German Indian Partnership for IT Systems Essay

Very good morning to all of you and a warm greetings on behalf of Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable transportation and urban Planning (CiSTUP), Indian Institute of Science and National Academy of Science and Engineering Germany (ACATECH).. Today we have guests of honour Mr. Rolf Saligmann, German General Consul, Bangalore, Mr. Subir Hari Singh IAS, Addl. Chief Secretary, Govt. of Karnataka, Dr. Christian Aulbach, Science and Technology Counselor, German Embassy, Delhi, Dr. A. Ravindra IAS, Advisor to Chief Minister, Govt. of Karnataka. We also have on the dias Prof. Dr. Otthein Herzog, Executive Board member, National Academy of Science and Engineering, Germany who is the main brain behind this event. We also have Prof. B.N. Raghunandan, Divisional Chair, Earth and Environmental Sciences, IISc who will preside over the function. Warm welcome to other dignitaries off-the dias, Guests and Invitees, press and TV persons, my dear colleagues and students, Ladies and Gentlemen. A warm welcome to all of you from CiSTUP which is started in 2009 with a generous support from Govt of Karnataka in particular BMTC, KSRTC, BDA and NERTC. In about 2 years, we have started a masters programme in transportation and infrastructure engineering, carried out many research and consultancy projects for the Govt of Karnataka and others, organized many conferences, symposium, brain storming sessions and round table meetings to address issues related with our cities in particular urban issues. CiSTUP has grown into a full fledge centre having more than 50 scientists/researchers and students associated with the centre carrying out many important research projects which is of interest to our city, state and the country in the areas of infrastructure, transportation and urban planning. We are organizing a Symposium and a workshop as part of German Indian Partnership for IT Systems (GRIP IT) on the 19th (today) and 20th May (tomorrow) respectively, The symposium is on – ‘Smart Mobility and Energy Concepts for Megacities’. The GRIP IT Workshop on Smart cities is planned  for 20th May 2011 at the Institute and it is restricted to selected and invited participation from industry and academicians. GRIP IT project is planned to act as a catalyst for future research and development collaborations between India and Germany by bringing together the German and Indian partners from the world of academics and industry and to provide a platform for networking. The focus of the initiatives are around the theme ‘Smart Cities’ – the various topics, technologies and the potential research and development potentials in and around the theme. The objective of the workshop is to further deepen our initiatives towards establishing a joint team of German and Indian research and industry partners to pursue high potential research topics of common interest to both countries and to explore possibilities of submitting joint proposals under the EU research framework programme. Towards the objective of identifying the right topics for a potential joint research initiative, we have initiated two studies – one on mobility and the other on energy. The results of the study would be presented at the workshop tomorrow to help focus on the right topics and to work on the next steps towards joint research proposals. It gives me great pleasure to welcome the dignitaries on the dias and off the dias to this Inaugural function of â€Å"Symposium on – ‘Smart Mobility and Energy Concepts for Megacities’. This is a joint initiative of CiSTUP and ACATECH, Germany. It is a great occasion for CiSTUP, IISc and ACATCEH to come together to start a joint collaborations in the area of smart cities. We would like to take this opportunity to express our hearty welcome, on my behalf and on our Institute’s behalf, to Honorable Consul General Rolf Saligmann for honoring our invitation to be the chief guest of this function and inaugurate the symposium. German Consular General is very supportive for such activities leading to large scale indo-german colloborations. We extend a warm welcome and present a bouquet of flowers to Mr. Rolf Saligmann, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany. We also welcome Mr. Subir Hari Singh IAS, Addl. Chief Secretary, Govt. of  Karnataka and commissioner BMRDA, who is always supportive for such developmental initiatives and for accepting to grace this function and deliver his address. We present a bouquet of flowers to Mr. Subir Hari Singh. A warm welcome to Dr. Christian Aulbach, Science and Technology Counselor, German Embassy, Delhi, for this function. We present a bouquet of flowers to Dr. Christian Aulbach. A warm welcome to Dr. A. Ravindra IAS, Advisor to Chief Minister, Govt. of Karnataka, who is always supportive for such initiatives in CiSTUP and at the institute, we thank him for accepting to grace this function and deliver his address. We present a bouquet of flowers to welcome Dr. A. Ravindra. 2 Hearty welcome to Prof. B.N. Raghunandan for accepting our invitation to be with us today as a President of the function. We welcome him and present a bouquet of flowers to Prof. B.N. Raghunandan. We miss amongst us our beloved Director Prof.P. Balaram and Associate Director Prof. N. Balakrishnan, who are very supportive for such activities, who are unable to be here with us today due to other engagements. Hearty welcome to Prof. Dr. Otthein Herzog, Executive Board member, National Academy of Science and Engineering, Germany who has spent lot of time with me in coordinating this event. We extend hearty welcome and present a bouquet of flowers to Prof. Dr. Otthein Herzog. We have many distinguished professors, academicians and leading persons from germany and India. Also we have leading persons from R&D groups and Industry amongst us. Hearty welcome to all the speakers from Germany, India and also Officers of ACATECH and Dr. Ulrich Golgzback, Mr. mathew Joseph, Project manager at ACATECH. Special welcome to all the dignitaries off the dais and Invitees from the Govt of Karnataka, BMTC, BDA, KSRTC, DULT and Indian Institute of Science for taking the time off from their busy schedule to grace this function. We welcome press, TV persons, and officers of our institute, my colleagues from the centre and department, students and other invitees. Once again I extend hearty welcome to all of you for this inaugural function of the Symposium. ONCE AGAIN I EXTEND A WELCOME TO YOU ALL. Sitharam =========================== Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Ph.D.(Canada), FIGS, FIE; Chairman, Centre for infrastructure Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP) and PROFESSOR Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore – 560012, INDIA Tel.No.+91-80-23602261 / 22932919 ; Fax no. 080 – 2360 2261 (phone/fax) / FAX no. 0802360 0404 (dept) email: sitharam@civil.iisc.ernet.in (preferred) / proftgs@gmail.com. web URL: http://civil.iisc.ernet.in/~sitharam ; mobile: 9448273751