MINUTES OF CENERS-K AGM – 30 AUG 2016

1. CENERS-K AGM was held at 5.30 pm at AOI, Fort William on 30 Aug 2016.
2. Following attended the meet:
3. In Chair- VS Bhandari(VSB)- President.
4. In attendance- Gen Shankar Roychowdary(SRC)-Patron.
5. Maj Gen Arun Roye(AR) – Executive Director.
6. Lt Gen JR Mukherjee(JRM)-VP(Operations)
7. Mr Sitaram Sharma(SRS)- VP (Industry).
8. VAdm PK Chaterjee(PKC)- Member.
9. Mr Ashok Dasgupta(ADG)-Member.
10. Mr Harsh V Poddar(HVP)-Member.
11. Mr Vikas Singh(VS)-Member.
12. Prof JK Ray(JKR)-Member.
13. Col Asish Das(AD)-Member.
14. Mr Ajit Nandkeoylar(AN)- Member.
15. Maj Gen SN Mukherjee(SNM)-Member.
16. Mar Anil Bhalla(AB)- Member.
17. Dr Harish Mehta(HM)- Member.
18. Air Cmdr BC Talukdar(BCT)-Member
19. Col PK Baidya(PKB)- Secretary.

       Agenda Points.

3. Welcome Address By President.

The President VSB welcomed all members to the AGM. He welcomed the new members , PKC and HVP to CENERS-K and thanked all members, both present and absent for their continued support, cooperation and efforts in keeping up the good work of CENERS-K .

4. Reading Of The Last AGM Minutes.

The Secretary, PKB read out the minutes of the last AGM held on 07 Sep 2015 and the action taken on the main points , as under:-

18. Seminar on ‘Disaster Management’ planned to be held at Kolkata on 05Dec 2015, was not held because its success would have been greatly reduced, since BCC and Kolkata Police had held a similar seminar prior to Dec 2015 in Kolkata. May be held in 2017-18. Incoming GC 2017-18
19. Seminar on ‘Economic Status of West Bengal- Way ahead’ , planned to be conducted in association with Educational Institutes/Universities at Kolkata had to be shelved due to lack of response from the educational institutes/universities. May be held in 2017-18. Incoming GC 2017-18
20. Induction of New Governing Council(GC).The previous GC was dissolved since it had completed its two year term and new GC was elected and inducted. Its term will expire in Sep 2017.
21. Employing an Office Executive on Permanent Basis.Not employed due to paucity of funds. Point carried forward. -PKB
22. Membership of CENERS-K to be extended to younger generation pursuing academics in Doctoral studies or post Doctoral studies.

No tangible results achieved.

Point to be carried forward. – ALL

1. Gender Parity in Membership. No tangible result achieved.

Lady members remain the same as was at the time of last AGM.

Point carried forward . – ALL

1. Round Table Conference/discussion to be held once a month in Kolkata.

Poor response from members in suggesting topics. Could hold two such conferences. Carry forward the point.- AR

1. Induct retired IPS, IAS, IFS, Professors and Eminent person of Society from NE into CENERS-K. No tangible results. No one from such category sponsored and inducted, however two new members were inducted, one from Defence and one from Business.Point to be carried forward. -ALL
2. Need to Increase Corpus to Minimum One Crore by 2017. No appreciable increase in the corpus could be effected. It stands at 53 lacs today.

Point to be carried forward. ALL

All above points were :

PROPOSED BY   –  SS                  SECONDED BY  –    JKR

5. Presentation Of Account
6. In absence of Mr SL Dugar, the CA, AR presented the audited accounts.
7. SRS sought clarification on Rs 7208.0 shown as “Cash In Bangladesh’ under cash in hand in the balance sheet. Liabilities and Cash in hand needed rationalisation.
8. AR stated that the clarification would be conveyed to all members after referring the matter to the CA.
9. No other member expressed any doubt/sought clarification on any aspects of the statement of account presented by AR .
10. The account was unanimously passed by all present.

 

Proposed By  –  AN                            Seconded By  –   SNM

6. Annual Report.
7. PKB gave out the details of events/activities carried out since last AGM till date. Details were as under:-
8. Seminar on ‘Indo Bangladesh Cooperation’ was held at Dhaka on 27 to 28 Mar 2016 along with ‘ Bangladesh Ithihas Sammelani’ , a think tank of Govt of Bangladesh.JRM,AR and JKR of CENERS-K participated along with Amb Pinak Chatterjee, Mr Jaideep Saikia(journalist &security analyst) and Mr JP Saikia(Former Home Secy to Govt Of Assam).The seminar was hugely attended(Four Ministers of Govt of Bangladesh attended). The seminar was extensively covered both by print and electronic of Bangladesh.
9. Seminar on ‘Indo China Relations– The Future?’ was conducted on 07 May 2016 at ICCR. It was a grand success. No of dignitaries attended, prominent were MoS MEA Gen VK Singh, CG China, Four former Ambassadors, Former Dir RAW, former NSA, Mr MK Narayanan, Mr Siddhant Kaul Chairman NICCO Gp.

• Close Door Round Table Conf on ‘Indo China Relation’ on 07 May at ICCR.

1. Interaction with Chinese delegation from Kunming University on IOR and Economics on 09 Jul at Bengal Club.
2. AR attended seminar at Simpson Centre, East West Centre and National Defence University at USA in Jul 2016 at the behest of GC during his private visit to USA.
3. Shekar Dutta(SD) member, interacted with RSIS Singapore at the behest of GC during his private visit and discussed the possibility of a permanent tie up for research and academic pursuit.

• Seminar on “Mizoram –Gateway to SE Asia? What Needs to be Done’ at Mizpram which was previously planned to be conducted in Feb 2016 will now be conducted in Oct 2016.
• Round Table Discussion on ‘Cross Border Terrorism’ was conducted at ICCR on 17 Aug 2015

 

Proposed By –   PKC                  Seconded By – DCT

 

7. Discussion Points

No points were received from members for discussion prior to the AGM. The points circulated by the Exec Dir were discussed.

1. Renewal Of Life Membership.

AR proposed to lay down period restriction on the Life Membership, as      also, induction of a new member as a life member.

1. All present stated that the life membership is usually for life. Renewal may not be necessary .It was left to the GC to further consider and deliberate on the same
2. SRC enquired of the age limit proposed.

HM opined that no age limit should be laid down in a Life Membership and since CENERS-K is a think tank, physical age should not be restricting factor for useful intellectual contribution by any life time member.

• PKB expressed that laying down age restriction is against the understanding of life membership.

1. PKC, SRS and JKR concurred with both HM and PKB.
2. It was decided that status quo be maintained and no age restriction be laid in a life membership. However renewal issue may be reconsidered.

 

1. Revision Of Membership Fees.

 

1. AR proposed to increase the fees of life membership for all new members.
2. JRM commented that membership fees should not be considered as

one of the source for increasing the corpus.

• Members were divided on the proposal of increasing the life membership fees, some advocated that it should be increased while some were of the opinion that status quo of Rs 5000.00 as onetime fee for life membership should be maintained.

5000. It was decided to maintain the status quo of Rs 5000.00 as one time fee for life membership.

 

17. Appointment of Auditor for 2016-17.

i). JRM and AR proposed that the current auditor S.L Dugar be          continued with                                 since he has been doing a good job since the time he   was appointed five years back at a very nominal fees of Rs 10000.00

1.  ii)  SRS raised his objection that it is not desirable to have a    member as      an auditor for reasons of conflict of interest.

iii) SRS stated that it is not legally tenable.

1. ADG and VSB stated that there is nothing illegal about it since the audit is been done by an registered audit company and membership of CENERS-K is purely personal.  This was countered by SRS stating that the audit company is usually a one man company.
2. vi) It was decided that Mr S.L Dugar will clear legal rules to the effect,           and if required  will be offered the option to either continue as the auditor           or withdraw his membership from CENERS-K.

DECISION The GC decided that SLD ‘s membership be held in suspension.

1. Induction of New Members.

i). No new members were sponsored by any of the                                          members.

1. ii) AR  expressed his concern about shortfall in membership,             which was  concurred by all members.

iii)  AR impressed on all members to make concerted efforts to sponsor         younger  suitable persons for membership. Persons  willing to contribute         either intellectually, liaison, administratively may be sponsored.

1. iv) Members agreed to make efforts to sponsor suitable persons for membership to CENERS-K.
2. CENERS-K Group Mail.

i ) AR proposed that a group mail be created for all members of         CENERS-K for better communication amongst them on matters of      CENERS-K.

1. ii) It was unanimously agreed to by all present.

iii) SNM volunteered to create the group mail for all members and also           act as its administrator.

1. iv) List of mail id and telephone Nos for every member will be forwarded        to SNM for creating the proposed group mail.

 

1. Visiting Cards for CENERS-K Members.
2. i) AR proposed that visiting card be made for every member of CENERS-K for identifying with the organisation and exchanging      with members of other organisations.
3. ii) Most of the members were of the opinion that such visiting cards should be made for the GC members, since they interact more with       other organisation during the course of liaison, coordination and   interaction for organising events.

iii) It was decided that visiting cards would be made for all GC             members and, those members who desired so.

 

1. Official List of Invitees for CENERS-K Events.
2. AR proposed that standard list of invitees be drawn for both major

and minor events of CENERS-K in order to have standardisation and not resort to drawing list of invitees in an adhoc manner which leads to inconsistency.

1. ii) All present agreed to the proposal.

iii) AR requested all members to forward their suggested list at the      earliest so that a considered list can be drawn for all          major and minor          events for standardisation duly ratified by GC.

1. iv) In the intervening time AR requested AD to edit the existing list of invitees under head of invitees for major and minor events and forward             the same . AD agreed to do the needful.

The same has not been prepared as yet

 

17. Calendar of Events for 2016-17 AR read out the proposed list of         events for the year 2016-17. They were as under  :-
18. 24/25 Sep 2016. Round table discussion on ‘Management of River basin’. Lead person Mr Satu Limaye, Dir East-West Centre, Washington DC. -AR will coordinate. EXECUTED
19. ii) 03Oct 2016      Discussion / Signing of MOU with RSIS                                         SD, Mrs Karuna Singh(KS) and  Mr Aniruddha                                           Lahiri (AL) will lead. SRS and SRC too were requested to be                                   present if so desired by the team. Draft MOU will be forwarded                               to all members for their comments /observation before                                           finalisation and discussion with RSIS and signing.

                               MATTER PENDING WITH RSIS

iii ) 05 -06 Oct 2016. Seminar on ‘Mizoram- Gateway to SE                         Asia? What Needs to be Done” at Mizoram. JRM will lead, AR                   and PKB will support. JRM stated that after the Seminar he                       would like to be given lighter duties due to his indifferent                             health. It was agreed to in principle. EXECUTED

2016.                  iv) Nov 2016. Branding of CENERS-K. An event will be                                            organised at Bengal Club to show case CENERS-K to who is                         who of Kolkata to include Industry captains, leading business                                  houses, media , academics, retired beauracrats, IPS and                                            known persons of society   with a view o garner their support                 and acknowledgement of the worth of CENERS K as a leading                                think tank on matters affecting Eastern and North Eastern                                           region of India and SE Asia. AL and HVP will plan, organise                                  and conduct. PENDING
2017. v) NOV 2016 A seminar on issues of Cyber, Space and IT                              aspects is likely to be held in conjunction with HQ Eastern                                       PKC and PKB are lead points. EXECUTED
2018. vi) 1^st Week of Dec 2016. In house discussion on AFSPA. AR     will lead. EXECUTED

vii)Feb 2017. Seminar on AFSPA in Manipur/ Kolkata. AR and                        JRM will conduct. JRM voiced its futility due to paucity of                                       funds, hence was shelved. Instead a symposium on ISIS in                            West Bengal will be planned to be conducted in Kolkata. HM                                    and Surendra Munsi will lead. PENDING

                            viii) May 2017. Round table discussion on; ‘What it takes to be                        an Indian, a patriot and a citizen’. JKR will lead. PENDING

2017.                 ix) Jun 2017. Round Table Conference on ‘IOR- Zone of                                           confrontation vis a vis zone of Cooperation’. PKC will lead.

PENDING

2017.                 x) Aug 2017. Seminar on’IOR-Zone of Confrontation vis a vis                                   zone of Cooperation’. PKC will lead. TO BE HELD IN Jan                                          2018

 

I   Important Decision Taken By GC  over last year

i)CENERS-K account will be jointly operated by AR and PKB.

1. ii)   CENERS-K to make an effort to sign MOUs with leading                                     National and International Institutes/organisation for knowledge                                    sharing, exchange programmes, exchange of                                                      literature/researched materials, conduct of events and                                          participation in common/individual events.

iii)CENERS-K will accept funding from Govt agencies,                                individuals under its tax exemption status and corporates                          under their CSR activities.

1500.                 iv) CENERS K will pay a standard sum of Rs 1500.00 as                                          honorarium to guest speakers invited in its events. CENERS-K                                   member speaker will not be paid any honorarium.
1501.                 v)  CENERS-K to showcase itself as a think tank to corporate                                   leaders in order to garner financial assistance on a regular                                           basis rather then event wise to built up its corpus to a self                                          sustaining level.
1502. vi)  Propagate CENERS-K through social media of You Tube,                                  twitter, facebook, linkedin.

vii)A new look brochure/Journal will be designed and launched.

viii) Engage students pursuing doctoral studies/post doctoral                                      studies as research associates.

 

1. Points Raised by Members on the GC Decisions.  
2. i) MOUs with National/International Institutes.

HVP opined that efforts should be made to avail govt funded                                     educational exchange programme for members of CENERS-K                                  with international institutes. MEA has such provisions.                                                CENERS-K can tie up with JNU to avail such opportunity.

1. ii) Funding Of CENERS-K . JRM stated that till date maximum                                 funds were received from Govt PSU CSR budget, but lately                           Govt has issued strict instructions to PSUs that CSR budget                                 will not be utilised for institutions/organisations like CENERS-K                                    and instead the CSR budget will be utilized for local area                                              SRS opined that no industrial chambers will be                                      willing to fund CENERS K however individual business houses                                 may fund in case they see their benefit in funding CENERS-K                                    and moreover they may not do so on regular basis but may do                                 event wise. AR stated that efforts are afoot to get regular                                          funding from MEA for a period of 10 years or so, however in                                    the meanwhile efforts must be made to get regular funding                               even a small amount at least from 15 to 20 identified inclined                                  business houses. The MEA grants are most difficult to get.                                               VSB expressed his confidence that with requisite efforts                                            funding from individual business houses can be managed                                       provided they can be convinced of the aim and mission of                                 CENERS-K. AR requested all present to get at least two                                            persons each to the branding event after talking and motivating                                   them to contribute to the cause of CENERS-K.

iii)Standard Honorarium of Rs 1500.00   Most of the

members  present felt that the amount of Rs 1500.0 decided           by the GC as standard honorarium to be paid to guest                        speakers was far too less and did not auger well with the    status of the speakers. They opined that the amount should     be set at Rs 5000.00 . The decision of the GC was reversed            and the honorarium amount was standardised at Rs 3000.00   for guest speakers, not connected to the Government, as the         laid down honorarium is Rs 1500.00 for all government     personnel and fellows working with Govt institutions. The     general Body however concurred with the decision of the GC not to pay any honorarium to member speakers in CENERS-K    event.

iv)HM volunteered to propagate CENERS-K through social                                                         media of facebook , twitter and linkedin and AD too                                                      volunteered to propagate activities of Ceners-K through You                               Tube.

1.                 v)  Research Associates. HM opined that CENERS-K should                                                      institute cash prizes for university students (at least two,                                               yearly) for best essays on contemporary topics. This will make                                     CENERS-K known amongst the students and also enhance                    their interest in CENERS-K. This could help CENERS K to get                                both associate members and research associates as per                                                 The idea proposed by HM was well taken by all                                       members and it was decided to implement the same  .

 

Proposed By –  HV  Seconded By-   SRS.

8. Worrying Points

The points of concern given out by the AR were as under:-

1. Poor attendance by members in events organised by CENERS-K.
2. Slow implementation of decisions taken in AGMs.
3. Increase in corpus, sluggish.
4. Deficiency in membership strength.
5. Lack of awareness in the environment about CENERS-K.
6. Lack of participation of members in CENERS-K activities.
7. Events not conducted as per planned dates.

 

9. Points By Members.
10. SRS suggested to appoint advisors comprising of well known and             influential personalities to the GC who can guide and    advice on various        activities.
11. AD suggested that CENERS-K events should be organised in common places easily accessible by students rather in exclusive     venues like ICCR etc which are both inaccessible by                     public       transportation and also which are unfamiliar to          common students.
12. HVP suggested to tie up with JU to avail MEA funded educational exchanges with foreign institutes.
13. HM suggested to conduct yearly essay competition amongst college students on contemporary topics and  institute cash prizes for     best essays.

All points were well received and it was decided to take them up for implementation.

Proposed By – PKC                         Seconded By-  JKR

10. There being no other points the AGM was declared closed.

The President thanked the members for their continued support and the contribution in all endeavours of  CENERS-K

 

(Arun Roye)