Tarun Kumar Basu
The Indian Cultural Center (ICC), the umbrella body of Indian community organizations in Qatar, has launched several innovative programmes to boost its membership, including an attractive discount offer for members at various shopping outlets in the country.
The ICC currently has 81 organisations affiliated to it, but its own membership remains at 1,250, an abysmally low number compared to the huge size of the Indian expatriate community here.
“Our membership has not seen a significant increase over the past many years, despite many efforts by the successive leaderships. The new committee that took over in April has come out with several new initiatives to attract more members to the organisation,” ICC President Tarun Kumar Basu told The Peninsula yesterday.
The most important of such initiatives is a discount scheme for life members, which was launched on September 1. All the members can now avail of 10 to 20 per cent discount on purchases or services at several popular outlets across the country.
“Nearly half a dozen outlets are already included in the scheme and we are talking to several new shops that are expected to follow suit,” said Basu.
The offer is currently available at Parthas, an Indian textile outlet based in the Barwa Village, all outlets of the Garden restaurant, all branches of the Aster clinic, Gulf Incon, dealers of VIP bags, and Tayseer services center (only for repair of vehicles).
All the existing members as well as those who become life members of the ICC paying a one-time fee of QR500 can avail of this offer for an unlimited period.
“Many new outlets have expressed interest to join he scheme,” he added.
Another scheme allows members or affiliate organisations who bring at least five new members to the ICC to use its Ashoka Hall free of charge for one time. The member organisations otherwise have to pay QR1,500 to use the hall that has a capacity for 300 people.
ICC, under the new leadership, is also planning to hold an Indian Community Fair on November 29 and November 30 with involvement of community members and organizations representing the different Indian states.
“Each Indian state will have an exclusive stall in the fair to showcase their traditional food, handicrafts and other ethnic products. Several commercial outlets will also set up their stalls,” said Basu. He added that this was the first time ICC is organising such an event of this magnitude.
ICC will also organise an Indian Community Sports Day on February 12, to mark Qatar’s National Sports Day, said the official.
The Peninsula
