A Curtain Raiser was held on February 21 – the eve of inauguration of the exhibition – at Sheraton Grand. JCI-Hitachi was the event partner. D. Nirmal Ram (Chair – ACREX 2018) gave an overview of the industry to the invitees, and a foretaste of what lies in store for them during the next three days. Vishal Kapur outlined the efforts ISHRAE is making to steer the industry towards competency development and environmental responsibility. Gurmeet Singh, CMD – JCI-Hitachi – made a presentation on global and local trends in the industry. He listed the growth drivers of the industry, and made projections of the market by product category. He also mentioned the efforts being made by his company towards a sustainable future – including eco-friendly refrigerants, a world class R&D Centre, and government-certifi ed APF and VRF laboratories.
Verghese Joseph (JCI) mentioned some of the sustainable projects carried out by his company, including one in Japan and a landmark heritage building in India – Kolkata Police headquarters at Lal Bazaar. ASHRAE President Bjarne Olesen spoke about the mutually benefi cial cooperation with ISHRAE.

A highlight of the evening was a panel discussion on the topic ‘Chillers and VRF Applications – Friends or Enemies?’ moderated by D. Nirmal Ram. The other participants were Gurmeet Singh, R. S. Kulkarni (HVACR Consultant), Vishal Kapur and Aditya Malpani (GM and Head, Procurement – Mantri Developers). D. Nirmal Ram summed up the discussion by saying that every project is unique, and the choice of chiller versus VRF would depend upon the application. Pankaj Dharkar announced the first edition of RefCold India, planned in Gandhinagar from November 22 to 24 at Mahatma Mandir Convention-cum-Exhibition Centre, which boasts of a convention capacity of 5000 delegates. On this occasion, a souvenir was unveiled by C. Subramaniam, Sonia Prashar (MD, NuernbergMesse India), Pankaj Dharkar (Chair, RefCold India), Bjarne Olesen, Harshal Surange (ACR Consultants) and Vishal Kapur. H. M. Jhangiani Journal Paper Awards were presented for two best articles published in the Journal and its Cold Chain supplement during 2016. These awards were bagged by Rajat Gupta for his article on A Sustainable Cold Chain Using Eutectics in the March-April 2016 issue of Cold Chain, and Raji Panicker for his article on Geothermal Earth Heat Exchanger in the November-December 2016 issue of the Journal. Sonia Prashar proposed the vote of thanks.