in Kolkata, India. It has come a long way since its inception in the year 1923...

, Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd.

Bhushan Steel

Bhushan Steel is the largest manufacturer of auto-grade steel in India and is spending Rs. 260 billion to expand its capacity to 12 million tonnes annually, from the present installed capacity of around one million tonnes.-Financials and management:...

, Biecco Lawrie

Biecco Lawrie

Biecco Lawrie Limited is a Public Sector Undertaking under ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas of the Government of India and was established in 1919 as British India Electric Construction Company Limited...

, Birla Tyres

Birla Tyres

Birla Tyres, a division of Kesoram Industries, was founded in 1991. They manufacture tyres for automobiles, motorcycles, commercial vehicles, farm vehicles and heavy earth-mover machinery....

, BOC India Ltd.

The BOC Group

The BOC Group plc was the official name of the multinational industrial gas and British based company more commonly known as BOC, and now a part of The Linde Group. In September 2004, BOC had over 30,000 employees on six continents, with sales of over £4.6 billion. BOC was a constituent of the...

, Britannia Industries Ltd., Calcutta Business School, Castrol India Ltd.

Castrol India

Castrol India is an automotive and industrial lubricant manufacturing company. Castrol India is the 2nd largest manufacturer of automotive and industrial lubricants in the Indian lubricant market and owns around 22% market share in the overall Indian lubricant market. Its part of Castrol Limited UK...

, CESC Limited, Chatterjee Management Services Private Ltd.

Purnendu Chatterjee

Purnendu Chatterjee is a Bengali industrialist and entrepreneur. He is the Founder and Chairman of The Chatterjee Group and also serves as Executive Director to Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.- Education :...

, Coal India Limited

Coal India Limited

Coal India Limited is an Indian state-controlled coal company headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal, India and the world's largest coal miner with revenue exceeding 60,245 Crore . It was formerly owned entirely by the Union Government of India, under the administrative control of the Ministry of...

, Delhi Business School's Kolkata Campus, Descon Limited, Dr. B.C. Roy Engineering College, Durgapur

Dr. B.C. Roy Engineering College, Durgapur

Dr. B.C. Roy Engineering College is a private engineering college in Durgapur, India. It was established on 21 August 2000 with its first batch of students.-The Campus:...

, Dunlop India, National Institute of Technology, Durgapur

National Institute of Technology, Durgapur

The National Institute of Technology, Durgapur , formerly the Regional Engineering College , Durgapur, was established under an Act of the Parliament of India in 1960 as one of the eight RECs...

, Eastern Railway, EIH Limited, Eveready Industries India, Exide Industries, Fortis Healthcare Limited

Fortis Healthcare Limited

Fortis Healthcare Limited is an established chain of super speciality hospitals based in Delhi also available in Amritsar, Kolkata, Navi Mumbai, Mohali, Jaipur, Chennai, Kota, Bengalore....

, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers

Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers

Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited is one of India's leading shipyards, located in Kolkata, West Bengal. It builds and repairs commercial and navals vessels....

, Gillanders Arbuthnot & Co. Ltd, Greaves Cotton, GTZ (India) Private Limited

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit or GIZ is an international enterprise founded in 1975 by Erhard Eppler and owned by the German Federal Government, operating in many fields across more than 130 countries. It primarily works for public-sector organizations and is...

, Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd.

Haldia

Haldia has a typical moderate climate with winter temperatures ranging from a low of around 7 degrees Celsius to a high of 22 degrees Celsius. Winters are chilly and is when the residents hold the Haldia Utsav festival. Summers can be very hot and humid. Usual summer temperatures in May, the...

, Hawkins Cookers Limited

Hawkins Cookers Limited

Hawkins Cookers Limited is a company in India which manufactures domestic pressure cookers and cookware based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The company has three manufacturing plants at Wagle estate Thane, Hoshiarpur and Jaunpur. It manufactures under brand names of Hawkins, Futura, Contura and Ventura...

, Hindalco Industries Ltd.

Hindalco Industries

Hindalco Industries Ltd. is one of the world's largest Aluminium manufacturing company and is a subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group. It is run by one of the world's youngest billionaires, Mr. K.M. Birla.-Financial information:...

, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Housing Development Finance Corporation

Housing Development Finance Corporation

Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited or HDFC , founded 1977 by Hasmukhbhai Parekh, is an Indian NBFC, focusing on home mortgages. HDFC's distribution network spans 283 outlets that include 66 offices of HDFC's distribution company and HDFC Sales Private Limited.In addition, HDFC covers...

, Howrah Mills, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta is an institute of management located in Kolkata , India giving diplomas in management...

, Hyatt Regency Kolkata, ICFAI Business School, Internet Content Rating Association

Internet Content Rating Association

Internet Content Rating Association was an international non-profit organization with offices in the United States and the United Kingdom...

, India Steamship

Chambal Fertilisers

Chambal Fertilisers is large fertiliser manufacturing company based in Rajasthan in India.Established in the year 1985 by Birla group, Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Limited grew into the largest manufacturer of Urea in the private sector with an installed capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per annum...

, Indian Oil Corporation

Indian Oil Corporation

Indian Oil Corporation Limited, or IndianOil, is an Indian state-owned oil and gas corporation with its headquarters are in Mumbai, India. It is India’s largest commercial enterprise, ranked 98th on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2011...

, and International Combustion (India) Ltd.

International Combustion

International Combustion Limited was a major manufacturing business based in Derby offering products for the nuclear engineering industry. International Combustion Australia Limited was a separate non-affiliated company.-History:...