Volume XXXXI No. 41 Dated: April 11, 2017 PROGRAMME … · 2017-04-11 · Children learnt all the slogans and raised them with full enthusiasm. 2 girls at many occasions took the

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Volume XXXXI No. 41 Dated: April 11, 2017

PROGRAMME

Baisakhi Celebrations

Date: April 14, 2017 (Friday) Time: 7.00 p.m. Venue: Hotel President, Sector 26, Chandigarh

Plastics: The Favourite Whipping Boys

President Rtn. Amarjit Singh welcomed the chief guest in our regular meeting on April 07, 2017 Dr. Gaurav Verma who is Associate Professor (Polymers) of Panjab University, Chandigarh. The President also acknowledged the presence of Dr. Gunjeet, daughter of Rtn. Prof. Dr. I.S. Dua. Prof. Dr. Dua who formally introduced Dr. Gaurav Verma, said it was a unique privilege for him to introduce a young professor who would speak on a topic very close to his heart.

Dr Gaurav Verma

Dr. Gaurav is an Associate Professor (Polymers) and Adjunct Faculty (Nanoscience & Nanotechnology) at Dr. S.S. Bhatnagar University Institute of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Panjab University Chandigarh. He is the founder Secretary / Faculty Advisor of Indian Plastic Institute (IPI) Student Chapter in Panjab University, Chandigarh. He is a recipient of CV Raman Fellowship 2014-15, under which he did his Post Doctoral

work at MIT, Cambridge, USA (The top Institution in global ranking). He has been awarded Chasco Vention Award 2012 and 4 other best paper prizes (2008, 2010 (2), 2014). He has to his credit about 25 publications including research papers, book chapters and conference proceedings. He has delivered 20 Talks on various aspects of Science and Engineering at various places in India and few in abroad. Gaurav is also an avid city cyclist and a sports enthusiast. He is seen cycling through Chandigarh city roads wearing his characteristic Helmet, thus spreading the message of keeping city clean and traffic free.

The topic of the meeting, ‘Plastics: The Favourite Whipping Boys’ clearly indicates that plastics is blamed to cover up the faults or inefficiency of others. In his talk Dr. Gaurav Verma said, “Ban Plastics, and it will save the environment. Really! This is the misconception most of us have including the Municipal Corporations which is responsible for the upkeep of our city beautiful.” Unknowingly we associate everything bad and ugly to plastics which includes our very own 'carry bag'. Little realizing that there is more to plastics than what meets the eye.

Through his impressive and colourful presentation Gaurav gave the history of plastics and explained how plastic was developed and went on to conquer the world. Plastic is used in many applications to design products of daily usage. Right from electrical appliances to kid’s toys;

plastic is dominating in all over the globe. In fact, it is important to the life of people in many ways. Plastics are now being used all over the world and have become indispensible in homes, offices and industry. Internet, electronic devices and even surgical instruments play a very important role in making life easier for the people. They use plastic as the medium to make the product durable and light weight. Continuous innovation has led to the refinement of products made from plastic to ensure sustainable development. Plastic is now used to make optic fibers to provide high speed internet. Plastic is used in Vehicles, air conditioners, aviation equipments etc because it is light in weight, and it optimizes the usage of power which provides more efficiency.

The banning plastic bags is impractical as it is the motive of the government to make plastic the scapegoat for its failure to tackle the situation created due to faulty drainage and disposal system, encroachments, poor maintenance, indiscriminate reclamation of riverbanks etc.

Gaurav’s talk also focused on bringing out sane use, reuse and recycling of plastics which will cause minimum harm to the environment in the long run. He had a lively interactive discussion with Rotarians to exchange views and counterviews about plastics which is one of the most important inventions of human era.

On behalf of our club PP Rtn. Gurdip S. Deep thanked Dr. Gaurav Verma for his informative presentation and clearing the doubts that have been created just to propagate against plastics to cover up the faulty government systems and the municipal’s inefficiency regarding plastic and other waste material management and disposal.

PP Gurdip S. Deep presents a memento to Dr. Gaurav Verma. Looking on are President Amarjit Singh and Secretary Rtn. Sundeep Singh Sawhney

Come dressed in Punjabi Attire

DG Raman Aneja presents the runners up trophy to Rotary Delhi South East

Prize for R’ann Manju wife of PRID Yash Das

Our winning team being honored in our regular meeting

Dr. Gaurav Verma presents wedding anniversary gift to R’ann Pritpal & Rtn. R.P.S. Gulati, who also gets his birthday gift

Dr. Gaurav Verma presents punctuality award to Rtn. Sanjay Bhatia.

Looking on are President Amarjit Singh and Secretary Sundeep S. Sawhney

DG Raman Aneja presents a prize to PDG

Madhukar Malhotra

DG Raman Aneja presents a prize to PP Amarjit Singh of Delhi. Looking on is our

President Amarjit Singh

Contd to page 3……

Address by President

Amarjit Singh

Rtn. Prof. Dr. I.S. Dua introducing the

chief guest

Vote of thanks by PP Gurdip S.

Deep

Announcements by Secretary Sundeep

S. Sawhney

District 3080 Golf Tournament As reported in our previous bulletin No. 40, District 3080 Golf Tournament hosted by our club on 26 March 2017 at Chandigarh Golf Club was a great success. Some more glimpses of the tournament are given below.

…….Contd from page 2 District 3080 Golf Tournament

s

Glimpses of District 3080 Centennial Cricket Tournament (Detailed report in our previous bulletin No. 40)

PRIP Raja Saboo presents trophy to winners of the tournament Rotary Club Ambala

Runners up Rotary Baddi with DG Raman Aneja and

AG Deepak Sood

Message from PP Amarjit Singh of Rotary Delhi South East

President Amarjit Singh is pleased to share the WhatsApp message received from PP Amarjit Singh of Rotary Club of Delhi South East who participated in District 3080 Golf Tournament with a team of 11 golfers:

“Our sincere thanks to PP Harish Sethi Ji & President Amarjit Singh of Rotary Club of Chandigarh Midtown for organizing the tournament in great style & glamour. A great privilege to have participated in this fellowship & competitive event. The warmth & receptivity for promotion of goodwill at the event was very commendable.

Our sincere thanks to DG Raman Aneja & Meenu Ji for hosting the event so gracefully. Your meeting us on the course was inspiring.

Look forward to more such interaction, next one in Delhi .

With best regards. Amarjit Singh For DG & Team 3011”

PP Sandeep Sandhu,

Captain of the winning team Chandigarh

Midtown, receives his

prize from DG Raman Aneja

PP Dr. V.J.S. Vohra with Rtn. Prof. B.S. Satyal of Ropar giving commentary for DG XI Vs. Smiling

Presidents. Selfie by Shimla President Manu Aggarwal when Dr. Vohra giving commentary during final match

District team led by DG Raman Aneja won the friendly match against Smiling

Presidents 16-17

President Amarjit Singh and Shivalik President Dr. V.D. Singh opening batsmen for Smiling Presidents

From our club AG Deepak Sood, VP Salil Bali and Rtn. Kulbir Singh Bhatia played

for the District team

Upcoming golfer DG Raman Aneja

Acknowledgement with thanks

TRF contribution - Global Grant 1747695 Happy School PP Rtn. Indrajeet Sengupta Rs. 68,000 (US$ 1,000) Rtn. Harvinder Kaur Rs. 10,200 (US$ 150)

Donations for Club Projects Rtn. R.P.S. Gulati Rs. 1000

Birthday of Spouses R’ann Madhu Jindal April 20

Birthday of Rotarians Rtn. Maharaj Baksh Singh April 14 PP Rtn. Raj Kumar Luther April 15 Rtn. Brij Mohan Gulati April 18 IPP Rtn. Kanan Diwan April 20

Punctuality Award

Won by Rtn. Sanjay Bhatia

Swachhta abhiyan conducted in interiors of Manimajra market

On 08th April 2017 safai abhiyan was organized by 16 children from Vedic School for girls, their 4 teachers and Principal. It was most enjoyable event as each child, after learning initial tips was deeply motivated and did their best by removing garbage from shops, wet and dry both, and spread the message of swachhta to the public, shopkeepers and their workers. Rtn. Salil Chopra said, “At few shops noticing our presence the workers themselves held brooms and cleaned the frontage. Children learnt all the slogans and raised them with full enthusiasm. 2 girls at many occasions took the mike from me and made them understand their roles towards swachhta.” It was very pleasing to note that the children were very highly motivated and have vowed to become ambassadors for this great mission of ‘Clean India Green India’.

PDG Shaju Peter at the Mariners’ Day Celebrations

The Chandigarh Chapter of the Master Mariner’s Company launched its Annual Day Celebrations with a seminar on the theme ‘Connecting India through Shipping’ on March 31, 2017 at CII auditorium. The Chief Guest was Mr. Dinesh Kumar, Associate Editor, The Tribune.

The new office bearers of the Chapter for the year 2017-19 were installed by Capt. Srinivasan Krishnamurthy from Chennai. Invited as a

guest speaker, PDG Shaju Peter reminisced about his association with seafarers from the Tricity of Chandigarh. He fondly recollected his association with Late Comdr. Das Gupta, PRID Y.P. Das and Past President Capt. Moni Kahlon who all had made an indelible impression in his mind of their cosmopolitan and liberal outlook.

Concluding his remarks Shaju said, “One characteristic common to my seafarer friends is their belief in the idea of India as conceived by the founding fathers of our nation, their belief that this nation belongs to all irrespective of the Gods whom we worship and the languages we speak and their deep conviction that it is possible to love each other and live together without our patriotism being put to test every single day.”