MRPL in coordination with Centre for High Technology (CHT) conducted ‘First Activity Meet’ on ‘Reliability of Instrument Systems and Best Practices’ on 9th and 10th November 2017 at Ocean Pearl Hotel, Mangalore.

Shri H Kumar, our Managing Director, Shri M Venkatesh, Director Refinery and Shri A K Sahoo, Director Finance and Shri Rajeev Kushwah, Chief Vigilance Officer, were among the dignitaries for the inaugural event. Shri. Rajan Kapoor, Director – CHT and Shri. Peush Mahajan, Former Director – EIL who is also the Convener of this meet were present during the occasion.

Shri B Sudarshan, CGM – Inst. & Elect welcomed the gathering and spoke about the challenges faced by the industry and importance of instrumentation to achieve world class performance.

Shri M Venkatesh, Director Refinery spoke about the criticality of instrumentation in ensuring plant safety and reliability. He appealed to all the participants to learn from each other’s experience.

Shri AK Sahoo, Director Finance highlighted the importance of sharing knowledge and experience. One has to optimally utilise the resources and infrastructure, he added.

Shri Rajeev Kushwah, CVO asked the participants to share information about failures, near misses and the way they have overcome the failures. Get benefitted from the experience of each other, he added.

Shri Rajan Kapoor, Director- CHT spoke about life cycle management and early adoption of latest technologies. He appealed to all participants to take atleast 3 best practices from the meet and implement in their workplace. Shri Peush Mahajan, Former EIL Director remarked that Instrument engineers need to have multi-disciplinary knowledge. Our work culture should change from ‘Maintenance on call’ to ‘Proactive Maintenance’, he concluded.

Shri H Kumar, Managing Director spoke on the occasion and highlighted the challenges faced by the industry and explained the role played by the Instrumentation in overcoming the challenges. He stressed on obsolescence management which need to be taken care at the project configuration stage itself, he opined. He appealed to all the participants to make efforts to be at par with the global benchmark in maintenance.

35 delegates from different refineries and industries took part in the programme and also there were seven experts from Pepperl + Fuchs, Schneider and Exida consulting. Apart from MRPL and OMPL, 17 other PSU and Oil companies participated in the Meet.

The technical sessions were held on both the days. The Engineers from different Refineries shared their knowledge on the subject through case studies and presentations. They shared their experiences on the following topics:

• Initiatives for zero failure of instrumentation.
• Critical instrument failures and mitigation methods implemented.
• Innovations implemented in instrumentation system.
• Knowledge management of instrumentation activities and advancements.
• Latest technological trends in instrumentation.
• Best practices including preventive maintenance and obsolescence management.

After every technical presentation there was an open forum for discussion which was highly interactive.

A Google Hangout Group was formed consisting of all the participating instrumentation professionals which will be a common forum for all the technical discussions. This initiative was widely appreciated by everyone including our Managing director.

The Valedictory programme was held on 10th November in the evening. Shri. B. Sudarshan, CGM (Inst. & Elect), Shri. T. Ramakrishna, GGM (Maint.), Shri. Peush Mahajan, Former Director – EIL, Shri. Rajan Kapoor, Director - CHT addressed the audience. Shri Sudhir Uchil, GM-Instrumentation proposed the Vote of Thanks. Shri Mandar V Kale, Sr Manager compered the entire meet.

The Instrumentation Department of MRPL coordinated and executed the event with precision which was appreciated by all.

Link to Pardarshak - 2017 : VAW Souvenir

A vendors’ meet was organised in MRPL Employees Club on 3rd November 2017, as a part of the Vigilance Awareness Week. More than 300 vendors participated in the meet.

Shri H Kumar, Managing Director while speaking on the occasion said that the vendors and contractors are our partners. In today’s world where crude prices and exchange rate is very volatile, it is very essential to do the cost cutting and be competitive in supplying the goods and services. Shri M Venkatesh, Director Refinery said we need to understand the contract conditions better and the meets like Vendors Meet help us to improve. He also cautioned against filing false complaints and said that these faulty complaints won’t help anyone.

Shri A K Sahoo, Director Finance, also spoke and said that we should work for zero deficiency in the system. Shri Rajeev Kushwah, ITS, CVO while speaking said that due to the advancement of technology the things have improved over the years and today all the vendors have the access to the tenders as they are available online. Our vision is ‘Corruption Free India’, he said and appealed to all vendors to support the cause.

A detailed presentation on Tendering Procedure by Shri Madhu Praveen, Sr Manager – Materials, Goods and Services Tax (GST) by Shri Nandagopal Shenoy, Chartered Accountant and Government e-Marketplace (GeM) by Shri Venugopal VJ, Chief Manager –Materials were the highlights of the meet. A very useful interactive session followed in which various vendors raised their concerns and suggested ways for further improvements. Shri Pankaj Agrawal, GGM – Materials and Shri VNS Venkatramana, CGM – Materials answered the queries of Vendors. Shri B Sandeep Naik, GM - Materials compered the event and Shri Krishnaraj Bhandary M, DGM – Materials proposed the Vote of Thanks. Our Materials department took a lead to organize this event and overall it was a fruitful session.

The inauguration ceremony of Vigilance Awareness Week was held in Training Centre on 30.10.2017. Ms Aparna M Nayak, Executive – Finance chanted the initial prayers and Shri BHV Prasad, GGM-HR welcomed the gathering. The Integrity Pledge was administered in Hindi, Kannada & English by Shri Sanjay Verma, GGM –HSE, Shri BHV Prasad, GGM-HR and Shri Sushil Chandra, GGM – Projects respectively.

Shri T Ramakrishna, GGM – Maintenance read out the message from President of India, Shri Seetharam Rai, President – MSA read the message from Vice President of India and Shri Sudhendu KV, President MEU read out the message from Central Vigilance Commissioner of India.

Shri Ganesh Achar, Chief Manager - Vigilance read out the Vigilance Awareness Week (VAW) activities of 2016 and the planned activities of VAW 2017.

Shri K Upendra Rao, DGM – Vigilance listed out some of the major scams of our country and said that the amount of corruption is known only to the corrupt. India is in 79th position in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and has improved marginally over the years, he said. CVC has taken so many measures to prevent corruption and to be a corruption free country and we need to follow them in right spirit, he concluded.

Shri Sushil Chandra, GGM – Projects spoke on the occasion and said as Adhaar linking has become mandatory for every major aspect, it will be more difficult to beat the
system. In MRPL we follow transparent procedures like E-procurement, E-bidding and E-tendering etc, he said.

Shri Manjunatha HV, Chief Manager – Vigilance briefly introduced Dr Sreekumar Menon, IRS, the Chief Guest of the Programme.

Dr Sreekumar Menon, Registrar – Yenepoya University said that he was associated with MRPL (he was the Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise) when MRPL’s first brick was laid. Huen Tsang, Chinese Traveller who came to India in the 7th century has written that India was conflict free and litigation free, but has changed a lot since then, he said. Today the success is evaluated in terms of money, he remarked. Pressure to produce more and to make more revenue has become the norms today which we need to change, he felt. We need to have sympathy and empathy to our fellow citizens and teach our children to be more kind and helpful, he concluded.

Shri Sanjay Verma, GGM – HSE, President of the programme said that in the transparency index we have improved in the last few years. The countries which have
better transparency index are the developed countries and the corruption and poverty both are directly proportional, he said. Digitisation and development of software can help us to overcome the evil of corruption, he felt. We need to raise our voice against wrong systems and corrupt practices, he concluded.

Shri Ajay Bhatia, GM – Admin proposed the vote of thanks. Shri P Rajendra, Manager– Vigilance compered the programme.