l      A national Education Conclave was organized on 11-12, Dec 2006 at Scindia Kanya Vidhyalaya, Gwalior.  20 stalls were exhibited by different institutions. The students from twelve different schools of Gwalior and places like Shivpuri, Datia, Dabra and Morena visited the stalls.  Wide publicity of IETE was done through the display of banners at prominent schools of Gwalior and through local news papers.           

Hyderabad

      2nd Prof Alladi Prabhakar Endowment Lecture on “Technology for the Common Man” by Dr Krishna Tanuku, Advisor and Mentor, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad was organized by IETE Hyderabad centre on Dec 15, 2006. A book titled “Essays and Articles” by Prof Alladi Prabhakar was released by Dr Roddam Prabhakar Rao, IPS, former DGP, AP and the author was felicitated on the occasion. Shri R Venkataraman, Chairman, IETE Hyderabad centre presided over the function.   

Nagpur

      “The Need for the Convergence of Information Technology and Farming Technology to Reduce the Suicides of Farmers in Maharashtra” was the seminar conducted by IETE Nagpur centre on Jan 21, 2006, in view of the plight of farmers in Vidarbha region resulting in numerous suicides. Shri S Narayana, President, IETE presided over the function. Shri R K Gupta, the Chairman of the Technical Programme committee (TPC), was the Chief Guest. Shri Vijay Jawandhiya, an agricultural activist & one of the founder members of “Shetkari Sanghatna”, an organization working for the betterment of farmers and Shri K Narayanan, the Principal General Manager, BSNL, Nagpur, were the Guests of Honour. 

      In the opening address, Lt Col R M Onkar, Chairman of the centre stressed on the implementation of the convergence of the ICE technologies with the farming technology to empower the farmers to do better. The Guest of Honour, Shri K Narayanan, pointed out various problems faced by the farmers like seasonal rains, loans and overall lack of knowledge. He said that to ease out the problems only knowledge was the key. Shri Javandhiya was of the opinion that though technology has slowly but steadily permeated the agricultural sector, but there is poor use of technology because of lack of information and its poor application. Shri R K Gupta stressed on the importance of changing the mindset of the people concerned and making them savvy to the new technologies at hand. He even suggested of providing an alternate source of income to the farmers. 

      Shri S Narayana in his presidential address highlighted the fact that well-intentioned initiatives were being hindered and obstructed by the corrupt individuals, but that should not be the case with an experimental initiative on the part of IETE Nagpur, wherein five villages near the city would receive the computers with connectivity, as well as few information kiosks would empower them out of farming problems. A few youngsters would be given training on use of Internet and the IETE centre would also mail weather reports to them for their use. In the second phase of the pilot project, the centre has planned for the job related computer education to the village boys and providing them with sufficient job work. It is hoped that this type of convergence of Information Technology & Farming Technology would increase income of the farmers; advance information would reduce wastage due to natural cause.  Results would be studied and compared and publicized after some 3 years or so. The event was widely covered by the local dailies. 

      The seminar was divided into two technical sessions. The first technical session was held under the chairmanship of Dr K S Yawalkar, Scientist and Manufacturer of Pesticides. The speakers in the session were: Shri Vijay Jawandhiya, Wardha; Dr A K Sinha, Director, Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre, Nagpur; Dr R T Gahukar, Consultant to food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations. The second session was under the Chairmanship of Dr R T Gahukar.  The speakers in this session were: Dr S V Khandewale, well-known economist; Dr K S Yawalkar; Shri Shabad Alra, Manager e-chaupal, ITC; Dr Lonare, Director Extension, MAFS University, Nagpur; Dr M S Kadu, former Dean of Animal Husbandry Punjabrao Krishi Vidyapeeth, Akola.

      The seminar concluded with a panel discussion by Shri S Narayana, Shri R K Gupta, Shri Khandewale,
Shri Gorowara, Shri P K Rangole, Dr M S Kadu, Dr D A Deshpande, Lt Col R M Onkar, Dr Lonkar, Dr Gahukar as panelists. Shri Nitin Gujarathi of Premier Technology Group Limited, Nagpur, Vidyadhar Wankhede, a farmer of Kinhi Khurd Tq Bhivapur; Shri Krishna Halde, farmer, Mohapa Tq Kalmeshwar also participated in the panel discussion. It concluded with President’s assurance of his full support for the implementation of the pilot project of IETE Centre, Nagpur.  

            Two corporate awards initiated by the IETE Nagpur centre were presented on the occasion included the Performance Excellence Award in the IT sector, which went to Premier Technology Group Ltd, Nagpur. The Performance Excellence Award in the Electronics Industry went to Adroit Industries. In the essay competition on the topic “Space around us”, arranged by the IETE Nagpur centre, Disha Patel from Bhagwandas Purohit Vidya Mandir, was the winner. The school also received the late Ms Suraksh Gorowara Rolling Trophy, donated by Retd BSF DIG, Shri S P Gorowara in the memory of his late wife. The dignitaries were presented with mementoes and Dr K R Bagree, Hony Secretary of centre proposed the vote of thanks.

   Pune

      The following technical talks/ lectures were held at the centre as below:-

1.   Biometeric Recognition by Prof (Mrs) Manisha Dale on Dec 9, 2007.

2.   Nano Technology Application by Mrs Sangita Kale, Scientist on Oct 28, 2006

3.   Tomorrow’s Global IT Professionals by Shri Deepak Shikarpur, Chairman CSI, IT Expert, Pune.

   Rajkot

      IETE Rajkot sub-centre arranged a technical visit for the members from university,  colleges and institutional professors to the Reliance Communication of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group on 23 Jan 2007 to commemorate the opening & functioning of the centre.  Shri Dinesh Mavani, Cluster Lead-CDMA-Rajkot allowed the IETE members for this constructive and helpful visit. The engineers on duty explained the communication technologies and technical part of that control Unit to IETE members.  

   Thiruvananthapuram

      The centre conducted one-day seminar on “Next Generation Networks” on Jan 20, 2007. Shri S R Pillai, CGM, BSNL, Kerala Centre, inaugurated the seminar. Shri R P Nair, Chairman, Trivandrum Centre, presided over the function. The keynote address was delivered by Shri R N Padukone, Senior DDG, TEC, New Delhi. 

      The first session was chaired by Shri John P Zechariah, Dy Dir, VSSC, TVM. The topics covered were: NGN Architecture by Shri J Gopal, CGM, MTNL, Mumbai; WiMax- A Pathway to 4G by Shri Annamalai Murugappan, Intel, New Delhi and IP Multimedia Sub-System by Shri K V Balasubrahmanian, GM, BSNL, Virudhanagar. 

      Shri K J Chacko, CGM, BSNL (Retd) chaired the second technical session. The topics covered in this session were: Network Convergence by Shri S Prabhakaran, Principal Consultant, M/s CISCO, Chennai; Network Security by Shri K K Minocha, GM, Western Telecom Region, BSNL, Mumbai and Voice Over IP & SIP by Shri Mohanraj, Siemens. Delegates from BSNL, VSSC, RRL, KELTRON, HLL and Engg
colleges attended the seminar.                

    Varanasi

       A national seminar on “Power Engineering Controls” was organized by the IETE Varanasi sub-centre during Dec 17-18, 2006. Shri S Narayana, IETE President and Lt Gen A K Agarwal, PVSM (Retd), Vice President, chaired the inaugural session. Er Suharsh Avasthi, MD, Purvanchal Vidut Vitaran Nigam Ltd was the Chief Guest. The other dignitaries present on the occasion were Prof K P Singh, VC, VBS Purvanchal Univ; Er Ravindra Sharma, GM, Diesel Locomotive Works (Indian Railways); Shri K K Saxena, IG Police, Varanasi Zone; Prof H D Kumar, PhD (London) and former Dean, Faculty of Science and Group Coordinator Biotechnology Programme, BHU. Prof Kumar delivered the keynote address on “Some Emerging Nanotechnology for Today and Tomorrow”. Shri S Narayana, President, IETE, talked on the importance of utility of nanotechnology in power conservation. He further emphasized on the property of any material that becomes extremely useful in nano form than its micro form particles. Nano Technology could reduce the power up to 90 percent. The Chief Guest, Er S Avasthi talked about the prediction of increase in the number of transistors on an IC in near future and also the speed of chip from MHz to GHz. Prof K P Singh emphasized on the primary source of energy like terrestrial solar and wind energy, solar panels, satellites which may harness solar power for use at earth stations; on the futuristic approach in the work on BIOMAS, nuclear fission and fusion besides fossil fuels. Er Susobhan Avasthi from IIT, Kanpur, delivered a very informative lecture about the most recent solar cell device emphasizing thin films and amorphous silicon.  He talked about hotrod junction technologies like tandem cells and Cd, Te based technologies with higher efficiency. Prof H D Kumar elaborated in detail about the applications of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Er Kripa Sankar Singh, Chairman IETE sub-centre Varanasi, delivered the welcome address and Er D C Shukla, IBES, Station Engineers, Doordarshan, extended the vote of thanks.