The NJAAI Milan 2019 – the Jesuit Alumni Association of India (JAAI) North Zone Alumni/ae Congress commenced on the evening of 14th September 2019. It was hosted by St. Xavier’s Alumni Association and Jesuit Alumni Association of Patna at St. Xavier’s High School, Patna. Secretary of the JAAI North Zone Mr. Neel Mani Rangesh, Rector of St. Xavier’s School Fr. Joseph Sebastian, SJ, Principal Fr. Christu Savarirajan, SJ, Secretary of SXAA, Patna Mr. Abhay Kanodia and President of SXAA Dr. Sandeep Sen welcomed all the delegates travelling from different parts of JAAI North Zone to attend the congress.

The plenary session started with the lightning of the lamp and welcome song from school students. The first edition of the NJAAI – the e-newsletter of JAAI North Zone was released on the occasion. At the inaugural ceremony the Chief Guest His Grace Reverend Archbishop William D’Souza, SJ, Archdiocese of Patna appreciated the efforts taken in releasing the e-newsletter and expressed the hope that the communications would result in positive solutions while being mindful of the core concerns of education. His Grace blessed the occasion in a speech that indicated purpose and intent. Secretary, Mr. Neel Mani Rangesh presented a wonderful and exhaustive report on the activities of various alumni associations under JAAI North Zone through an audio-visual presentation.

The Guest of Honours, Mr. Naresh Gupta, Secretary, WUJA and Mr. S. Chenthil Kumar, Secretary, JAAI made an impassioned appeal to all Jesuit Alumni for achieving the objective of WUJA & JAAI and both invited all present on the occasion to join in the World Congress at Barcelona, Spain in 2021 and National Congress at Trichy in January 2020. The program was very well anchored by the Secretary of NZC JAAI, Mr. Neel Mani Rangesh & Dr. Ashutosh, Jt. Secretary of SXAA, Patna. Mr. Om Prakash, Jt. Secretary, NZC, JAAI thanked all the guests and delegates for their purposeful contributions and participation.

Around 100 Jesuit alumni and 15 Jesuit priests from Patna and other states of North Zone such as West Bengal attended the congress and deliberated over the theme “Disaster Risk Reduction & Water”.

On day-2 i.e. 15 Sep’19, the panel discussions on the conference theme was started with the keynote address. Mr. Vijay Sinha, an alumnus of 1981 batch of St. Xavier’s, Patna and currently the Commandant, No.9 Bn NDRF, Bihta, Patna delivered the Keynote Address on the theme and enumerated the various challenges and worries that the one faces today with regards to disaster risk reduction (DRR). He shared his many experiences while responding to disasters especially related to water such as flood, cyclone etc. He highlighted the need for common citizens to be aware and prepare for the disasters so as to minimize the impact of any future disaster. He highlighted the need for awareness programme for citizens especially school children to make them resilient to disaster.

The challenge of DRR is to reconcile the irreconcilable. The keynote speaker Sri Vijay Sinha responded to many queries raised by the audience and clarified their doubts & queries on the theme. Sri Prabudhha Biswas & Dr. (Mrs.) Madhu Singh were the other two resource person who spoke on various facets of the theme. Sri Biswas informed the house about the theoretical aspects of the earthquake and its geolological explanations. He also explained the historical structure of earth and the significance of movement of plates through a time period of millions of years. Dr. Madhu Singh in her presentation explained the process cycle of Disaster Risk Reduction and various steps involved in it such as prevention & mitigation, preparedness, prediction-warning-evacuation, adaptation, emergency response, recovery and monitoring. She stressed upon the urgent action needed to address water related disasters which accounts for around 90% of the thousand most severe disasters that have occurred since 1990 according to final outcome document – making every drop count of the High-Level Experts and Leaders Panel on water and Disasters (HELP).

During the discussion, she explained the structural and non-structural measure to mitigate floods. She also described different methods of decontamination of water for safe drinking and the need for Rain water harvesting. At the end of a 3 hrs. marathon session, Sri Shankar Ramalingam, Treasurer, NZC summarized the viewpoints of all the speakers and deliberations over the theme “Disaster Risk Reduction & Water”. The Congress Statement was summarized in just one sentence which was used by the Keynote speaker Sri Vijay Sinha as “If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail…”. -

In the next session, the alumni associations of different provinces under north zone presented reports on activities of their associations e.g. ALSOC Kolkata, SMAA Patna, SXCEAA Patna, SLOBA Kolkata.
The Secretary, Sri Neel Mani Rangesh presented the new NZC members to the congress. He informed that nominations for NZC were received from three provinces (Delhi, Kolkata & Patna) only and Darjeeling and Kohima PCAs have not yet nominated members for NZC 2019-22. The new NZC members are

Patna Province
1. Mr. Om Prakash, SXAA, Patna
2. Mrs. Angela Anjana, SXCEAA, Patna
3. Mr. Prabudha Biswas, SMAA, Patna

Kolkata Province
1. Mr. Shankar Ramalingam, ALSOC, Kolkata
2. Mr. Amitava Gupta, SLOBA, Kolkata
3. Dr. Partha Sarkar, XAB, Burdwan

Delhi Province
1. Md. Aquil, XAJ, Jaipur
2. Mr. Prashant Jain, DOXA, New Delhi
3. Mr. Dinesh Goel, DOXA, New Delhi

Members nominated for JAAI GC 2020-23 from JAAI North Zone are
1. Mr. Neel Mani Rangesh, SXAA, Patna (Patna Province)
2. Dr. S. S. Ranawat, XAJ, Jaipur (Delhi Province)
3. Mr. Jeetu Rampuria, SXCCAA, Patna (Kolkata Province)
4. Darjeeling Province (will be nominated later)
5. Kohima Province (will be nominated later)

At last, Northern Zone Governing Council meeting of JAAI was held in which new office bearers were elected unanimously. It was also decided that the next Congress of JAAI North Zone will be hosted by Kolkata Province.

The new office bearers of NZC 2019-22 are
1. Mr. Prabudha Biswas, SMAA, Patna: President
2. Mr. Om Prakash, SXAA, Patna: Vice-President
3. Mrs. Angela Anjana, SXCEAA, Patna: Vice-President
4. Dr. Partha Sarkar, XAB, Burdwan: Secretary
5. Mr. Shankar Ramalingam: Treasurer

The link for photographs of NJAAI Milan 2019: https://photos.app.goo.gl/h9nSyhbg8ekwRZ9g9