Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) Minutes

Minutes of the 21st  General Body Meeting 

held at NPL on Jan 28, 2015

     The 21st GBM was held on Jan 29, 2015, at 3.00 pm in NPL for electing new EC members for the period 2015-18. Due to lack of quorum in the GBM ,the meeting was adjourned and reconvened later on. The following members attended the meeting:

1. Prof. K. L. Chopra

2. Dr. B. Buti 

3. Dr. Santa Chawla

4. Dr. Hari Kishan

5. Dr. Ashish Agarwal

6. Dr. K. Satyanarayana

7. Dr. Indra Mani Mishra

 8. Dr. N. Raghuram

 9. Ms.Shubhrima Ghosh

10. Dr. R. K. Suri

11. Dr. R. K. Kotnala

      The President welcomed the members and presented  a report on the activities of SSV during  the year 2014. A summary of the report is as follows :

1)    SSV was represented in the following national activities:

a)    One day (April 23 ) National Seminar  on Plagiarism  Issues  was organised by JNU for  500 librarians. Talks were given by Dr. Kotnala, Dr. Raghuram  and Prof. Chopra

b)    IIT Kharagpur Alumni Association in Chennai organised an Essay Competition on   Ethical Values in Science  among  60 high school students in Chennai under its program of “Mindskool”.  The essays were evaluated by  the IITM faculty and some SSV members. The four best essays were presented before students and teachers of the 60  schools in a one day  ( July 12) seminar held at IITM.The seminar was addressed by the convenor (Prof Subhramaniam of IITM) ,Director ,IITM, Prof Chopra, Dean of students of IITKGP, and others. Besides the students,the teachers who attended the function were very happy and appreciative of this unique  seminar  on   the subject of Ethics. The selected four students  were invited by IITKGP  to spend a week in IITKGP.

c)    Central University , Jammu organised a one day ( Oct 29)  National Seminar on Scientific Writing . Prof Chopra was invited to address the  seminar.

d)     A Yahoo Reporter ,Rohit Anani, has interviewd Dr Kotnala , Dr Indra Nath and myself .His article on SSV “who will stop plagiarist” has appeared

 On yahoo website with the link:  https://in.news.yahoo.com/who-will-stop-the-plagiarists-093145581.html

2)    On invitation of the following institutions ,  institutional seminars on Scientific  & Ethical Values were delivered  by Prof Chopra : IITP   ; NITP ;IARI;MangaloreUniversity;IIEST-Kolkata;IIT, Gandhinagar ; IITM;BBIT, Kolkata ; Amity University, Gurgaon ; Vel Tech University, Chennai

3)    Prof Chopra briefed  the GBM on  several  important cases of  plagiarism  and scientific misconduct  which he has invesigated., The details of these cases ( whichever   and whenever considered appropriate ) will be posted on our   SSV website

     Following the presentation  by the President, the  GBM  discussed various issues faced by SSV . Some decisions taken  were as follows :

 1. It was agreed  that    younger members from different parts of the country  be inducted to nurture the objectives of SSV. Members also agreed to enhance the number of EC members from 8 to 12 

2.After an extensive discussion ,it was agreed that  a Seminar on the ethical and societal  issues  related to GM Food be held soon at IARI, Dr Indramani Mishra  was requested to convene the Seminar.

3. It was agreed that our Website  and News & Views  need to be strengthened considerably. The new EC  will discuss ways and means to do so.

4.The nomination of following new members by the President of SSV was considered and  approved for membership of SSV :

  I}..Dr. N Ravi Chandra Raju |  Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Centre for Organic Photonics & Electronics (COPE) | School of Chemistry & Molecular Biosciences

The University of Queensland, St Lucia | Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia

r.nagiri@uq.edu.au | +61733467995 (off.) | +61415197326 (mob.)

http://www.physics.uq.edu.au/cope/node/2

      Ii}.Dr. Ramesh C. Gaur, JNU Librarian,

Tele +91-11-26742605, 26704551
Fax : +91-11-26741603
Mobile : 9810487158
Email rcgaur@mail.jnu.ac.in , rcgaur66@gmail.com

. 5. The GBM elected the following office bearers and EC members of the Society for the period Jan2015 to Jan 2018.:

 President :  Prof. K. L. Chopra

 Vice President  :   Dr. N. Raghuram  &  Dr. Indra Mani Mishra. 

 Secretary :         Dr. R. K. Kotnala

 Joint Secretary  : Prof. S.S. Major

 Treasurer  :   Dr. Hari Kishan

 Immediate Past President ( Ex-Officio member)

Prof. P. M. Bhargava

 Members:

 Dr. Vikram Kumar

Dr. Indra Nath

Dr. Santa Chawla

Prof. B.V. Reddi

Dr. J.C.Sharma

Prof. Uttam Pati

Dr. Akhila Anand

Dr. Rakesh Singh

Prof.B.D.Malhotra

Ms.Shubhrima Ghosh

 Special Invitees

Prof. P. N. Srivastava

Prof. Bimla Buti

Dr. P. N. Tiwari

 Editor Publications & Website

 ( to be decided by the President)

                           Meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

  R. K. Kotnala,  Secretary                        K. L. Chopra, President   

Minutes of the 19^th General Body Meeting

held at NPL on Jan 9, 2012

        In its meeting held on Dec. 2, 2011, the EC  decided to call  a GB on Jan 9, 2012 for electing new EC members for the period 2012-15.The  Election process attempted through E-mail  was  very  disappointing. in  response. Therefore it was decided to hold election in a GBM on Jan 9, 2012 at 3:00 pm. Due to lack of quorum in the GBM ,the meeting was adjourned and reconvened later on. The following members attended the meeting:

1.      Prof. K. L. Chopra

2.      Prof. Uttam Pati

3.      Prof. P. S. Dutta

4.      Dr. Ashok Kumar

5.      Dr. Hari Kishan

6.      Prof. Indra Nath

7.      Dr. K. Satyanarayana

8.      Dr. S. N. Singh

9.      Dr. Anand Akhila

10.  Indra Mani Mishra

11.  Prof. P. B. Sharma

12.  Dr. B. Buti

13.  Dr. R. K. Saini

14.  Prof.. N. R. Jagannathan

15.  Dr. R. K. Kotnala

    The GBM elected the following office bearers of the Society for the period Jan2012 to Jan 2015.:

 Ex Officio Members

Previous President

Dr. P. M. Bhargava

Ex-Secretary

Dr.N.Raghuram

Meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

R.K.Kotnala                                                                                  Prof. K. L. Chopra

Secretary, SSV                                                                              President, SSV

Minutes of the 18^th Annual General Body Meeting (AGM of

the Society for Scientific Values

        The 18^th  AGM of theSociety was announced to be   held at  Delhi Technological University (DTU) on March13, 2011 but due to lack of quorum it was adjourned. The adjourn AGM  was held at 5.30 p.m. on May 18, 2011 at the National Physical Laboratory.  It was attended by 16 members of the Society.

      As per the usual format , the AGM proceeded with the presentations of the  President , Secretary and Treasurer regarding the activities of SSV in the preceding year.  A summary of the main points of the three reports , which form the Annual Report of SSV,is given  as an Appendix to the minutes  

The AGM discussed various issues and concluded as follows:

1.SSV deals with a large number of  cases ( around 20  last year ) of plagiarism in the country. The members felt there is a greater need to culture and nurture ethical values  among our knowledge  creators. With the UGC advising universities to start a two credit course on Ethical Values in S&T for post graduate and research students, the request  for advice on a suitable curriculum  and an appropriate handbook is being made  by several instituitions,SSV has already set up a  committee , under the  convenership of Dr Indira Nath , to  prepare a suitable manual. Three chapters of the manual have been prepared and are included in our latest News &Views.It is hoped that when completed , all chapters will  be printed  in the form of a book .

2.The members felt that the manual must lay emphasis on case studies pertinent to our  conditions in the country. Drs N. Raghuram,  R Suri, and  SK Sharma were requested to contribute  to such a chapter.

3. A suggestion was made and accepted  that SSV should honour  and award  those individuals  who have shown or implemented   a high level of ethical values in some form or the other

4.It was suggested and approved that  SSV should seek collaboration with  the science academies of the country for holding a seminar on Ethical Values during the “Decade of Science” programme of the academies

5.The members approved the holding of a   National Seminar on ethical , scientific , intellectual property,and financial accountability  in publically funded projects by  government funding agencies in the country.

6. It was suggested that SSV should look into the ethical aspects of the role of Foreign Universities in India, Dr R Suri agreed to prepare a paper on the subject for discussion

7.The members raised a matter of serious ethical concern regarding  the non-negotiable  demand of the faculty of universities ( such as Delhi, IP and Jamia Millia)  for co-authorship  of  scientific publications  without having made any contributions to the research work conducted by  PhD students  from national laboratories registered with the universities. SSV will consider raising this issue in a proper forum

8. The president requested all members to be actively involved in the activities of SSV and should hold meetings and seminars on related subjects in academic institutions of their choice

9. In the absence of any grant from  any funding agency, in particular  from DST ,the President appealed for tax deductible contributions  by members and well-wishers to our Corpus fund which sustains our activities. Members appreciated and applauded the contribution of Rs 5000 by Dr PN Tewari ( our founder Secretary of SSV)and Rs 30,000 by  Prof PN Srivastava ( our former President of SSV)

10. On the expiry of the term of the present EC in September, 2011, the members were requested to nominate new  members who would be prepared to devote some time to the activities of  SSV

The meeting ended with thanks to the Chair

Appendix : Annual Report of SSV

1.The EC of SSV has been meeting regularly.During the last year , it has met for four.times.

2. Like two years ago ,SSV  organized joint symposium with All India Students’ Spirituality Quest  Conference in Vigyan Bhavan  and Delhi Technical University. The Spirtuality conference was  inaugurated by the President of India. Over 350 students participated  in the Conference.  Our (SSV) One day session consisted of the annual Paintal memorial Lectruredelivered by  Dr     Katoch, Director General , ICMR , followed by a Special Lecture by Dr  Vijay K.Saraswat  Advisor to Raksha Mantri, India. These lectures are available on our website and  will also  be printed in  our News & ViewsThereafter , in a session at DTU, three lectures were delivered by Dr PN Tewari on “Basics and General Principles of Ethics in Science” by Dr R. K. Kotnala on “Science, Ethics and Sprituality” and  Dr Indramani Mishra  on “Misconduct in Scientific Research and Publications”“ These lectures created a lot of interest among the young scholars

3. News & Views of SSV brought out two issues in the year. The issues are available on our website (scientificvalues.org). The latest issue carries three articles which will form a part of the Ethics Manual for teaching-learning process in academic institutions

4.A number of academic institutions in the country have requested the President , SSV to deliver lectures on Ethical Issues in Science and Technology to faculty and students. Prof Chopra has delivered lectures in : IIT Kanpur ; IIT Delhi ; BHU; IIT Madras; IP University;  Rajdhani College, Delhi University;WB TU,Kolkata ; Ailia Univ, Kolkata;Hamdard University, Delhi; IHBT(CSIR), Palampur ;Indian Science Congress,2011.

5. The president has been invited by four prominent  academic institutions to conduct official in-house inquiries into cases of plagiarism by the  concerned faculty. The positive attitude of the Heads of Institutions in these cases towards the importance of ethical values is to be appreciated. Due to sensitivity of the institutions, these cases have not been posted on our website

5. Some  25 complaints  of plagiarism , scientific misconduct  or unethical practices have been received  from various institutions. Anonymous complaints are not paid any attention. We investigated 20 such complaints. Only the very serious cases were considered by the EC for posting on our website , as per our usual practice.

6. Despite our best efforts, SSV has received no response from DST for a grant to conduct seminars in the country. We have therefore decided to build up a Corpus  to enable us financial autonomy to conduct  seminars for culturing and nurturing ethical values among academics. We have received approval from the department of Income Tax for tax deductible contributions to SSV. Society is grateful to Drs Kotnala and Hari Kishan for their sustained efforts to get Tax exemption certificate from 809 from Income Tax Department.

7. We are grateful to Prof PN Srivastava, our former President of SSV, for his donation of Rs 30,000  to SSV from his Trust; and Dr PN Tewari, our  Founder Secretary of SSV, for his donation of Rs 5000 to SSV.  May we appeal to all members to donate whatever they can for a good cause.

8. Our Corpus is reasonable though more will make it more convenient to hold national workshops. We use only the interest from the fixed deposits for our expenditure. As per the report of the treasurer, we have fixed deposits of Rs 11,43,322.30. Income during the year 2010-11 through interest, life membership fee and donation was Rs 1,30,060 and we have been very  strict with our expenditure  and have limited it to Rs Rs. 58,000/- only.

9. Our accounts are audited by M/S M.L.Puri & Co As required by law, SSV files income tax returns .

10. All members are requested to devote   some of their time towards the activities and objectives of SSV in whatever way they deem fit. The term of the present EC comes to an end in September, 2011. Nominations for the new EC will be greatly appreciated.

R.K.Kotnala                 Indra Mani Mishra                  Prof.K.L.Chopra.

 Secretary                        Treasurer                    President

Minutes of the 17^th Annual General Body Meeting (AGM) of the Society for

 Scientific Values

The Seventeenth AGM was held at 5.30 p.m. on March 17, 2010 at National Physical Laboratory immediately after the 5^th   Professor A S Paintal Memorial lecture delivered by Dr Ramasami , Secretray DST. It was attended by 24 members of the Society.   

The President welcomed the members.  He talked about the various activities undertaken by  SSV during the year and urged member to actively participate in the activities of the Society .   

The AGM  decided as follows :. 

1. The  annual report of the activities of SSV by the  Secretary ,as attached, was approved.
2. The Financial Report  for  FY 2008 – 09  was presented  by the Treasurer and approved.  A copy of audited accounts for 2008 – 09 is attached.    
3. The members discussed at length various ways of making SSV role more effective  besides nurturing, sensitisation activities and as a  watch dog.  It was suggested that some more   activities be planned  after discussion  with members
4. Dr. P. N. Tiwari suggested  that a course of lectures/reading material on Ethical Issues , Values and Conduct  be compiled  and posted on our Open Access  website .A committee consisting of the following was requested to compile the requisite material in different domains:

1)      Dr. Indira Nath (Bioethics)- Coordinator

2)      Dr. Raghu Ram (Bioethics)

3)      Dr. Indramani (Agriculture)

4)      Dr. P. N. Tiwari- Convenor

  5. Dr. Indira Nath  was requested to write a suitable proposal for a Seminar /      Workshop on Bioethics  to be submitted to ICMR for obtaining grant-in-aid.

   6.  The AGM approved the election of Dr Indira Nath , Prof. N.R.Jaganathan,  and Dr. S. N. Singh  to the EC  against the existing vacancies.

7. The suggestion of Prof. Sisir Sen   that  SSV membership should be open to persons from humanities and  social science  background  was  approved
8. Dr Krishan Lal pointed out the need for  updating and maintaining of the list , addresses and email IDs of the members. . It was agreed that the Secretary will circulate the list to  all the members and request them to help in updating the information  on the basis of their personal knowledge
9. The AGM   decided to remove Dr. P. K. Nagar from the  primary membership of SSV with immediate effect  because of his publication of a plagiarized article in  the News &Views of SSV. 
10. The AGM congratulated  Prof. Sisir Sen on his being  awarded the  National Medal Award 2008 for Excellence by Ministry of Mines ,GOI on Feb. 27, 2010.   

The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the chair.   

Sd/-

R. K. Kotnala

Secretary SSV

Minutes of the 16^TH AGM and 73^rd EC Meeting of SSV held on 6th Apiril 2009 at NPL, New Delhi

    The Executive Council meeting of Society for Scientific Values (SSV) was held on 6th April 2009 at 3 pm in NPL under the chairmanship of Prof. K. L. Chopra   (President of SSV).

 The meeting was attended by Drs. K L Chopra, ,P.N.Srivastava, N. Raghuram, R K.Kotnala, Indramani Mishra,  Hari Kishan,  J C Sharma, Sisir Sen, P N Tiwari and Bimla Buti. The following decisions were taken
    Prof. Chopra welcomed all the members.  
First of all the members expressed their condolences for the sad demise of Prof. Ajit Ram Verma, founder member.  The members observed 2 minutes silence to pay homage to him and it was decided that condolence message will be sent to the bereaved family of Prof. A. R. Verma.

The minutes of the last meeting were deliberated and approved unanimously.

The Hony. Secretary (R. K. Kotnala) informed to all the members about progress made for getting Income Tax Exemption for SSV.  Further he informed about submission of report submitted to DST.  It was also decided that the utilization of fund/report will be sent to AICTE soon (in near future).

Dr. P. N. Tewari requested to get him relieved from Editorship of New & Views magazine and Dr. Santa Chawla shall take this responsibility. President requested Dr. Tewari to be in advisory role for N & V.  It was agreed upon by EC members.

Dr. Kotnala informed that Miss Preeti, was hired at a consolidated payment of Rs.4000/- p.m. for the International Conference on Magnetism work.  She has worked very satisfactorily and requested that her services to be utilized for the SSV office work.  All the members unanimously agreed that her services should be utilized for the SSV work w.e.f. 1st April 2009 at a consolidated salary of Rs.4000/- p.m.

Dr. Radesh Suri, Joint Secretary informed that book writing on ethics job may be given to someone else due to his paucity of time.

Prof. P. N. Srivastava suggested to hire anexpert to write book on ethics in Science & Engineering.  Here, Dr. P. N. Tewari showed his interest to write such book and asked for some help from Prof. K. L. Chopra.

It was further decided that Prof. Chopra will contact US Academy of Sciences for course work on ethics and will send the information to other members particularly to Dr. P. N. Tiwari through e-mail.

There was a lot of discussion about Dr. Babbar’s (Delhi University) case Dr. Raghuram informed about Prof. Babbar’s papers, template copying etc.  After a lot of discussions it was concluded that Dr. Babbar has recycled some of the portion from his own papers in proceedings.  In this context Dr. Raghuram was requested to enquire whether any inquiry against Dr. Babbar is pending with Aquatic Botany Journal or not.

It was also decided that the case of Ph.D. student of Delhi University, who has published two papers with different titles with almost the same text, this case may be put on the website of the SSV.

Prof. Ram Pal Tandon’s resignation from the EC membership of SSV has been accepted as he is unable to spare time for this activity.

Following new members nominations have been approved:-
1.     Prof. N. Jaganathan ,AIIMS
2.     Dr. Nahar Singh Mehta CSIO, Chandigarh
3.     Dr. Randhawa (already approved in the earlier EC meeting)
4.     Dr. Kulwinder Singh CSIO, Chandigarh
5.      Dr.Vijay Kumar,  ICMR
    Many other cases of plagarisation such as Sitaraman’s Science
Congress, Randhawa’s Secretary General AIU were discussed and resolved that sensitive cases should be put on the website of SSV.

Dr. Kotnala informed EC that a conference on Ethics in August 2009 can be organized at Patna Women’s College, Patna provided SSV bears the expenses involved on food & tea in the conference.  The arrangement was agreed upon, further he informed the same intention of Punjab University for organizing a conference on ethics, it was unanimously accepted.

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Condolence Message

    We EC members of the Society for Scientific Values (SSV), New Delhi deeply mourn the sudden demise of Dr. A. R. Verma, Ex – Director NPL and a founder member of SSV was a dedicated, hard working and good natured scientist.  His passing away has saddened our hearts.  We pray the almighty to grant peace and eternal bliss to the departed soul & give strength to the bereaved family to bear the loss.

(K. L. Chopra)
President, SSV

Minutes of the 15th AGM of the Society for Scientific Values:                       TOP

Minutes of the 15 th Annual General Meeting of SSV held on Oct 24, 2007

The AGM was held at 4:30 pm on Oct 24, 2007 at Delhi University . The meeting was attended by the following members of the Society.

R.K. Kotnala, R.P. Tandon, U.C. Lavania, S.K. Sen, R. S. Kaushal, B. Buti, P.N. Srivastava, N. Raghuram, Indramani, B.B.G. Tilak, M.P. Srivastava, V.D. Vankar.

The minutes of the meeting are as follows :

1.   The President presented the annual report of the Society. The report is attached.

2.   As per the earlier decision of the EC, those members of EC who do not attend three consecutive meetings of the EC without taking a leave of absence may be replaced. Accordingly, the following members need to be replaced:

   Dr Ashima Anand, Dr B B Sharma, Dr Prankishan, and Dr Swaranjit Singh.

   The members were asked to nominate replacements. The following names were nominated and approved by the AGM:

   Dr R Kotnala as Joint Secretary ; Dr Vasantha Muthuswamy, Dr Harikrishna and Dr J C Sharma as members of EC.

   Also approved were Dr Santa Chawla and Dr S. Gupta as Associate Editor of News & Views and Prof S Sen and Dr Bikash Raymahashay as members of the Editorial Advisory Committee.

   On behalf of SSV and on my behalf, I express our gratitude to the outgoing members for their service to the Society.

3.   The AGM approved the institutional membership of Rajiv Gandhi Technical University , Bhopal . A one-time membership fee of Rs 10,000/- was approved. The University will be listed on our website, will be entitled to receive our News & Views, and will receive assistance in the process of sensitization of its faculty and students for ethical conduct of R&D activities.

4.   The members discussed at length various ways of making the vision and mission of the Society more visible to the scientific community and public at large. Suggestions included more institutional seminars at different places in the country, popular articles in media and appropriate journals/ magazines, and media press conference. The EC will take appropriate steps in this direction.

5.   The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

K L Chopra

President, SSV

Minutes of the 14th AGM of the Society for Scientific Values:                       TOP
 

The meeting was held on 11 May 2006 at NPL.

It was attended by 22 members:

1. Prof. K.L. Chopra,

2. Prof. P.N. Srivastava,

3. Dr. P.M. Bhargava, 

4. Dr. N. Raghuram,

5. Dr. Indramani Mishra,

6. Dr. Bimla Buti,

7. Dr. B.B.G. Tilak, 

8. Dr. P.S. Datta,

9. Dr. P.N. Tiwari,

10. Dr. R.K.Kotnala

11. Dr. Ashima Anand,

12. Dr. B.D. Malhotra,

13. Dr. K.Satyanarayana,

14. Dr.R.S. Kaushal,

15. Dr. N.D. Kaushika,

16. Dr. B..B. Sharma,

17. Dr. U.C. Lavania,

18. Dr. Ram Kishore,

19. Dr. Hari Kishan,

20. Dr. Kishan Lal,

21. Dr. A.V. Mohavir

22. Dr. R.K. Suri.

The following decisions were taken: 

1. The report of the President on the activities during 2005-2006 has been approved.

2. The EC recommendation of shifting the Regd. office of SSV has been approved, as follows: "Due to some uncertainty , the present registered office of the Society may have to be changed. The AGM approved the change to any other convenient address as deemed fit by the EC. The Director , NPL may be requested by the President to  permit the use of NPL address for the registered office of SSV."

3. The EC recommendation of opening regional chapters of SSV has been approved and the EC has been authorised to work out the necessary modalities.

4. The EC recommendation of replacing any EC member absent for three consecutive EC meetings (without information or sufficient reason) has been approved and the EC has been authorised to find suitable persons as replacements.

5. The support rendered by Dr. Vikram Kumar to host various EC meetings, seminars and the GBM in NPL, and the efforts of Dr. R.K. Kotnala in making the necessary arrangements for all the events held at NPL are gratefully acknowledged.

Sd/-

N. Raghuram

Secretary, SSV

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Minutes of the 13th AGM of the Society for Scientific Values:                    TOP

The meeting was held at 5:00 pm on April 29, 2005 at the NRL Auditorium , Pusa Campus.

The following members of the Society were present :

1. Dr. P.S Datta

2. Dr. B. Buti

3. Dr. Ashima Anand

4. Dr. Bansi Dhar Malhotra

5. Dr. K. Satyanarayana

6. Dr. N. D. Kanishka

7. Dr. P. N. Tiwari

8. Dr. S. K. Sharma

9. Dr. B.B. Sharma

10. Dr. Indra Mani Mishra

11. Dr. K. L. Chopra

12. Dr. R.S. Kaushal  

13. Dr. R. G. Sharma

14. Dr. R. K. Kotnala

15. Dr. B.B.G. Tilak

16. Dr. N. Raghuram

17. Dr. S.P. Singh

18. Dr. B. Singh

19. Dr. Vikram Kumar  

20. Dr. T.N. Chaudhary

21. Dr. Rajesh Kochhar

The AGM  paid homage to the late Dr. AS Paintal, the founder President of SSV.

Reports were presented by the Treasurer and the President. Briefly, our present SSV membership stands at 200.  Rs. 7802/- were collected from new members during 2004. The Rs 1 Lakh grant by DST was fully utilized. The Society has a bank balance of Rs 1,17,241, primarily from the membership fees and the DST grant of Rs 1 Lakh for the FY 2004-2005. The grant was received in April 2005, but we understand from the DST that we will be allowed to spend the grant during 2005.

The President reported on the various awareness /sensitisation Seminars given by him at IIT, Delhi, DCE, GGS Indraprastha University and NPL. At the invitation of the Chairman, Science Advisory Committee to the Cabinet  (SAC-C), the President made a presentation to SAC-C,
making a case for institutional (Local) S&T Ethics Committees, and an autonomous National S&T Ethics Committee, acting as Watchdog-cum-Think Tank for the country. What the government will do is not clear at present.

The President mentioned that a number of cases of unethical practices have been reported to SSV. Some of these have been examined in detail. The decision regarding which of these cases will be put up on the SSV website will be taken by the EC. The next Newsletter (in process) will carry more information on the subject.

The AGM approved the following :

1. Due to some uncertainty , the present registered office of the Society may have to be changed. The AGM approved the change to any other convenient address as deemed fit by the EC. The Director , NPL may be requested by the President to  permit the use of NPL address for the registered office of SSV.

2. Any two officers of EC, namely President , Vice President, Secretary , or Treasurer be  authorized  for operating accounts  of the SSV.

3. Research students and young researchers may be nominated  and elected by the usual procedure for Associate Membership of SSV for a period of three years  and on payment of membership fee of Rs 300.

4. Institutional ( academic and R&D ) membership of SSV through the regular procedure of election of a member at a  life-time fee of Rs 5000  be accepted.

5. Donations and sponsorship by corporates be accepted.

6. Keeping  in mind that the society has no office and very limited funds ,  a paperless and electronic office is the only way to serve the membership. As one of its consequences, the procedure for election of the new EC  stands simplified and amended as follows :
   "The EC will prepare a list of nominees for the  new Executive Council and send  the ballot paper slate to the SSV members  by E-mail / post for approval  or otherwise of each nominee. The ballot will have blank spaces for any other  nomination to be suggested by the member".
   
   The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.

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Minutes of the 12th AGM of the Society for Scientific Values:                       TOP

12th Annual General Body Meeting of the SSV held on 8^th March, 2004 at INSA, New Delhi

The following were present:

1. Dr. K.L. Chopra

2. Dr. A.S. Paintal

3. Dr.(Mrs.) Indira Nath

4. Dr. P.N. Tiwari

5. Dr. Krishan Lal

6. Dr.(Mrs.) Ashima Anand

7. Dr. A.C. Jain

8. Dr. Pran Krishan

9. Dr. R.C. Kaushal

10. Dr. Inder Mani Mishra

11. Dr. Sanjay K. Sharma

12. Dr. B.B. Sharma

13. Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr. P.N. Srivastava, Dr. Narendra Nath, Dr. P.N. Bhargava, Dr. Lalji Singh, Dr. S.R. Valluri, Dr. H.D. Kumar, Dr. V.P. Dimri, Dr.(Mrs.) Vasantha Muthuswamy, Dr. A.V. Moharir, Dr. Radesh Suri conveyed their inability to attend the meeting due to prior commitments.

The President SSV welcomed all the members present. The Agenda items were discussed and the following decisions were taken:

1. The minutes of the 11^th AGB meeting of the SSV were confirmed.

2. The President, SSV gave an overview of the various activities of the SSV in the recent past and present, briefed the members on the actions taken on the earlier decisions of the SSV and the proposed future activities of the SSV. He emphasized on increasing the number of members and participation of more and younger persons to enhance the awareness on the ethical and moral issues and norms in pursuit of science.

3. The Secretary, SSV presented an overview of the SSV activities and mentioned that despite limited infrastructure and facilities available with the SSV Secretariat, during the last one year, 5 Executive Council meetings and 2 AGB meetings have been organized. All the minutes of the various meetings were prepared and distributed to different members all over the country and abroad.  A seminar on "Ethics in Science" was organized in INSA. The first issue of the SSV bulletin was brought out and the draft for the second bulletin is ready to be given to printer. Plans have been made to organize a panel discussion/seminar to be held at IIT, Delhi on 7^th of April, 2004. 15 new life members were elected. Relevant correspondences were made with DST for release of DST fund and succeeded in getting the funds released by the end of the year 2003.  Materials were provided for web site and web site was updated. 

4. The Treasurer presented the expenditure statement and informed that the balance amount from the DST fund during this financial year   will be  utilised.

5. The letter of Dr. S.R. Valluri regarding code of conduct was distributed to all the members present. A draft document on the code of conduct prepared by Dr. P.N. Tiwari was also distributed to all the members. The members felt that both these documents have several points which are very important and many of the points are of common nature. Mention was also made of the following code of conduct documents: Max Planck Society, Germany document, adopted by the CSIR; Alliance of European Academies and Universities Document; US Office of Research Integrity. The President suggested that it will be worthwhile to integrate these documents along with the suggestions made in several other available many other similar documents. Dr. P.N. Tiwari, Dr.(Mrs.) Indira Nath and Dr. B.B. Sharma were requested to integrate such available documents and prepare a draft document  for wide circulation to the members,  academic institutions and the concerned GOI departments.

6. The members  urged that the Minister of Science & Technology  be again requested for continuing the grant  by the DST and  the possibility of having a permanent Office of  Research Integrity in the Prime Minister’s Secretariat or at any other appropriate place be explored.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

President, SSV                                                                       Secretary, SSV

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Minutes of the 11th AGM of the Society for Scientific Values:                       TOP

Minutes of the Annual General Body meeting of the SSV held on 28th April, 2003 at INSA premises.

The following were present:

1. Dr. K.L. Chopra

2. Dr. A.S. Paintal

3. Prof. A.R. Verma

4. Dr. P.N. Srivastava

5. Prof. N. Nath

6. Dr. P.N. Tiwari

7. Dr. Kishan Lal

8. Dr.(Mrs.) Ashima Anand

9. Dr. H.K. Prasad

10. Dr. I.M. Mishra

11. Dr. P.S. Datta

Dr. P.N. Bhargava, Dr. G. Govil, Dr. Lalji Singh, Dr. V.P. Dimri, Dr. Rajiv Raman, Dr. R.V. Rastogi, Dr. K.L. Pathak, Dr. Prem Narain and Dr. Indira Nath conveyed their inability to attend the meeting due to prior commitments.

A condolence was expressed for Prof. J.N. Kapur by observing two minutes silence. Prof. J.N. Kapur contributed significantly in different activities of the SSV.

The President, SSV gave an overall view of the various activities of the SSV in the past and present, briefed the members on the actions taken on the earlier decisions of the SSV, the proposed future activities of the SSV, and a brief description of the talks delivered by different speakers in the seminar on Ethics in Science. He suggested that participation of more and younger persons is required to enhance the awareness on the ethical and moral issues and norms in pursuing science. This requires increasing membership of active scientists as well as non-scientists committed to the objectives of the SSV. Finally, Dr Chopra mentioned that DST is considering our request sympathetically for providing some financial support to run the routine activities of the SSV. The agenda was discussed and following decisions were taken.

1. As recommended by SSV-EC, it was agreed that life membership fee be increased to Rs.500/- without admission fee and that for the NRIs be fixed at $100.

2. SSV should make an effort to interact with and involve all scientific Societies with similar objectives on discussing ethical issues in the pursuit of science and technology. In this connection the President, SSV will also write a letter to Mrs. Shashi Mishra, Additional Secretary, ICAR who has shown keen interest on ethical issues in pursuing agricultural science through establishment of a National Academy in ICAR complex.

3. It was resolved that the President, SSV will write to the UGC, AICTE, ICMR, ICAR etc. that SSV recommends strongly that, as a measure of ethical concern, all approved Ph.D. thesis should list the names of the thesis examiners.
   Funds permitting, SSV will make an effort to organize an International Conference on Ethics in Science at the end of next year at INSA premises.

4. Minor constitutional amendments (attached) in the SSV constitution recommended by the EC were discussed and approved for placing before the members for approval as per rules.

The meeting ended with vote of thanks to the Chair.

( K.L. CHOPRA )                                                                                 ( P.S. DATTA )
President, SSV                                                                                  Secretary, SSV

Minor amendments suggested in the SSV constitution

1. Membership of active non-scientists committed to the aims and objectives of the SSV.

2. Life membership fee be increased to Rs.500/- without admission fee and that for the NRIs be fixed at $100.

3. In the entire Rules & regulations, wherever 'he' occurs, it should be deemed to include 'she", and similarly for him, his, etc., the proper cognates deemed to have been included. It needs to be put at the top of all the Rules.

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