We work with different stakeholders to transform India's
micro-entrepreneurial landscape and build small businesses into a powerful socio-economic force for the country.

CII Centre of Excellence on Employment & Livelihood - CII CEL

Industry, with its reach and resources, has the capability to build micro-businesses into an economic and social force for the country. CII CEL, supported by TVS Mobility, operates in mission mode to facilitate collaboration between industry and key stakeholders, implement impact-driven projects and facilitate key policy dialogues to break systemic and social barriers that impede the exponential growth possible in this sector.

Advisory Council Members

Mr R Dinesh

Immediate Past President, CII & Chairman

CII Centre of Excellence on Employment and Livelihood

Mr R Mukundan

Vice President

CII & Managing Director, and CEO, Tata Chemicals Limited

Mr Chandrajit Banerjee

Director General

Confederation of Indian Industry

Mr Shreekant Somany

Chairman & Managing Director

Somany Ceramics Limited

Mr B Thiagarajan

Managing Director

Blue Star Limited

Dr Nandini Rangaswamy

Chairperson, GRG Institutions and Managing Director

Chandra Textiles Private Limited

Ms Swati Salgaocar

President

VM Salgaocar and Brother Pvt Ltd

Mrs Rumjhum Chatterjee

Co-Founder & Managing Trustee

The Infravision Foundation

Mr Kamal Bali

President & Managing Director

Volvo Group India Private Limited

Dr Bharath Krishna Sankar

Chairman

Aparajitha Corporate Services Pvt Ltd

Mr Rajat Madhur

Chief Procurement (MRO & Services)

Tata Steel Limited

Join Us

Are you a corporate who wants to engage with a curated pool of microentrepreneurs?

Are you an enabler / implementor who wants to support the microentrepreneurs?

What We Do

We conduct online and offline training sessions, workshops, webinars, and experience sharing sessions for microentrepreneurs. We also visit the microenterprises to assess and evaluate what they need to scale up. This helps us design bespoke capacity building programmes for them.

Catalyse capacity building and skill development

These programmes give participants an overview of entrepreneurship, including the steps and processes needed to set up an enterprise and the resources available. This helps address fears and inhibitions and makes the process of setting up a business easier..

Run programmes to create entrepreneurs

We connect microentrepreneurs to business leaders who are interested in mentoring. This gives small businesses the impetus to keep growing. Mentoring rural microentrepreneurs, especially the youth, is an area of focus for the Centre.

Facilitate mentorship for microentrepreneurs

We connect microenterprises to larger players. This gives microenterprises the opportunity to showcase their products and services to larger businesses, who could integrate them into their supply chain.

Connect industry and microentrepreneurs

We conduct research on India's microenterprises to catalyse informed policies on challenges like low productivity and limited credit access. Analysing data on geography, demographics, and industry also helps us design informed, targeted support programmes and identify successful models for scaling up.

Commission research and
studies

Are you a small business wanting to go big? Tell us what you need.

The large group of businesses who are a member of CII Would be happy to help you with the following. All you have to do is ask. Register your interest, and we will get back to you one-on-one to explore the way forward.

Capacity Building

Mentorship

Market Linkage

Funding Support

Our Vision

To create and sustain livelihoods by fostering the growth and establishment of microenterprises

Ecosystem Partners

CII’s mission to empower micro-enterprises wouldn’t be possible without the incredible network of partners we collaborate with. These partnerships are the cornerstone of our success, allowing us to combine our strengths and expertise to create a more impactful and comprehensive ecosystem. We are grateful for our partners’ dedication and commitment.