March/April 2023 - 53

MOHAN RAMANATHAN, CHAIR
DFI of India
Since I became a
member of DFI in
1985, I have been keenly following DFI
activities. The annual conferences held
in 2010 in Hyderabad and subsequently
in 2011 at the Indian Institute of Technology
Madras, my alma mater, nurtured
my close association with DFI. I
was involved in the deliberations for
establishing the regional chapter in
India in 2013. Prior to 2019, I had limited
capacity to fully participate in DFI
activities, but since then I have been reengaged
and have witnessed steady
growth in the popularity of DFI of India
(DFII) in the Indian foundation industry.
I am delighted to accept the responsibility
of chairing the chapter for the
next couple of years, especially when
the entire board offers full-fledged
support. I wish to assure all the members
and stakeholders in the Indian
foundation industry that I will continue
to work to grow the industry through
the growth of DFII.
I have three priorities in addition to
continuing the current activities of
DFII: organizing the prestigious 12th
DFI-India Annual Conference to be held
during October 5-7 at Vadodara,
Gujarat; launching the long-due operators
training programme in association
with National Skill Development
Corporation; and broadening the
corporate membership and individual
membership network. The third task
we plan to achieve through popularising
the first two activities.
In addition, I have always been
interested in helical screw piles. As
chair of DFII, I wish to popularise this
simple but innovative method of piling
in India. I hope to get help and advice
from DFI's Helical Piles and Tiebacks
Committee.
I wish to congratulate the DFII team
for its achievements during the last
several years. Following are highlights
of major activities in the previous six
months.
DFI-India 2022
The annual conference, held in person
September 15-17, 2022, after two online
conferences, was well attended and
supported by the industry; evident by
the enthusiasm in meeting and networking
sessions. The conference was
enriched by seven keynote presentations
on various topics and a
special session on quality assurance
and quality control of bored cast-in-situ
piles and diaphragm wall construction.
See the recap in the Nov/Dec 2022 issue
of this magazine.
Committee Activities
DFII conducted a five-day training
session for lab technicians in the newly
developed geotechnical testing laboratory
at the National Academy of
Construction at Hyderabad (NAC). This
full-fledged laboratory has been set up
under the guidance of the DFII
Geotechnical Characterisation for
Foundations Committee. It expects
accreditation from the National
Accreditation Board for Testing and
Calibration Laboratories soon.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
subcommittee P:20 for developing the
code of standards for continuous flight
auger piles, under CED 43 the Soil and
Foundation Engineering Section and
headed by Shri G. Prabhakar of Nuclear
Power Corporation India Limited, will
soon submit the draft copy for review by
BIS. The successful field trials conducted
by DFII on the CFA piles paved
the way for this development.
REGIONAL REPORT
DFII congratulates graduate student
Godson M.D., Vellore Institute of
Technology, and research students
Sujata Jitendra Fulambarkar and
Gayathri Venu Latha, IIT Delhi, for
receiving the inaugural Best Thesis
Award for Researchers and the Best
Project Award for Graduate Students in
the deep foundation and ground
improvement field. DFII conducted one
online webinar for students under the
theme GroundWork. This year's activities
comprise two interactive sessions
with industry experts and three technical
webinars.
India's Women in Deep Foundations
team is organising webinars and interactive
sessions starting in March.
We also held technical committee
meetings during DFI-India 2022.
Skill Development and
Training
DFII's ambitious rig operator training
programme is being pursued vigorously
with the support promised by piling rig
manufacturers and the Infrastructure
Equipment Skill Council (IESC). IESC
has been conducting several skill training
programs for construction personnel.
DFII successfully conducted training
programs in steel foundations and
reversed mud circulation methods for
foundations during 2020 and 2021 and
has developed a training program on
support fluids. This will be a two-day
online session for six hours in March.
DFI-India 2023
We've started preparations for the
12th Annual Conference on Deep
Foundation Technologies for Infrastructure
Development in India. The
event is being organized in collaboration
with the Indian Geotechnical
DEEP FOUNDATIONS * MAR/APR 2023 * 53
March/April 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March/April 2023
