Saturday, March 19 2005 10:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Leading industrialist and AV Birla group Chairman Kumarmangalam Birla will head the Board of Trade, which will be reconstituted in the next two days, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said yesterday (Mar 18, 2005).

Besides Birla, Tata Sons Finance Director Ishaat Hussain, Essar Group Managing Director Prashant Ruia and HCL Chairman Shiv Nadar will be in the Board as members.

Apparel Export Promotion Council Chairman A Shaktivel, SPIC Chairman A C Muthaiah and Ravi Raheja of Shopper's Stop will also be on the Board.

"We have tried to include younger and more hands-on industrialists who can actually give a new drive to the Board," Nath said on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in New Delhi.

The Board is an advisory body of the Commerce Ministry and the decision to revamp it was announced in the National Foreign Trade Policy in August last year (2004).

Kamal Nath had then made it clear that the Board would no longer be headed by the Minister but by an eminent person from industry.