Dear Colleagues,

Namaste and greetings from Kolkata!

We hope you are all in good health.

We consider it an honour, to have been given the responsibility of hosting the 21ST National conference of Indian Chapter of IHPBA from the 20, 21,& 22 March 2025. This is the First time that this city has being given this privilege.

It is a city steeped in a multicultural history with many monuments of note, which stand as glorious witness to their time. Victoria Memorial (in central Calcutta); Howrah Bridge (a cantilever bridge across River Hoogly); the Raj Bhavan still hauntingly echoes its glorious past as do the National Museum and National Library. The Maidan is the lung of the City and is makes a refreshingly soothing green contrast to the construction all around. The multicultural boiling pot has also left behind something less tangible but something equally robust. Calcutta (Kolkata) is really proud of its secular heritage. We take pride in St. Paul's Cathedral, the Nakoda Maszid, Dakhineswar Mandir and the Belur Math where the great Swami Vivekananda started his Spiritual Journey and of course the Kali Temple at Kalighat. We take pride in being home to people of all colour creed and religion. You will be visiting this city one week after the famous Durga Puja. The entire city gets transformed. Artistic imagination runs riot. Colours essay different hues. The populace slows down to celebrate life. It is truly the “Greatest show on Earth”. We, swear by Kolkata and subscribe to its creed and motto of “Live and Let Live”. After a hiatus of two years we sincerely hope to organise this conference on a fully off-line and in person basis, taking into account all covid related precautions.

This conference will be of interest to all surgical gastroenterologist, general surgeons, hepatopancreaticobiliary, and liver transplant surgeons.

We hope you will all participate in this for it to become a grand success. Stay safe and stay healthy!

Kind regards