MINUTES OF CENERS-K AGM 27 APR 2018

1. CENERS-K AGM was held at Victory Lounge, AOI, Fort William at 11:30 A.M. on 27 APR

Attendance

 

Patron, Gen S.Roychoudhury in Attendance, throughout the Meeting

2    Following attended the meet :-

1. In Chair- Lt Gen J R Mukherjee -Vice President Operations and Officiating President.
2. Mr R K Dutta (RKD), Vice President NER.
3. ACM Arup Raha (ARA). GC Member.
4. Maj Gen Arun Roye(AR) – Vice President and Officiating Executive Director.
5. Mr Aniruddha Lahiri (AL) – Vice President Finance and Industry
6. Col P K Baidya, (PKB) Secretary and Treasurer
7. Maj Gen S N Mukherjee, ( SNM) Director IT
8. Brig N S Mukherjee,(NSM) Director Administration
9. Mr Harsh V Poddar(HVP)-Director Research.
10. Dr Harish Mehta, (HM) -Chief Editor CJGA
11. Prof JK Ray(JKR)-Member.
12. Col Ashish Das(AD)-Member.
13. Maj Anil Bhalla(AB)- Member.
14. Mr Sachin Mukherjee (SM)- Member.
15. Ms Roma Bhagat ( RB) – Member.
16. Ms Arpana Dutt ( ADT)- Member.
17. Mr Vikash Singh, (VS)- Member.
18. Mr SL Dugar. (SLD)- Chartered Accountant.
19. Justice Soumitra Pal. (SP) Member.
20. Mr Asok Das Gupta- Member.

 

Notice- Agenda

3. All members were notified of the AGM along with the agenda points for the subject AGM, on 06 Apr 2018. Points were also invited from members for inclusion in agenda points for discussion during the AGM.
4. No points were received from the members prior to the meet.

 Welcome by Officiating President

5. The quorum being 14 members, and 21 being present, JRM called the meeting to order, and welcomed all members to the AGM. He requested all members to observe      one minute silence in remembrance of Mr V S Bhandari, our past President, who passed away in Jan 2018. Officiating President granted Leave of Absence to the General Body Members not present.

 

6. JRM, said that he was conducting the AGM as the President, Mr Sitaram Sharma had resigned from the appointment of President. He asked the Secretary to commence from issues of the last AGM on which action was not taken.
7. The Secretary read out the two issues of the last AGM on which action could not be completed, viz
8. The aspect of greater involvement of youth in CENERS-K programmes which      was to be undertaken by Mrs Karuna Singh and Col Ashish Das. This could not be          followed through. Even the joint Seminar with Loreto College could not take place. The   students of Loreto College however were present for the The Calcutta Dialogue.
9. The two members introduced during the last AGM for induction, did not follow       through with completion of formalities and, were thus not inducted.

Auditor Report.

9. Officiating President announced to Members that the Auditors Report is open and accessible for inspection during the continuance of the meeting.

Snapshot Report

10   Officiating President drew attention to the Snapshot Report of 2017- Apr 2018. He          said that it would be seen that CENERS-K had executed all that was planned, and more,      by way of Seminars and other events. He pointed out that approximate Rs one lakh was     required alone for the Journal. It was decided that every issue of the Journal should be         sponsored and pay for itself. The Chief Editor pointed out that he had a product which             now needed to be marketed. AL said that he would take on the Marketing aspect alongwith the Chief Editor.

 

DECISION : AL and HM to jointly ensure that the Journal be marketed in a manner         that it becomes self sustaining at the earliest. JKR proposed acceptance of Snapshot                     report , duly seconded by SNM, and passed.

 

11. Officiating President said that the Snapshot Report and Accounts is being taken as approved. He conveyed his thanks to RKD and AL for getting sponsors in year gone by , which in turn assisted us in meeting our commitments to the full. AR read out the important aspects of the Auditors Report

 

12. Officiating President requested the General Body to take up adoption of Accounts by                the members.

 

13.     Prior to putting the Accounts to vote, the Officiating President threw the floor open for                 questions by the members. AL said that we need to make the Corpus grow at a much                        faster rate and fix Rs 1 Cr as the Target for FY 18-19. All present agreed. AL further                     stated that Economic Summit is an important Seminar, where we need to have crowd                pullers. This can be done with adequate Branding of CENERS-K , and that we can also                 consider some other cities like Mumbai and Delhi for this event. We can also take the                      opportunity of this Seminar to propagate the case for NER. HM said that there was a                           need to differentiate Seminars for FUND raising as against Research.

 

DECISION : The Officiating President asked AL to put up a plan in the next GC meeting.

 

14. Officiating President read the Ordinary Resolution and request the members to propose and second the Resolution. The Accounts for FY 17-18 was thus adopted, unanimously, as correct and proposed so by NSM and seconded by AD.

 

Resignations

 

15. The Officiating President intimated that Mr Sitaram Sharma had  resigned as   President. He also informed the General Body that Lt Gen A Chakravarty had           declined  any appointment and membership of the Governing Council. Thus there             were two vacancies in the Governing Council. All members were requested, as per        practice to volunteer as replacements, and for election to the GC. It was reiterated by the             officiating President that Mr Sitaram Sharma and Lt Gen A Chakravarty had resigned      from the Governing Council and continue to remain as Chairman Editorial Board and   member respectively. ADG said that an undertaking needs to be taken from SRS             and AC, on their desire to retain their membership.

 

DECISION  It was decided to query SRS and AC if they wished to continue their membership

 

16. The Officiating President said that only two members had responded to the request as volunteers, viz, Maj Gen S N Mukherjee and Brig N S Mukherjee. SNM stated that he             had extensive family commitments, which take him away from Kolkata for extended            periods. Besides he was also the President of AFEOA in Kolkata. It was then decided       that whenever SNM, was out of town NSM would officiate. AL proposed the name of          SNM for the GC body. HM seconded the proposal. AD proposed the name of NM for the          GC body. JKR seconded the proposal.

DECISION

17. The resolution to appoint the proposed member(s) to the GC in a vote by show of                hands was taken unanimously.

 

Appointment of Auditors

 

18. The Officiating President introduced a resolution ratifying the appointment of SL Dugar & Associates as the Statutory Auditors and fixing their remuneration at Rs 10,000/- per annum, being the same as last year. Officiating President requested the members to propose and second. Resolution in respect of the Auditors to be put to vote on a show of hands
19. DECISION RKD proposed that SL Duggar & Associate should be reappointed as the auditor for CENERS K for the year 2018 -19. AL seconded the proposal.

Seminars an d Round Tables

20. Officiating President initiated recommendations on topics for the Seminars/Round Table Discussion. He said that there is a need to prune the numbers of such events in order to increase efficiency and adequate separation for more preparation. The following was suggested and accepted :-

–    A seminar, mainly with sponsors, on economic issues be held some time around Aug,       with stress on “ACT east policy and connectivity with SE Asia”.    AL

–     A Seminar be held in the NER on development issues, around Nov- Dec again,    witha    state sponsoring part of THE SEMINAR. – RKD

• The Annual Calcutta dialogue be held in Feb – Mar 2019, alongwith a partner SPONSOR. – HVP

21. There should be one Round Table discussion per Quarter on current and contemporary topics- WHICH CAN BE RECOMMENDED BY MEMBERS. THIS SMALLER NUMBER NOT ONLY HELPS IN THE EVENT BEING WELL RUN, IT ALSO SAVES ON EXPENDITURE WHICH CAN BE USED ON UNFIORSEEN EVENTS AND DISCUSSION WITH VARIOUS DELEGATIONS VISITING KOLKATA.

-SNM, said that CENERS-K must engage with educational and research organisations     to enhance its image.

• Should there BE ANY additional events they should be in partnership with other think tanks, outside of Kolkata with the latter handling the intellectual part AND SHARING THE MONETARY RESPONSIBILITIES.
• An overall budget for each event needs to be prepared by the Nodal Team / Points Person and discussed with VP Finance and passed by the GC in May- June.
• SRC suggested that the venue of the events should lend to direct connectivity to make it simple for outstation speakers/guests to reach the venue easily. To that extent he suggested that Kolkata and Guwahati should be the venue in that priority.
• RKD reiterated that the venue for all NER events must be organised in either in respective state capitals or it may be at Guwahati, however efforts must be made to organise NER events in the state capital of the concerned state or region.

 

22. A discussion on various Topics was thereafter invited by the Chair. The subjects recommended other than those decided on were:-

–   Shared Interests with Neighbours in Act East Policy.

–  A peaceful Indo- Pacific.

–  Rule of law and democratic traditions.

–  Identifying Business interests in NER.

–      Officiating President recommended that the aspects of Act East Policy with                             emphasis on connectivity should be the theme of the Economic Summit planned                          to be held in Aug 2018.

–    SRC reiterated that Bangladesh and Myanmar are very important neighbours                            which will greatly influence our Act EAST policy to a very large extent, hence it                             must be included while planning the topic for the Aug seminar.

–   AR recommended that Nodal team should be formed for various events for the      purposes of planning, organizing and conduct of the events.

DECISION

Myanmar               – Jun-Jul 2018        – JRM – SC with CU/JU.

Bangladesh            –  Sep-Oct.             – JKR – AD with JU/CU

Energy & Water     –Dec 2018.               – ADG- VKS

Status of Act East policy-Apr 2019       – AR

–   Nodal person will seek volunteers amongst members to assist them in         planning, organising and conduct of the event earmarked.

–     Report will be made in detail by the nodal person after the end of the events including Round Table conference within two weeks and share the same with the GC for further dissemination of the report.

CJGA

23. 23. The Editorial Board of CJGA had put up a budget of approx Rs 95, 000/- for three issues, annually. This included the remuneration to Hexadesigns, for uploading the Joutnal on the website in ALL formats, the proof reading, pagination and designing and printing of a set number of hard copies. A discussion ensued.
24. 24. Decision  A pprovisional allotment of One Lakh was allotted including expenses incurred on First issue. The CJGA must become self sustaining in all manner by Oct 2020, that is three years from the initial issue.

Colloboration

25. The Chair initiated recommendations on modalities of collaboration with other orgs. He said that members would have seen various minutes on the issue of collaboration with other organisations. A clarity on this aspect was required. The Patron recommended that CENERS-K needs to engage with organisations like VIF.
26. DECISION It was decided that CENERS-K can get into an arrangement with other organisations, for running of events in Kolkata or initiating reports on NER, on a case to case basis, without compromising on its focused areas. . The organisations are:-

• Various Educational Institutions in Kolkata
• Think Tanks outside Kolkata
• Kolkata based different Chambers of Commerce.
• NER based organisations and think tanks.

MoU/MoA -CENERS K

28. AR read out relevant portions of the MoA of CENERS K with special reference to utilization of corpus money for the benefit of all members.
29. The important extracts of MoA had been circulated to all members prior to the AGM.

Donation to CENERS K by Members.

1. Officiating President reiterated that donations to CENERS K should not be a monopoly of few only.
2. He also stated that while accepting donations , it must be ensured that the independence function of CENERS K must be ensured at all cost.

 

29    The Chair invited points from members present.

–    HM suggested that events specific to NER state can have a research character in                    treatment of the topicm, whereas seminars on contemporary issues at                                     National/International level can have fund raising character in treatment of the                               topic.

–   SNM suggested that topics like Sports for Development and Film Festivals can be organised in NER states in order to connect it well with the rest of the country due to universality of the topic

MEMBER REVIEW

30. The Chair asked for recommendations of persons desirous of joining, and the termination of memberships of disinterested members of CENERS-K. AR stated that      there are a number of members who have never attended meetrings or exhibited any       enthusiasm for participation in the organizational activities. There was thus a need to       recommend termination of such members which can open vacancies for others to be             enlisted.
31. DECISION  It was decided that notice be given through this decision to all members   to kindly increase their participation and presence at various meetings and events.
32.    DECISION ON NEW MEMBERS

                        –   Amb Sarvatra Chakravarty- Sponsored by AR- Accepted.

–   Mr Debojit Choudhury      – Sponsored by AR – to be decided by GC

–   LT Col Amitabh Cjoudhury- Sponsored by NSM- To be decided by GC

 

33. AR requested the Governing Council to assemble separately for a short GC meeting         before joining the members for refreshments.

 

( Arun Roye )