IIT Madras held the 4th National Conference on Refrigeration & Air Conditioning (NCRAC 2015) in association with Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai and the Chennai Chapters of ASHRAE and ISHRAE on October 28-30. The inaugural theme was Promoting Adaptive Comfort For
Sustained Growth. It attracted senior national personalities who have contributed immensely to the RAC industry and both the Societies. The keynote speaker, R.V. Simha of Airtron, Bangalore (Past President of the then ASHRAE India Chapter, Founder President of ASHRAE South India Chapter, Past President ISHRAE and Fellow of ASHRAE and ISHRAE) opened the Conference by explaining the present scenario in Adaptive Comfort. Simha has made several presentations and published many papers on this topic in ISHRAE Journal in the past nine years, and presented a paper in the ASHRAE-sponsored event on Developing Economies in its first conference in Manila in 2014. He noted that many conferences on adaptive comfort have been organized for over a decade, but, usually, they are dominated by regulating bodies like USGBC, IGBC and TERI, town planning authorities, economists, banks, funding agencies, architects, builders and developers, manufacturers and sellers of ‘Green Products’. MEP Services are crucial stakeholders, but their participation has been inadequate. He quoted from an interview in The Hindu, October 2, 2015 with Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change in New York on India’s Intended Nationality Determined Contributions (INDCs): 

• Indian value systems do not encourage us to replicate the consumer culture rampant in the West. Hence, we have chosen to postpone our declaration of the INDCs to Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, as he signifies Indian values of frugality and sustainable development.
• Here in New York, people use energy for everything from operating lifts to heaters to air conditioners, but in India we do not lead such lavish lifestyles…the climate change debate must lead to a debate on unsustainable consumption and lifestyles such as those of the average American.

Simha observed this statement to be of great significance and a good augury. This changed scenario of the conference should ensure that the HVAC voice will be heard by other stakeholders. This view was buttressed by Dr. Ramgopal in his lecture on Adaptive Thermal Comfort Standards for Tropical Climates. He noticed that there are two other keynote addresses and a few papers by various researchers, veteran air conditioning professionals and engineers. ISHRAE was represented by National President K. Ramachandran, who was the Chief Guest. The keynote speakers were Arvind Surange and Gautham Baliga, also from ISHRAE. Arvind Surange spoke on Road Map for Refrigeration and Cold Chain. Among the other notable speakers were Dr. Alberto Coronas from Universitat Rovira I Virgili Spain who spoke on New Developments in Liquid Desiccant Systems, C. Subramaniam on Energy Simulation in Buildings, Dr. Sukumar Devotta on Refrigerants – Past, Present & Future, and Dr. A. Selvaraju and Dr. S. N. Murugesan on Energy Efficient Control System. Ashok Virmani recounted the role played by ASHRAE Past Presidents Ron Jarnagin, Tom Watson and Bill Bahnfleth and Past DRC RAL Ashok Virmani and the Presidential Ad-hoc Committee of the Developing Economies.
A panel discussion on Adaptive Cooling included eight distinguished personalities from the industry and the academia: K. Ramachandran, Arvind Surange (Fellow ASHRAE Member and Past President ASHRAE Western India Chapter), R. V. Simha, Dr. Ramgopal, Gautham Baliga, Ashok Virmani, S. Sankaran (ASHRAE Past President, Chennai Chapter) and Prof. M. P. Maiya (IIT Madras and Chairman NCRAC 2015). This event may be regarded as a landmark for the adaptive approach and its applications in HVACR in the country. R. V. Simha and Arvind Surange were honoured as the Doyens of HVAC Industry. M. H. Lulla and N. Vaidyanathan were the other senior members honoured. Ashok Virmani was felicitated by
Rajalakshmi Engineering College.