The Sixteenth National Conference of the Association held in Delhi 28th – 30th November 2008 was organized by the Department of Psychiatry and National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi with Professor Rajat Ray as Chairperson, Organizing Committee and Professor Rakesh Chadda as Organizing Secretary. The conference was cosponsored by the World Psychiatric Association. Mr Justice Shri S Rajendra Babu, Chairperson, National Human Rights Commision delivered the inaugural address in the conference. The conference was attended by about 200 delegates.
With the New Delhi conference, Professor K Roy Abraham took over as the new President Elect, Professor R C Jiloha as Vice President and Acting President for the term 2008-2010. Dr G Gopalakrishnan, who was to take over as President was not able to attend the conference and is yet to take over the office. Professor R.K. Chadda and Dr Adarsh Kohli were unanimously re elected as Secretary General and Treasurer respectively for another term of 2008-2012. Professor V.K.Sinha was re nominated as Editor for another term of 2008-2012.

The journal is currently being published form Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi. Professor V.K. Sinha is its current editor. The issues from the year 2006 onwards can be freely accessed on the Association’s website. Prof V.K. Sinha has brought out issues of the journal for the year 2008and those for 2009 are under preparation. All the old issues have been dispatched to the membership. I would like to add that no journal can survive without contributions from the membership. Therefore, I would request all the members to send their research work for publication to the journal. Members who have presented papers in this conference must also send their manuscripts for publication, which could then be peer reviewed for publication. The work done by Prof Sinha is creditworthy and he deserves full appreciation from the membership.

The Association has been facing a serious problem since Dr G Gopalakrishnan, as the previous treasurer has not transferred the full accounts to the current Treasurer, Dr Adarsh Kohli till date, while his tenure had finished way back in 2003. . He has transferred only a part amount. This has caused great problems in running of the office of Treasurer, as no audit has taken place since 2003. Repeated attempts have been made to request him to transfer the accounts by sending him letters by post, e mail and calling on phone. Many senior members of the IASP have also tried to contact him in this regards, but nothing has worked. AGB in its last meeting on 28.11.2008 had decided to go for a legal action, if the situation continues. EC has started working on it.

Many of our members had had distinguished achievements in the last year. Professor K Roy Abraham, our President Elect has taken over as Principal, Cooperative Medical College, Kochi. Professor Rajat Ray has become Member, International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) as a Global Expert nominee from WHO for 5 years. This is an honorary position. Prof J.K. Trivedi has been elected Fellow and Dr Mamta Sood has been elected member of the prestigious National Academy of Medical Sciences.

Council meetings held and important decisions taken during the years 2008 –2009
During the year under review, two meetings of the Executive Council were held on 9.1.2009 at Agra and at 21.7.2009 at Delhi since the last conference. EC framed the guidelines for new awards. EC also took a serious note regarding non transfer of IASP accounts from the previous treasurer to the current treasurer. Prof J K Trivedi invited the Silver Jubilee IASP conference to Lucknow during the EC meeting held at Agra on 9.1.2009, which was duly approved by the Council. The EC meeting of 21.7.2009 discussed about organizational arrangements for the Silver Jubilee IASP conference.

I wish to inform you that the trend of growth in our membership has been maintained throughout the period under review. As a part of membership drive we have been able to expand our membership to 569
Sixty eight (68) members (30 life fellows and 38 life associates) have been added to the IASP fold since the last conference. We have lost 4 of our esteemed fellows (Professor V.N.Bagadia, Professor Alan De Souza, Dr Hema Shah and Dr Amit Mookherjee in the last year. We are paying regular dues to the World Psychiatric Association as a member society. The current membership stands as:
Fellows : 350 (Hon. Fellow: 1; Life Fellows: 317; Fellows: 29)
Associates : 219 (Life Associates: 204; Associates: 15)
Total : 569
We have also brought out the new updated Directory of the Association during the last conference. Some of our members have not been paying their dues regularly. It is my earnest request to all the defaulting members to pay their dues. I would request them to become life members. I would also request all the members to bring their professional colleagues and friends to the IASP fold, to attend the conferences in more and more numbers and also to contribute to the journal of the Association, as no society can flourish without active and dynamic efforts of its membership.

IASP encourages scientific research by the membership. To encourage the research in various fields of social psychiatry, the Association has instituted many awards, number of which has also grown, as the Association is growing. The awards are given every year in the national conference. Last year’s winners for various awards were Professor Rajat Ray for Dr N.N. De Oration (delivered in 2009 at Lucknow conference), Dr. K.S. Pavitra for Balint Award and Dr Adarsh Kohli and Ms. Manju Mohanty for G C Boral I Award.
During the 2008 National Conference of the IASP held at New Delhi, three new awards were instituted, which have been introduced from 2009, the silver jubilee year of the Association. These include Dr Venkoba Rao Oration, instituted in the memory of Prof A Venkoba Rao, Founder President of IASP, Dr V.K. Varma Award for best publication and Dr. B.B. Sethi Award for poster presentations in the conference. Dr K Roy Abraham has taken the initiative to generate funds for Dr Venkoba Rao Award. Dr V.K.Varma has given an endowment of Rs. 1,51,000 for the award instituted by him. Dr B.B Sethi award is to be given by the organizing committee of the respective conferences.

IASP has a number of sub committees, which are chaired by a senior fellow and have at least 5 members. The sub committees include constitution and bye laws committee, programme committee, ethics committee, elections committee, CME committee, awards and oration committee and membership committee. All the committees have been working hard to meet the objectives of the Association. Recently IASP has made 3 task forces on ‘Mental health legislation’, ‘Mass media and mental health’ and ‘Mental health policy’. Professor R Srinivasa Murthy, Professor A K Kala and Dr U C Garg respectively are the convenors of these task forces. All these three areas are of national importance and need active inputs form the mental health professions, and therefore IASP has taken initiative in this area.

In the end, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all the membership, EC, members and officer bearers of the Association for entrusting me with this job and helping me in running the office smoothly. I am especially grateful to Professor R.C. Jiloha, Acting President, Professor K Roy Abraham, President Elect, Professor V.K.Simha, Editor, Dr Adarsh Kohli, whose regular inputs have helped in rejuvenating the Association. I am also grateful to Professor S.K. Khandelwal, Member Executive Council, whom I frequently trouble for regular guidance. I would also like to thank my other department colleagues especially Prof R Ray, Head, Department of Psychiatry, Professor M Mehta, Professor P Sharan and Dr Rajesh Sagar.. I would like to express my thanks to Dr Mamta Sood, the Assistant Secretary General amd Mrs Renu Prashant, my PA who have always been helping me in running this office with full efficiency. In the end I would like to again thank all the membership of IASP, who have entrusted me with this responsibility.