THE Indian Register of Shipping is marking a decade of full membership of the International Association of Classification Societies.

IRClass became a full member in 2010, having earlier been an associate member since 1991.

IRClass executive chairman Arun Sharma was elected as IACS Council chairman from July 2019 to June 2020 and continues to be the association vice chair.

“As a relatively young classification society, IRClass has come a long way from being a member to an active contributor within IACS and eventually leading the Association through particularly turbulent times,” Mr Sharma said.

“IRClass prides itself as a member of IACS, an association whose contributions to regulatory and technical aspects of shipping are perhaps now becoming better known to the maritime industry at large.”

During his tenure, Mr Sharma began an initiative to encourage class to engage more deeply and frequently with industry partners via a program of engagement.

Expanding class society’s verification fields into the new and emerging areas of data quality assurance is another important aspect which IRClass says it wants to champion through IACS.