"October 2004"was memorable time for the Longevity Centre. It was a long meeting in Tokyo with the heads of five International Longevity Centers, where the application of the "The Longevity Center" (TLC) was being considered. The excellent track record of TLC within a short period of one year impressed the participants at the meeting. The commitment to keep up the pace and spread out activities to SAARC countries and also to participate in inter-country research, training and exchange of experts was appreciated and a toast was raised to celebrate the birth of International Longevity Centre-India.

During the year, the academic programme at the University of Pune has continued and we have concentrated on research and training activities apart from the on-going pilot projects. There were a few important meetings attended by experts in various fields. To mention a few, there was the workshop on Frontiers of Research in Longevity Medicine in August, October 2004. The year 2005 opened with preparations for the workshop on Volunteers' Bureau of Senior Citizens, held in March. All three meetings received financial support from the Government of India.

September 6-8, 2004 was important dates for us. We participated at the 8th Global conference of International Federation on Ageing and we take pride in the fact that the opening Keynote address was by the President of ILC-India.

In the field of Leadership Exchange, We had with us, Dr. Gary Andrews from Australia, former President, International Grotological association; Prof. Joseph Troisi, Dy.Director, Training from UN International Institute on Ageing, Maltaa, Dr. Jane Barratt, Secretary General, International Federation on Ageing, (August 2004) and Prof. Jay Olshansky (January 2005) from Illinois University, Chicago. Their Participation at the various meetings was highly appreciated.

A detailed account on our activities in the year bygone is included in this document

We look forward to a very busy ahead, with almost a 20-point agenda. A couple of training programmes under the UN International Institute on Ageing, Malta are being planned. ILC-India will also participate in an Intercountry Assessment of the Status of the Elderly. One important development we are working on is the agreement with the National Institute of Social Defense, an autonomous training wing of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India. Apart from the quarterly magazine 'Athashri', we also have publication of a few important books on the anvil. On the international front, ILC-I will be represented at the Conference of Health, Wealth and Ageing and also participate at coordination meeting of ILCs at Rio de Janeiro in June 2005.

We are grateful of Athashri Foundation, CASP and Bharati Vidyapeeth for the generous foundation grants, without which, we could not have achieved much. In fact Athashri Foundation has graciously agreed to sponsor the activities of the Centre from the new financial year. This will give greater fillip to our efforts.

International Longevity Centre-India is poised for a high growth period ahead, taking the message of positive ageing and the "age is no barrier to enjoying a good life" to all parts of the country and also the countries in the South Asia Region."