Dear IIChE members,

I wish you all a Happy New Year 2023. May this coming year brings you joy, happiness, contentment and cheers.

       I take this opportunity to look back at the year that was and share my thoughts for 2023. The year 2022 was very eventful for IIChE as we emerged from the pandemic. Our Institute continues to spread out as the first overseas Regional Centre of IIChE opened in Calgary, Canada. Four Regional Centres opened at IIT Patna, IISER Bhopal, RGIPT Amethi (U.P.) and NIT Srinagar. You might be aware that the year 2022 was the Platinum Jubilee Year of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, since its establishment in 1947. The year was celebrated in a befitting manner by IIChE Headquarters and Regional Centres/Student Chapters by organising various events such as seminars/conferences/workshops across the country throughout the year. The year 2022 ended with the organisation of 75th Annual Session of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (CHEMCON-2022) at HBTU Kanpur from 27-30 December 2022.

      Looking forward, I feel that our focus should be directed to develop sustainable technological solutions to some of the major challenges currently facing the society such as climate change, bridging the gap between energy demand & supply, healthcare and food.

     Human-induced climate change includes both global warming driven by emissions of Green House gases and the resulting large-scale shift in weather patterns. The increasing emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere are contributing to climate change. It is expected that global warming could lead to 2.8°C by the end of the century and limit warming to 1.5°C would require halving emissions by 2030 and achieving near-zero emissions by 2050 (Paris Agreement 2015). To achieve these targets, we need to switch our energy consumption to renewable energy sources such as wind, solar & biomass. Fuel cells & energy storage devices are some of the elements of the transition to Green Energy. Moreover, the generation of hydrogen will be a game-changing technology for achieving net-zero emission targets as the use of hydrogen as fuel does not emit Green House gases. Apart from renewable energy and battery storage systems, hydrogen is key for the clean energy transition.  Our Prime Minister also launched the National Hydrogen Mission recently.  Therefore, I will request you to be a part of the National Mission Project to contribute to the society.

             During the past 20 years, there has been an ample and growing concern that if we have to continue the present model of development, then energy will be one of the basic defining issues of the century. The demand for energy is soaring like never before and thus there is an urgency that we exercise our mind about the future, about the new energy resources, which will require physical, economical and technological inputs.

                 Keeping these objectives in mind, the 76th Annual Session of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (CHEMCON-2023) is going to be organized by IIChE Headquarters at Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata and the theme of the congress is “ Energy Transition: Challenges and Opportunity”.   

                Just to conclude, Research and Innovation play a major role in the advancement of technology. Our focus should be technical-scientific research that contributes to the development of society. Over the years, our Institute has developed a distinct profile of its own. Even as IIChE is moulding itself and playing a proactive role to keep with ever-changing needs of the society and economy, the basic objectives remain largely unchanged. Some of these are as follows:

1. To promote the advancement of the Science of Chemical Engineering and draw up a code of ethics in the profession.
2. To maintain and widen contacts with Chemical Engineering professionals in India and abroad.
3. To ensure regular exchange of ideas with other National and International professional Institutes in this field.
4. To undertake publication work i.e. journal, monographs, proceedings of seminar/symposia/workshops.

Our endeavour should be that IIChE becomes an international destination for technological development through education, research, innovation & scientific consultancy. Since you have learnt valuable lessons through the pandemic-how to negotiate uncertainty, how to make choices and take decisions under conditions that were unpredictable, I hope these lessons will surely stand you in good stead in post-Covid world and that you will be able to find solutions to these challenges and steer the society through them.

I look forward to your ideas and suggestions to make IIChE more vibrant and your continued support as we move into 2023.

Happy New Year and May peace, love, health & prosperity follow you always.

Best

Anil K. Saroha