The AFE–ADB India Chapter celebrated its 20th year anniversary in a special meeting on Saturday, 1 December, in New Delhi. Before the agenda was discussed, Ramdass Keswani, current President of the India Chapter, announced that he had received 17 checks, amounting to $1,742, which he sent to Hans-Juergen Springer, executive secretary, for the Philippine flood relief fund. He further said that the executive secretary will send official receipts to individual member contributors.
As Country Coordinator, I spoke to celebrate theoccasion. The members went thorugh memory lane. Mr.Juneja recounted how, as the first President, he, alongwith S. Srivastava and Ramdass Keswani, nurtured theAFE–ADB India Chapter in its infancy. P.K. Lahiri alsorecounted his experience as the second President of theChapter. It was noted that the AFE–ADB India Chaptercame into existence before the AFE–ADB Manila was formed. Hence, India Chapter Rules and Regulationswere prepared and the provision of a life membershipwas introduced. After the formation of the overallAFE–ADB, AFE–ADB India became a constitutent ofthe whole, although the practice of admitting lifemembership continues.
The meeting admitted the following recent retirees as life members of the AFE–ADB India Chapter—Motilal Sharma, Sudipto Mundle, Rakesh Gupta, Arvind Mathur, and Farookh Kapadia.
The Meeting further decided to hold the next Annual Meeting of the AFE–ADB India Chapter in Gauhati , the home town of Jayanta Madhab, sometime in March 2010.