After organising four editions in Chennai, the 5th edition of OSH South India was successfully conducted in Hyderabad on 28th-29th June at Hitex, Hyderabad. UBM India has been organising OSH India, South Asia's largest safety & health expo and conference in Mumbai since 2012. The exhibition brings together more than 6000 national and international key industry professionals across construction, manufacturing, PPE and other key industry domains.

The show was inaugurated by Sri B.R.V. Susheel Kumar, IAS, Director of Mines and Geology, Govt of Telangana, Sri M. Vijay Kumar, Director of Boilers, Govt of Telangana, Sri C. Laxmiprasadh, Addl. Director, Telangana State Disaster Response & Fire Services, Hyderabad, Sri S.P. Garg, Executive Director – Corporate HSE, Gas Authority of India Ltd, Mr. Hemant Sapra, President, Safety Appliances Manufacturers Association (SAMA) and Mr. Yogesh Mudras, Managing Director, UBM India Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Pankaj Jain, Group Director, UBM India Pvt Ltd gave the vote of thanks.

As part of the show there was a two-day conference around the most pressing OSH issues in the Construction, Pharma, Manufacturing and Heavy Engineering, among other domains. The conference also featured a two-hour workshop by the Bureau of Indian Standards where Ms. B. Sandhya, Scientist-D presented the BIS rules and regulations related to most industrial products used in the OSH domain. Most speakers emphasised that most owners consider health and safety to be primarily the responsibility of the employees themselves and unfortunately without access to any kind of formal training on OSH, the overall awareness levels in this sector are low. Therefore, it is imperative upon all key stakeholders to effectively communicate the cost-benefit ratio of adopting best practices in OSH.

It was also observed that in these times of severe economic stress, workers often face job security issues and are seldom forced to work under extreme hardships, risking their lives and putting their families at risk of losing livelihood. Even worse is the risk of causing permanent damage to one’s physical well being and with it the ability to carry out one’s professional responsibilities.

All this calls for organisations to be extra cautious as far as safety and health of workers is concerned. Moreover, those working in chemical industries as well as in industries where lot of toxins are continuously released in the environment as part of industrial processing are perpetually at risk of developing occupational diseases that include respiratory diseases such as asthma, silicosis, asbestosis, COPD; skin related diseases and allergies; cancer; musculoskeletal disease, neuro disorders; mental and emotional stress, etc.

The list of key speakers at the conference includes:

• Appireddy Srinivasa Reddy, EHS Head, L&T Ltd
• Kirti Dutt Kotipalli, Sr Safety Engineer, GMR Airport Developers Ltd.
• Madhu Nair, Regional Head – South, Motorola Solutions
• Dr. Anil Kumar Trivedi, Corporate Head – SHE and Sustainability, Orient Cement Limited
• R. Shankar, VP & Corporate QSHE Sustainability & Business Excellence Head, Tata Projects
• Durga Prasad Dora, Head of the Group (HOG) - Corporate Quality & In Charge – HSE, TPSC India
• Naresh P. Trivedi, Head EHS - SSP Division, Coromandel International Ltd
• Suranjan Sarkar, Head QC and Quality Systems, Mytrah Energy
• Dr. Reena Valecha, Head-Workspace & Ergonomics Research, Godrej Interio
• N. Gopalakrishnan, General Work Manager – Patancheru Plant, Asian Paints Ltd
• B. Sandhya, Scientist-D, Bureau of Indian Standards
• Dr. K. Mamallan, Manager-HSE, Quality & ISO, Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd.
• K. S. Chari, Regional Manager Middle East & South Asia, Ion Science Ltd
• P. Srinivas, Vice President – Group Quality, Greenko Group
• Tapas Saha, Vice President – EHS, Neuland Laboratories
• Srinivasu M., GM - CHSE & Head – Sustainability, Hetero Labs Limited
• Tapas Chakraborty, Head-EHS & Sustainability, GVK Biosciences
• Jason Woods, Middle-East & India Representative, IPAF

All organisations are legally obliged to conduct regular health and safety risk assessments to identify any occupational hazards that might be present in the workplace and take steps to alleviate them. In this regard, they need to regularly undertake safety audits and plug loopholes that could be found as a result. The Pharma industry is one of the biggest industry verticals in Hyderabad and is also the dealing with a lot of chemicals and active ingredients and therefore requires the utmost attention as far as worker safety and health is concerned. Most workers in India work with the deficient protective equipment and also do not take adequate precautions to safeguard their health.

For OSH South India there were 60+ key partners and exhibitors that includes Udyogi, Draeger, Prolite, Acme Safetywear, Venus Safety & Health, Sagar Asia, UFS, Midas Safety, Motorola, Heapro, JLG, ReflectoSafe, Victor Imports and ProcessMap. More than 100 brands showcased their occupational safety and health range at the exhibition. The show has been well-supported by reputed associations such as Safety Appliances Manufacturers Association (SAMA), International Powered Access Federation (IPAF), and the Indian Technical Association (ITTA).

As India becomes the top choice for doing business, we would need to tackle the cause and incidence of occupational accidents and ill health through visible leadership. OSH India through its shows provides a unique platform for safety professionals to network with industry stalwarts and gain knowledge on the latest developments in the space of Occupational Safety & Health. Over the last decade OSH India has received a tremendous response from industry professionals in India and has shown remarkable growth.

Log on to www.oshindia.com to find out more about OSH India Expo 2018.