The Electrochemical Society of India popularly referred to as ECSI was conceived and started by Professor T. L. Rama Char, who at that time was a Professor in the Department of Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. Based on his contacts with the Electrochemical Society, USA, he started an India Section of the Electrochemical Society of USA in 1954 with himself as the Founder President. Simultaneously, he started publishing a News Letter in the form of a Journal which contained articles on developments in Electroplating. 

Several members felt that the progress in Electrochemistry in India was large enough to sustain an independent organization, a Scientific Society under the name of “Electrochemical Society of India” with the acronym ECSI was registered in the year 1964 and the News Letter was christened “Journal of the Electrochemical Society of India”. ECSI has grown in stature and size due to the tireless efforts of all the stalwarts steering the Society from time to time. There have been very able Secretaries who have managed the affairs of the Society to bring it to its present position of fame in the country.

The year 2021 was another challenging year due to Covid which has continued to linger and affect our lives. Despite all the covid challenges, the whole world has adapted to this new way of living with the virus and utilized the digital platform more effectively. I am happy to inform you that ECSI has persevered and thrived over the last year. All the ECSI annual activities were successfully completed online. The ECSI team successfully organized the annual National Seminar on Electrochemical Science and Technology (NSEST-2020) along with the ECSI Research Scholars Meet (ECSIRM-2020) from 21-22nd January 2021. The selected papers are published as Recent Trends in Electrochemical Science and Technology, Springer Proceedings in Materials 15, 2022.

ECSI successfully organized the 19th B.S. Seshadri Memorial lecture by Prof. M. Pandurangappa at the Department of Chemistry, Central College, Bengaluru City University, Bengaluru on 30th Sep 2021. ECSI also organized a lecture by Professor Günter Schmitt in association with IIT Bombay, Indian Institute of Metals, NACE International Gateway of India Section (AMPP) and others.

Another major activity organized by ECSI was the course on Industrial Corrosion and its Control from Dec16-18, 2021. This course was conceived and organized by Prof. VS Raja. There was an overwhelming response for this course from industry and academia and was attended by ~110 participants. We expect ECSI to organize similar courses that will continue to garner the attention of researchers in the country.

ECSI in collaboration with Poornima College of Engineering organized a one-day webinar on the occasion of the International women`s Day Celebration with the theme “women Innovators-The changemakers”.

I am happy to announce that ECSI has instituted two more new awards viz., ECSI- METROHM National Award for Electrochemical Science and ECSI- AMARA RAJA National Award for Advanced Electrochemical Technology from this year to encourage more talents in the area of electrochemical science and technology.

Like every year, several ECSI members excelled in research, teaching, science leadership, etc and received several recognitions and honours.

We expect continued activities of ECSI in 2022-23. As always, I invite you to join the ECSI team to realize our goal of fostering the activities related to electrochemical science and technology in the country. Although the online activities have been well received by the ECSI community, we miss the in-person sessions, especially the offline conversations over coffee/lunches which allow people to get to know each other in a more personal way. We hope that we can revert to at least one in-person event in 2022 and reconnect.

It is my privilege to be the President of ECSI and I am sure with all your cooperation and support we can organize many wonderful events of high significance to the industry, academia, and society.