Former AIGMF President Mr. Sanjay Somany gave the prestigious annual ‘CK Somany Award for Innovation and Technology’ to Mr. Eric L’Heureux, Managing Director of Schott Poonawalla Pvt. Ltd. The ‘Balkrishna Gupta Award for Exports’ was also bestowed to M/s Schott Poonawalla Pvt. Ltd. by fellow former AIGMF President, Mr. Pradeep Gupta. Both awards are supported by Glass Worldwide, preferred international journal of the AIGMF in association with Kanch.

Mr. Eric L’Heureux joined Schott as a QA Manager at Schott Belgium in 1992 and went on to become Technical Director at Schott Indonesia in 1998 and President Director of Schott Indonesia in 2001. He also served as the Managing Director of Schott Hungary and was responsible for operations of two plants in France from 2006 until 2009. In 2009, he was appointed as Vice President Asia operations.

Mr. L’Heureux’s main contributions towards expansion of operations within the glass pharmaceutical packaging at Schott Poonawalla in India since 2011 are:

• Starting operations at the state-of-the-art plant at Jambusar (Gujarat) with 20 ampoule lines and 16 vial lines having a total output of more than 3 million pieces per day.
• Completing first upgrade of forming and inspection technology at the Jambusar plant. Rolling out of cosmetiQ inspection system (100% camera inspection system for cosmetic parameters) at the Jambusar plant.
• Expansion of module 2 and 3 in Jambusar plant thereby enhancing capacities to over three billion containers per annum. He has been instrumental in starting and stabilising the operations at the Greenfield plant at Umarsadi (Gujarat) for pre-fillable syringes, cartridges and sterile RTF products.

Under Mr. L’Heureux’s guidance, Schott Poonawalla today has four state-of-the-art manufacturing units in Daman, Jambusar, Umarsadi and Baddi in India that produce an entire range of products including bulk vials and ampoules, specialty vials and ampoules, siliconised vials, siliconised cartridges and Ready-to-Fill (RTF) vials and cartridges, siliconised pre-crimped RTF nested cartridges, sterile nested vials and an entire range of pre-fillable syringes.

Vaccine contribution

As the world health safety concerns soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, Schott Poonawalla has been the supplier of vials for vaccines, not only for India but also supporting the global vaccination drive by exporting substantial quantum of vials across the globe including Europe, USA, Russia and South Africa. The company successfully contributed towards 4.3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines globally through the supply of vials, out of which three billion doses were provided for India and 1.3 billion doses were provided for the global market.

The jury for the AIGMF industry awards comprised of Dr. K. Annapurna, Chief Scientist, Glass Division, CSIR-Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute (CSIR-CGCRI); Mr. Dave Fordham, Publisher, Glass Worldwide, London (UK); Mr. Sanjay Somany, Former President AIGMF and CMD HNG Industries Ltd.; Mr. P K Kheruka, Former President AIGMF and Chairman Borosil Ltd. and Mr. Vinit Kapur, Secretary of the AIGMF.

Prestigious awards

Thanking the AIGMF and awards jury, Mr. L’Heureux said: ‘’2022 being the International Year of Glass, it is a huge honour to receive the prestigious C. K. Somany Award for innovation and technology and the Balkrishna Gupta Award during this particular year. At Schott Poonawalla, we continuously invest in innovation and cutting-edge technology, not just to meet the needs of our customers, but better them. It is the collective effort and genius of all my teams that drive us forward to meet industry demands, even during challenging times like COVID-19 pandemic. I look forward to everything we can accomplish together in the years ahead.’’

Dr. K. Annapurna, Chief Scientist, CSIR- Central Glass & Ceramics Research Institute, Kolkata and jury member enthused: “At the outset, I am honoured to be part of jury for AIGMF glass awards 2022. I heartily congratulate Mr. Eric L’Heureux, MD, Schott Poonawalla Pvt. Ltd. for winning the prestigious C. K. Somany Award for innovation and technology with his splendid contribution in innovative technology implementations at Schott Poonawalla Pvt. Ltd. such that to meet the demand for glass packaging for pharmaceuticals at the need of the hour like COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, again, M/s Schott Poonawalla Pvt. Ltd. had proved itself suitable to be bestowed with the Balakrishna Award for its exceptional exports in the last year. Kudos to M/s Schott Poonawalla Pvt. Ltd.”

“It is very fitting that Mr. Eric L’Heureux should receive recognition on the 30th anniversary of him joining Schott because his vast experience across many of the company’s global operations led to the recent success story at Schott Poonawalla,” added Mr. Dave Fordham, Publisher of Glass Worldwide. “Mr L’Heureux’s achievements in overseeing the remarkable growth and accomplishments of the Indian operations over the last decade make him a very worthy winner of the prestigious C K Somany Award and Glass Worldwide sends sincere congratulations. Having been a front runner in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by providing pharmaceutical glass for primary packaging to fill so many vaccines worldwide also fully justify Schott as the recipient of this year’s sister award, the Balkrishna Gupta Award for Exports. It is an honour to be part of the judging process and we look forward to publishing an exclusive interview about Eric L’Heureux and Schott-Poonawalla in a future issue of Glass Worldwide and Kanch.”

Hydrogen manufacturing hub

During the annual general meeting, NTPC’s Mr. DMR Panda, Head of Hydrogen Group and Planning Head of Renewable Business gave a presentation on Green Hydrogen Economy: Options for Indian Glass Manufacturers. Mr. Panda highlighted that: “the Indian glass manufacturing industry can position itself as a low-cost, zero-carbon green hydrogen manufacturing hub which can help to achieve India's Net Zero target. As always, the Indian glass manufacturing industry lead by examples, it can be one of the early movers in the green hydrogen space and set an example for all MSMEs/hard-to-abate sectors.”

Poem / Essay Writing Contest

The programme also provided an excellent opportunity to honour youth in the country who participated from schools and colleges across India in an annual contest, the 1st Poem / Essay Writing Contest on ‘Green as Glass’, coinciding with the International Youth Day on August 12, 2022. Online entries were invited from the age group between 7-24 wherein over 2,000 entries were received from educational institutes and youth across India.

Former Presidents Mr. Sanjay Somany and Mr. S C Bansal, CMD Adarsh Kanch Udyog Pvt. Ltd., were jury members who judged top three entries:

- 1st Prize (Rs. 25,000) was given to Akshita Tejwani aged 14 years, 10th class student at Maharani Gayatri Devi Girls School, Jaipur.

- 2nd Prize (Rs. 15,000) was given to R. Shruthi aged 15 years, 10th class student of Jawahar Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School, Chennai.

- 3rd Prize (Rs. 10,000) was given to Kanishk Sharma aged 16 years, 11th class student at Ajanta Public School, Gurugram (Haryana).

As a token of appreciation, the top 250 entries of Poem/Essay contest will receive a specially designed 2022 Calendar Glass Bottle made from recycled glass (specially manufactured by AGI GLASPAC, official main partner for IYOG 2022 Indian activities) carrying logos of International Year of Glass 2022.

Winning entries can be viewed at https://aigmf.com/past-events.php#93