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Indian scientists trained in France in the Sixties have formed the Indo-French Technical Association to meet regularly and keep abreast of scientific developments. The city chapter of IFTA holds a major IT symposium in June.
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THE FRENCH CONNECTION: A meeting of IFTA in progress
THEY ARE a group of Indian engineers and scientists who were trained awhile in France.
To maintain their link with France, and to keep in touch with each other and exchange ideas, they have formed an association.
The Indo-French Technical Association (IFTA) was set up in 1966 by those who attended a training programme by ASTEF in France.
A major IT symposium is being planned by IFTA in Thiruvananthapuram in June.
An objective of the association is to bring to India the scientific and technological advances made in France.
Homi Sethna was the first president of IFTA while the late S. P. Godrej was the president from 1970 to 2000. Over the years, chapters have been opened in Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Delhi, Dehradun, Calcutta and Pilani.
K. Balasubramaniyam, the first secretary of the city chapter, remembers that it was at the initiative of Gabriel Perin, the then French Trade Commissioner and a devoted Indophile, that IFTA took root in Thiruvananthapuram with M. R. Kurup, the then Deputy Director of VSSC, as its president. A retired scientist from ISRO, K. Balasubramaniyam was trained in France (1976) and was later posted as First Secretary to the Indian Embassy in Paris.
Having begun with 25 members, IFTA has today more than 80 members.
"The major area of cooperation between India and France being aerospace, most of our members are drawn from organisations such as ISRO," says Kasi Viswanath, IFTA president.
The early years were marked by international symposia held in collaboration with organisations of scientists in Sri Lanka and other countries. Owing to lack of funds, the association was at a low ebb for a while.
Of late, it has got into active mode.
The association has been conducting technical talks and seminars by visiting national or international experts on a quarterly basis. There are family gatherings twice a year.
France is calling
THE FRENCH CONNECTION: A meeting of IFTA in progress
THE FRENCH Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin's visit to India on February 6 flagged off the French Season in India.
The activities spanning three months will include high-level meetings, seminars, signing of contracts and agreements, promotional exhibitions, exchange of expertise between India and France in the economic, commercial, military, scientific, educational and cultural sectors.
The major scene of action will be the metros.
Thiruvananthapuram too got a whiff of the action, when it played host to Jean-Paul Peterschmitt, the Trade Commissioner of France who delivered a talk on `French Season in India'-- a rendezvous with France' under the auspices of the Indo-French Technical Association (IFTA).
Schmitt spoke at length about the state visit of the French premier at the head of a 200-strong delegation of ministers and CEOs.
The Aero India show held in Bangalore, in which 18 French companies participated and a major contract signed between HAL and the French Snecma Group to set up a joint venture to manufacture aircraft and helicopter engines, formed the highlight of the military and aeronautical agenda. The proposed purchase of 43 Airbuses by the Indian Airlines would be a feather in the Indo-French cap.
While admitting that China was considered a more favourable trade partner in the past, he said that France was eyeing India with fresh interest, which would give a fillip to Indo-French economic relations, hitherto not commensurate with the political relations between the two countries.
He went on to outline the "road map of new perspectives" drawn up for each sector, which will usher in an era of all-round friendship and cooperation between India and France.
NARAYANI HARIGOVINDAN
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
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Thiruvananthapuram
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