A Brief History of the Association of Carbohydrate Chemists and Technologists (India)

In 1984, Dr. H. C. Srivastava, the then Senior Deputy Director and Head of Chemistry and Chemical Technology Division, Ahmedabad Textile Industry Research Association (ATIRA), conceived the idea of starting an association consisting of people working in, or otherwise interested in, carbohydrate related research or industry in India. In 1985, a Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, sponsored conference on Industrial Carbohydrates, was held at ATRIA, which was attended by scientists and technologists from carbohydrate related industries, universities and research institutions from all over India. The idea of forming an Association of Carbohydrate Chemists and Technologists (India), ACCT(I), took shape after the conference in 1986 and that was the modest beginning of this association. Dr. Srivastava became the founder President of the ACCT(I) and remained in that position till his death in 1995. The association thrived under his leadership and has still continued to do so. The association provides a common platform to scientists and technologists working in the field of carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry in academic, research institutes and industries to exchange ideas and discuss recent developments. The main aim of ACCT(I) has been to foster advancement of knowledge in the field of carbohydrates, improvements in the basic research, development of new technologies for carbohydrate related the allied industries e.g. sugar and it’s down-stream products, textiles, paper, food and pharmaceuticals etc. An important annual event of ACCT(I) is to organize conferences at various academies and research institutions in different parts of our country, where lectures are delivered on the research work on carbohydrate related fields. ACCTI now organizes both nation and international conferences (every third year). So far, 32 conferences had been organized in different parts of the country of which two are international. The purpose of organizing these conferences has been to provide a common platform to the scientists and industrialists to exchange their views, technical information and development in carbohydrate related fields. The conferences are widely attended by academics, technologists and representatives of industries, who have common interest in carbohydrate related research and development programmes. At these conferences, besides research papers, invited and plenary lectures by experts from specialized and interdisciplinary fields are the main attractions for the delegates. An open house is also organized to permit the participants, particularly those who do not present a paper and the representatives from the industry to express their views about their requirements or expectations from the association. Based on the requirement and for the benefit to both the parties the ACCT(I) assigns R&D projects to institutions. Initially the lectures (papers) presented at the conference, were cyclostyled and bound in book form and were distributed to the delegates, but this practice has been irregular. With effect from VII conference in 1991 at Dehra Dun, the papers have been published in the form of a series of books, “Trends in Carbohydrate Chemistry”. Nine volumes of this book have been published and this was possible because of the efforts of Dr. P. L. Soni. From 2009, ACCT(I) has launched an international peer-reviewed scientific e-journal – ‘Trends in Carbohydrate Research’ (www.trendscarbo.com) (ISSN 0975-0304), which has been very well accepted nationally and internationally. The journal is now published quarterly and is indexed in Chemical Abstract (CAS), Elsevier and Ebesco database including Scopous. In addition to this, ACCT(I) publishes a yearly Carbohydrate News Letter (CNL) and is distributed free of cost to all members and other interested persons. The association also hosts a website www.accti.in.