Preface
Indian Doctors Forum (IDF-Kuwait) was founded/created as a brainchild and culmination of ideas and visions of a group of visionary, compassionate, community-oriented Indian doctors led by Dr. Nampoory in 2004. The purpose was to create a socio-cultural organization of Indian doctors working in Kuwait and to provide a platform for interaction, for the members beyond their clinical fields, through various activities carried out by the members and their families, through their own efforts and talents, to bring them closer to each other, and be of some help, service and contribution to the Indian, Kuwaiti and expat community society. The Forum is the only association in Kuwait to have been bestowed by the prestigious Pravasi Bhartiya Saman Award due to its contribution to the society.
The strong foundation for the forum is provided by its well-thought-out, easy-to-understand, interpret and implement laws and by-laws, and guiding principles to govern the day-to-day running and functioning of the forum in the constitution formulated by the founding members through their immense wisdom, knowledge and foresight. The constitution, through its provisions and amendments, has clearly expressed the essentials for the smooth functioning of our IDF through well laid out criteria for membership, mechanisms for choosing its executive members and office bearers, in a most democratic way through elections, and to conduct the various activities, functions, responsibilities and duties towards the members, Indian and Kuwaiti community and society at large in accordance with the laws, rules and cultural norms of our host country Kuwait.
We have made a sincere and honest effort to bring out this important document as written originally at the time of its creation with all the subsequent amendments to the laws/bylaws proposed, discussed and passed by the subsequent Executive Committees, Office Bearers and general bodies to date. The idea of creating this compilation is to provide every member of IDF access to the constitution for healthy functioning and growth of the forum in a most transparent manner. The contribution of the founding members, former presidents, vice presidents and office bearers to the current status and esteem of IDF is acknowledged by publishing their names, years of tenure and their pictures at the end as appendices.
We wish to express our sincere thanks to all the founding members, and especially Dr. Radhakrishna Panicker, Consultant Pulmonologist at Al Rashid Allergy Center, and Dr. C. G. Suresh, Consultant Cardiologist (currently at Manchester, UK), two stalwarts who were entrusted with the responsibility of drafting the original constitution. Special thanks to our learned and sagely first-elected President, Dr. Ramesh Pandita, Consultant Haematologist, Kuwait Cancer Control Center for contributing a beautifully written, concise and poignant write-up bringing out the humble beginnings, history and growth of IDF all these years in the most elegant and concise way.
At the end we have listed some significant achievements of IDF in the past 19 years, for the knowledge and perspective of all members, especially many newly joined in the past few years. Any errors or omissions are regretted in advance.