March/April 2021 - 53

ANIRUDHAN I.V., CHAIR

REGIONAL

DFI of India
The last quarter of 2020 was
momentous for DFI of India (DFII),
which held its annual conference
online in November, and started its
GroundWork student outreach program and Women in Deep
Foundations (WiDF) program in January 2021. An eventful
calendar has been developed by G. Venkata Prasad, director of
operations, that includes various technical and
developmental activities, such as a (hoped-for physical)
conference this November.
February is always exciting for deep foundation professionals in India due to an anticipated boost of the economy
with announcement of the annual budget. Amid the pandemic's chaotic imbalances, the '21-'22 annual budget of India
holds promise for bringing a fast recovery and growth in
infrastructure and private and public spending. DFII is proceeding with great eagerness with its ambitious goals as well.

Leadership Changes
Dr. K.S. Rama Krishna, a veteran of the deep foundation
industry, founded DFII to encourage like-minded
professionals and academics to strive for the best practices in
foundation design and construction practices. Impressed by
the activities of DFI in the U.S., he held several discussions
with DFI's leadership before the DFII chapter began in 2013.
DFI of India became a well-known professional organisation
in India under his leadership, with an active executive
committee of 18 that Rama Krishna chaired for 7 years.
Feeling that a change in the leadership now would be
beneficial, he suggested that I become
the chair for the next 2 years. I accepted
the challenge with all humility. The new
vice chair is Mohan Ramanathan of
Advanced Construction Technologies, an
active member of the DFII executive
committee. Rama Krishna is continuing
to serve as an advisor and will always be
Ramanathan
the leading light for DFII.

2020 Annual Conference
The DFI of India annual conference, held during the last
quarter of every year, is an event that stakeholders in the
foundation industry eagerly await. We could foresee in April
2020 the hurdles to a physical conference in November 2020
and started preparing then for a virtual event. Three preconference webinars occurred from August through October
2020, and a two-day virtual conference was successfully
held in November. The DFI-India 2020 conference on

REPORT

November 19-20 had four-hour sessions each day that were
well organised, involving four keynote presentations, a panel
discussion and four presentations selected from contributed
papers. One-minute videos of the conference sponsors added
flavour. A detailed conference summary is available in the
Mar/Apr 2021 issue of Deep Foundations. The DFII team of G.
Venkata Prasad, Mohamed Athif, T.S. Mahendran and Pranav
Jha worked hard on the conference content and related
activities.

Student Outreach Program
GroundWork, a student outreach program, was formally
announced during last fall's conference. To start, DFI of India
conducted a nationwide geotechnical problem-solving
competition for 57 students during the November 2020
conference. The two student groups that won the competition
were awarded free registration and financial assistance to
attend the DFI-India conference in November 2021.

DFI

GROUNDWORK

Laying the Foundation for the Next Generation of Foundation Practitioners

As part of GroundWork, DFII is also hosting 1.5- to 2-hour
webinar sessions for students. The first GroundWork webinar
occurred on January 19. Harry G. Poulos, D.ScEng, a senior
consultant at Coffey Services, Australia, and a veteran in the
deep foundation industry as the designer of several tall
buildings, presented " Foundation Design Challenges for Tall
Buildings. " Poulos' talk followed an introductory
presentation, " Ground vs. Soil, " by M.R.
Madhav, Ph.D., D.Sc. Madhav is a visiting
professor at IIT Hyderabad and JNTU
Kakinada. Mary Ellen Large, P.E., D. GE,
director of technical activities for DFI in
the U.S., delivered a presentation about
body language to provide students with
tips on presenting and public speaking.
Katzenbach
The second webinar in the series was
presented on February 16, 2021. Rolf
Katzenbach, Ph.D., from the Technical
University at Darmstadt | Germany
presented " Sustainable Foundations of
High-Rise Buildings in Soft Soil -
Recommendations for Technical
Solutions. " In addition, Anne Lemnitzer,
Ph.D., P.E., University of California, Irvine, Lemnitzer
DEEP FOUNDATIONS * MAR/APR 2021 * 53

March/April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March/April 2021