Chennai floats a new platform for ideas - Chennai International Centre

CHENNAI: Leading business and industry personalities who have built their base and brand in Chennai have come together to revive the city's image as an intellectual capital by creating a platform for free thought and expression on a diverse set of topics from pressing geopolitical tangles to local issues to art, culture and politics.

It's called The Chennai International Centre, coming about a decade after Bengaluru got its own.

Gopal Srinivasan, the TVS family scion heading TVS Capital which runs the Rs 1,100-crore TVS Shriram growth Fund, and Lakshmi Narayanan, Founder of software exporter Cognizant Technology Solutions, are among the top businesspersons guiding, and holding important posts in, the not-for-profit company.

Srinivasan said it has been structured as a company to allow it the ease of operations of a private limited company but also has Trust to perpetuate the CIC concept beyond the generation at the helm.

The CIC has patrons like V Shanta, Chairperson of the Adyar Cancer Institute, Apollo Hospitals' Chairman Prathap Reddy, former CBI Director RK Raghavan, and other leading personalities either from Chennai or have made it their home.

CIC has a 12-member Trust, which is the promoter of the Section 8 company.

The Chennai International Circle is the fifth such after the national circle set up in 1959 was followed fifteen years back with one in Goa, Bengaluru (a decade back), and most recently in Pune.

Currently, the Madras School of Economics will play host to talks by luminaries at CIC, but would eventually have a property of its own.

Nandan Nilekani, the Infosys co-founder and architect of the unique identity programme, will deliver a speech on Friday.

Other slotted speakers at forthcoming events are Mukund Rajan, the Tata Group brand custodian, and TCA Anant, Secretary and Chief Statistician of India.

The Bengaluru centre hosts about 80 events a year. The Chennai centre plans to have two a month.

The members-only forum has so far garnered close to 200 in membership within weeks.