Under the theme The Ethics of Safety, current President Saket Tiku opened the conference this morning by welcoming all delegates to Istanbul, Turkey.
Tiku gave a special welcome to esteemed Chief Guest Shri Sanjay Bhattacharyya, the Indian Ambassador to Turkey, and esteemed Guest of Honour Shri Purnojyoti P Mukherjee, Acting Consul General of India to Turkey.
He then welcomed Pujya Bhramviharidas Swami, Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), who gave the key note address on “Values and Profitability in Business”.
Tiku answered the question of why AIIGMA chose to hold this year’s seminar in Istanbul and he said he wanted to help advance trade opportunities between India and Turkey. The two countries have a lot in common.
The main aim was to cover safety issues within the industrial gases’ community within India. Tiku went on to say that there have been a growing number of accidents – some fatal – in India and the industrial community needs to address this.
Saket Tiku unanimously elected as AIIGMA President
The largest contribution to accidents was the ignoring of safety policies that were in place. “This must stop,” he stated.
AIIGMA had begun to address this by holding safety seminars across the major centres in India, including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata.
Many of the accidents were related to the use and filling of old and untested HP cylinders. Corroded cylinders were being filled up to 200 bar pressure.
Indian Ambassador to Turkey Shri Sanjay Bhattacharyya welcomed the delegates to the country and said India was going through an amazing transformation of its economy and society.
He said it is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, reaching $2.4 trillion in 2018.
He stated that manufacturing accounted for 13% of the Indian economy and that the plans are to develop this to 25% to mirror the development of the IT sector.
The second transformation is the Indian society. India has a very young population with 50% being under 25 years of age.
India needs to “skill up” the labour force to meet the challenges of manufacturing. He said there was strong momentum within the country, and this was evident at the recent G20 meeting in Hangzhou, China and also the BRICS meeting in Johannesburg.
He ended by saying he would like to see trade between India and Turkey quadruple over the next few years.
The conference then entered a series of safety presentations to address the theme of the conference – safety.
AIIGMA’s 41st Seminar is being held at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel from 11th to 14th March (2019). A range of speakers from across the industry are set to speak throughout the conference.
AIIGMA is the sole representative body of the entire industrial gases industry in India. Members include manufacturers of gases, as well as various equipment manufacturers and foreign companies relating to the industrial gas industry in India.