Mr Philip Wake, Chief Executive of the Nautical Institute ( NI), London was in India to attend our annual joint seminar in Mumbai and he paid a brief visit to IMF at Pune. To welcome him the council members hosted cocktails and dinner at Hotel Panchratna on 2nd May. There was much to celebrate that evening. Philip was congratulated as it was coincidentally his birthday that day. He was also felicitated for being the recipient of OBE by Her Majesty the Queen in the Birthday Honours List earlier this year. There was more. Philip and his family were one of the principal sponsors of the Cambridge team which won the famous annual Boat Race against Oxford this year.

Cmde Rajan Vir, President of IMF, spoke about IMF’s close links with the NI almost right from inception, for over 22 years, in London as well in India. He said the NI is among the most respected shipping and merchant marine professional bodies in the world and the IMF and its members had benefitted enormously from this association by gaining knowledge on current shipping matters, especially from its monthly journal ‘Seaways’. In his brief address, Philip said he was happy to be with us in Pune again and he gave some insight into the workings of NI and its recent achievements.

Special invitees at the dinner that evening were V Adm and Mrs Vinod Pasricha, VAdm and Mrs Pradeep Chauhan, Capt Kiran Apte, Chairman of the Company of Master Mariners, Pune Chapter, and Capt and Mrs Sujit Chaudhuri. As outgoing Vice President of IMF, Sujit was felicitated for his long years of selfless, exemplary good work in the IMF, for all of the past 22 years.

Whilst he was in Pune, Mr Wake visited the MANET merchant marine academy campus at Loni, arranged by Capt K Apte, and he was happy to interact with the staff and the cadets. He was impressed with the training facilities and thought the cadets were bright and focused.