FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Members,

At the "young" age of 78 years, the Chamber is now "graduated" from its "school" and moves on to "college", a bigger school like any student who enters the college on the first day with mixed feelings, we, at the Chamber, experience the similar sentiments at the momentous occasion of shifting to the new office premises.

On one hand, there is a feeling full of nostalgic emotions and fond memories attached with this old premises acquired in 1940; the premises in which we started our "schooling", the premises along with which we grew and nurtured for over sixty five years; the premises from where we acquired and established our name and fame. Lots of historic events have occurred at this premises; lots of milestones were achieved from this premises. Leaving the premises is like uprooting oneself from his roots.

At the same time, moving on into a bigger and better premises was inevitable in the process of growth and development. The feeling of sadness is also accompanied by the feeling of renewed enthusiasm, hope and confidence to meet new challenges.

We are fully aware, and do realize, that with such move on comes greater responsibilities. We, at the Chamber, at this historic occasion, pledge ourselves for not only maintaining the high standard so painstakingly – yet with so much love and care – established by the illustrious past presidents and their hardworking teams but also to ceaselessly strive for achieving higher standard. We believe, this is the only befitting way to pay tribute to and to say our deeply felt ‘thank you’ to all the persons who have been, in one way or other, responsible in bringing the Chamber to its present status.

Our thanks are also to all those contributors to the Building Fund who have helped the Chamber to fulfil its long cherished desire to shift to a bigger and better office and special thanks to Office Premises & Finance Committee Chairman Shri Kishor Vanjara and its team who have put lot of efforts in renovating the new office.

Residential Courses of the Chamber, over the years, have acted as benchmark for conduct of such courses of similar nature in the country. Quality, Character and Fellowship were the factors found in abundance at the course organised at the Pink City – Jaipur. 175 delegates, the third highest attended RRC, experienced the best of the Chamber’s hospitality and the organisational capacities. It was very heartening to see the confluence of energetic youngsters and serene seniors engaged in perennial stream of deliberation and discussion throughout the four days with the objectives of gaining knowledge and enhancing skills. Many intricate issues having current relevance were discussed and solutions thereof were sought for the benefit of the delegates. RRC Committee with exemplary zeal, love, devotion and care accomplished the event. Chairman Shri Mahendra Sanghvi and its committee members deserve special appreciation for organising such an excellent RRC.

Five premier professional organisations participated in a "Friendship Cup" Day & Night Cricket Tournament organised on 12th March, for improving fellowship amongst the professionals. The tournament was played in a very competitive spirit without losing sight of the main objective of developing fellowship amongst the members of different organisations. I am extremely happy to inform you that the Friendship Cup was won by the Chamber for the first time. The team played in a very professional manner led by the captain Shri Yatin Desai. Chairman of Membership & Public Relation Committee, Shri Bhavesh Vora deserves our congratulations for putting lot of efforts in keeping the team morale.

A special meeting of Journal Committee was organised on 26th February, 2005, along with authors and other dignitaries wherein members gave various suggestions with a view to further improve the quality of our journal. The suggestions will be considered by Journal Committee in due course. This special story on Finance Bill, 2005 will be of great utility to all of you. The authors have taken great pains in writing these articles in a very short notice. I thank the Journal Committee and each and every author for sharing their views.

I conclude with the following proverb :-

Start the day with Love.

Fill the day with Love.

Spend the day with Love.

End the day with Love.

This is the way to God.

With regards.