My dear Colleagues,
I welcome you to this
twenty-sixth Annual General Meeting of our Association. The Annual Report
and Audited Statement of accounts for the year 1999-2000 is already with
you and with your permission, I take them as read. I would like to
highlight some of the achievements of our Association during the year.
In continuation of the trend set in earlier years our Association has
achieved 20% growth in income over that of last year.
The Construction of the Silver
Jubilee building (constructed at a cost of Rs.30 lakhs) was completed and
the same was inaugurated on 13th March’ 2000 by Dr. Anil
Kakodkar, Director, BARC.
ERDA successfully negotiated and
got sponsored a project for the setting up of LOCA (Loss of Coolant
Accident) test facility at a cost of Rs. 103 lakhs from the Board of
Research for Nuclear Sciences (BNRS), BARC. Foundation for this test
facility was laid by Dr. Anil Kokodkar, Director BARC on 13th
March, 2000. The facility is expected to be operational by March 2001.
A grant of Rs.20 lakhs for the
establishment of EMI/EMC testing laboratory was received from the
Government of Gujarat. The laboratory was inaugurated by Shri
Sureshchandra Mehta, Honorable Minister for Industry, Government of
Gujarat, on 29th July’ 2000. The Laboratory has started
functioning since then.
Linkages with the Institutions
and Industries to exploit R&D capabilities and to explore
possibilities of commercialization of technologies developed at ERDA were
strengthened. Seven MoU’s were entered into with different
organizations.
New test facilities like
Conductor, Rope & Wire testing, Dynamic testing of conductors, Wear
test, Power frequency withstand test, RIV test facilities were established
during the year.
During the year, ERDA completed
ten sponsored Research projects and continued investigations of eighteen
other projects, which are at different stages of completion.
The knowledge updating and
dissemination programs were continued and during the year, ERDA organized
one seminar, two tutorials, four workshops and thirteen regular training
courses. I am happy to State that ERDA has not neglected its own human
resource development aspect. In this direction lectures and training
course were organized to enhance the knowledge, skill and motivation of
its employees.
ERDA scientists presented papers
in national & international conferences including IEEE & CIGRE
conferences.
ERDA was awarded "Best
improvement in Performance as Energy Auditor" and "Best Energy
Auditor" awards for 1998-99 by the Petroleum Conservation Research
Association.
Before concluding, I would like
to express my thanks to my colleagues on the Managing Committee,
particularly, the Vice-President Shri S. B. Gupte for their support and
cooperation. My thanks are due to the Director General CSIR and his
representative, to the industries Dept. of Govt. of Gujarat particularly
to the Industries commissioner and Shri R. J. Shah, Chief industrial
advisor for their continued valuable support.
All the above achievements are
due to the dynamic leadership of Dr. M. Ramamoorty Director, ERDA and his
team of officers and staff and I would like to thank them all. I would
also like to thank the organizations and customers who have supported us
during the year.
