The seeds of IPA’s origin go back to early nineties. There were a number of social clubs representing the Indian community in Paris. However there was no group or association representing the Indian Professionals involved in various professions and occupying important positions in the French Industry, UNESCO, Education and Research Institutions and other important sectors.
It was in November 1995 ,over a dinner at the house of Mr. Nagarajan ,the Minister Consular at the Indian Embassy ,that a group of professionals mooted the idea of launching an association of Indian Professionals in Paris. The group of four included, Prem Puri (IBM), Mohan Rao (LEXMARK) Rakesh Chandra (IBM) and Kanwar Mathur (UNESCO).
In a few days they were joined by Bikas Sanyal (UNESCO) ,Gope Hathiramani, Saifuddin Jetpurwalla and Vimal Khosla, . These eight thus became the founding members of IPA.
The founder members sent a letter on Nov 25th, 1995 inviting a total of 24 professionals including the founder members , for a luncheon meeting on December 10th, 1995. A copy of this first formal notification letter is attached to this document. It lists eight founder members and another sixteen persons invited to be the members of this “Indian Professional’s Association”. This was the first formal meeting of the Association. Fifteen persons attended this first historic meeting. These included Ramesh Bahl, C.R. Bakhshi, Gul Chadiramani, Rakesh Chandra, Lissorgues Christian, Gope Hathiramani, Saifuddin Jetpurwalla, Dr. Rajendran Kalikiri, Vimal Khosla, Jagjit Lanba, R. Nagarajan.Vijay Phadke, Prem Puri, Mohan Rao and Naresh Shah. A list signed by those present is attached
It was agreed that Prem Puri would lead the activities of the Association as the First President and Vimal Khosla as the first General secretary .The IPA was thus launched.
Over the years the IPA has continued to grow and evolve in structure and character, bringing more and more professionals in its fold. However as per the philosophy of its founding members and its charter, the membership has followed a certain criterion to ensure homogeneity and coherence of character and values.
The chronological history of the IPA’s growth runs as follows:
1996
During the year, Prem Puri conducted the IPA activities as its President and Vimal Khosla as the General Secretary.
A committee of three members , Ramesh Bahl, Vimal Khosla and Dr. F.C. Vohra drafted the first constitution of this association.
The events during the year were: in January a luncheon meeting at TGIF restaurant where discussions took place on IPA objectives and approach for future of IPA; in February a luncheon meeting at Bouling de Paris restaurant where a presentation was made of the draft of constitution prepared by Ramesh Bahl, Vimal Khosla and Faquir Chand Vohra; in March a luncheon meeting at Chi-Chi restaurant where Jagjit Lanba spoke on ‘Do’s and Don’ts for retiring in France’; in April a lunch meeting for the families get-together; in May a luncheon meeting where Vimal Khosla spoke on ‘Cellular Phones’; in June a luncheon meeting at Palais d’Archana restaurant where Ravi Jacob spoke on ‘investments’; in September a luncheon meeting where Prem Puri spoke on ‘Internet’ and assited all members to establish an e-mail account ; in October in Ashiana restaurant where Yogesh Atal of UNESCO spoke on ‘ Presentation of UNESCO.
The last engagement of the year was the Annual dinner at Vishnu restaurant on December 14th. It was attended by a total of 44 persons including the IPA members, their families and guests. The chief guests were the Indian Ambassador to France Mr. Ranjit Sethi and Mrs. Sethi. The most senior IPA member (in age) Jagjit Lanba spoke on ‘IPA – its objectives, past activities and future plans.
The dinner was preceded by a secret ballot where 21 members participated. Prem Puri was elected President for 1997. The others elected were: Vimal Khosla, Ramesh Bahl, Gope Hathiramani, Jagjit Lanba, Ravi Jacob, Dr. Rajendra Kalikiri, Mohan Rao and Naresh Shah.
These results are recorded in the Minutes of Meeting (MOM) attached to this document.
During the year more persons joined the association and at the year-end, the IPA membership stood at 33 as per the above MOM.
IPA First Ten Years History 2/11
1997
Prem Puri was thus the founder President of IPA.
The first elected Managing Committee members in addition consisted of Ravi Jacob as Vice President, Vimal Khosla as Secretary General and Ramesh Bahl as Treasurer.
The events during the year were in:
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- January a luncheon meeting at Ashiana restaurant where Vimal Khosla gave a résumé of last year’s activities. 33 members and one person from the Embassy attended the meeting,
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- February a luncheon meeting at Ashiana restaurant where Prem Puri spoke on ‘future of Internet’;
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- March a lunch meeting at Le Village de Chine where Ramesh Bahl spoke on “Building a house in France”;
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- May a full day meeting with families was held at Sharad Tripathi’s Transoft company offices where Sharad Tripathi, his daughters and colleagues gave training on ‘Internet’, the speakers included Prem Puri on e-mail, Lanba on WEB & Transoft on FTP+Options;
- June a lunch meeting at Aaradhana restaurant where the speaker was M. Jean Tardy on “L’Asie vous intéresse”.
In August IPA organized a reception for Mr. Chidambaram, Indian Finance Minister at Hotel St. James. The Ambassador Sethi and Mrs Sethi attended but the Minister had to postpone his tour at the last moment due to the unexpected prolongation of the Indian Parliament session.
Deewali dinner was held at New Balal restaurant that Ambassador Sethi and Mrs Sethi attended. The annual function was held on December 14th.
At year end the IPA membership stood at 33.
1998
Saifuddin Jetpurwalla was elected the President for 1998 during the luncheon meeting held at Ashiana restaurant.
The elected Managing Council consisted of Saifudding Jetpurwalla, Jagjit Lanba, Deepak Mathur, Ramesh Bahl, Rajiv Joshi, and Vimal Khosla.
The Working Committee included Jagjit Lanba as Vice President, Deepak Mathur as General Secretary, Ramesh Bahl as Treasurer, Rajiv Joshi as Protocol/ Secretary and Vimal Khosla as Liaison. A copy of the minutes of meeting is attached.
The plan for the year was to register the Association under the French laws and in addition to the normal activities, to increase the membership.
The IPA statutes were written by Ramesh Bahl and Vimal Khosla and were finalized with Faquir Chand Vohra. Saifuddin Jetpurwalla then properly formatted these. Gope Hathiramani offered his address to be used for registration purpose. Ramesh Bahl then got the association
IPA First Ten Years History 3/11
registered with the ‘Prefecture de Paris. The registration was subsequently published in the “ JOURNAL OFFICIEL” no. 43 of 24.10.1998. With this, the Indian Professional Association became a legal entity. The objectives of IPA are:
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- Exchange of professional information useful in the personal and business life of the members, whether tax consulting, starting a business, immigration or jobs etc.
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- To reinforce and develop contacts between professionals of India and France in the professional, scientific, economic and religious fields.
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- To liase between the professionals of India and France for transfer of technology, industrial and commercial development, organization; research, education and creating twin cities.
- Enrich our knowledge and appreciation of Indian culture and heritage and propagate the same to our friends and colleagues in Europe.
The goals for the coming year were: conduct elections in September, register the association and create a Logo, invite outside speakers, organise family get- together and define yearly programme for the year.
The events during the year were in:
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- March a luncheon meeting at Délices de l’Inde restaurant but with no conference due to heavy agenda;
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- April a families lunch at Lal Qila restaurant;
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- May a luncheon meeting at Délice de l’Inde restaurant where Dr. R. Krishnan spoke on “Medicine & Maths in Ancient India”;
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- June a Kavi Sammelan with dinner was held at Sharad Tripathi’s place;
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- September the lunch meeting was held at Kaar’s restaurant where Surender Bhandari spoke on his personal experiences in France;
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- October a lunch meeting was held at Chez Shalomi restaurant where Suman Modwell spoke on “Parallel Intellectual Interface”;
- December the lunch meeting took place at Titanic restaurant where Deepak Mathur gave an informal talk on his past experiences.
Ramesh Bahl opened the bank account in the name of IPA at BNP Montgeron in October. Also in October Deepak Mathur completed and distributed the Trombinoscope showing the IPA member’s information and their photos. Deepak Mathur also created two IPA logos for the consideration of the Managing Council. After careful consideration the MC chose the logo featuring the map of India on a globe. This was felt to better represent the IPA. This logo continues since then.
In November Deewali was celebrated with a dinner at Titanic restaurant where Ambassador Kanwal Sibal and Mrs. Sibal attended. Ambassador Sibal spoke of his past experiences in U.S.A.
At year end the IPA membership stood at 33.
1999
Vimal Khosla was elected the President for 1999 in January during the lunch meeting at Ashiana restaurant.
IPA First Ten Years History by P. K. Singh : December 2004 4/11
The elected Managing Council, in addition to the President was Deepak Mathur, Jagjit Lanba, Prem Puri, Rajiv Joshi, and Ramesh Bahl.
The Working Committee selected by the President consisted of Jagjit Lanba as the General Secretary, Deepak Mathur as Protocol, Ramesh Bahl as Treasurer, Prem Puri as Liaison and Rajiv Joshi was for Special Duties.
The events during the year were in:
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- February lunch meeting at Lal Qila restaurant where Jagjit Lanba spoke on “Ashoka Pillars in India”
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- March lunch meeting at Lal Qila restaurant the relatively complete Trombinoscope, prepared by Deepak Mathur, was distributed; also during the same month IPA Data Base was established;
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- April lunch meeting at Lal Qila Arvind Shroff spoke on “Indian community in France from 1900 to 1939”;
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- May during a meeting at Prem Puri’s place, members views for IPA’s improvement were discussed and it was decided that communication will henceforth be sent by e-mail to all those who had this facility;
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- June meeting at Lal Qila Michel Sabatier spoke on his experiences in India; in June itself a family picnic was organized at “Base de Loisir at Cergy-Pontoise”;
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- September meeting at Lal Qila Indru Advani was to speak but had to be postponed due to medical emergency, though the meeting took place with informal discussions;
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- November meeting in Lal Qila restaurant, general discussions took place on IPA improvement suggestions;
- December meeting at Lal Qila Rajiv Joshi spoke on “Genetics”.
IPA donated 2100 F.F for the Orissa Relief Fund and sent the cheque through Embassy of India in November.
Deewali dinner was held at Lal Qila restaurant with participation of the Ambassador Kanwal Sibal and Ms. Sibal.
At year end the IPA membership stood at 33.
2000
Vimal Khosla was re-elected President for 2000.
The elected Managing Council consisted of Vimal Khosla, Ramesh Bahl, Rajiv Joshi, Deepak Mathur, Prem Puri and Jagjit Lanba.
The new Working Committee selected by the President consisted of Deepak Mathur as General Secretary, N.V. Varghese, Treasurer, Lalit Bhandari as Protocol, T.R. Jayadevan as Liaison and Anuradha Kanniganti for ‘Youth and Ladies’.
The events during the year were in:
- January at Kamla restaurant, Yogesh Prasad, Minister Counsellor, spoke on “PIO Card”. He also recalled the good work done by his predecessors S.K. Sharma and Nagarajan towards formation of the IPA;
IPA First Ten Years History by P. K. Singh : December 2004 5/11
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- February lunch meeting at Ashiana restaurant Anuradha spoke on “Marriage customs in India”;
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- March lunch meeting at Rama restaurant Dr. Pandey spoke on “Indian Culture”.
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- April, some IPA members was invited by the Maire of Paris to a reception in honour of the President of India during his official visit to France;
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- April lunch meeting at Rama restaurant, Prem Puri spoke on “e-mail & Yahoo” with a demo;
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- May meeting Dr. Kalikiri spoke on “Securité Social” system in France;
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- June there was a families picnic at Base de Loisir at Cergy-Pontoise,
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- September lunch meeting Jayadevan spoke on “Doing Business with India”,
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- November lunch meeting Claude Mazerand spoke on “Ancient Indian Architecture”
- December meeting there was a general debate on “How IPA should evolve in future”.
In the preceding years the meetings were being held at various locations. However given the increasing number of members and discussions/ meetings/ talks becoming more structured, IPA felt the need to have a fixed place. Starting from this year, the meetings came to be held regularly at Rama restaurant, which would provide its basement facility exclusively to IPA.
With help from Vijay Koumar of Satyam, a model of website was created but it could not be launched due to lack of further technical support.
The elections for the next year were held in September meeting. Deepak Mathur was elected President for the year 2001.
At year end the IPA membership stood at 31.
2001
Deepak Mathur was elected President for 2001.
The elected Managing Council consisted of R. Bahl, L. Bhandari, V. Khosla, J. Lanba, C. Rajguru and Sharad Tripathi.
The Working Committee nominated by the President consisted of T.R. Jayadevan as General Secretary, A. Kanniganti as Treasurer, Ramesh Bahl as Protocol, N.V. Varghese as Conference and C. Rajguru as Admissions and Vimal Khosla as Restaurant Funds.
The Objectives for 2001were set as: Organise a conference for every IPA meeting, Update the IPA statutes, Prepare a paper on recruitment policy and procedure for IPA, Try to bring the IPA membership to the target of 50, Seek more active participation of members, Organise IPA – day, Organise friendly debates on subjects of common interest, Follow up contacts with other associations, Keep looking for the new ideas for the IPA Diwali function.
To provide information about IPA to outsiders, an IPA leaflet was written by the joint efforts of Deepak Mathur, Ramesh Bahl and Kanwar Mathur.
The monthly meetings featured talks in:
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- January on “Euro” by Pierre-Yves Landouer;
- February on “Women & Development in India – The Karve Institute” by Rajguru;
IPA First Ten Years History by P. K. Singh : December 2004 6/11
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- March on “Creation of Airbus & EADS – launch of A 380” by Ph-Eric de Montaigne;
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- April on “Fragrances & Flavours” by Michael Carlos;
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- May on “Industrial Relations between India & France” by B. Shetty of the Indian Embassy and again,
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- May on “Research to eradicate AIDS” by Prof. Maurice Moncany.
- June a picnic for IPA members and their families was held at Draveil.
By now the monthly meetings had become a standard feature on IPA’s calendar. The Managing Council therefore started deliberating on the need to have an annual function at a bigger scale and at a more spacious location where outsiders could participate in a big number and the IPA could reach out to a wider audience. After internal discussions it was decided to start holding an annual event in the form of the Annual IPA day. The place chosen was Maison de l’Inde and the event was held on the theme of “Indo French Cooperation”. It was well attended and helped raise IPA’s profile.
Ramesh Bahl initiated and finalised the details for voting by postal ballot and the first election was held with this system to have more participation. This system has since been followed.
In the month of October, IPA celebrated Deewali by hosting a dinner at Tropical Club where the Indian Ambassador Mr. Kanwal Sibal was the chief guest.
At year end the IPA membership stood at 32.
2002
Deepak Mathur was re-elected President for 2002.
The elected Managing Council consisted of R. Bahl, T. R. Jayadevan, P. K.Singh, V. Khosla, J. Lanba, L. Bhandari and N. V. Varghese.
The Working Committee nominated by the President consisted of T.R. Jayadevan as General Secretary, L. Bhandari as Treasurer, D.C. Vasudeva as Protocol, N.V. Varghese as Conference and P.K. Singh as Admissions.
The Objectives of 2002 were set as: More active participation by members, Review of membership procedure, Pursue Image of India project, Set up IPA Internet web site, Organise IPA Day, Review IPA statutes.
The system of Lunch coupons was introduced to ensure better visibility and a clear trace- ability.
Concerning the statutes, Deepak Mathur requested Mohan Rao to create the formal French version of the IPA Statutes. Based upon the draft version sent by Saifuddin Jetpurwalla, this was done and after due review and comments, the final version was adopted in 2002. This was filed with the French authorities.
IPA’s functioning by now was becoming increasingly structured and the day-to-day functioning needed more clear-cut procedures. At Deepak Mathur’s request, Mohan Rao prepared the modified version of Statutes. However it was not considered prudent to modify the IPA statutes that had been deposited with the French Authorities. It was therefore decided
IPA First Ten Years History by P. K. Singh : December 2004 7/11
that a separate set of Rules and Regulations (but respecting the overall guidelines of the statutes) be prepared. Accordingly Kanwar Mathur prepared the first draft of the Rules and Regulations. After due deliberations among the members and by a consensus, these were accepted by the General Body meeting.
The monthly meetings featured talks in:
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- January on “The Euro India Centre” by Michel Sabatier;
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- February on “Policy changes in Education in India” by N.V. Varghese;
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- March/ April there was a panel discussion on “Developments in China & their relevance to India” with the panellist being I. Advani, K. Mathur, B. Sanyal and S. Modwel;
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- April on “Adapting Cosmetic & Toiletry Formulae” by Maggie Keane;
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- May on “ Future Generations of Mobile Telephones” by Bertand Favier;
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- September on “Indexpo 2002” by Suzy Arnassalon;
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- October on “ Misconceptions of Indian Philosophy” by Dr. Sharad Chandra with Maison de l’Inde and Reflexion Group and
- November on “Ink Jet Printers” by Mohan Rao.
The annual IPA Day was held in June at Maison de l’Inde on the topic of “Indian Diaspora”. Many speakers gave their views. The function drew a big audience and was a success. Subsequently a document was prepared describing the presentations made.
It was held jointly with Maison de l’Inde on June 29, 2002. Bikas Sanyal and Deepak Mathur gave the welcome address and Deepak Mathur read out the message from Ambassador Savitri Kunadi. The speakers were:
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- Dr. Mukherjee: Role, constraints and expectations.
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- Pradeep Mathur: Perception, discrimination and experience.
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- Kanwar Mathur: Social, economic, political & cultural aspects.
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- Dr. R. Krishnan: Science aspect of Indian Diaspora.
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- Dr. N.V. Varghese: Global spread of Indian Diaspora.
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- Sanjay Singh: Actions by government of India based on high-level committee recommendations.
- Michel Sabatier: Importance of IPAs for promotion by Euro-Indian Relationship.
Around 60 people attended the function. Refreshments and informal discussions followed.
The Deewali was celebrated for the first time with a dinner cruise. This proved very popular not only among the IPA members and their families but also the outside guests.
At the year-end, the IPA President projected the annual accounts to the members and the IPA membership stood at 34.
2003
T.R. Jayadevan was elected President.
The elected Managing Council consisted of R. Bahl, D. Mathur, N. Shah, P.K.Singh, N.V. Varghese and Kanwar Mathur.
IPA First Ten Years History by P. K. Singh : December 2004 8/11
The Working Committee nominated by the President consisted of N. Shah as General Secretary, M. Jaintilal as Treasurer, S. Bhandari as Convenor, K. Mathur as Conference, P.K. Singh as External Relations (+ admissions) and A. Bidani for Special Assignments.
The need to have more members was being felt for some time and the Managing Council required to have more clarity in the admission criterion and the procedure that are part of the IPA Rules & Regulations. P.K. Singh updated the concerned portion and after review by the managing council, it was accepted.
At the same time there was a need to provide a brief write-up about the IPA to the admission aspirants. Therefore on request from the Managing Council, Kanwar Mathur and P.K.Singh, who was assisted by his daughter Shruti Singh, prepared the IPA Welcome Brochure.
The monthly meetings took place in:
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- January when Sharad Tripathi spoke on “Aspects of Indian Philosophy” and Kiran Mathur on “Vedanta”;
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- Beginning March N.V. Varghese spoke on “Globalisation and Education”;
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- End March Jagjit Lanba spoke on his interaction with the British during his days in the Indian Navy;
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- April Bikas Sanyal spoke on “Developing Human Capital: the Role of the NRI’s – Reflections on the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas;
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- May Mr. G. Narayanan of Indian Space Research Organization and the First Secretary (Space) at the Indian Embassy at Paris spoke on “Indian Space Programme”;
- September Mr. Jean-Jacques Fiat of Dassault, the French aircraft manufacturer, spoke on his experiences of working for three years with Indian engineers at Bangalore for an aircraft design project.
The theme for the annual IPA Day was chosen as “Textiles, Garments and Fashion”. The function was held on June 14th and it was held at Maison. The Minister Counsellor of the Indian Embassy read out the Ambassador’s message. Mrs. Rajguru made a presentation of sample design of garments made in India using French designs, Mr. Prashant Agrawal, Second Secretary of the Embassy spoke on “Textile Industry, Exporters and Support of the Government of India”. The guest speaker Ms. S. Chireux spoke on “Evolution of Female Garments in India”. The function drew also many residents of the various maison located in the Cite Universitaire.
Given the popular reaction to the Deewali dinner cruise, this year also, the Deewali dinner was celebrated with a dinner cruise. 87 persons participated including the members, their families and friends. The chief guest was the Ambassador Savitri Kunadi. Mr. Mohan Menon, the Minister for Consular Affairs accompanied her.
In December, the Indian nation was rocked by the brutal murder of Satyen Dubey who had exposed the corruption in the construction of the National Highway project relating to Bihar section. Some IPA members took a personal initiative in sending a memorandum to the Indian Prime Minister expressing solidarity with the bereaved family. The memorandum was drafted by P.K. Singh, commented by Sharad Tripathi and Deepak Mathur, signed by a total of 17 persons and sent through the Indian Embassy. This was covered by Times Of India news- paper.
IPA First Ten Years History by P. K. Singh : December 2004 9/11
Starting from 2003, the year-end accounts statement took the form of corporate financial results. Jaintilal Mokar, a certified C.A. and IPA Treasurer, prepared these statements.
At year end the IPA membership stood at 32.
2004
T. R. Jayadevan was re-elected President.
The elected Managing Council is Deepak Mathur, Naresh Shah, R. Bahl, K. Mathur, P.K.Singh, N.V.Varghese and Anil Bidani.
The Working Committee nominated by the President consisted of Naresh Shah as General Secretary, Jaintilal Mokar as Treasurer, S. Bhandari as Convenor, K. Mathur as Conference, P.K.Singh as External Relations (and admissions) and Anil Bidani as Special Assignments.
The monthly meetings featured talks in:
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- January on “Management of Giant Projects” by P. K.Singh,
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- February on “Infrastructure Development and Financing in general in India” by Dharman Suryanarayan,
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- March on “General Presentation on World Social Forum” by Anuradha Kanniganti,
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- April on “Indian IT Industry, its role and future in Europe” by Yogesh Anand of Tata Consultancy Services,
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- May on “Banking Industry- Experiences in India/ Europe by P. K. Bagga of State Bank of India,
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- September on “Lifelong Learning and Challenges of 21st Century” by Bikas Sanyal,
- November on “ Indian Banking for NRI’s” by P. K. Bagga
On April 17th the IPA invited Dr. Jayant Narlikar, the famous Indian scientist to give a talk on “Extra-Terrestrial Life” at Maison de l’Inde. The function was jointly organized with Maison de l’Inde and Reflexion Group. More than 100 persons attended. The Indian Ambassador Savitri Kunadi made it a special point to be present.
On June 12th, the annual IPA Day was held on the theme of ‘Indian Classical Dance Traditions’ at Maison as lecture cum demonstration. N.V. Varghese was instrumental in bringing together a bevy of Indian and French artists for this function where the well-known Bharatanatyam dancer/ teacher Dr. Rajarajeswari Parisot was the keynote speaker. Nearly 100 persons attended the function. Before the function, Naresh Shah helped IPA acquire the speakers with hands-free microphone. These allowed the artists to demonstrate/ explain at the same time and thus greatly contributed to the functions success. Kanwar Mathur compiled a report of the function.
On July 29th this year, the birth centenary of legendary J.R.D. Tata was celebrated all over the world. Given that JRD had a long association with France and Paris (where he is buried with some of his family members), the Indian Embassy invited IPA to jointly hold a seminar at Maison de l’Inde where P.K.Singh spoke on his experiences of meeting JRD and doing business with TATA group. More than 100 persons attended the function.
IPA First Ten Years History by P. K. Singh : December 2004 10/11
The festival of Deewali was celebrated on November 6th with a dinner/ cruise, live music and party games. More than 120 persons consisting of IPA members, their families & guests joined the evening. IPA’s guest of honour was H.E. Indian Ambassador Dilip Lahiri.
P.K. Singh compiled the first ten years of IPA history based upon the inputs received from all the members including those who had left the association for one reason or other.
The year was marked by a strong membership drive. A total of nine members joined the Association. These were Swadesh Ahuja (an ex-member returned), P.K. Bagga (State Bank of India), Braham Bhushan (Alsthom), Rajendra Keswani (Ondeo), Dharmendra Narang (Technip), Madhav Lokur (Air India), Rathin Basu (Areva), Gajender Sharma (Hitachi), Shashi Dharmadhikari (Paragon Litwin).
During the September Monthly meeting, elections were held for the year 2005. P.K.Singh was elected President. The elected Managing Council consisted of Ramesh Bahl, T.R. Jayadevan, N.V. Varghese, Naresh Shah, Deepak Mathur and Kanwar Mathur.
On December 12th, the year-end Annual General Meeting was held at Rama restaurant. During this the outgoing President T.R. Jayadevan highlighted the main achievements of years 2003 and 2004, the IPA accounts and made suggestions for the future. The incoming President P.K. Singh presented the Road Map for the year 2005 and its Working Committee.
As one member (Countcham) left IPA for personal reasons, the year-end membership stood at 39 with another three in the process of approval.
Miscellaneous Information
Assets: Over the years, IPA has been acquiring certain items as assets. With the purchase of Cordless Microphones and Speakers in 2004, IPA now has also a Retro-Projector and a Screen, a ‘Printer’ (gifted by Mohan Rao), a Speaker’s Stand and Speakers with hands-free microphone among others.
Documentation: While certain documents for 1995 & 1996 are available with some of the Founder members, year-wise bound copies of IPA minutes and correspondence for the period 1997 to 2004, are available with Deepak Mathur. For the period 2001 to 2004, T.R. Jayadevan has also kept the documentation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Contributions for this IPA history by: Ramesh Bahl, Rakesh Chandra, T. R. Jayadevan, Vimal Khosla, Deepak Mathur, Kanwar Mathur, Prem Puri, Mohan Rao, Bikas Sanyal, Arvind Shroff, and others with IT support by Dharmendra Narang.
IPA First Ten Years History by P. K. Singh : December 2004 11/11
IPA History 2005
P. K. Singh was elected as President.
The elected Managing Council consisted of Ramesh Bahl, T.R. Jayadevan, Deepak Mathur, Kanwar Mathur, Naresh Shah, P.K.Singh and N.V. Varghese.
The Working Committee nominated by the President consisted of N.V. Varghese as General Secretary, Jaintilal Mokar as Treasurer, Gajender Sharma as Convenor, Naresh Shah as Admissions Coordinator/ Special Tasks, Swadesh Ahuja & Rathin Basu as Conference Coordinators, Anil Bidani as Special Assignments and Gajender Sharma & Dharmendra Narang as IT Support.
The objectives for the year were set as: More active participation by members, organize functions/ events to promote more interaction among members, maintain financial discipline, increase awareness about IPA by launching the website and close coordination with other associations and to increase the membership further particularly from among the next generation. All these were presented as Road Map 2005 on December 12th, 2004 during the Annual General Meeting.
With above in mind, the opening event of the year was held at the Maison de l’Inde, rather than as a normal monthly meeting in a restaurant, in front of over seventy strong audience and a notable presence from the Indian Embassy personnel. The wide cross-section of the audience achieved the purpose behind holding the opening event on a big scale.
In view of the increasing membership and the need to have an alternative meeting place, it was also decided to try new restaurant and to alternate between the new and the old one depending upon the convenience.
One of the major objectives of the year, the IPA website, created by Gajender Sharma and P.K Singh, was launched on February 27th and was well received by the members. P.K. Singh also prepared and after approval of the Managing Council, distributed the guidelines for website utilization by fellow IPA members.
Another major aim was to promote interaction with Indian institutions. For this a relationship was formalized with Corporate Catalyst India Pvt. Ltd. (CCI), a financial consultancy firm headquartered at Delhi. Under this relationship, CCI agreed to send their regular Indian business news bulletin to IPA while IPA members were informed that they could contact CCI in India for business guidance/ advice.
During the year thirteen new members: Ms. Alpana Kar, Muruga Kasi, Iqbal Malhotra, Santosh Nair, Prem Puri (re-entry), Sanjeev Rao, Shailendra Rao, Kishore Singh, Anoop Tandon, Dr. A.W. Khan, Shrikant Chopra and Rajiv Suri joined the association with Chhaya Saint Ramon being a student member. This brought the total to 52. This is the first time in IPA’s history that the membership crossed 50. However it was agreed that they will pay their membership from 2006 but could participate in IPA activities.
The various events during the year covered the following activities:
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- On January 30th, Dr. Suman Modwel, Director of Research at ENPC School of International Management, Paris and former Director General of Indian Institute of Foreign Trade at Delhi spoke on “ World Trade Organization – Pains, Gains and Tricks of the Trade”.
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- On February 27th, Mohan Rao, Gérant of VIP International and former executive with Lexmark and IBM spoke on “Participative Investing – Some Do’s and Don’ts”.
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- On March 20th Air Commodore S. Varthaman, Air Attaché in the Indian Embassy spoke on “Challenges facing Indian Air Force”.
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- On April 16th Dr. Ved Bhatnagar, Principal Scientific Officer, European Commission at Brussels spoke on “ Sustainability of Nuclear Energy and its role in combating Global Warming”.
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- On May 29th Dr. Membrado, Cofounder and CEO of Mayetic spoke on “e-organization: a key to global economy”.
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- On June 19th, the annual IPA Day was held on the theme of “Biotechnology – how it is already changing our lives, its future potential and India’s contribution and/ or possible cooperation with France.” Each of the speakers came from a distinguished background i.e. the Keynote speaker Dr. Amal MUKHOPADHYAY, Managing Director of Agelab Pharma, Hamburg, Dr. Talal Yunnes, Executive Director of Biological Sciences, UNESCO, Dr. Ivan MATIC, INSERM, Faculté de Médecine, Dr. Patrick Charnay, Director of the Institute of Biology at Ecole National Superieure and Dr Julian Saint-Ramon, Export Director at I.M.V. Technologies. The function was well attended by about 100 persons including Indian Embassy’s Deputy Chef de Mission and the Minister Counselor.
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- On September 25th, Dr. Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director General of UNESCO, Paris spoke on “ Shaping the Future with Knowledge”.
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- The festival of Deewali was celebrated on October 22nd with dinner in the prestigious MAXIM’s floating restaurant with live music and party games. About 120 persons consisting of IPA members, their families & guests joined the evening. IPA’s guest of honour was H.E. Indian Ambassador T.C.A. Rangachari. Mr. Bhagirath, Deputy Chef de Mission and Ms. Bhagirath, First Secretary also attended.
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- On November 27th, G.N. Sharma, an IPA member, and Ujjal Chaturvedi, a resident of Maison, made a presentation about the websites. This meeting was held as a joint function of IPA and Maison.
- December 10th marked the 10th anniversary of IPA’s founding. To celebrate this occasion, the Annual General Meeting was held on December 11th, where the growth of IPA over the last ten years was reviewed with satisfaction and the accounts for the year 2005 were presented for the approval of the General Assembly. The dinner, attended by over 60 persons, was the biggest year- end gathering of the last ten years.
In addition to all above, some of the IPA members had distinguished achievements that merit listing.
Mr. Bikas Sanyal was in the process of joining the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Capacity Building in AFRICA (IICBA). He has also been offered the position of the Executive Editor of the World Report on Higher Education Financing by the UNESCO-UNU sponsored programme of the “Global University Network for Innovations (GUNI)”.The meeting in Barcelona where his paper will be presented on December 1st will be attended by four Nobel Laureates.
Mr. Kanwar Mathur published his sixth book on communication “ FUNDAMENTALS OF COMMUNICATION POLICY FOR INDIA: THE EMERGING CYBERDEMOCRACY.
The magazine ‘Paris Match’ under the series “Match du Monde” after China and Brasil, covered India and it specifically covered the family of Sanjeev Rao, an IPA member.
Elections were held on 25 September 2005. The voting turn out was high: 80 % ( 36/45). P.K. Singh was re-elected President. The elected Managing Council consisted of : Deepak Mathur, N.V. Varghese, Ramesh Bahl, Naresh Shah, Gajender Sharma and T.R. Jayadevan.
During the year the IPA activities were covered in the magazines thrice in the year – once by the Indian Embassy magazine “Nouvelle de l’Inde” and twice in “INDES”.
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