Mangaluru: Vatika Pai replaced Jeevan Saldanha to take over the reins for the year 2017-18 after she was elected unanimously as the 53rd president of the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).

The 28-year-old Vathika Pai has became the youngest president and the second female president of KCCI at its 77th annual general body meeting held recently.

Pai is running Vathika International Travels, established by her in 2007 and also looks after Nirmal Travels established by her parents.

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

The other members of the newly elected Board of KCCI for 2017-18 include 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 and K Dinesh Rao, directors.

A postgraduate in finance management, Pai had been the secretary and vice-president of the chamber in the previous two years.

Pai on her elevation, told media that her focus would be 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 added.

The other focus areas of KCCI would be to strengthen tourism infrastructure and Information Technology to arrest migration of young talents to bigger cities, Pai stated.