Newsletter - Indian Council of Philosophical Research

tance in involving themselves in the rehabilitation of
the Centre. My hearty thanks are due to them for their
time and involvement. I would also place on record my
gratitude to Sri Mukesh Meshram and Sri Maniprasad
Mishra, not only for fulfilling all official formalities to
get the new premises from Lucknow Development
Authority at a very nominal lease rent for 99 years, but
also for constructing a conference hall on the secondfloor.
Our next target was to get a piece of land
from LDA or Lucknow Govt. to build the permanent
facilities for the Centre which were there previously at
Butler Palace and also to start the Indian Institute for
Philosophy, which is seriously contemplated by our
Chairman.
With Lucknow Centre built up, we wanted to start
activities and posted officers there to augment our
academic activities and finally two of our senior officers
have joined after their initial reluctance. In any
organisation, the development depends not on just
man-power but on the initiative and interest of the
officers who can multiply the programs and projects.
In ICPR, barring a very few, I must say that the officers
have stood up to the test of time and tirelessly worked
and cooperated to the maximum for translating the
Council’s ideas into reality.
The project for providing the E-catalogue of books
and journals at the Academic Centre initiated by
Professor Srinivasa Rao is completed and now interested
researchers as well as the public can view the
catalogue on line. Efforts are on for procuring e-journals
and JSTORE for providing better facility to our
library users.
Another major achievement is the successful organisation
of the Asian Philosophy Congress which
Professor Rao has conceptualised and had been trying
to realise since he joined as the Chairman. The event
took place during March 6-9, 2010 with the participation
of more than 700 scholars from India and abroad
giving a facelift and identity to Asian thinking. I would
also like to inform you that in the last Congress it was
decided to continue this forum for Asian Philosophy
by organising such meets at different destinations
throughout Asia and Professor Ramakrishna Rao has
been unanimously elected to be the next President of
the Congress.
In order to augment our activities with the small budget
that we have been sanctioned by the MHRD, we have
sought collaborations from other sister organisations
and like-minded bodies and I take this opportunity to
thank all of them. These include UNESCO New Delhi,
IIAS, Shimla, ICSSR, ICHR besides grants from many
universities and research Institutions. In view of our
impressive track record, we have reasonable hope that
our budget will be substantially increased so that we
may achieve new goals and do more for Philosophy in
the country.
On the office front, Ms. Anupama Thakur has joined
as the Director of Administration and Finance in the
month of August and I hope she would be able to
stand up to our requirements and deliver the goods
to our satisfaction. The work of renovation given
to CPWD is yet to be completed even though two
years have passed after the work assignment and I am
looking forward to early completion of the renovation
work.
After my first term of three years which is completed
in September 2010, my services are continued for one
more term. Finally, I thank our chairman, Members
of the Council and the Ministry officials for their
uniform kindness and courtesy and more than that,
the trust they have reposed in me which has worked
as the driving force for me to shoulder the responsibilities,
face challenges and go ahead with the new
programmes and initiatives to make ICPR much more
useful for the academic community of this country.
G. Mishra
Member Secretary