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Indian Plumbing Association (IPA)

The Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), headquartered in New Delhi, was established in the year 1993 and is the brainchild of its Founder President and Chairman Emeritus, Mr. S.G. Deolalikar. The organisation was founded as a voluntary, non-profit organisation by fourteen like-minded individuals representing various segments of the Indian Plumbing Industry, with the objective of organising the industry and highlighting the important role a plumber performs to safeguard the health and safety of citizens.

IPA, as the apex body of plumbing professionals in India was set up with the objective to promote development in plumbing and building services industry. IPA has successfully created a forum for exchange of ideas and dissemination of information amongst its members and is also a member of the World Plumbing Council, the global body of plumbing organisations. It encourages its members to achieve and maintain high standards of workmanship and its membership is open to everyone engaged directly or indirectly with the plumbing/building services industry.

The organisation is proud of its membership comprising over 1800 members, across the country from every segment of the building industry including consultancy, manufacturing, contracting, trading, academics, architecture, etc.

The headquarters of IPA is situated at New Delhi and the organisation has twelve chapters in cities such as Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Gujarat, Kerala, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Coimbatore and Nashik.

The main objective of IPA is to create much-needed awareness about one of the most crucial and yet neglected aspects of building services industry - plumbing. To promote advancement of plumbing and building services industry in the country, providing a platform for dissemination of information and exchange of ideas on matters related to plumbing profession and to promote and foster fellowship within the profession. IPA also encourages its members to adopt correct business practices according to ethical codes of conduct and uphold dignity of the profession, to establish means of communication and harmony between authorities and the plumbing industry and interactions at government, semi-government, as well as private levels. Additionally, it also organises conferences, seminars, exhibitions, symposiums etc., which may benefit and educate members of the trade and promote, support and advance the building services industry.

Sudhakaran Nair, President of the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA) says, "IPA's current membership of nearly 1900 includes architects, builders, consultants, contractors, manufacturers, educational institutions, traders, individual professionals etc affiliated to our twelve chapters across the country.  IPA's decision-making body is the National Executive Committee (NEC) with representation from all chapters, based on the guidelines in our constitution.  An Executive Body comprising the President, Vice President, General Secretary, Joint Secretary and a Treasurer run the day to day affairs of the Association."

He adds, "IPA is a democratically run organisation and anyone desirous of being associated with the plumbing profession can join the Association as a Life Member (Individuals), Corporate Member, Institutional Member or a Student Member."

The IPA has taken up some landmark projects since its formation and according to Nair; the publication of world class plumbing codes by incorporating current global standards is probably the greatest achievement of the organisation. He informs, "The codes published so far are the Uniform Plumbing Code-India (UPC-I), Green Plumbing Code Supplement-India (GPCS-I), Uniform Swimming Pool Code -India (USPC-I), Water Efficient Products-India (WEP-I) and Uniform Solar Energy Code-India (UPSC-I). All our codes will be revised and republished in a three year cycle.  The UPC-I, first published in 2008, was republished in 2011."

He adds, "Apart from a chapter in the National Building Code of India-2005 and few other publications from the BIS, we did not have modern publications covering aspects of plumbing design, installation and maintenance.  IPA's efforts have been invested in supplementing information available from the BIS publications."

He further explains that plumbing codes published by IPA is in partnership with the globally recognised International Association of Plumbing & Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) of USA.  IPA formed a Technical Committee (TC) comprising some of the best known individuals of the Indian plumbing industry to review, edit and adopt the parent codes published by IAPMO in the US and several other countries. "The efforts of the TC since 2006 have been to publish codes through a consensus process to suit our practices and customs and we believe we have succeeded to a great extent.  Our codes are dynamic documents, to be updated at regular intervals," says Nair.

Describing some of the important activities initiated by IPA since its inception, Nair explains, "Apart from publication of the codes, IPA publishes India's only magazine fully dedicated to the plumbing profession - Indian Plumbing Today (IPT).  IPT reaches all our members and many others in our building industry each month.  The magazine can now boast of recognition from the global plumbing fraternity. Editorial content is regularly contributed by several overseas professionals as well."

"'Best of IPT' is a collectors' edition containing select articles and features published in IPT over several years. The 550 page publication carries a wealth of information for those aspiring to be plumbing professionals," he adds.

Plumbing Directory of India (PDI) published each year carries information on all IPA members and is considered a reference document to establish contacts with almost everyone practicing in the Indian plumbing industry.

"IPA has installed a unique world class plumbing laboratory in Pune in association with the renowned College of Engineering, Pune (COEP)," says Nair adding, "The lab has live demonstrations of various plumbing systems and displays correct and incorrect installations.  The lab is extensively used for our training and education programmes and is renowned as a major attraction by the plumbing fraternity."

IPA conducts two national conferences (Indian Plumbing Conference-IPC) each year at various cities of India. The just concluded 16th IPC at Kochi had 550 Indian and overseas delegates.  The concurrent exhibition of plumbing products too was a great success.

Plumbex India is a non-travelling international exhibition, the only one of its kind, conducted at Mumbai.  Five such exhibitions have been conducted since 2008.

Giving an insight on the various education and training programs organised by IPA, Nair states, "In collaboration with IAPMO, IPA has taken up the Plumbing Education to Employment Programme (PEEP) which has structured education and training programmes based on UPC-I.  The syllabus includes four different programmes - Plumbing Systems Design (PSD), Plumbing Construction Management (PCM), Trained Apprentice Plumber (TAP) and Trained Master Plumber (TMP).  These courses are implemented in partnership with existing Educational and Vocational Training Institutions and corporate entities.  The programmes are offered as full time or part time courses. In addition to PEEP, IPA and IAPMO are participating in the Swarnajayanthi Grameen Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY) in collaboration with the Bhaskar Foundation.  Nearly 1000 youngsters from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families have been certified under this initiative called Plumbing Apprentice Programme (PAP)."

BRIEF PROFILE OF Mr. SUDHAKARAN NAIR

Mr. Sudhakaran Nair has been an active member of the Indian Plumbing Industry for over four decades.  He started his career in 1970 with a renowned plumbing contractor in Bombay as Project Engineer.  Mr. Nair now heads ESSENCO, a South India based building services company headquartered in Bangalore. ESSENCO is celebrating its Silver Jubilee this year.  During his successful career in India and the Middle-East, he has nearly 550 completed projects to his credit. Mr. Nair is one of the Founder Members and the current President of the Indian Plumbing Association (IPA), established in 1993.  He was elected to the Executive Board of the World Plumbing Council in March, 2005 and served the Council for six years as Director.  He was re-elected in September, 2011 for a third term of two years as Deputy Chairman.

Mr. Nair has been instrumental in forging an alliance between IPA and IAPMO (International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, U.S.A.) for drafting and publication of various plumbing codes such as Uniform Plumbing Code-India, Green Plumbing Code Supplement-India, Uniform Swimming Pool Code-India, Water Efficient Products-India and Uniform Solar Energy Code-India.  Through the IPA-IAPMO partnership, he is now spearheading the Plumbing Education to Employment Programme (PEEP) and 'The Green Plumbers India' initiative across the nation.

Mr. Nair is a Fellow Member of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering, U.K. and Full Member of American Society of Plumbing Engineers.  In 2005, he was awarded the prestigious "Lifetime Achievement Award" by IPA. He is also the recipient of prestigious ACCE-Gourav Award 2012, for Significant Contributions to Civil Engineering Consultancy.