On the sidelines of the Auto Expo 2008, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), India organised the SAE International Mobility Conference (SIIMC 2008).

Dr R C Panda, secretary, ministry of heavy industry and public enterprises, inaugurated the event, which had keynote addresses by former Maruti Udyog managing director, Jagdish Khattar and M&M's president, auto sector, Pawan Goenka from the Indian auto industry and environmentalist Dr Rajendra Pachauri. The inaugural ceremony had speakers speak extensively on the theme of the conference: Emerging Automotive Technologies from the Global and Indian perspective.

The 3-day conference was divided into keynote and technical sessions. While the former had noted experts discuss the emissions and controls industry, the technical sessions were used to present papers by industry experts and others involved with automobiles and mechanical engineering. A total of 80 such technical papers were presented in the conference, a vast majority focusing on automobile emissions, both from a control and development perspective.

"Events such as this conference act as a knowledge platform amongst the technical community," said M Dhananjayan, one of the organisers, SIIMC 2008. Dhananjayan joined SAE as a student, and has continued through the years with its development, like most of SAE?s younger members.

The concluding session had a panel address by noted international experts followed by a discussion. Dr. Alan Lloyd, former chairman of the California Air Resources Board stated that the reducing emissions due to government regulations are being offset by the increasing number of vehicles. All speakers spoke for the need to decongest urban areas, and utilise bus rapid transport system (BRTS) for rapid mass transport systems.

SAE is a professional body of global automobile engineers with over 92,000 members from the mobility industry, involved with standards development and expertise used in designing, building and operating self-propelled vehicles for use on land or sea, in air or space.