Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has been conferred the Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia, the Order of the Star of Italy by the Government of Italy. The Ordine della Stella d’Italia was established in 2011 by the Italian Government to reward individuals who have collaborated and solidified friendly relationships and cooperation between Italy and foreign countries.
The Award was bestowed by Mr Vincenzo de Luca, Ambassador of Italy to India, in a ceremony held at the Embassy of Italy in New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador de Luca noted, “Italy is now the third largest trading partner of India in the EU, thanks to CIIs effective partnership”
Receiving the Award, Mr Banerjee stated, “The recognition reaffirms the strong and close friendship between India and Italy and honours Indian industry and CII. Today, the bilateral engagement spans the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship, art and culture, collaborative industrial R&D, financing and several industry sectors.”
The Award ceremony was attended by senior officials of Government of India, top corporate leaders, and members of the Italian Embassy, among other notable participants.
CII has been working closely with Italy on expanding the business engagement. In 2018, CII and the Government of India held the CII-DST India Italy Tech Summit where Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy participated.
During the Covid period, CII and the Embassy of Italy took the lead in organising virtual business meetings and dialogues, among the first to do so, to ensure that industry ties remained proactive even while battling the pandemic.
Earlier, CII had maintained an office in Milan which worked to bring together small and medium enterprises from both countries for business ventures, apart from large corporates.
