A workshop on ab initio quantum chemical packages available through PARAM (developed by C-DAC) was organized by C-DAC in Pune. The workshop was intended for the following audience:

• Teachers and students who are extensively using computational chemistry in their research work.
  
  
• PhD students/ RA's with a minimum of two years of research experience in computational chemistry.
  
  
• Those who have previously attended similar workshops organized by C-DAC
  
  
• Potential commercial users.

The numbers of participants were limited to 10. Those meeting the above criteria and interested in attending the same were requested to forward their bio-data along with a small write up indicating a small chemical problem of interest, which was solved during the practical sessions.

The following activities were undertaken during the workshop:

• Ab initio methods and their applications.
  
  
• Applications of ab initio methods to large molecular systems (fragmentation approach).
  
  
• Introduction to various quantum chemistry packages on PARAM 10000 and PARAM Padma, including INDMOL, INDPROP and GAMESS.
  
  
• Practical on visualization and support tools for quantum chemical computations.