It is an honor and great privilege to address you as President of Obesity and metabolic Surgery Society of India(OSSI). With India slated to be the 'Global Diabetes Capital' in the near future, OSSI needs to pull up its socks and formulate a systematic approach to counter this enemy within.
The baby steps of this association seem to be maturing with every passing year by way of contributions from our esteemed members, whose competence and commitment to Bariatric & Metabolic Surgery has earned international repute.

Though this field of minimally invasive bariatric surgery is no more unknown to most quarters but some more awareness about Bariatric surgery and its advantages would prompt more amongst our medical fraternity to think of surgical solutions to Obesity and metabolic disorders, which till date has been mainly a medical endeavor.

"Imprisoned in every fat man, a thin one is wildly signaling to be let out - Cyril Connolly"; let us pledge to spread the word and make a worthwhile effort to pull down the BMI to below 23 Kg/m2. The heat is on, as evidenced by the fresh guidelines of the Ministry of Health for Obesity. Any new venture or endeavor matures and starts to run only after finding solutions to its shortcomings and overcoming its setbacks. Bariatric Surgery has rightfully caught the fancy of most minimally invasive surgeons; however there have been serious shortcomings at times on our part. Besides being detrimental and unfortunate for the patient, it has the potential to tarnish the image of this not so conventional surgery. "Everyday the fat woman dies a series of small deaths - Bovey, Shelley".

We shall strive to uplift the society from this global epidemic but with utmost safety and international standards. It is high time we concur to establish protocols and standards of care for all Bariatric Surgery procedures. Let us join hands through this association to fight the Obesity epidemic. On a personal note, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Rajesh Bhojwani, Organizing Secretary OSSICON 2010 for excellent organizational capacity.

I am certain all delegates will appreciate the innovativeness and effort that has been expended for organizing this conference. I am grateful to the OSSI executive members, a great team of committed professionals, for the immense help that they have readily provided to me always.

I wish this congress a great success.
Dr. M. Narwaria

President, OSSI