RJC - Youth Paving The Way

Ranchi :  The Ranchi Junior Chamber (RJC)  was formed way back in 1961, by S. P. Garodia at the young age of 24. Now, in his mid seventies and an established advocate, he goes nostalgic about that period. The Junior Chamber is slated to celebrate its golden jubilee next year and these five decades has witnessed a steady transformation in its function.

The current set of office bearers, all in their teens, are a zealous lot and with a huge vision. The urge to perform and display their managerial skills is infectious, to say the least. Most of the RJC members are from the business community and use the Chamber as a platform to learn the intricacies of business per se.

Under the leadership of Rajesh Kalra, RJC president of 1996-97, Expo- Utsav was launched. The idea behind organizing such a Consumer Fair, was mainly to set up a direct consumer-manufacturer inter action on a single platform. It was an immediate hit, considering the fact that it faced tremendous competition from in numerable Trade Fairs being organized in the city, almost at regular intervals. There were just 38 participants in the inaugural event, but it was enough to encourage the members for a better performance in the coming years. Within the next decade, the enthusiasm amongst the participating companies rose to such heights that many multi national brands chose to launch their new products at the Expo. From just 38 stalls in ’96, there were 100 stalls participating in 2007. Speaking proudly about the progress, president of 2007, Kedar Mitra, narrates his unforgettable meeting with the VP of Honda Group. The VP was so impressed by RJC activities that he chose to launch his company’s latest model in the Expo, when the company did not even have an authorized dealer in the State. Auto Zone has since then, become a regular feature of Expo. Immediate past president Gautam went to the extent of saying that RJC has been an invaluable platform for him to bring out his inbuilt qualities. Today, he is a lead player in the Digital Graphics trade.

The growing popularity of Expo Utsav can be fathomed by the fact that the 2009 event, commencing on 17th instant, is to be inaugurated by the governor K. Shankaranarayanan. The added attraction from this year onwards is the announcement of fully air conditioning the Fair‘s main hall. This year the number of participants has swelled to 114, said a beaming Sumit Saraf, the current president of RJC. It is remarkable that more than 50% of the total 124 members of RJC, actively involve themselves in making the event memorable.