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IEEE BANGALORE SECTION NEWSLETTER |
VOL 9, NUMBER 1, MARCH 2005 |
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Page 3 of 7 |
REPORT ON ANNUAL GENERAL BODY MEETING
The Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) of IEEE, Bangalore Section for the year 2004 was held on 6th February 2005 at Hotel Taj West End, Race Course Road, Bangalore. There was an overwhelming response for the AGM with 194 members several of them attending with their spouse and 3 invitees. The total attendance was about 294, which includes Student members as well. Dr.S.Pal, Chairman, chaired the meeting with Mrs.Sujata Sharma compeering the event. A hand out comprising the Agenda Notes of AGM 2004, Secretary‘s Report for the year 2004, Treasurer Report for the year 2004 and the minutes of AGM 2003, along with a compliment were distributed to all the members who attended the meeting.
Members
on the Dias
WELCOME
Dr.Surendra Pal, Chair welcomed the gathering and thanked the members for taking time out of their busy schedule to attend the AGM which was an important annual event of the Section. He told the AGM that all of us in the section in one way or the other would have contributed towards the tsunami relief. He requested the AGM to observe a minute of silence for the victims who lost their lives in the recent tsunami that struck the Southern Coast of India.
MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS AGM
Chairman requested the Annual General Body to consider for adoption the Minutes of the AGM 2003. Mr. M.K.S.Murthy proposed for adoption of the Minutes and Mr. S. Parameswaran seconded the same. The Minutes were duly approved and adopted.
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY FOR THE YEAR 2004
Mr. V.V. Srinivasan, Joint-Secretary presented the highlights of various
activities of the Section. He pointed
out that the Section conducted technical talks, DLTs, workshops and symposiums
on various topics in cutting edge technology.
Secretary mentioned that all the technical talks organized by the
Section did not have registration fee and received good response. Joint-Secretary also informed the AGM that
in the month of September (from the 1st
to 3rd) the Section conducted an International Symposium on
Microwaves (ISM-2004) with Prof. A. Selvarajan (Emeritus Professor, IISc) and
Technical Chair Shri. H. Ramakrishna (Former Executive Director, CRL-BEL) as
Technical Chair. The event was
sponsored by M/s CO-PEX Pvt. Ltd and was co-sponsored by IETE, IMAP and IEE Bangalore
Chapters. Briefing on ISM 2004, the
Joint-Secretary informed that considering the time available from
conceptualization of theme to the execution of the event, the symposium was a
great success. The Symposium and
Exhibition were inaugurated by Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO. During the inaugural session, four senior
Microwave engineers were honored for their lifetime contribution towards spread
of Microwaves in India.
Joint-Secretary highlighting the Awards won by the Section, informed that in the month of April 2004 at R10 AGM, GOLD Affinity Group, Bangalore was judged the best Group and Best GOLD Affinity Award was given to it. The AGM was informed about the election of Dr. P.V. Anand Mohan, as IEEE Fellow from January 2005. AGM was also informed that Past Chairman of the Section Prof. S.V. Sankaran was in the R10 Executive Committee and was also the Chair of the Membership Development of R10. For 2005, Prof. H.P. Khincha from Bangalore Section also joined the R10 Executive Committee and will be the chair of Educational Activities.
Dr. T. Srinivas (Technical Activities Chair) under the guidance of Prof. A.
Selvarajan, had organized the Annual Technical Symposium and BRV Vardhan
Memorial Student Paper Contest during the last quarter of 2004. The theme of the symposium was Power Systems.
Prof. Hiriyannaiah proposed adoption of the Secretary’s Report and Mr. S. Bhaskaran seconded it. The Secretary’s Report was adopted by AGM.
AGM
Participants
REPORT OF THE TREASURER FOR THE YEAR 2004
Treasurer, Wg. Cdr. H.R.Parthasarathy, presented the audited Section accounts for the year 2004 and highlighted the fiscal accounts of the Section as given in the financial statement. The report presented a healthy financial position of the Section with a growth of about 20% in contribution to the corpus of the Section. Dr. A.S. Prakasa Rao proposed the financial report for adoption and Prof. K.Rajgopal seconded the same. The AGM thus adopted the financial report for the year 2004.
Chairman of the Section asked the AGM’s approval for appointing M/s. Vinod
and Co., as Auditors for the section.
This resolution was adopted with Prof. S.V. Sankaran proposing the
nomination and Prof. Hiriyannaiah seconding the same.
SOCIETIES, CHAPTERS AND GOLD AFFINITY GROUP REPORTS
Chairmen/Representatives of the Society Chapters and GOLD Affinity Group had briefed the AGM about the activities of their respective Chapters. Mr. Raghunathan the Chair of CPMT Chapter and Dr. P.V. Ananda Mohan, Chair of CSS, the newly formed societies also briefed the AGM about the formation of the societies and their future plans of action for 2005.
REPORTS ON STUDENT ACTIVITIES
Student Activities Chair (SAC) Mr. K. Ramakrishna presented the report of Student Activities. SAC informed AGM that the student membership had grown by 43 % during the year and mentioned that in the forthcoming year it can grow by 100%. This is basically due to the fact that many students have realized the advantages of becoming a member of IEEE, which was being conveyed to the new students. SAC mentioned that the section had spent more than 40 % of its annual budget on the student activities. The Student Activities Chair highlighted the financial support extended to various new and existing Student Branches. During July 2004, the section selected three student members to attend the 2nd R10 Student Congress held at Hong Kong and provided partial financial support for two of the three student members. These student members were introduced to the AGM and they briefed their experiences of Student Congress.
SAC informed the AGM that three new Student Branches were approved during the year and all of them were inaugurated. Apart from this, the Section has helped many colleges in filing petition for opening a Student Branch and had also conducted talks on benefits of becoming an IEEE student member. The trend of opening more Student Branches in reputed colleges will be continued in the year to come. SAC requested the Chairs of the Student Branches to sustain the membership, since when the active final year students pass out; the membership comes down and shall be compensated by the induction of new members. SAC also advised the student branches to submit all the necessary reports on the Branch activities to HQ in time and avail the eligible rebate.
The AGM was informed that the Section has decided to award Best Student Branch Award carrying a cash prize of Rs.10,000/-, towards which eight applications were received. Based on the guidelines evolved for the selection SAC announced that the Student Branches at Sri Jayacharmaraja College of Engineering at Mysore and Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, shared the Best Student Branch Award for the year 2004. Prof. M.A.L. Thathachar, Ex-Chair of the Section presented a Certificate with Citation and a Cash Award of Rs.5,000/- each to the above student branches.
PRESENTATION OF STUDENT PAPER CONTEST AWARDS.
Prof. Hiriyannaiah distributed certificates and prizes to the winners of the
B.R.V.Vardan Memorial and PG Student Paper Contest 2004. In
the PG category the best prize went to Ms. N Ramya of Indian Institute
of Science. In the UG category the prizes are given in Memory of Prof. BRV.
Varadan. First Prize was awarded to Mr. Abhinav Kalamdani of RV
College of Engineering, Bangalore and Mr. Amar Harish and M. Dushyant of VV
College of Engineering, Mysore, shared the second prize.
FELICITATION TO FELLOW
In honour of his achievement on getting elected as Fellow 2004, Dr. Ananda Mohan was felicitated by Section Chairman Dr. S.Pal, by presenting a silver plaque.
Chairman Dr.Pal presenting a Plaque to Dr. Ananda
Mohan
FELICITATION OF EX-CHAIRMAN
The EXECOM during its monthly meeting resolved to honour the immediate Past Chairman of the Section for his significant contribution for the growth of the Section. Chairman, felicitated Prof. S.V. Sankaran, Chair for 2002-03 by presenting a sliver plaque.
ELECTION OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FOR 2005
Prof. S.V. Sankaran, Chair of the Slate Nominations Committee presented the slate for 2005 to the AGM. The slate is as follows
Chairman : Dr. Surendra Pal ISRO Fellow
Vice Chairman : Prof. A.Selvarajan IISc. SM
Vice Chairman : Mr. K.Ramakrishna POWERGRID SM
Secretary : Dr. A.Pandian WIPRO SM
Treasurer : Wg. Cdr. Parthasarathy C-DOT M
Members : Mr. A.Raja Rao BHEL (retd.) SM
Mr. Hitesh Mehta Eagle Photonics SM
Mr. V.V.Srinivasan ISRO SM
Mr. L.Charles Santhosam C-DOT M
Dr. K.J. Vinoy IISc M
Past Chairman : Prof. S.V.Sankaran Daimler Chrysler SM
Past Chairman : Prof. K. Rajgopal IISc SM
Prof. S.V. Sankaran also mentioned that in the absence of any nominations or petitions, the Executive Committee 2005 was declared elected unanimously. The EXECOM was authorized by the AGM to co-opt some more members to the EXECOM
CHAIRMAN'S REMARKS
Dr. S.Pal in his remarks said that the section has kept its tradition of maintaining the high standards of activities during the year. The Chairman thanked the active and vibrant EXECOM members for conducting the various technical, professional and student activities and mentioned that a great amount of effort has gone into conducting these activities. The Chairman informed the AGM that the International Symposium on Microwaves conducted by the section was a success and said that the section has decided to conduct this symposium on alternate years. He said that a big push is being given to the Student Activities as 50 % of the section strength is in the student membership. He requested all the Society Chapters to file their activity reports to HQ in time to ensure receipt of eligible rebate. He briefed the AGM about the visit of IEEE President Mr. Cleon Anderson to Bangalore in January 2005. He assured the AGM that the Execom will do its best to improve the activities and help the members as much as possible. He concluded by mentioning that in the year to come the byelaws of the section would be updated and attempts would be made to register the Section.
ANY OTHER MATTERS
1. Prof. M.A.L. Thathachar mentioned that the student community in Karnataka has to do a lot of running around to get their final year project work. He suggested whether IEEE through its contacts with Industry and R&D institutions could help the students to get their project work.
2. Mr. Phanindra Kumar, TCE, a member of the Section suggested to organize more activities in power related activities. Chairman informed that the Chapter for Power Engineering Society is being formed and once it is approved by HQ, more activity in this area will be organized.
3. Mr. Anirban Basu, one of the members of the Section informed that he is not getting his IEEE Spectrum magazine regularly. Dr. S.Pal mentioned that many administrative issues such as this were discussed with Mr. Cleon Anderson, President IEEE during his visit to Bangalore in Jan 2005 and hoped that this issue will be resolved soon based on the assurance given by the President IEEE.
4. Mr. Chandra Mohan of ISRO, member for the last one year mentioned that he is yet to receive IEEE membership card and came to know about membership number from the letter received for renewal. The AGM was informed about the formation of MyIEEE in the IEEE website, which is specifically meant for resolving issues related to membership difficulties.
5. Mr. Sashwath of MIT, Manipal, a Student Member for the last year expressed difficulty while renewing membership and wanted provision to pay the annual fees in Rupees. Chairman informed Mr. Sashwath that this was one of the major issues discussed with the President, IEEE. However Dr. S.Pal suggested that, now a days credit cards are available easily and it is possible, to renew online electronically on the IEEE Website at least by Members.
6. Mr. Balaji, a member suggested that it would be convenient if the technical talks, seminars are arranged over the weekends instead of working days. Chairman informed the AGM that these talks are arranged based on the convenience of the speakers and other logistic related issues. However he assured efforts would be made to conduct the seminars, technical talks over weekends.
7. Mr. C.S. Subramanyam expressed that survey indicates 45 % of the IEEE Spectrum Magazines are not removed from the cover. He said that this is one of the general highly technical monthly magazines, which could be useful to many. Therefore he felt that once this magazine is read, they should be passed on to the libraries of many colleges and the Section should initiate some process towards this.
8. Dr. S.Pal invited feedback from members and requested more members to become volunteers for the section activities.
VOTE OF THANKS
Mr. A. Raja Rao, thanked all members and their family persons for attending the AGM. He also thanked the large number of student members who attended the AGM without which the AGM would not have been a success. He thanked the officers, members, and volunteers for making AGM 2004 a grand success.
The Annual General Body Meeting ended with a dinner.
Report by,
V.V. Srinivasan
Joint - Secretary
IEEE BANGALORE SECTION