Dear Practitioners, For us, as a professional development organization working towards building strong capabilities in project managers, the academic community is an indispensable part of our ecosystem. In the past few years, we have developed strong partnerships and engagements with this community. The biennial Research and Academic Conference (RAC) is an important platform through which we have been engaging with academicians and scholars. We are conducting the fifth RAC from 28 February to 2 March 2019. It is being hosted by the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala, Trivandrum, and co-hosted by the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode. If you want to present a research paper, study report, case study or write-up on the conference theme, "Project Management in the Emerging World of Disruption," click here to submit your paper. Keep a lookout for more details on the conference website in the months ahead. I hope you’ve blocked your calendar for the Project Management National Conference on 12 and 13 October in New Delhi. As you know, the national conference enters its 10th year in 2018 and it’s going to be a mega event. I urge you to take part in the contests that we are holding, that will entitle you to free delegate passes to the conference. At the event, built around the theme, "India in 2022 — Leading in a Globally Disruptive Market," you can expect presentations and discussions around India’s position as a global economic force and how the project management community can contribute to that. For more details about the national conference do visit the website in the months ahead. We have received a large number of nominations for the annual PMI India Awards program. I’d like to thank members of the community for their encouraging response. All the submissions have gone through the first stage of evaluation. We announced the shortlist of nominees for the second stage on 30 May. Two years ago, we started a fun section, PMFundas, on our website. We have been receiving regular submissions from our readers. I’d like to see more project managers come forward to share their experiences in this enjoyable format. Anytime in the day when you want a short break from work, look at our PMFundas collection and share a laugh with your colleagues.Warm regards, Raj Kalady Managing Director, PMI India