Report of the Computer Society of India, Member IFIP General Assembly.

The year 2000-2001 (July-June) has been a year of significant progress and achievement for the Computer Society of India (CSI) – the premier Society of IT Professionals in India.

The Society which has a strength of about 20,000 members conducts its activities through its 61 chapters and 80 student branches located across the country. As is widely known, in the global scenario India, with its vast pool of talent and brain power, is a leading player in the development and application of Information Technology.

The IT scenario is so very rapidly changing that it has become imperative to have a more pragmatic vision with objectives and goals which can meet the emerging trends, needs and challenges. Hence CSI’s vision document primarily lays more emphasis on improving the quality, level and areas of activities to keep pace with the changing needs and demands of the future. In furtherance of these objectives CSI had conducted a large number of activities during the year through its various chapters and student branches.

Following were some of the activities conducted.

 I. Seminars, Conferences and Workshops:

1. Three 2 day National Conferences on e-Security, one each at Bangalore (July, 2000), Rourkela (Feb. 2001) and Pune (Feb. 2001) were held. These conferences emphasized the importance of e-Security for the success of e-Commerce.
2. CSI 2000 – the 4 day National Convention with the theme ‘Society and the Digital Millennium’ was held at Chennai in Sept. 2000. Over 1000 delegates from India and abroad participated in the convention which also had an IT Exhibition with about 150 stalls spread over an indoor area of nearly 50,000 sq.ft. The exhibition was visited by over 75000 people.

CSI recognises outstanding contributions and confers every year "Fellowships " which are of universal distinction. In addition the meritorious 'Honorary Fellowship" is conferred by CSI upon a distinguished person of international repute. CSI takes pride in announcing that in CSI-2000 , it had great pleasure to confer the Honorary Fellowship on Sir Arthur C Clarke .

3. COMAD 2000, the International Conference on Data Management, was held at Pune in Dec. 2000. The Conference focused on the new developments in the principles and practices related to Data Management and brought together Researchers, Practitioners, Developers and Users who presented and discussed emerging trends, concepts, techniques, technologies and experiences in Data Management.
4. A 2 day National Conference on ‘IT in Education’ was held in Calcutta in Feb.2001.
5. Computing 2001, a 2 day National Conference on ‘Web Enable Application’ was held in Indore in March 2001.
6. CONSEG-2001, a 3 day International Conference on Software Engineering on the theme ‘Software Engineering : Emerging Trends’ was held at Trivandrum in March 2001.
7. CONMICRO-2001, a 2 day National Conference on Micro Computers on the theme ‘Era of e-Revelation’ was held at Lucknow in April 2001.

Apart from the Conferences and Exhibitions the most path breaking event of the year was the formal launch of the results of India’s First National IT Skills & Manpower Survey covering individuals and organizations conducted by CSI . India geographically being a vast country the survey which in the first phase alone covered over 300 Corporates and 3000 IT Professionals, was indeed a very expensive and tough task but nevertheless it was completed with determination. It was the first serious effort in India to assess the status of skills and manpower of Information Technology Communication Professionals in the country and highlighted the gaps in skills and the numbers that exist which will be useful to policy makers. The survey results were formerly launched by the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information Technology, Government of India, in the honorable presence of the Federal Minister for IT, Communications & the Arts, Govt. of Australia during the latter's visit to Mumbai in Dec. 2000.

III. CSI’s Contribution in Research:

In the field of IT research, one of the several important projects completed during the year was CSI’s Research Project on prevention of the dreaded foot and mouth disease in Cattle. With the aid of CDs developed, various CSI Chapters are currently educating farmers in urban and rural areas on this dreadful disease and the steps needed to be taken for its timely prevention.

CSI’s continuing work in specified research areas specificially in General Education curricula design, multimedia and software usability, achieved considerable progress during the year.

The Society took steps during the year to increase its IFIP related activities. Accordingly KBCS-2000 a 2 day International Conference on Knowledge Based Computer Systems was held at Mumbai in Dec.2000. The Conference provided a platform for all those in India and abroad interested in Artificial Intelligence, to interact and share ideas . KBCS-2000 was sponsored by IFIP & CSI.

Yet another IFIP related event which CSI is endeavoring to organize is NETWORKS- 2001. The Society has proposed to organize this event at Hyderabad in Dec. 2001.

There are about 80 Student Chapters spread over India.

Many of the CSI Student Branches organised during the year the State level student conventions. These Conventions were held at States like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Maharashtra etc and largely attended. The Karnataka Student Convention at Belgaum which was held for the fourteenth year in succession was attended by over 500 students of the State.

During the year CSI conducted  the National Software Programming contests at various centres across the country at the regional and national level and selected two School teams of students below the age of 17 years. These teams were imparted thorough training in software programming language Q Basic.  CSI sponsored participation of one of the teams in the International Software Programming Contest held at SEARCC-2000 Convention in Manila.

During the year CSI Education Directorate at Chennai which periodically conducts examinations, took steps to implement several projects of social and educational significance. One such project is of conducting examinations for those from the economically weaker sections of the Society undergoing computer training courses conducted by Sterilite Foundation - a charitable institution having 181 training centres all over the country. There has also been a request from the Victoria School for the Blind, Mumbai to conduct examinations for the students ( some of them completely blind and others with impaired vision )  undergoing training in basic computer language. CSI is working out an MOU with them to see how best we could render service to the disabled.