Let me begin with extending a very cordial welcome to the fraternity of the NAM S&T Centre to Prof. Maged El-Sherbiny, who has recently taken over as the President of the Academy of Scientific Research & Technology (ASRT) of Egypt in place of Prof. Tarek Hussein, and has been ex-officio designated as the President of the 12^th Governing Council of the Centre with effect from 26^th May 2010.

Women are a great human resource and play a vital role in the development of the society. The Centre has always been active in underscoring the need for global empowerment of women, especially in the developing countries. We had earlier organised an international workshop in Tehran, Iran in December 2008 on 'the Role of S&T for Women's Empowerment'. Carrying forward with that initiative, an international conference on 'Empowering Women in Developing Countries through Better Healthcare and Nutrition' was organised by us in Pilani, India in April 2010. This was a highly successful event with participation of 54 delegates from 18 developing countries.

In the last quarter the Centre brought out one publication titled 'Sustainable Utilization of Energy and Biodiversity', which has been edited by Prof. B.O. Solomon, Director-General, National Biotechnology Development Agency, Nigeria and comprises 21 scientific papers and status reports from various developing countries.

The Centre got an unprecedented demand from a large number of developing countries to attend our forthcoming international training course on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) being held in July this year in Manesar (Gurgaon), India. We are in the process of announcing yet two international workshops respectively on 'Application of Science & Technology for Occupational Villages Development' in Hanoi, Vietnam during 25 August, 2010 and on 'Science Centre in Promoting a Knowledge and Innovative Society for Sustained and Responsible Growth in Developing Countries' in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during 11-14 October 2010. More are in the pipeline.

Happy Reading!

(Arun P. Kulshreshtha)