Second LOC  Meeting (02/08/2000)

The second meeting of the National LOC of PORSEC2000 was held on 8th February 2000.  The following members were present. 

Dr. E. Desa, NIO, Chairman
Prof. Y. Sugimori, Chiba University, President
Shri. L.V.G. Rao,  Co-Chairman,  NIO
Dr. M.S. Narayan, SAC
Dr. R.R. Rao, NPOL
Dr. M.M. Ali, SAC
Dr. H.H. Gowda, ISRO
Shri. Vishwas Chauhan, CCMB
Dr. Elgar Desa, Convenor, NIO
Dr. T. Pankajakshan, Co-Convenor, NIO
Dr. P.M. Muraleedharan, Co-Convenor, NIO
Dr. Sathesh Shenoi, NIO
Dr. S. Prasannakumar, NIO
Dr. M.R. Rameshkumar, NIO
Dr. O.S. Chauhan, NIO
Shri. A.K. Saran, NIO
Dr. Ajit Shirodkar, Goa University
Prof. P.R. Sarode, Goa University 
Dr. Harilal B. Menon, Goa University
Miss. Sylvia Bhobe, NIO
Miss. Shyada Rodrigues, NIO
Miss. Namita Jadav, NIO

The meeting commenced at 1545 hours.  The Chairman welcomed the members and introduced Prof. Sugimori, President of  PORSEC to the members.  He expressed satisfaction over the preparatory work for the conference.  He further commented that the number of quality abstract received (~210) and the confirmation of leading scientists as session chairs/invited speakers already set the stage for a successful PORSEC 2000.  The contribution of SOC members and PORSEC executives for promoting PORSEC-2000 was highly appreciated.

Shri. L.V.G. Rao, Co-chairman of the PORSEC2000 briefed the members on the follow-up action taken on the minutes of the first LOC.  Major targets set in the first LOC were creation of PORSEC 2000 web site, getting confirmation from sponsors, gathering enough quality abstracts before the set deadline of December 1999, advance booking of accommodation, and contacting Marine Instrumentation and IT companies for exhibits.  All these targets were met to satisfaction.

· PORSEC 2000 web site went online on 1st September 1999.
· As of January 31st, 210 abstracts were received
· The major, probable sponsors were contacted and they confirmation of sponsorship received
· Marine Instrumentation and other IT companies were contacted
· A comprehensive survey of the available hotels and Conference Halls was  made and short listed

The members were informed that more than ten meetings of LOC members within NIO were held after the first National LOC meeting.  He also appraised the members of the extended deadline of March 31st 2000 for the submission of abstracts. 

Prof. Y. Sugimori, president of PORSEC expressed his happiness in being able to attend  the second National LOC meeting and appreciated the team work of LOC members under the chairmanship of 
Dr. E. Desa.  In his remarks he suggested LOC to set the following goals for PORSEC 2000.

· Gather excellent papers for PORSEC 2000
· Careful dealing of the PORSEC 2000 budget
· Bring out PORSEC 2000 proceedings and special issues of selected papers in standard journals after meticulous screening of the papers received.

Dr. Pankajakshan spoke about the options for the venue of the Conference and the Training Course.  PORSEC 2000 is scheduled to comprise of the following main and satellite events:

· Four parallel sessions for oral presentations
· Poster sessions
· Two workshops
· Training Course

He expressed the difficulty in organizing all the events at one place. He remarked that the Goa International Center being a suitable venue, and accordingly it is booked for organizing the training course.  For organizing the Conference and Workshops the Kala Accadamy and Marriot Hotel were short listed.  The final confirmation of the venue for the conference has been left to the Chairman and Convenors of the LOC after negotiating with the management of the Marriot Hotel.

Dr. Shenoi briefed about the Technical sessions including the inaugural session.  Considering the number of expected full length papers (250) and the invited and plenary talks he projected the following.
 

Inaugural Function	5th December 2000     (0930 to 1230 hrs)
Welcome Speech	Dr. E. Desa, President, LOC, PORSEC- 2000
Keynote Address	Dr. Abdul Kalam,Scientific advisor, Govt. of India
Presidential Address	Prof. Sugimori, President, PORSEC
National Presentation	Dr. Kasturirangan, Chairman, ISRO

 Out of the expected 250 full length papers, it is proposed to schedule 50 papers for the poster sessions and 200 for the oral presentations.  To complete the 200 oral presentations he suggested four parallel sessions.  In order to enable all participants to attend the plenary talks (maximum three talks per day) he recommended to have no parallel sessions during plenary talks.  The tentative time allotted for various technical sessions are as follows. 

Plenary talks   -          30 minutes
Invited talks    -          25 minutes
Contributed talks   -   20 minutes  (all inclusive of time for discussions)

Regarding publications the following are suggested:

· To bring out PORSEC 2000 proceedings before the Conference date
· To publish selected papers on Indian Ocean Processes in special issue of the journal, Current Science
· A special issue in the Journal of Adv. Mar. Sci. Tech. Soci. for selected papers in general

He also presented the proposal of Dr. Ian John to publish a book on Indian Ocean Processes comprising selected papers from PORSEC 2000.  Although the members appreciated the proposal, they felt that the financial commitment involved (LOC to buy 200 books @ $30 per book) is not affordable considering the present sponsorship status of PORSEC2000

Dr. Elgar spoke on the Exhibition during PORSEC 2000 (5 to 8 December 2000) and suggested the following:

· Exhibition of about 10 to 12 participants
· Possible venue: Marriot hotel, Miramar,  Panjim
· Exhibition stall size: 2 types (small: 3m x 3m, large: 4m x 4m)

Participants who have shown interest:

· Satlantic Inc (Canada): Bio-optical instruments
· CODA Technologies (USA)
· Hobilabs (USA): Bio-optical Instruments
· ISRO (India): Space Agency: Models
· ESA (European Space Agency): posters, models
· SeaSpace (USA): Earth stations for satellites

Prof. Sugimori suggested  LOC to contact IT companies  in Japan(through Dr. Tanaka), Singapore, Korean, Hong Kong IT and Indian IT Companies as well. Nortek (ADCPs) was also suggested.

Regarding the charges to be divided for the stalls, the following was suggested.

· Free of charge for the sponsoring agencies (NASDA, NASA, ESA, ISRO, ONR)
· Rs 30,000/( for IT companies)
· $400 (foreign manufacturers inclusive of registration)

In order to get more participants, it was suggested by the members to advertise about the exhibits in the final programme booklet.

The details of the PORSEC-2000 Training course were given by Dr. Prasannakumar.

A three day course prior to the conference (1, 2, and 4 Dec. 2000) has been suggested  with the following Course topics and contact persons.

· Ocean color  ( Dr. Shailesh Naik, SAC & Dr. Elgar Desa, NIO) 
· Microwave remote sensing for ocean applications (Dr. M.S.Narayan, SAC)
· High resolution sensor products for coastal studies ( Dr.S.K Bhan, NRSA )

The course will consist of classroom lectures and hands on experience on data handling. The total number of participants will be 30, having 10 trainees in each group (topic), about 20 would be from India and the rest from Indian ocean rim countries (such as Bangladesh, Srilanka, Mauritius, Seychelles). Faculty Members would be the experts attending PORSEC 2000. The course fee has been proposed to be US $200 for foreign participants and Rs. 5000 for Indian Participants. Dr . Honne Gowda suggested that NNRMS/ISRO may be requested for some funds towards training of Indian participants.

Dr. O.S. Chauhan briefed the members about his survey of available hotels close to the proposed venue of the conference. Considering the number of abstracts received as of today and also the expected number during the extended period, about 130 foreign participants and 100 Indian participants are expected. Of the 130 foreign participants it is proposed to accommodate 100 in hotel Marriot (probable venue of the conference) and the rest in hotels Cidade De Goa (5 km), Prainha (4 km) and hotel Mandovi (2 km). For Indian delegates the Goa International center (6 km) and NIO guest house (4 km) from the venue have been identified.

Dr. M.R. Ramesh Kumar mentioned that two workshops can be conducted during the PORSEC-2000 the tentative themes for the workshops are (a) ocean colour (b) future satellite mission. In the ocean colour workshop the emphasis will be an intercomparison of the results of various ocean colour sessions CZCS, MOS(B), SeaWiFS and OCM. In the future satellite mission the emphasis will be on “Mega Tropics “ and “Oceansat –II”

Dr. Muraleedharan presented the national and international sponsorship to date. The following are the commitments from international agencies:
 

European Space Agency	US $ 10 – 15 k   (1k = $  1000)
National Space development Agency	US $ 10 – 15 k
Ocean Naval Research	US $ 10 k
Marine Biological Research Institute Of Japan	US $ 1k
Joint lab. for Geo Inf. Sci, Hong Kong	US $ 1k
National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration	US $ 4k

As per the latest information NASA have frozen their commitment of 10 k US$ for the time being in view of the sanctions imposed on some agencies in India by the US Govt. NOAA has agreed to release 4k towards the travel assistance for two participants recommended by the LOC. National agencies such as DOS, CSIR, DOD and DST have also confirmed their sponsorships.

Besides sponsorship, the LOC expects an income of Rs. 14 lakhs from registration and exhibits. This will give an overall figure of Rs. 33 lakhs as cash inflow. The projected expenditure for conference and training course is Rs. 42 lakhs (Rs. 30 lakhs for conference and Rs. 12 lakhs for training course). He commented that the deficit of  Rs. 9 lakhs could be mobilized through the following means.

· Requesting the sponsors to enhance their contributions.
· Exhibit charge from IT companies and other marine instrumentation companies to be enhanced.
· Anticipated additional registration fees.
· Careful spending

Miss. Sylvia Bhobe demonstrated the automation software developed for the PORSEC-2000. 

Dr. Ajit Shirodkar from Goa University talked about their experience in handling international conferences and extended their support to PORSEC-2000. Considering his success in mobilizing exhibitors for the VSNL conference held in hotel Cidade de Goa, the Chairman felt that his expertise could be made use of for mobilizing more exhibits for PORSEC-2000.

Dr. Pankajakshan briefed the members about the existing PORSEC awards (best service and best scientist award). For PORSEC-2000, he proposed the best oral (young scientist/ Research student) and best poster awards. The members unanimously accepted the proposal.

Dr. Elgar Desa proposed the vote of thanks