“Green Visionary” of India Dr. Prem C. Jain passes away
New Delhi : Dr. Prem C. Jain, famous for decades of service to the environment, earning him a reputation as a “green visionary” has passed away on early Thursday. He was aged 82 years.
Dr. Jain has served as adviser to the President and to the Prime Minister of India; has chaired the International Green Building Congress in Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai from 2006 to 2011; and since 2007, has chaired the Indian Green Building Council. He founded the Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers in 1980, and the India Chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers in 1989. He also rewrote the section on air conditioning, heating and ventilation for the National Building Code of India-NBC 2005, bringing it up to the international level of codes, standards and practices.
Dr Jain who had a master’s degree and a doctorate in mechanical engineering. Upon returning to India in 1970 after post-graduate studies in the U.S., he served as a visiting professor at IIT Kanpur, where he taught post-graduate studies and set up a laboratory for environmental engineering. He has also been on the visiting faculty for the School of Planning and Architecture at Delhi University since 1973.He is known as the most admired teacher par excellence. He has been awarded the best visiting faculty award in 1990.
In addition to his academic accomplishments, Dr Jain was a business entrepreneur, founding Spectral Services Consultants Private Limited (now an AECOM company) in 1980 with the mission of providing energy-efficient, fire safe, fully-coordinated Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing (MEP) services design for all varieties of planned buildings in India. The firm grew from four employees to a staff of more than 600 in 10 offices.
His name is synonymous with the science of air-conditioning and he is known as one of the most outstanding consulting engineers with design experience spanning more than 45 years. He was a Member of American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME-USA), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA-USA), Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES-USA), International Solar Energy Society (ISES-GERMANY) and Consulting Engineers Association of India (CEAI-India). He has been listed in Marquis 'Who's Who in the World' from 1997 and in Marquis 'Who's Who in Science & Engineering' since 2000. He has also featured in Baron's 'Who's Who (USA)', 'The Asia 500 Leaders for the New Century' published in the USA in 2000, and in Marquis 'Who's Who in Asia' 1997. Furthermore, he has been honoured with the Rashtriya Gaurav Award at the All India Achievers' Conference in 1997. For his special merits and numerous contributions to the society, he was awarded ASHRAE's highest honour - Louise and Bill Holladay 'Distinguished Fellow' award. He is the Fellow of a large number of International Societies, namely, Institute of Refrigeration (IR-London), Institution of Engineers (IE-India), Institution of Energy Engineers (IEE India) and Indian Society of Lighting Engineers (ISLE-India).
Syed Mohamed Beary, Chairman of IGBC Bengaluru Chapter and Bearys Group has expressed shock over the demise of Dr Prem Jain. He said " Dr Jain was
the most respected Green Building figure in Asia . With his passing away, the green building movement of India has been orphaned. Now the rest of us have to work so much more harder in his absence to make his dreams to make Bharat as the world leader in green buildings".
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Ex-PM Devegowda warns opposition of electoral losses if they continue to allege 'vote chori'
New Delhi (PTI): Former Prime Minister H D Devegowda on Monday said the Opposition parties would "suffer" if they continue to raise allegations of "vote chori" and create suspicion in the minds of voters by blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
Participating in a discussion on election reforms in the Rajya Sabha, he criticised the Opposition for making a mockery about the Prime Minister "in the streets and on the public platform".
"This (India) is a very big country. A large country. Congress may be in three states. Remember my friends please, by using the words 'vote chori' you are going to suffer in the coming days. You are not going to win the battle," Devegowda said, referring to the Opposition members.
He asked what the Opposition is going to earn by "blaming Narendra Modi's leadership and creating a suspicion in the mind of the voters" through the claims of "vote chori".
"What has happened to their minds? Let them rectify," Devegowda said.
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The former prime minister said that during his over seven decades of public life, he has never raised such issues of vote theft despite facing defeat in elections.
He also cited a letter written by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru regarding inclusion of "18,000 votes" (voters) in Kerala.
"Why I am telling this (because) during the Nehru period also, there were certain lapses in the electoral system," said Devegowda, who was the prime minister between June 1, 1996 and April 21, 1997.
He said that the Congress party faced defeat in the recent Bihar elections despite raising the issues of mistakes in the electoral rolls.
"What happened after that even after so much review (of voters list). Think (for) yourself! You got six MLAs," the senior Janata Dal (Secular) leader said.
Devegowda questioned the Opposition as to why they want to make allegations against the prime minister on the issue of the voters list?
"Election Commission is there. Supreme Court is there. The Election Commission has given direction to all the state units to rectify all these things," he said.
Devegowda said people of the country have full confidence in Narendra Modi's government and it will come back to power after the next Lok Sabha elections as well.
K R Suresh Reddy, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party's Rajya Sabha member from Telangana, said that electoral reforms are the backbone for a healthy democracy.
He said a large and diverse nation like Indi needs clean electoral rolls.
Asserting that strict re-verification should not become a mechanism for exclusion, Reddy said no eligible voter should lose their right to vote simply because accessing paperwork is difficult.
He said while the concern definitely is on the voters' exclusion, "we should also be equally concerned about the percentage of voting."
"What is happening in voting today? Once the election ends, the drama begins. The biggest challenge that the Indian democracy has been facing in spite of two major Constitutional amendments has been the anti-defection. Anti-defection is the name of the game today, especially in smaller states, especially where the legislatures are small in number," Reddy said.
The senior BRS leader suggested creation of a parliamentary committee "which would constantly look into the defection" and "ways and means to cutting that".
AIADMK's M Thambidurai raised the issues related to election campaigning.
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"Election campaigns are one of the important election processes. In that, political parties must be given the proper chance to campaign," he said and cited problems faced by his party in Tamil Nadu in this regard.
Thambidurai said political parties were facing hardships in Tamil Nadu to conduct public meetings and to express their views to the public.
YSRCP's Yerram Venkata Subba Reddy stressed on bringing electoral reforms at both the state and national levels.
He also suggested replacing Electronic Voting Machines with paper ballots in all future elections.
"EVM may be efficient but can't be trusted. Paper ballot may not be efficient but can be trusted. You need trust in democracy," Reddy added.
