Vapi businessman is Rotary International president

An industrialist from Vapi will become the third Indian to occupy the prestigious post of president of Rotary International. Kalyan Banerjee, of the Rotary Club of Vapi, Gujarat, will become Rotary’s 101st president, and the third from India, on July 1.

In his tenure as president till June 30, 2012, Banerjee will lead a global network of 12 lakh business and professional leaders from more than 200 countries and geographical regions, informs Rotary International in a statement issued on its website.

Banerjee, who arrived late evening on Thursday in Mumbai, will take his new charge in the Mumbai office of Rotary on Friday morning. He will oversee Rotary’s top priority of eradicating polio that still threatens children in Africa and Asia — including India.

Apart from being a Rotarian, Banerjee is also a director of United Phosphorus Limited and the chair of United Phosphorus (Bangladesh) Limited. He is a member of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Chemical Society, a past President of Vapi Industries Association and former chair of the Gujarat chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He earned a degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. Banerjee and his wife, Binota, have two children and four grandchildren.

Banerjee has been marshaling his energies for Rotary since 1972, when he joined the fledgling club in his hometown of Vapi. Around the same time, the young chemical engineer was starting up a small company to produce red phosphorous, an essential ingredient in fertiliser.

Under Banerjee’s leadership, United Phosphorous Limited blossomed into the largest agrochemical manufacturer in India. And Vapi, thanks to support from the local Rotary club, has been transformed from a sleepy village into a major industrial centre in
Gujarat state.