overview

Set up in 1907, the 110-year old IMC is an apex Chamber of trade, commerce & industry with headquarters in Mumbai. It has about 2800 direct members, comprising a cross section of the business community, including public and private limited companies and over 225 trade and industry associations through which the Chamber reaches out to over 2,50,000 business establishments in the country. IMC is the first Chamber in India to get ISO 9002-2000 certification which has since been upgraded to ISO 9001: 2008.

It has a vibrant Ladies’ Wing of around 2000 members, a Young Leaders' Forum, an Economic Research & Training Foundation, the Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award Trust and a Reference library called the F. E. Dinshaw Commercial and Financial Reference Library. Recently, it has also set up an IMC International ADR Centre.

IMC, set up in the wake of the ‘Swadeshi Movement’ by the visionary business leaders, has done a yeoman service during the freedom struggle of India. Hence, the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi accepted the Honorary Membership of IMC, the only Chamber in the country which has this privilege in 1931. IMC has always worked towards the cause of upliftment of the Society, and has been organizing seminars, workshops, etc. for promotion of trade and investment and extending the hand of cooperation to the Society at the time of natural calamities like flood, earthquake, etc. IMC is always seized of the contemporary socio economic issues and has made best efforts to find solutions. IMC is constantly fighting for “good governance” and the issues like corruption, as it believes that good governance is a panacea to the complex problems of India.

The Chamber has had the distinction of visits by almost all the Presidents of India, from Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan to Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, and Prime Ministers from Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Mrs. Indira Gandhi to Mr. Rajiv Gandhi and of course, all the Chief Ministers of Maharashtra. Also, in June 2013, Mr. Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, addressed our members. We had the privilege of having His Holiness, The 14th Dalai Lama and H.E. the Vice President of India, Mr. M. H. Ansari grace our Chamber. We also had with us Mr. Rajnath Singh, Hon’ble Union Home Minister, Mr. Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy, Mr. Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra and Mr. Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Mr. Suresh Prabhu, Hon’ble Union Minister for Railways among other dignitaries.

It has in place 147 Memorandums of Understanding with leading Chambers of Commerce in over 50 countries. Its annual India Calling programme brings investment and trade opportunities in its target countries and in India to the attention of business and political leaders. Target countries hitherto have included Singapore, UAE, the U.K., South Africa, Canada, Brussels (Belgium), Turkey, Vietnam, China, Myanmar, Germany.

Some notable achievements of IMC have been as follows:

• IMC represented the business community with seats allotted to it in the Imperial Council in Delhi and in the Provincial Legislative Councils in Mumbai.
• IMC was represented in the Mumbai Port Trust from 1944 till recently.
• At IMC’s initiative the first College of Commerce & Economics - Sydenham College of Commerce was set up in Mumbai.
• In 1927, it gave birth to FICCI which functioned from IMC premises between 1927 and 1930 from Mumbai.
• On 16th June, 2011, it set up a Pravinchandra Gandhi Chair on Banking and Finance at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) University of Mumbai.
• On 17th June, 2014, it established ‘IMC Suresh Kotak International Arbitration Centre.’
• On 6th December, 2016 IMC signed a letter of collaboration with the ‘UN Women’ to cooperate with them for women’s economic empowerment through skill building, promoting entrepreneurship and innovation; and creating enabling environment for violence free work in public spaces.

With its commitment towards social upliftment at the forefront, IMC has selected “Helping you Succeed” as its theme for the year 2018-19. Various programmes and activities undertaken by the Chamber throughout the year revolve around this theme.