Mangaluru, (The Hindu): At 28 years, Vathika Pai has became the youngest president and the second female president of the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) at its 77th annual general meeting held recently.

She was elected unanimously as the 53rd president of the Chamber.

Ms. Pai, who looks after Nirmala Travels, established by her parents C. Upendra Kamath and Nirmala Kamath, is also running Vathika International Travels, established by her in 2007.

KCCI, founded in 1940, had its first woman president in 2011 with Latha R. Kini.

The newly elected Board of KCCI for 2017-18 includes P.B. Abdul Hameed, vice-president, Shashidhar Pai Maroor and C.G. Prashanth, secretaries, Issac Vas, treasurer, and M. Ganesh Bhat, Nitte Yathiraj Shetty, K. Ganesh Kamath, Aditya Padmanabha Pai, Amith Ramachandra Acharya, Praveen Kumar Bangera, Ananth G. Pai, Nissar Fakeer Mohammed, B.A.Nazeer, Ananthesh V. Prabhu, K. Dinesh Rao, directors.

A postgraduate in finance management from Manipal University (2009-11), Ms. Pai had been the secretary and vice-president of the chamber in previous two years.

She had secured first ranks and gold medals in B. Com., from Mangalore University and MBA from Manipal University.

Ms. Pai told The Hindu that the chamber would continue to focus on simplifying the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime for members and trading community as a whole.

More seminars, interaction programmes and workshops would be conducted for the smooth sailing into GST regime, she said.

Focus would be on tourism sector too where the district, with abundant natural resources, has huge potential to grow.

The chamber would strive to get domestic cruise liners in the coast, while working with the government to strengthen tourism infrastructure.

Information Technology is another sector where the Chamber would be focussing on. While an incubation centre is coming up to help young entrepreneurs, the region needs entry of big companies to arrest migration of young talents to bigger cities, Ms. Pai added.