86th IBHA Annual General Meeting

“ Dear IBHA Members

A very warm welcome to you and thank you for participating in this 86th Annual General Meeting of your Association.

We are living in unprecedented times, during the COVID pandemic and, I want to offer my compassion and extend best wishes to all members to keep mentally and physically healthy – this is most important.

This external unfavourable event is what it is, and because it continues to rage on in India, I urge members to keep calm and peaceful thereby giving you the energy to be mentally resilient and physically fit as you deal with both challenges at professional work and at home.

I would also like to express my solidarity to the factory teams, the supply chain teams and the sales teams of our member organisations who are doing a remarkable job in adversity by getting product to consumers.

During the year gone by, I am proud to share that IBHA has enhanced its stature and credibility with the Government, and it has become a preferred industry partner, very much in keeping with the legacy of our predecessors. I would like to highlight a few examples of IBHA’s important contributions :

1. Ministry of Consumer Affairs -misleading advertising governance – in the CP Act
2. Ministry of Environment and Forests : EPR guidelines( June ) in the Plastic Waste Management Rules
3. Getting Hand Sanitizers exempt from sale licenses thereby allowing IBHA members to produce distribute and sell
4. Free movement of ALL product categories during lockdown
5. Getting Cosmetics included as a category and getting IBHA in the committee of the National Biodiversity Authority.

Comments on the Economy & Market:

You are well aware that due to the pandemic, the published GDP growth of Q2 has been a negative 24 percent and the Beauty and Hygiene market has contracted even more versus the Q2 of 2019. Beyond these numbers it is pointless to make forecasts because the pandemic continues bringing its set of pulls and pushes of demand and supply be it urban or rural or be it the categories. However, what we need to do is to continue to seek opportunities in adversity be they with new or existing product categories or with productivity projects.

Lastly I would like to mention that a valuable member of the IBHA team has recently left us – that is Prasad Neginhal, the head of our legal team. We thank you for your excellent contribution to our various causes and wish you well in your next assignment.

I thank all the committees and the office bearers – the executive committee, the legal committee, the technical committee, the plastics waste management committee and the anti-counterfeit committee for your great service to IBHA.

Thank You ! ”