Dr A S Ravindra Rao, Resident Trustee, Friends of Moral Re-Armament (India) welcoming the delegates at the Inaugural session of the conference. Looking on (l to r) are: Kiyoshi Nagano, Director, International IC Association, Japan; Rajendra Chavan, Chief Officer, Panchgani Hill Station Municipal Council; Sarosh Ghandy, Regional Director, CIB; Dr J J Irani, Director, Tata Sons Ltd.; Farhad Forbes, Director, Forbes Marshall Group.The Caux Initiatives for Business (CIB) conference jointly co-hosted by Indian and Japanese Initiatives of Change associates, was launched in Panchgani, Maharashtra, India, between 20-24 November 2009. Its aim was to attempt to find answers to the problems that face the global economy. The theme of the Conference “From Financial Crisis To a New Economic Order – The Need to Reintroduce Trust and Integrity as Common Business Practices" brought together 140 delegates from 13 countries.

The delegates were welcomed by Dr. Ravindra Rao, resident Director at Asia Plateau and was followed by Mr Rajendra Chavan, the CEO of the Municipal Corporation of Panchgani who welcomed all delegates to the beautiful hill station of Panchgani. He said that there was only one thing above all that mattered in today's world and that was "trustworthiness, which is not a skill, but is the quality of our character." Read full report here>>

Rajeev Dubey, President and member of the Group Management Board of the Indian industrial giant Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. gave a ‘Caux Lecture’ on ‘Transforming Capitalism with Trust and Integrity’ in the Initiatives of Change centre in Switzerland, with 160 participants from 38 countries.

Rajeev Dubey: (Photo: Hélène Bielak)Dubey spoke about the Mahindra group – which has 108,000 employees in 47 countries – and its policy of ‘employee social options’ through which employees are encouraged to put time and effort into educational, environmental and public health programmes in the communities where they work. So far, 25,000 workers have given their time. ‘We dare to dream that we can make a positive difference to the communities and nations we live and operate in,’ Dubey said. The firm, he said, was determined to work in a spirit of ‘satya’ ‘prem’ and ‘seva’ – Truth, Compassion and Service. (Click here to read more about Dubey's lecture.) More information