About Chandrakant Salunkhe

Mr. Chandrakant Salunkhe has been regularly interacting with the heads of regulatory authorities, financial institutions, corporates, MNCs & diplomats, guidance and support to young & women entrepreneurs and members of family-owned businesses, awareness & educational programs on the various schemes, policies, benefits, advantages and incentives, branding of made-in-India products manufactured by Indian SMEs, support to set up manufacturing units in India and abroad, organise various business promotional programs for enhancement of knowledge and skill as well as revival of sick and struggling SMEs. Under his dynamic visionary leadership, SME Chamber of India has been organising regularly various high profile and useful National & International level trade promotional activities, events, conferences, seminars, webinars, round table discussions, study visits for the benefit of SME sector, to enhance and establish business co-operation with the potential business partners.

Mr. Chandrakant Salunkhe has also been instrumental to secure the interests of SME sector for change in “Ease of Doing Business”, affecting rules & regulations of various regulatory bodies, strongly advocated to set up “SME Stock Exchange”, TReDS – Electronic platform for Trade Receivables, National Skill Development Corporation, Change of Definition of SME sector in the years of 2002 & 2020, exclusive SME Divisions in the various State Governments and SME Desk in Indian Embassies in the various countries, Start-up India platform and collateral free financial facilities for SME sector.

Mr. Chandrakant Salunkhe is being involved in the family-owned business from 1982, having Commerce & Business Management educational background, has established his own business group “Macro Group of Companies” in 1991, situated in Mumbai and involved in manufacturing and export of Packaging Machinery, Equipments and material, industrial products, food processing products, industrial Equipments and supporting various Industries & SMEs for the upgradation of their packaging units & adoption of the advanced packaging technology, patented and advanced industrial technologies for quality productivity.

• Mr. Salunkhe was invited by Mr. Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister on 27th December 2019, to give a presentation on the various issues and grievances of SME sector and provide his suggestions & recommendations as well as the initiatives and strategies to be adopted by the Government Departments for the empowerment of SME sector for better performance & global competitiveness.
• Mr. Salunkhe organised SME & Entrepreneurship Awards function in the presence of the then Hon’ble Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 1st May, 2002 at New Delhi and recommended to change the definitions of Small-Scale Industrial sector and to create new MSME Act.
• Member of RBI Governor’s Pre-Monetary Policy Review Committee for the last 15 years.
• Member, RBI Empowered Committee for SMEs and SLIC for the various States for the last 15 years.
• Member of the working group to study “MSME Development Act, 2006” for advocating to change the definitions of MSME sector constituted on 8th January 2020 by the Ministry and previously 2002, 2005 & 2006.
• Key note Speaker at “European SME Congress” organized by European commission in October 2016 at Katowice, Poland.
• Key note Speaker at “SME Assembly” organized by the European commission in November 2013 at Vilnius, Lithuania.
• Speaker at “World Trade Symposium” annual conference organized by the Financial Times in June 2016 at London.
• Speaker at G-20 Conference on SME sector at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2014.
• He has inaugurated the “Industrial & Commercial Bank of China” – ICBC Bank, India Branch on 15th September 2011 at Mumbai. ICBC is the world’s largest Chinese Bank, with a brand value of more than US$ 55 billion. ICBC Bank ranks 13th amongst the most valuable financial brands.
• Active Member of the Industry and Task Force, Maharashtra, under the Chairmanship of the then Chief Minister (2002 – 2007).
• Member of the National Advisory Board of MSME, Government of India (2011-2013).
• Advocated to set up “SME Stock Exchange” during the tenure of Mr. C B Bhave, as the Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) from 2008 to 2010.
• Board of Director of Bharat Heavy Plates and Vessels Ltd. (2002 – 2004).
• Board of Director of Asia Mergers and Acquisitions Association.
• Advocated to initiate National Skill Development Corporation through Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the then Deputy Chairman, Planning commission of India in 2008.
• Organised SME & Entrepreneurship Awards function in the presence of the then Hon’ble Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani on 1st May, 2003 at New Delhi.
• He was on the forefront to organise the first ever & a mega event on “Global Investors Meet” – Advantage Maharashtra, jointly with the Government of Maharashtra in 1996 at Mumbai. He had invited the then Prime minister, Mr. H.D. Deve Gowda and the then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Manohar Joshi and 500 plus foreign delegates, who attended 3 days event.
• Mr. Salunkhe was appointed as the Chairman of Law & Order of “Federation of Association of Maharashtra”, and he was on the forefront with the Commissioner of Police, Mumbai to weed out goons & anti-social elements, which were affecting the businesses and industries in Mumbai region and they have deteriorated law and order situations in Mumbai from April to November, 1998.
• Mr. Salunkhe has taken lead to provide collateral free loans to micro and small enterprises in 1997 and SIDBI has accepted his proposal and Shri Prakash Nimbalkar, the then Chairman of the Bank launched this scheme. Thereafter, Mr. Salunkhe has also pursued for the enhancement of collateral free loans from Rs.25 lakhs to Rs.50 lakhs and from Rs.50 lakhs to Rs.1 crore and subsequently, from Rs.1 crore to Rs.2 crores.
• Mr. Salunkhe has also suggested and pursued with the Prime Minister’s Office to enhance collateral free loans up to Rs. 5 crores for SME sector, which is considered and approved by the Government.
• He has been active Member of the various Government Committees, Study Groups and expert group to present new concepts and new ideas and given inputs on Industry, Finance and SME Sector for the last 20 years.
• He has been regularly participating in the national and international conferences as a speaker and sharing his views on the current affairs through various medias, TV channels, Business magazines, newspapers and webinars, conferences, round table, debates and various events & business meetings.