Textile Association of India, Ahmedabad Chapter

HISTORY OF THE TEXTILE ASSOCIATION (INDIA)

FORMATION OF THE TEXTILE ASSOCIATION (INDIA):

Against this back drop a stage was set for the entry of technocrats and supervisory staff of textile mills on one platform for free exchange of technical & other useful information in a spirit of fellowship and co-operation. Ten technicians Servashri Nandulal Mehta, R. W. Contractor, D. B. Katrak, R. M. Broker, Y.J. Homi, N. K. Mehta, A. N. Gokhale, V. A. Ajgaonkar, T. G. Chowdhari & R. K. Gujar with such ideas took the lead on Sunday the 9th April 1939 at Damodar Thackersey hall, Parel, Bombay and set an appeal to the technicians of the mills in the city of Bombay to get together.

In response to the appeal about 126 technicians attended over the meeting. Shri K. S. Davar, a retired spinning suptd. Of Brady group of mills, presided over the meeting. A resolution to start an Association of the textile technicians to disseminate technical knowledge and encourage fellowship amongst the technical and supervisory staff all over India, was adopted and “ The Textile Association (India)” was born on that day.

A provisional committee of 18 members was formed with Shri Nandulal Mehta as the Chairman and Shri Narayan Ullal as the Secretary to draft the constitution. Three classes of membership fees Rs. 3/-, Rs.6/- & Rs. 12/- per year were decided. The provisional Committee then appointed a sub committee of five members- Sarvashri Nandulal Mehta, D. B. Katrak, G. N. Vaidya, P.V. S Iyanger and N. V. Ullal to prepare the draft constitution.

A HOME MAGAZINE:
With a view to give wider publicity of the activities, within a year of its foundation in 1940 the first issue of technical magazine which was named as “ Textile Digest” was published with an initiative of Shri G. N. Vaidya & Shri N. V. Ullal. The publication of the Textile Digest initially served as a very good medium for communication & information rather than having technological & research orientation. Since January, 1972 with an initiative of Shri A. R. Garde the Textile digest has been renamed as “ The Journal of the Textile Association” (JTA) and started publishing technical and research oriented articles with the help of technocrats and research institutes. JTA was a quarterly journal till 1977 and it became a bimonthly from January, 1978. Today on account of varied interesting features being covered in the JTA being useful in all disciplines of textile industry. It is considered as an important publication on Textile not only in our country but it has been warmly accepted outside our country too. In the recent years the JTA has been given a new look and made it more informative, educative & quite attractive which can be compared with any international magazine. The credit for which goes to Hon. Editor Dr. Teli and his co-ordinators, creators Shri P. S. Pawar and Shri K. D. Sanghvi from Bombay. The Editorial Board of JTA has been playing a great roll in maintaining the standard of the magazine.

LOGO OF THE ASSOCIATION:
“United we stand” was the first logo of the Association, which has been changed to present logo in the year 1975.

THE UNIT:
Initially the activities were concentrated in Bombay only, but slowly and slowly the message was spread outside Bombay through the technicians of Bombay and the Liason officer Shri J J. Randeri. A need was therefore fell to open branches at variour textile centres. The first Branch (Unit) of the Association was started at Solapur in the year 1944. Till the end of the 3rd decade there were only 13 units and in the fourth decade a further need was felt to open more new units to bring all technocrats from different areas of the country under the fold of the Association. It was on account of leaders provided by Hon. Maj. R. P. Poddar and initiative taken up by Shri J. J. Randeri, Shri M. K. Mehra, Shri B. A. Shah & Shri H. C. Jain the message of the Association was spread through out country and today the Association is having 27 units.

HEAD QUARTER OF THE TAI:
From the foundation of the Association the head office of the Association was in Bombay, first in the Blavatsky Lodge, than at Ganesh Bhavan Suparibaug Road (New Dr. AmbedkarRoad). It was shifted to Ahmedabad in 1966. But again in 1979 the Head office, now called the central office, Shifted to Bombay at “ Santosh” Shivaji Park, Dadar. This building was purchased in 1960 and the property belongs to Bombay unit. This office has been completely renovated with the personal interest and initiative from Shri R. K. Dalmia and today it is made most modern equipped with computer & fax.

UNITS WITH THEIR OWN PREMISES:
At present many units have their own office premises. Bombay, Ahmedabad, Solapur, Delhi, South Gujarat (Surat) & M.P. (Indore) are having their own office premises. Over and above Bombay is having a entire building of their own, the Ahmedabad unit is having a very large property with a Community hall and a Open Air Theater in their premises on the bank of river Sabarmati constructed in the year 1965.

INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE CONFERENCE:
The first international conference was held in Bombay in 1974. Our Association had the priviledge of holding so far eight international conference in the year 1974, 1981,1985,1987,1994,1995,2002, 2004 and 2008..

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS- A.T.A. , F.T.A. & G.M.T.A:
The awards “Associates of Textile Association” (A.T.A.) and “Fellow of the Textile Association”(F.T.A.) are given to the members of the Association. The AA is acquired either by application or by examination. A.T.A. Diploma has been recognized by Govt. of India for central services. The F.T.A. can be acquired by application or given as Honorary award to only one person every year at the All India Textile Conference. These awards started since 1945. the first A.T.A. examination was held in 1954, and first Honorary F.T.A. was awarded in the year 1946.

Initially in 1945 the Dimloma sub-committee headed by Shri N. V. Ullal set up the norms for syllabus which are being revised time to time as per requirement. Now a special professional award committee has been set up by the Association to decide the policy as review the syllabus for the awards.

In 1968 under the Chairmanship of Shri K. G. Vaze, training classes were started in some of the units for A.T.A. examination. Ahmedabad Unit took initiative in publishing books for the guidelines, of A.T.A. students. Efforts are continuously made to improve the standards of our Diplomas and in the golden jubilee year of the Association. i.e. in the year 1989 with the initiative pf P.A.C. Chairman Dr. H. V. Sreenivasmurthy, the Assotion has started G.M.T.A.(Graduate Member of Textile Association) course by upgrading the syllabus to a Degree level, which has been warmly welcomed by the members. The first examination of G.M.T.A. was held in the year 1990.

A special convocation functions to give A.T.A. and F. T.A. awards at the hands of an eminent person was started after the inaugural function of A.I.T.C., since the conference at Bhiwani in 1980, has been very much appreciated by one and all.