The Pune edition of Saksham, a knowledge-led industry platform by Elanpro, brought together hospitality professionals, kitchen consultants, engineers, compliance experts, and solution providers for focused discussions on strengthening safety systems and infrastructure discipline across food service operations.

With over 70 participants attending the one-day programme, the discussions revolved around three core operational pillars: Safety, Compliance & Audit Readiness, and Sustainable Infrastructure. These themes reflected the increasing need for structured systems as restaurants, hotels, cloud kitchens, and food retail formats continue to scale at speed.

The inaugural session featured insights from Atul Gokhale, Dean, SSCANS; Pramod Paleri, Founder, S&P Associates; and Rajeev Jalnapurkar, Former Chairman, Indian Association of Amusement Parks & Industries. The speakers set the tone by underlining the importance of disciplined operational frameworks in managing growth responsibly.

Technical sessions during the day addressed critical operational areas such as LPG safety, cold-chain management, electrical safety systems, compliance cost exposure, smart manufacturing practices, and sustainable kitchen design. The sessions were led by industry experts including Sanjay Jain, Director, Elanpro; Jesal Sampat, CEO, Pune Gas; Sanjiv Deshmukh, Kitchen Solutions; Swapnil Deshpande, Swastik Synergy Engineering; Jayaant Dongrre, Catalyst Support Services; Vishwanath Pandey, THI; Moiz Master, Alister Equipment; P. Sravan Kumar, Founding Member, HCF; and Nivedita Dileep, CII-IGBC.

The discussions highlighted that while the food service industry is expanding rapidly, gaps remain in areas such as temperature discipline, preventive maintenance, gas handling protocols, and audit preparedness. Participants agreed that these gaps often expose businesses to avoidable operational and financial risks. A key takeaway was the need to embed compliance into everyday operations rather than treating it as a periodic checklist.

Speaking about the initiative, Sanjay Jain, Director, Elanpro, said, “Food businesses today operate at unprecedented scale and speed. Sustainable growth requires strong operational systems and informed technical decisions. Saksham is designed to bridge knowledge gaps and equip teams with practical frameworks that can be implemented immediately.”

Sharing his perspective at the event, Sravan Kumar, Founding Member, HCF, said, “As the industry expands, strengthening safety fundamentals and compliance readiness becomes critical. Collaborative knowledge-sharing initiatives such as Saksham help raise professional standards while supporting responsible and sustainable growth.”

Elanpro also reiterated the importance of application-driven refrigeration systems in maintaining food integrity, improving energy efficiency, and optimising lifecycle costs in high-load kitchen environments.

Positioned as a continuing multi-city initiative, Saksham aims to address city-specific operational challenges while steadily strengthening professional standards across India’s evolving food service ecosystem.