MINUTES OF OFFICERS TRAINING ACADEMY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AGM HELD ON 16 SEP 2017

MINUTES OF OFFICERS TRAINING ACADEMY

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AGM HELD ON 16 SEP 2017

INTRODUCTION

The Sixth Annual General Meet of the OTA Alumni Association (OTAAA) was held at the Chanakya Auditorium, in OTA on 16 Sep 2017.

ATTENDANCE

The AGM was Chaired by the Patron OTAAA, Lt Gen R Ravindran, VSM, Commandant, OTA. The following members of the Executive Committee were present:-

(a) Maj Gen V D Chowgule, VSM, DCCI, ex officio Hony President of OTAAA.

(b) Brig A S Ranade, Brig A, ex officio Hony Vice President of OTAAA.

(d) Lt Col Jeevan S, AAG, ex officio Hony Treasurer of OTAAA.

The meet was attended by approx 150 Alumni, both serving and retired. The meet began by observation of two minutes of silence as a mark of respect to Maj David Manlun, KC and Maj Goswami Kunal, SC who made the supreme sacrifice since the conduct of the previous AGM.

AGENDA

The Agenda for the meet was as under:-

(a) Opening address by Hony President.

(b) Progress on minutes of meet held on 17 Sep 2016.

(d) Discussion on points from members .

(e) Points from Executive Committee.

(f) Statement of Accounts.

(g) Address by Patron.

(h) Vote of thanks by Hony Vice President.

OPENING ADDRESS BY THE HONY PRESIDENT

The Hony President extended a warm welcome to all the Alumni on behalf of the Comdt, OTA, to the Sixth AGM of the Alumni Association. He extended a special welcome to all the veterans of Courses SS-2 and SS-53, their family members and to the Offrs and family members of SS-53 and SS-54 who had assembled here to celebrate their Golden/Silver Jubilees. He also expressed the hope that the Alumni staying within OTA or outside were comfortable. He further added that if there was any specific requirement, they should feel free to inform the team which was looking after them.

The Hony President stated that the Academy had made great strides over the last 54 years. He mentioned that those who were vis their Alma Mater for the first time after their Passing Out would have noticed discernible changes in the infrastructure and layout, which were being showcased to them at various locations during the OTA Darshan. He added that the pristine campus and its environment has been greatly appreciated by various visiting dignitaries, including the President of India in the recent past.

The Hony President added that the Alumni Association had been proactive during the past four- five years resulting in a large No of Alumni visiting the Academy in small/large batches. He also said that this trend is reflected in the current meet where more than 200 Alumni were present, the largest number since these formal meets began in Sep 2013. The Hony President then brought out that during the course of the next hour or so various aspects spelt out in the Agenda would be dealt with and he was sure that there would be a fruitful discussion.

PROGRESS ON MINUTES OF MEET HELD ON 17 SEP 2016

Thanking the Hony President the Secretary gave out the prog on the relevant points discussed during the fifth AGM on 17 Sep 2016. These are as under:-

(a) Case for Released Offrs to attend Two Day Pgme at Army HQ. The Secretary info that this case had been projected to Army HQ through proper channel and was under active consideration at AG’s Branch. He further stated that once the decision from Army HQ was recd it would be conveyed to all Alumni through multiple channels.

(b) Case for Pre-Release MBA Course. The Alumni were informed that a case for Offrs seeking to undertake a pre-release MBA Course, at prestigious institutions in the country, had been taken up with Army HQ. The decision on this case was awaited and once recd this would also be conveyed imdt to the environment.

(c) Sports Blazer for OTA. The Secretary info the Alumni that consequent to the acceptance for a Sports Blazer, two designs for the same had been examined. One design was with red piping along the lapels and edges of the sleeves while the other was without the piping. He also mentioned that the design with piping would make it an exclusive sports blazer while the second one could be used as a normal blazer. In both cases he mentioned that provision for a detachable pocket with OTA crest would be available. The Secretary then displayed a picture of the blazer without piping which was introduced in 2000 but was discontinued after a couple of years due to reasons not known. The Secretary informed the Alumni that a final decision on this would be taken and conveyed to all.

(d) Visits to OTA by Alumni. The Secretary started that a large No of visits by Alumni to OTA had taken place. The details of various courses which had visited the Academy in 2017 were shown incl forthcoming visits. The Secretary said that these visits were reflective of the spirit of the Alumni who were keen to come back to their Alma Mater. He also said that many more such visits would take place in the future.

(e) Awareness of OTAAA. The Secretary mentioned that a point was raised by Brig Khanna of SS-1, during the previous year’s meet that there was a need to increase awareness about OTAAA, particularly among the older courses. Clarifying this point the Secretary stated that publicity about the Association was being done through various means which was reflected in the fact that more than 200 Alumni were present for the Meet this year. He further said that all efforts would be made to increase publicity through various means available. He added that the current strength of Regd Members was now close to 10000.

(f) Attendance at Accoutrements Ceremony. A point was raised in the previous meet by Maj VS Chitrapu of SS-8 that max local Alumni should be invited for the Accoutrements Ceremony of every Passing Out Course. The Secretary info the Alumni that efforts were made to invite max local Alumni from Inf and Arty for the Ceremony held in the Offrs Mess. He further stated that the ceremony for all other Arms and Services was coord by the offrs of HQ DB Area, CE Chennai Z and veterans from Armd Corps, Mech Inf etc.

Passing of Minutes. The prog of minutes having been completed, the Secretary called for Alumni to propose passing the minutes and second the same. Maj VS Chitrapu of SS-8 proposed passing of the minutes and Col SPS Rekhi of SS-2 seconded the same and the Minutes were passed.

POINTS FROM MEMBERS

The Secretary informed that though prior notice if any was given, no points had been recd from the Members. He added that points from the assembled Alumni would be sought later during the ongoing meet.

POINTS FROM THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

The Secretary informed the gathering that there were certain points which would be brought up for the information of the Alumni and these would be taken up one by one as under:-

(a) Assistance by Alumni. The Secretary said that quite often many senior Alumni and others had asked what they could do to assist OTA in its functioning. While considering this point the Secretary brought out that the Academy recd sufficient funds for all its trg related aspects and for essential infrastructure devp. However, there were certain areas where such Govt Funds were not available or forthcoming for which the Alumni and the Alumni Association could help. The Secretary brought out that there was a proposal to set up a Sports Med Centre which required special med eqpt. He said that some eqpt had been acquired with Govt funds but there was one particular eqpt called Body Component Analyzer which could not be acquired due to funds constraint in the current year. The cost of this eqpt was approx Rs 12-14 Lakhs. He said that this eqpt would be of great help to the RMO in analysis of body parameters of cadets, enabling corrective action in time and thereby prevent stress fracture type of injuries. The Secretary suggested that this eqpt could be sponsored by Alumni/ Corporates.

(b) Digitisation of Course Albums. The Secretary brought out that in order to preserve the photos in all the old course albums, there was a need felt to digitize them. He said that this action was undertaken by the Academics Dept with funding from OTAAA and two sets of 63 DVDs each were made of all available albums, through a professional studio. He added that one set was kept in the Museum for viewing by visiting Alumni and the second set was kept in the OTAAA Cell office. He further stated that some selected photos from the albums would be uploaded in the OTAAA website also.

(d) Alternatives to Presentation of Silver Trophies. It was brought out by the Secretary that most courses celebrating their Golden/ Silver Jubilees or Reunions generally presented Silver Trophies to the Academy on these occasions. He also said that while the trophies were very good, their visibility was restricted as they remained locked in the Offrs Mess for security reasons. The audience was informed about the life size statue of FM Manekshaw which was being presented to the Academy by Alumni of SS-2, the unveiling of which was to take place the next day. Similarly, he also mentioned that some courses had presented busts of martyrs who were gallantry award winners. The Secretary info that there was a proposal to create statues of Chatrapati Shivaji and Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the two great warrior kings after whom the two Bns in the Academy were named but no picture/ painting/ statue or bust exists in the Academy. He further said that these statues would cost approx Rs 12-14 Lakhs each. He suggested that if three to four courses could collectively contribute, instead of presenting a silver trophy each, one statue could be made. Similarly another batch of three/four courses could contribute for the second statue. If necessary he added that some funds could be made avl from the OTAAA Fund also. The Secretary pointed out that apart from adding to the beauty of the campus these would serve as an inspiration to the cadets who would see these statues everyday. He said that some more deliberation would be done on this point, opinion sought from courses and if there was a positive response, then follow up action would be taken.

(d) Registration of the Alumni Association. The Secretary brought out that during the past few years an exercise was carried out to have the Association Regd under the Tamil Nadu Societies Act. However, due to a large No of problems in registering the Association under this Act it was shelved. The Secretary further added that based on the suggestion by the Patron, registering as an Association of People is now being examined as a much better option. He said that preliminary discussion had been carried out with a CA and a lawyer and the case would be progressed soon. The aim, he said, was to try and complete this process by the end of the current fin yr. He further added that this would place the Association on a firmer foundation.

(e) Payment by NEFT for Jubilees/ Reunions. The Secretary said that this yr some courses were permitted to make payments by NEFT on a trial basis. He pointed out that there were a large No of cases where payments could not be identified due to mismatch in transaction ref Nos resulting in repeated clarifications sought from the bank and course coordinators to reconcile the figures. He also brought out that the simpler sys of indl offrs sending their response sheets with cheques was done by SS-2 and SS-3 where there were no problems at all. He, therefore, recommended that the NEFT method should not be tried for the time being.

STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

Moving on to the next point in the Agenda, the Secretary flashed the details of accts on the projection screen. He pointed out that the large amount shown as cash in bank was primarily due to deposits by the Alumni attending the current Jubilees and Reunions. He added that approx 60% of this amount would be expended during conduct of these events. Displaying the maj expdr done during the last one yr, the Secretary said that the Association was well off as far as funds were concerned.

Passing of Accts. There being no further query or discussion on this point, the Secretary requested the Alumni to propose and second passing of the accts. Lt Col Vijay Moorthy of SS-54 proposed passing of the accts and Lt Col KS Sandhu of SS-2 seconded the same. The accts were then passed.

OPEN HOUSE DISCUSSION

Moving on to the next point in the Agenda the Secretary said that since no points had been recd from the Alumni earlier the house would be open to points from the members present. He requested that the points may be put across in a succinct manner within a minute or two as time was at a premium. Thereafter he requested Alumni from SS-2 to give their points.

Col Kailash of SS-2 commenced by saying that Alumni from their course had done and are still doing some wonderful social activity at a National and International level and this was being coordinated by the Course coordinator, Col KLK Prasad who unfortunately could not be present due to illness. He added that course coordinators could thus be of great help in all courses. Moving on he requested Capt DP Ramachandran to give a brief talk on what he was doing.

Capt DP Ramachandran said that being an avid Military Historian he had started a nonprofit org called Colours of Glory Foundation in Aug 2017, with the sole purpose of promoting awareness all over the country about the country’s Military Heritage which incl all three services. He said that during the past one year a large No of events were held for the public in Chennai culminating in a Military Heritage week in Aug 2017. He urged max participation of Alumni in this venture.

Thereafter, Capt Hemant of SS-2 gave details of the huge tree plantation effort undertaken by him with his team in and around Pune which would benefit all people in the region. He also mentioned that the Govt had earmarked two hills where his gp would be carrying out more such wk. Col SPS Rekhi of SS-2 then took on by saying that during the first AGM held as part of the OTA Golden Jubilee in 2013 regions were formed where NCR was shown as one region with Col Rekhi being the coordinator. He said that due to the huge spread of the NCR it was very difficult to org/manage any activity for the entire region. He suggested that this should be reviewed. He further said that as a course they had taken up a case with Army HQ for increase of age limit for re-employed Offrs in which he personally fought the case. He info the audience that due to their efforts, approx 5000 Offrs of Army, Navy and Air Force were reinstated one and a half years after their retirement. This effort was greatly appreciated by all Alumni present. Col Rekhi also appreciated the great efforts put in by their course coord Col KLK Prasad.

The next point raised was by Col Rajeev Menon of SS-53. He said that the OTA should have the citations of all gallantry Award winners. He mentioned that when he was a Bn Cdr at OTA a few years ago, an effort was made wherein the Comdt wrote to the heads of all Arms and Services to send the citations. Interjecting at this point Brig A S Ranade, Brig A and Hony Vice President stated that a compendium of martyrs had been made which contained all relevant details. He also said that this compendium was kept in the Museum. While appreciating this, Col Menon said that details of not only martyrs but citations of all Gallantry Award winners incl those alive should also be obtained. He was info that this would be followed up.

Another point given by Col Menon was that nominated course coordinators should all be brought into one Whatsapp gp for speedy passage of info. The Secretary said that this point would be examined.

Col Rajesh Javeria of SS-53 raised a point that the OTAAA website could be upgraded in such a manner that Response Sheets and payments for such events could be done through the website as is being done in many schools and colleges. Taking on this point the Patron said that with technological advances we should move fwd and also find a solution to this problem with the help of experts in the bank with a view to minimise the problems for the Secretary in the future.

Col Mann of SS-53 said that in Offrs attending Regt Jubilees etc were able to obtain a TD move sanction. He wanted to know if a similar sanction could be given for attending the Silver Jubilee in the Academy. In reply the Patron said that this would not be possible.

Brig Mahadevan, SM, from SS-4 said that a large No of Gallantry Award winners names are not to be found in the Academy where such names are listed, incl his own name. Replying to this, the Patron said that he was aware of this as well as wrongly spelt names, lack of info of Gen Offrs, non availability of dossiers and no clear data on all award winners. He assured the audience that action will be taken to collect and record names of all Offrs even if they have got an Army Cdr’s Commendation. Brig Mahadevan also suggested that there could be a display of old pattern weapons and equipment with which trg was carried out during their time.

Col Hardeep Singh from SS-34, who was also their course coord, said that the quality of items on sale like ties, studs, tie clips, T shirts etc was not good enough. He said that even if the cost was a little more it did not matter. Replying to this the Patron said that an effort was made to get good quality items from a veteran who was from Kolkata. He showed a lot of interest initially with large Number of samples which were reasonably priced. However, when he was asked to est a Souvenir shop at OTA he declined. The Patron then said that a sample order was placed of some selected items which came with a much higher price. The Patron also mentioned that as a trial, silver lapel pins were procured priced at Rs 250/- a piece which were of good quality. He said that this price could be further reduced and this point would be addressed.

A point was raised by an Offr from SS-54 that apart from ack the award winners and other Alumni who had risen to high rks there was a need to also look at aspects like missing Alumni. He mentioned that one of their coursemates Lt Sajit Bhattacharjee went missing as a YO and no one could trace him. He said that such cases should be taken up by the Alumni Association. The Patron was in full agreement with the sentiments expressed and said that all such cases should be brought to the notice of the OTA and Alumni Association so that necessary follow up action could be taken. He requested all those present to spread this point further so that more info of this nature could be recd and their cases could be taken up.

With this point the open house session was closed.

ADDRESS BY THE PATRON

The Patron commenced by welcoming all the Alumni once again and said that it was a great honour to be present among the illustrious predecessors. He specifically extended a special welcome to the Alumni of SS-2, SS-3, SS-53 and SS-54 who had come to OTA to celebrate their Golden and Silver Jubilees respectively.

The Patron made a special mention of and paid respects to two martyrs who had recently made the supreme sacrifice. They were Maj Goswami Kunal who was awarded SC and Maj David Manlun who was awarded the KC who were a great source of inspiration not only to the cadets but to all those who served in OTA whether an Alumnus or otherwise.

Thereafter the Patron dwelt upon points pertaining to activities and devps in the Academy. At the outset he ack the efforts of the previous Comdt, Lt Gen Bobby Mathews who had left a shining and well groomed OTA and retired on 28 Feb 2017 while he assumed the appt of Comdt on 08 Mar 2017. The Patron added that much of the splendour, the lighting and improvement in the infrastructure was done by Lt Gen Bobby Mathews as a run up to the vis of the President of India who reviewed the POP in Sep 2016.

Moving fwd the Patron spoke on the trg schedule for the cadets. He said that while a lot had been done, he found that the schedule was too congested with cadets having very little own time besides the five and a half to six hours of sleeping time. He said that with the amount of material that was being pumped into a cadet, there was very little time to digest and understand what was being taught. This called for a review of the schedule, reduce the PT and drill periods from six to five, remove some frills and move some contact classes to non contact classes where the cadets could read on the sub in their own time.

Structured Trg For Leadership and OQ. The Patron brought out that while most of the subjects had a very structured and well thought out trg schedule there was nothing structured for leadership trg and Offr Quotient trg apart from a few lectures on leadership traits etc. He said that this was taken up with ARTRAC where it was being reviewed and soon a proper structured pgme would be introduced in all the PCTAs in the country. This would remove subjectivity while grading cadets.

Physical Trg. The Patron then brought out that a review of the physical trg was also being carried out. He said that after interacting with a number of Alumni of older courses, he found that the number of cadets suffering injuries was much higher than in previous courses. This, he said, was one of the reasons for thinking of establishing sports med centre with specialized eqpt to judge a cadet’s start pt and to check what are his weak areas. He stated that a Bone Density Meter had been procured which was used to check the Junior course. It was found that out of approx. 250 cadets about 45 cadets were found to have such a poor bone density that they could be classified as having osteoporosis. He also added that out of these 45 cadets upto 90% were suffering from stress fractures. The Patron pointed out that the Academy had a good physiotherapy centre with state of art eqpt to treat cadets in a scientific manner if they suffered injuries. Mentioning the Body Analyser, the Patron said that money was not really a constraint. Since the projection was made a little late it could not be incl in the PPP. He was confident of acquiring this eqpt either from Army Cdr’s Spl Fin Powers or through I&M Grant. He also said that if any Alumnus or someone known to them were to donate other sports med eqpt it would be welcome. The Patron brought out that the Academy now had an excellent obst course also. He further added that the trg curriculum had been reviewed and activities like eqtn and swimming were now a full fledged trg activity.

Visits to Other Countries by Cadets. The Patron mentioned that now selected GCs and LCs were sent to other countries to vis their Academies and interact with their counterparts. One such recent visit was to Australia and on their return the cadets gave presentations and ideas for improvement.

Infrastructure Devp. Speaking about the devp in infrastructure, the Patron thanked his predecessors who did so much to improve the infrastructure during the last 10-12 yrs, only after it was est beyond doubt that OTA would be permanently loc in Chennai. He pointed out the huge improvement in the cadets’ living accn compared to the earlier days is a case in point. The Patron said that after assuming comd he decided to look at hygiene aspects in the Academy. Towards this end he info that three projects were taken up. First, was to create compost from waste which was sold at Rs. 1/ to Rs. 3/- per kg. The second was a Rs. 28 Lakhs project to digest the huge biodegradable waste generated by the Yoddha Mess daily to the tune of 550 kgs into bio gas which was recycled to be used in the Mess. The third project was for pest control where about 200 rats had been killed in the Yoddha Mess. He added with OTA having large number of old bldgs, more areas like the Offrs Mess etc would also be covered under this initiative. He also info that drip irrigation was done in a manner that all the trees particularly coconut trees were drip irrigated. An expert assessment was that if all the trees bore coconuts OTA would have close to 1.5 Lakh coconuts per yr which apart from being of great nutritional value could also yield good revenue. The Patron mentioned that rain water harvesting was undertaken in a big way and all the big bldgs were covered. He also said that the quarry well has also been developed as a water source assuring entire OTA of 24/7 water sup even when the rest of the city was receiving water once in six days. Further, he said that the runoff from P Hill was channelized through two channels such that all the water was collected in the quarry well which was also devp as a beautiful picnic spot. He suggested that some Alumni could visit it if they had time. He then made a brief mention that some changes were made to the POP to make it more refined and in conformity with other PCTAs.

Recording of History. The Patron further congratulated all the Alumni who had contributed immensely to the country and also at an international level as brought out earlier. While appre this effort, he said that we were poor at recording our history. To highlight this he mentioned that info on achievements usually came in local newspaper editions and people in the rest of the country were unaware of these. He requested any Alumnus or gp of Alumni who had achieved something worthwhile to send a write up of the same with some pictures to the Alumni Association for recording of the same. Further he said that any such activity which was of great importance would be projected at a National level by some means. He mentioned that the OTA had got Doordarshan to cover the last POP live, probably for the first time. He also mentioned that stories and pictures of Veer Naris who passed out of the Academy were in the front page of the Newspapers. Similarly, with proactive apch and liaison with the TN Govt the Metro stn previously named as Nanganallur Rd would now be named as OTA Metro Stn. The Patron said that with lakhs of people travelling by the metro, visibility of the Academy would increase with this renaming. He further added that when the Metro stn was built on the OTA side, he had insisted that the Metro auth should give sufficient space where themes, murals about OTA would be depicted. With a lot of effort he said that OTA should become a household name in Chennai like NDA and IMA were in Pune and Dehradun respectively.

He again reiterated that Alumni who have excelled Nationally or Internationally should interact with OTA so that their wk could be recognized. Giving an example he mentioned that he had recently met an Alumnus of SS-23, Capt Murali who was into the business of extracting essential oils from various sources for which he had est a huge factory in the suburbs of Chennai which the Patron had recently visited. The offr was doing very well and also earning a good amount of foreign exchange from his business. However, till now no one knew about him and neither had the offr visited OTA after passing out thinking that no one would welcome him. The Patron expressed his disappointment and said that a message should go out to all Alumni that OTA would welcome any Alumnus warmly whenever he choses to pay a visit.

Moving on, the Patron said that the Association was not Regd which was a cause for worry considering the present Govt schemes like de-monetisation, linking of Aadhar with everything etc. He said that the Association had a fairly large income from members subscription particularly every six months when a course passed out. He mentioned that suitable action should be taken so that future office bearers do not face any problems. While he said that a Co-operative Society was not the answer as there were too many complexities involved, a better option would be to register as an Association of People where there would not be any inspections and where unions could not be formed. He also said that IT exemption could be obtained if we could prove that we are a nonprofit org, which he said was the case. He expressed the hope that this would be resolved soon.

The Patron thereafter informed that there was a thought process to make this yearly event a little more constructive and entertaining, also mentioning that funds were not a constraint. He suggested that we could have a good musical evening, a dance pgme or org a lec/seminar wherein we could invite an eminent speaker. He added that there were a large No of eminent people who would be ready to come and give a talk on any subject which we could propose. He also expressed the need to be more active on the net and use cloud computing, data mining etc. He said that there should be a blog facility where Alumni could post blogs in the website and there should be an E mail ID also thereby making the OTA fraternity more cohesive and bonded.

The Patron then spoke about aspects like citations, list of Gallantry Award winners, list of Veer Naris and widows which he said would be taken up. An aspect which he said bothered him was that he could not see the sense of pride and elan among the Alumni as compared to the ex NDA offrs. In fact, he said he knew offrs who were reluctant to say they are SSC offrs when asked. He said this needed to change. He mentioned how in a way he himself brought in a change was when as GOC Delhi Area in Jan 2015 he was leading the RD Parade in which his profile was to be read out when the whole world was watching. He said in the script it was not mentioned that he was commissioned from OTA. So he insisted that this be mentioned.

Speaking about old eqpt, wpns, web eqpt etc he said that presently the OTA Museum only had pictures of POPs and ROs taking the salute. As an initial effort he said the Museum would soon have mannequins with various dresses worn by the cadets from the initial days, like shorts with stockings and garter flashes etc. With this in view he requested the audience to look for any old pieces of eqpt, leather boot laces, old badges or clothing items, which could be sent to OTA. The Patron said that he had apch the DG Ord to try and get L Straps but so far they were not avl. He mentioned that Police auth were being apch since they still had some of the old webbing pouches etc. He said that if any Alumnus could contribute any such item, they would be ack and it would be mentioned that the eqpt had been contributed by the offr.

The Patron then spoke about a need for a full time Counsellor, preferably from Chennai, either an Alumnus or someone they know. This counsellor would require to carry out 360 degree counselling to re-motivate those cadets who were either depressed, homesick or frustrated and get them on track again. He also assured that the remuneration would be fair and if any Alumnus would take on this task it would be a great contribution to their Alma Mater.

Speaking on the point regarding a centralized Whatsapp gp, the Patron felt that this would be better left to each course to master their gp or have a Facebook page for the course rather than centralizing these in the Alumni Association.

While concluding, the Patron hoped to see more participation from the lady Alumni also while ack the presence of the lone lady Alumnus. He thanked the SS-2 Course for donating the statue of FM Sam Manekshaw and he informed that very soon SS-12 would be donating a life size statue of Maj R Parameshwaran, PVC. He mentioned that these were good ideas rather than presenting only silver trophies. He also said that courses could present busts of senior award winners like PVC, AC, MVC, KC, VrC to be suitably displayed in the Temple of Remembrance. He added that dimensions of these busts would be given by OTA so that uniformity could be maint. He also said that as suggested by the Secretary, if four courses could combine and present a big statue it would also be welcome. He thanked the courses which were donating the statue and trophies this year and mentioned that these trophies would be earmarked for awards to cadets. He said that recently one of the Lady Offrs courses had presented a trophy which was awarded to the best LC exhibiting leadership qualities. Thanking the audience once again he said if anyone had anything to add he may do so quickly.

Brig Narasimhan of SS-3 gave two points. Firstly he said in his career he had done fairly well and was the first offr from his course to rise to the rk of Brig. He said that he was always put on a pedestal by his COs and even having worked closely with Army Cdrs and the Chief he was never told that he was from the SS course. He added that we should inculcate the spirit in the cadets that it is not important from where you were commissioned but what was important was what you do in your service thereafter. Another point he brought up was that to get more inputs from Alumni by inviting and motivating them to attend such meets. Replying to the first point, the Patron said that he did not speak about indl offrs but about a collective feeling of pride among all Alumni. He said this aspect was being highlighted to the cadets undergoing trg now.

Col Raghavan of SS 3 said that when their course celebrated their Golden Jubilee in Delhi in Aug 2017, there were about 150 Offrs from the NCR who got together. He said the course coord AK Jain, who had left the Army after five years, had prepared Coy wise color coded nameplates for all the offrs which went a long way in showing their spirit.

VOTE OF THANKS BY HON’Y VICE PRESIDENT

Brig A S Ranade, the Hony Vice President thanked all those who had graced this occasion, with a spl mention of Alumni of SS-2 and SS-3 and SS-53 and SS-54 who were celebrating their Golden and Silver Jubilees. He said that their presence gave an opportunity to the Academy to host this meet and thanked them for their participation in the discussions. He also thanked all Offrs, JCOs, OR and civ staff of the Academy who were involved in making arrangements for the meet and the Golden and Silver Jubilee celebrations of the four courses. He also thanked the Secretary, for his untiring efforts throughout the year for furthering the canvas of the Association and for org this meet. He thanked Brig APS Pakianathan, VSM**, for keeping the website informative and updated on a regular basis.

PRESENTATION OF TROPHIES

The presentation of trophies by Courses SS-53 and SS-54 was done by calling on stage the nominated offrs of these courses who then presented the trophies to the Comdt.
With this the Alumni Meet concluded.