New Delhi, May 12 (IANS) The newly constituted National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at a meeting on Tuesday elected its new office bearers for the year 2026-27, with Tata Chemicals Ltd Managing Director & CEO R. Mukundan assuming office as the President for 2026-27, replacing Rajiv Memani at the helm.

Mukundan has over 30 years of experience at the Tata Group, having held various responsibilities across the chemical, automotive, and hospitality sectors of the Tata Group. He joined the Tata Administrative Service in 1990, after completing an MBA from FMS, Delhi University. He is a distinguished alumnus of IIT, Roorkee, a Fellow of the Indian Chemical Society and an alumnus of Harvard Business School. He was also awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration by XIM University, Bhubaneshwar.

The President-designate of the CII for 2025-26, he was the Chairman of CII Western Region in 2013-14. He has also chaired CII’s Institute of Quality Advisory Council, CII’s National Committee on Environment and CII’s National Committee of Industrial Relations in 2023.

Bharat Biotech International Ltd Co-Founder and Managing Director, Suchitra K Ella, takes over as CII President-Designate for 2026-27. She was instrumental in founding Bharat Biotech way back in 1996. In the past decade, Dr Ella has co-founded and nurtured several companies in veterinary sciences, agri-biotech parks, food processing, including a pre-clinical toxicology and research institute.

In 2022, Dr Ella was honoured with the Padma Bhushan for her outstanding contributions to society and industry. She is also a recipient of the SAARC Women’s Award, Colombo, the Business Achievers Award, SIMA, Singapore, among others. She was the Chairperson of CII Southern Region for 2022-23, Founder Chairperson of CII’s Indian Women’s Network from 2013-15 and Chairperson of CII Andhra Pradesh State in 2012-13.

RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group Vice Chairman Shashwat Goenka takes over as CII Vice President for 2026-27. He is an alumnus of St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Recognised widely for his influence and innovation, Goenka was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum (2024) and has received numerous accolades, including the Hurun India Next Gen Leader of the Year (2024) and Fortune’s 40 Under 40 (2023). Recently, he was recognised as a Young Leader by the France India Foundation and honoured with the One World One Family Global Leadership Award 2025, along with being featured in India Today’s Young Achiever – The Next 100.

He recently served as Chairman of the CII Eastern Regional Council and also serves as the Honorary Consul of Finland in Kolkata.

–IANS

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