IIT Alumni
        iit Alumni Newsletter August, 2014      
 

 

In This Issue

Table of content

 

  
 

 

4. Insights

 

5. Chapters News

  

6. Chapters Upcoming Events

 

7. PanIIT News

  

8. Other Alumni Activities

  

10. Resources

  
Quick Links

 

IIT News (Forum)



Join Our List
Join Our Mailing List
Join Our List
Join Our Mailing List
Quick Links


      PANIIT India 

Announcements  Announcements 

 

 

4th Annual IIT BHU Global Alumni Meet

Sheraton Lisle Hotel, 3000 Warrenville Road, Lisle, IL, 60532, USA

Saturday, September 13, 2014

 

Dear IIT BHU Alumni:  

  

The IBGAA is hosting the Global Alumni Meet on Saturday, September 13, 2014, at the Sheraton Lisle Hotel, 3000 Warrenville Road, Lisle, Illinois, USA. The Theme for the Meet is "The IIT BHU Journey of Excellence Continues...".Further details about the Meet are on the website at http://chicago2014.iitbhuglobal.org/.

 

The Meet will include keynote address by noted alumni and panel discussions on relevant topics. Prof. Rajeev Sangal, IIT BHU Director is the confirmed speaker.  Prof. Panjab Singh (former VC-BHU) and Prof. S. N. Upadhyay (former Director IT-BHU) will speak on educational excellence at IIT (BHU). Dr. Sarvajna Dwivedi, Co-Founder, Pearl Therapeutics, Inc., (IIT BHU Pharmacy) is a confirmed Keynote Speaker. Hon. Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Railways, Government of India (IIT BHU Civil) is the evening Keynote Speaker.

 

We encourage all IIT BHU and BHU alumni to register and bring their family to this fun-filled global get together. This event is also open to other 15 IIT alumni and all IIT students in graduate schools. The Meet provides an excellent opportunity to network with highly accomplished alumni, renew friendships, share ideas about achieving excellence at IIT BHU, and enjoy interesting entertainment program in the evening. Access the registration link at http://chicago2014.iitbhuglobal.org/registration/.

 

So far, over 169 guests have registered. The next Registration milestone is August 31, 2014. Hurry, only 81 seats left, Register now! 

 

See you in Chicago on  Saturday, September 13, 2014.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

                    Vish Narayanan (EEE 1983)                 Manu Vora (CHE 1968)               Atul Kumar (MEC 1995)

       President, IBGAA                               Chair, 2014 Chicago Meet           Co-Chair, 2014 Chicago Meet

vish.narayanan@gmail.com               manuvora@b-einc.com                akumar15@yahoo.com

+1-248-318-3548                                +1-630-548-5531                         +1-201-966-1720   

  
alumninewsIIT Alumni News

IITs appear at No. 4 in Top 50 Universities for VC-Backed Entrepreneurs

 

  
The California-based private college has once again topped PitchBook's Top Universities for VC-backed Entrepreneurs. The research firm reviewed its venture-capital database of more than 13,000 founders and ranked each school by the number of graduates who went on to launch venture-backed companies over five years ending August 2014. It also calculated the total number of startups founded by a college's alumni and total capital raised from each institution.
 
Stanford alumni led the pack with 378 founders. PitchBook counts a total of 309 companies originating from Stanford grads, all raising a total of $3.5 billion in venture capital.
 
Another Bay Area school, the University of California, Berkeley, came in second, while four east coast colleges took four of the top seven spots: MIT, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania  and Cornell. It's worth noting that the first non-U.S. school to make the top-seven list was the Indian Institute of Technology, which climbed from number 10 in last year's ranking. Two Israeli schools, Tel Aviv University and Technion-Machon Technologi Le' Israel, are also in the top 20.
  
Read full article PitchBook
  

 

 

Two IITians in Carnegie Corporation Great Immigrants: The Pride of America List 2014


Four naturalized citizens from India are among Carnegie Corporation of New York's honorees this year: actor Aasif Mandvi, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Carnegie Melon University President Subra Suresh, and University of West Georgia President Emeritus Beheruz N. Sethna.They are part of the Great Immigrants tribute that Carnegie Corporation, the foundation started by immigrant Andrew Carnegie in 1911, does every July 4.  We name about 40 honorees-all of them naturalized citizens who have contributed a lot to this country.


Read the full article at http://carnegie.org/news/press-releases/story/news-action/single/view/great-immigrants-the-pride-of-america-celebrate-july-4th-with-stories-of-immigrants-who-make-amer/

 

   

This IIT-ian's Innovation Is Helping Cotton Farmers In Vidarbha Double Their Income!  

Shreya Pareek August 25, 2014 

 

Muniyappa lost all his crops due to lack of sufficient water. The family had no other source of income and eventually turned to private money lenders to survive. Many families like Muniyappa's face the same fate year after year due to dependency on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood.
  
  

The unstable climate, uneven rainfall and lack of resources often lead to loss of crops. Failing to bear the pressure, the farmer either sells off his land or commits suicide. This calls for an alternative source of income that villagers in India could rely upon when such situations arise.


Kannan Lakshminarayan, a mechanical engineer by profession, came up with an idea to help the rural population come out of poverty. He is transforming one of the oldest industries in India - the textile industry, to serve the needs of the poor. 

 

  
How it works?

In the regular spinning industry, a normal machine consists of 50,000 spindles, while the Microspin technology has a capacity of 400-450, sometimes going up to 2,000 spindles. The lesser number of spindles helps to reduce the size of the unit. The machine manufactures 100 Kgs of yarn per day and requires a space of 3,000 square feet. The set up costs Rs. 1 crore, which is far less than a conventional set up that requires an investment of around Rs.100 crores. The actual cost of the machine is Rs.70 lakhs, and soft loans are provided by several institutions to help farmers purchase the machine. 

 Read full article at Link
campusnews  Campuses News

 

IIT-Kharagpur emerges on top in EDU-RAND ranking 2014

PTI Jul 21, 2014, 09.57PM IST


NEW DELHI: IIT, Kharagpur, has emerged as the top engineering college in EDU-RAND ranking 2014 followed by IITs in Delhi and Kanpur.


IITs in Chennai and Mumbai have occupied the fourth and fifth places respectively in the ranking.


The EDU-RAND ranking is intended to guide students seeking admission to an engineering college or university, according to a release.


While EDU is a community platform for academics, administrators and business leaders in Indian higher education, RAND Corporation is a global research house known for its extensive work in education.


India is host to more than 3,000 engineering colleges including (private and public institutions) while EDU and RAND have limited this year's rankings to 850 colleges that were established before and in 2009.


Read article at Economic Times
  

 
Gurufunda  Insights
  
A Brief History of Free Software ... Or Did Facebook Pay Too Much for WhatsApp?
 

 

 Umang Gupta

  
Lately, I've met with a lot of young software entrepreneurs that want my advice about their new product or business idea. When I ask them what their sustainable advantage is over the competition, they invariably point to their innovative technology, their first-to-market status and their decision to build out a consumer network via a free software or service. But they don't all dwell on how and when they intend to monetize their business.
  
Many even assume that they will figure out the monetization part of their plan in the future. Clearly this approach worked out spectacularly for WhatsApp when it sold out to Facebook recently for $19 billion! But not all startups have such happy endings. So it's helpful to get some perspective on how the role of software has evolved over time and how much your startup's success with a free software strategy depends on your target market, your business model and the prevailing investment climate.
 
Early IBM software was free
 
   
Computer history buffs will recognize that the approach of giving away free software is neither new nor recent. IBM existed in an era when most corporations paid handsomely for their computer hardware, but they insisted that the software be free. Since its founding in the early part of the previous century, IBM sold expensive "business machines" and employed an army of technicians to help its customers make use of these very complex and finicky early computational systems. 

Those early IBM technicians kept the hardware running (the job of IT operations today), and most of the programming was done by other technicians using archaic "machine language" instructions (what we could call "software development" today). While the hardware and software were all proprietary to IBM, the company's entire business model was based on charging high prices for hardware bundled with free software and customer service. The reason for giving away software was not to create a consumer network but, in fact, to offset the cost of running the expensive hardware.
 

The U.S. government got involved 

But a seminal event in the late 1960s caused a change in this preferred business model. An antitrust lawsuit against IBM brought by the U.S. Department of Justice forced the company to unbundle its software from its hardware and to stop giving it away free. This shift to unbundled software favored small startups that previously just could not compete against IBM and its free software. 


Enter Microsoft and Oracle

Microsoft started selling a microcomputer operating system called MS-DOS by mail order for less than $1,000 to power early Intel-based personal computers. Oracle started selling a relational database package for as little as tens of thousands of dollars to run on low-cost minicomputers and workstations. The selling was extremely geek to geek, and the support provided didn't need to be anything like what IBM provided. There was no reason for Oracle to give software or services away free since prices for the new hardware systems were already so low compared to those from IBM.


For the next 20 years, this software-license business model prevailed in the independent software industry, which grew phenomenally. As the fortunes of software companies like Microsoft and Oracle rose, IBM's star dimmed along with a host of other hardware companies. 

By the turn of the century, Microsoft had become a monopoly in its own right by controlling more than 90 percent of the desktop PC operating system market. Like IBM before, it too started to try to cement its monopoly by "bundling" free products with its operating system in order to thwart the competition. Perhaps the most egregious example of this was the bundling of Internet Explorer with Microsoft Windows in order to blunt the spread of Netscape, the first commercial Internet browser. Pretty soon, the government stepped in, took Microsoft to court and forced it to unbundle the browser. 

While it was too late to save Netscape, this legal development along with the spread of the World Wide Web made it possible for young companies to experiment with innovative new business models without fear of being killed off while they were still young.

During the last decade, free software has been used as a formidable competitive business weapon not only by Google against Microsoft but also by Apple, Amazon and Netflix to rapidly increase the size of their consumer networks against traditional brick-and-mortar industry incumbents.

 
But while each of these new upstarts gave away free software, they all started charging quite early for the digital equivalents of the things that they were truly selling (ads, music, books and movies). 
 
Google sold search advertising
 
Google was not the first company in Internet search, but it won out decisively over earlier entrants with its uniquely different pricing model for Internet advertising. All Internet search companies figured out early that they had to give away free search capability within a browser in order to attract consumers to whom they could show paid Web advertisements. 
 
In the early days of the Internet, everyone before Google essentially treated Web pages like a printed page or a TV screen to be interspersed with banner ads. Advertisers paid for the number of impressions shown to consumers - the same way they did for print pages or TV, with no guarantee of effectiveness.
 
Google's genius lay in its early decision to monetize its billions of daily search transactions via pay-for-click pricing instead of "banner ad" pricing. Because Google only charged the advertiser if consumers clicked through, Google's customers were willing to pay more per ad. As a result, it grew fast in revenues and became profitable quite early in its history (at least compared to today's startups). Today Google has built a virtual monopoly with its pay-for-click search advertising network, and it enjoys more than 80 percent market share in that lucrative space. 
 
Meanwhile, banner advertising continues to suffer from excess inventories and declining prices and has caused companies ranging from Yahoo to Facebook to seek other additional ways to monetize their user base beyond just Internet banner ads. 
 
Apple's impact on how we consume music 
 
Around the same time as Google was emerging as a force in the Internet software industry, a resurgent Apple under Steve Jobs applied the free software model to reduce prices in the consumer music industry. Jobs' first insight was in recognizing that older style consumer music products like the Sony Walkman were ripe to be taken out by a low-cost but stylish and purpose-built mobile computer technology called the iPod based on the MP3 standard.

 

But this in itself was not entirely new. At that time, there were a lot of MP3 players available on the market. Apple's genius was in making the iPod a part of an entirely new iTunes proprietary software ecosystem for purchasing music "by the song" instead of requiring consumers to purchase an entire album. Consumers have paid from the very beginning for the hardware and the music they bought. 
 
Enterprises move from perpetual licenses to SaaS
 
But what of the enterprise computer technology market pioneered by companies like IBM, Cisco, Microsoft and Oracle? The business models there do not involve selling to consumers, yet that sector has evolved too, albeit not at such a rapid pace. During the early days of the Internet, many enterprise software entrepreneurs (this author among them) branched out to build "software as a service" (SaaS) companies.

 

At first the SaaS model worked best for Internet-centric services such as Web hosting and e-commerce deployment, but eventually all kinds of enterprise software solutions ranging from business process management to systems management adopted this model. These companies succeeded because they reduced purchasing complexity for their corporate customers by offering pay-as-you-go subscription pricing and on-demand usage-based models instead of increasingly complex software under a perpetual software license.  

 
Freemium to premium 
 
We're all familiar with the freemium model. This usually involves giving away some software free in order to be able to charge for a premium version later. Essentially, the free software is like a lead-generation tool, and it makes it easy for a software company to upsell its product to people that have tried the free version and want more features.
  
More enterprise software startups use this approach today, but these companies usually need to be assured of converting enough free customers to paid customers to build a viable business. It's unlikely that simply building out a large network of corporate customers that use a free trial/sample product will result in meaningful valuations for an enterprise software company. 
 
What's up with WhatsApp 
 
In the case of WhatsApp, there is a presumption by Facebook that it is buying a consumer network that it will eventually monetize over time. But whether and how Facebook will actually do so, and at what magnitude, is anybody's guess.

Unlike the core Facebook business, which is dependent on advertising (hence the number of eyeballs could be one proxy for future revenues), the WhatsApp market was for communications services, which may or may not have as much advertising value as implied by the Facebook purchase price. In fact, Facebook has indicated it will not necessarily pursue an advertising model for WhatsApp. But if not advertising, then what? 
 
Some people have pointed to communications services as a possible new source of revenues for Facebook. But just because WhatsApp obliterated (by some industry estimates) $38 billion of text messaging revenues from traditional telecommunications industry players by giving away its own such services free does not mean that it will now be able to replace these with an equivalent amount of its own revenues.
  
In this, the example of Skype is instructive. Skype also built up a massive consumer network based on free voice calls and subsequently sold out to eBay at a valuation that was equally stratospheric for its day. But eBay was not able to monetize this business and subsequently sold Skype back to its founders at a substantially lower price, which then turned around and updated Skype's technology a bit and sold it again - this time to Microsoft, albeit not at the same high price as that which eBay originally paid. 
  
Skype still does not make enough money for Microsoft to justify its initial or even subsequent valuations. Whether Facebook's big bet in WhatsApp will pay off better is a stretch to imagine. 
 
 
Mark Twain said that history may not repeat itself, but it sure rhymes! The role of software has continued to evolve in different ways through various industries in our economy, and business models have oscillated between giving away free software vs. charging for it vs. giving it away conditionally. 
 
The occasional spectacular valuation notwithstanding, it is better to know early what to charge for vs. what to give away free and whether a customer network is an eventual revenue-generating asset vs. a costly lead-generating tool. 
  
In a world where software is no longer the domain of a few geeky Silicon Valley engineers but is the stuff that billion-dollar companies are made of, it still pays to have a viable business model.
  

Umang Gupta is a well-known Silicon Valley technology visionary, entrepreneur, company founder and public company CEO. After having spent more than 40 years helping to build the enterprise software industry and, among other things being credited with writing the first business plan for Oracle in 1981, Umang now devotes his time exclusively to the fledgling online education industry as an investor, board member and advisor. He can be reached at umangpgupta@gmail.com.
  
  
ChapternewsChapters News

 

Bay Area Summer Picnic 2014

 

The IIT Alumni of the Bay Area organized a picnic on Sunday, August 10, 2014 at the Baylands Park in Sunnyvale, CA. Nearly 200 attendees (including families and children) from various IIT campus joined in for a day of fun, games, and networking. Unlike last year's event where it rained, this year's picnic had gorgeous weather with sunny, blue skies.

 

The picnic was organized by the various IIT alumni chapters working in unison to handle all the activities, including registration, lunch and snacks, activities at the park, and the cleanup.

 

The alumni in attendance spanned a wide range of years - from Abhay Bhusan who graduated from IIT Kanpur in 1965 to 6 interns who will graduate from IIT Roorkee in 2016!

 

Here are some photos from the picnic. More are at: https://www.facebook.com/iitbayarea
  
Magician "Hoghdini" captivated the kids and adults with cool tricks and sleight of hand
  
 
The children put on a Talent Show
  
 
         Volleyball at the picnic      
  
 
Younger attendees enjoyed the Jumper
Antakshari was a big hit with the adults
  
  
IITSINE Annual Picnic - 2014
Rohit Kochhar

The Indian Institutes of Technology Society in New England (IITSINE) organized its annual summer picnic on Saturday, August 2, 2014, at the Cochituate State Park in Natick, MA. The event was free of cost to all IIT Alumni and their families residing in the greater Boston area and provided an excellent opportunity for professional networking in an informal setting. Despite the weather forecast calling for heavy rain, the event this year was well attended by more than 60 IIT alumni and their family members. Years of graduation of the attendees spanned almost 50 years - from 1965 to 2012.
The guests started with light snacks comprised of bhelpuri, dhokla, sandwiches, samosas and hot tea. This was followed by each of the attendees introducing themselves to the group and an event sponsor talk from AppNeta. Athletically inclined attendees showed off their running capabilities in a game of "standing Kho-Kho" while academically inclined folks competed in Chess. US-born kids were introduced to the de-facto national game of India through playing in a nail-biting six overs a side cricket match.
  
A light drizzle pattered on the grounds as the guests enjoyed a delicious lunch comprising of chole-bhature, pulao, rice, paneer and raita. Jalebi, pista-burfi, gajar-halwa and watermelon rounded up the desserts selections. The picnic culminated with a few attendees earning it big in a game of Bingo. IITSINE President, Raj Laad, thanked the attendees for making the picnic a success despite the weather forecast and announced the date of October 11 for IITSINE's Diwali party.
  
IITSINE would like to thank AppNeta (www.appneta.com) for sponsorship of this event.
  
About IITSINE
IITSINE is an autonomous, non-profit organization made up of members affiliated in an academic or other professional capacity with any of the Indian Institutes of Technology in India.
  
About AppNeta
AppNeta is the Full Stack Application Performance Management (APM) technology leader, providing integrated performance visibility that spans the application code, through the network, to the end user. AppNeta's SaaS solutions give Development, Application and IT Operations teams broad, detailed performance data to see across their web, mobile and cloud-delivered application environments and pinpoint tough performance bottlenecks. With AppNeta, customers have all of the performance data they need to assure ongoing and exceptional delivery of business critical applications and end user experience. For more information or to get started today, visit www.appneta.com.
  
  
 

 
   
  
upcomingeventsChapters Upcoming Events

 

Diwali Dhamaka in the Bay Area

 

The Annual IIT Diwali Dhamaka in the Bay Area will be on November 1, 2014 at the Heritage Theater in Campbell, CA from 4:30pm till 10:00pm. This event attracts over 800 attendees from all IIT campuses in the Bay Area.

 

Watch your email for announcements and a registration link soon! 

paniitnews PanIIT USA News

WHEELS - a Platform for Giving Back

Suresh V. Shenoy, IITB '72

 

दानोपभोगरहितादिवसायस्ययान्तिवै।

लोहकारभस्त्रेवश्वसन्नपिजीवति॥ 

  
English Translation of Sanskrit Quote:

 

A person who passes his days without donations and enjoyments  
is like a blacksmith's bellows, he breathes but does not live.
 

 

In the 60 years since the first IIT was set up in Kharagpur, IIT alumni have spread all over the world and occupy positions of power, influence and wealth. President Abdul Kalam and the Honorable Minister for Human Resource Development, Mr. Kapil Sibal, at various forums have challenged this group of high achievers to direct their energies to finding "common solutions to common problems". This call to public service was made with the recognition that many of us owe allegiance not only to India - our country by birth - but also to countries we have adopted as citizens. Shortly after this gauntlet was thrown at us, a small group of alumni zeroed in on six areas that are crying out for global solutions and attention: Water, Healthcare, Energy, Education, Lifestyles (rural and urban) and Security. The acronym - WHEELS - is also significant as it represents evolution and the march of time and has been symbolic of India herself. Each of these six areas is of common concern to not only India but also America and much of the developed world:

  

 

a) Water: some estimate 400 million people in India could be cut off from access to potable water. The numbers in the USA may not be as stark, but water already costs as much per gallon as gas!

 

b) Healthcare: India has become a major source for doctors and nurses to the western world- contributing as much as 30% of the doctors in the USA today - is this a sustainable model?  Demand for quality care and lowering healthcare delivery costs is increasing


c) Energy: Reducing dependence on carbon fuels is a universal concern and achieving this while meeting India's development goals is a significant challenge. R&D required for alternative sources of energy can be expensive and the directions taken may have both geopolitical and technology consequences.


d) Education: India is reported to have 26 million children entering kindergarten each year - and demand for 20,000 net new institutions for higher education now! Education costs in the US are growing at a staggering rate of 20+ % putting it out of reach from the average high school student.

 

e) Lifestyles: 700 million people in India still live in villages with nominal access to electricity, TV, communications and are denied the basic conveniences that much of the world has come to expect. In the United States, there are similar challenges of getting remote and rural areas access to healthcare or the internet.

 

f) Security: Physical, cross-border security and Cybersecurity are common and huge concerns between India and USA!

  

In the long term, the six areas mentioned above - abbreviated as WHEELS - could be of more significant importance to India and USA and impact a broader segment of the population than any single issue such as terrorism. The goals for this PanIIT program are to identify and promote thought leaders, entrepreneurs and venture/investment funds that will focus on these areas for collaboration between our two countries and to create 'centers of excellence'. In addition, it is estimated that the potential for bilateral trade in these six areas could be in excess of $1 trillion creating jobs in both the United States and India.

 

College alumni are typically organized to raise money for specific initiatives at their alma mater. WHEELS aims to be a "Technology enabled Philanthropic" activity that (a) encourages alumni involvement in community projects, (b) promotes application of technology to solve real world problems, and (c) focuses charitable giving for research at the IITs and collaborative work on solving real-world problems. It is with this objective that WHEELS has been set up as a 501C(3) organization with its own governance structure and board of Directors separate from the individual IIT foundations. Until such time as this foundation is organized to implement its self-directed projects, with proper staffing and processes in place for accountability; it is our intent to operate through strategic alliances with other organizations that have a track record for successful implementation and whose operations meet the goals for WHEELS. Examples of such collaboration include a recent MOU signed with Habitat for Humanity to consider housing projects in India under the "India Builds" initiative and also locally in the USA for building affordable housing for wounded warriors. Another example is when Ron Mehta, an IIT Bombay alumnus, learned of a clean water project initiated by several alumni of the IIT Bombay Alumni Association in Hyderabad, he chose to work through the WHEELS Foundation to channel his contribution to the project in India. WHEELS Foundation has also entered into an MOU with the Sevak project initiated by the Association of Physicians of Indian Origin.

 

There is significant interest toward establishment of a WHEELS Foundation in India to mirror the activities of the PanIIT alumni here in the USA. It is exciting to see how an umbrella organization such as WHEELS becoming a reality and to know that a large amount of credit duly belongs to the chapter in New York who under the leadership of Anil Bhandari, Kumar Shah, Gautam Advani and the 2010 PanIIT Conference team offered an entire track on WHEELS and contributed a large portion of the proceeds from the event to several charities that served energy, education and rural uplift projects.

 

  

These were podcasts we had put together for the IIT 2013 Conference

 

 

For those who could attend the PanIIT Houston Conference the memories are still fresh. The following podcasts from the Houston Conference will help you relive those moments. 

 
http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/16833


We set it up iTunes as well -

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/iit-2013-conference-podcast/id637379456?mt=2

  

Otheractivities Other Alumni Activites

 

UDYOG SANCHETANA a monthly, FREE, e-Newsletter


An e-Communication Dedicated to SKILL and Industry - Academia Collaborati on


http://www.ibf.org.in/PDF/USI-5.pdf
 

 

Proposals Invited for "The Turning Point" - a story of YOU

Anvita Bajpai

 

Pl. read till end for details -


Many of us are good in multiple things, but given the education and circumstances we work in a particular domain/field/area.


Many don't feel satisfied, and try changing things in/around - but may not remain persistent.


Many look for distractions.

 
Many give up.

 
Many absorb.

 


Many have no choice.

.

.

.


We can explain and add a long list of reasons here.

 

But, a few wake up and decide that it's enough. They take a turn understanding that its only one life to live. Try for a change and prove themselves too in the new place / domain/ area etc.

 

Classic examples of the same are Gautam Buddha, and Ashoka - the great.

 

To give a few examples of known personalities of today - Remo Fernandes, an engineer by education but musician by profession - took a turn and proved himself. And not just that -one story about him that I witnessed - in the year 2000 (don't remember exact date), Remo perfumed at IIT Kanpur. The show was amazing, we all enjoyed. Then they had to leave for Goa. That time, Kanpur didn't have an airport, and people had to go to Lucknow by car to board the flight at Lucknow airport. So Remo's group was in one car, and he was in other for the way to lucknow to board the plane - met an accident. Members of his group died on the spot. They were brought back to the Health Centre at IIT Kanpur, and I saw Remo standing alone on the road at Campus, and crying. There was a silence at his end/in his career for few months/years. A few years later when I was at IIT Madras, I saw him again performing and it was a very strengthening feeling to see him back.

 

Then, we know Dr. Palash Sen, Chetan Bhagat, an IITian (whose name is slipping out of my mind at this point) who was a strong wall behind Greenpeace organisation.

 

A few of us may have such stories, a few untold ones as well.

 

So here, -

I invite entries (in a brief para or two) about such stories, of yourself, or the person you know and agrees that you can communicate his/her story.
 *Selected entries would be considered to be discussed in detail, and be written about by me.

 *It would be an year and half long project, in which I target to cover about 15 personalities. I plan to start on this idea in Sept this year, and cover one personality per month.
 

So do send in you proposal, and the gist of your story - the selected ones would hear back from me by Sept end., then then we would proceed with the defined schedule.

 

Last date for sending entries is August 31st, 2014.

 

Send in your proposal AT anvita_bajpai@yahoo.com with subject to the mail as "The Turning Point". 

http://anvitabajpailoe.blogspot.in/2014/08/proposals-invited-for-turning-point.html

 

 

 

Partners Conferences you may find interesting

  
South Asia Research and Information Institute (SARII) 2014 Conference
  
Discussions among Indians regarding the affirmative action policies in higher education in India often generate more heat than light. Opinions are usually formed on impressionistic and anecdotal basis. SARII aims to bring to you information generated from academic studies largely based on detailed analysis of data. This year's SARII conference will deal with reservations in education system in India. A significant part of the conference discussion will be about IITs. The conference is scheduled for Saturday, September 6, 2014.
  
If you plan to attend and have not registered so far, please register for free by writing to affirmative@sarii.org with the names of attendees, email addresses, and phone numbers on or before August 23, 2014. The seats are limited. So please register early.
  
For additional details, see http://www.sarii.org/affirmative.html .  
  
  
5th US-India Energy Partnership Summit
  
   
  
For more information and registration click at Link
  
  
  
Cultute-Information Technologies-Energy-Knowledge Conference 2014, Mexico

 

 

  
For more details please visit http://www.citek2014.com/
  
  
Job Connection

PLEASE SEND NEWS TO NEWSLETTER@IIT.ORG FOR INCLUSION IN FUTURE NEWSLETTERS. 
ResourcesYOUR CAMPUS CONNECTION
 
ALUMNI SITEFACEBOOKNEWSLETTER
Bombay  www.iitbombay.org

https://www.facebook.com/groups/iitmumbai/

https://www.facebook.com/iitbombay

www.iitbombay.org/newsletters
Madras www.iitmaa.orgwww.facebook.com/pages/IIT-Madras/110588392295422 
Delhiwww.iitdalumni.comwww.facebook.com/iitdalumni 
Kanpurwww.iitkalumni.orgwww.facebook.com/groups/iitkalumni/www.iitkalumni.org/whatsup/newsletter1.asp
Kharagpurwww.iitfoundation.org www.facebook.com/alumnicell.iitkgp 
Roorkee www.iitraana.net www.facebook.com/pages/IIT-Roorkee/110723692284452www.iitraana.net/newsletter
Varanasi  www.itbhuglobal.orgwww.facebook.com/IITBHUChroniclewww.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/
Guwahati  iitgalumni.org www.facebook.com/groups/iitg.alumniconnect/www.iitg.ac.in/aa/Alumni_Newsletter.htm
Gandhinagar www.iitgn.ac.in www.facebook.com/pages/IIT-Gandhinagar/139092996158047 www.iitgn.ac.in/iit-newsletter.htm
Hyderabadwww.iith.ac.in. https://www.facebook.com/iithyderabad 
Indorewww.iiti.ac.in
Bhubaneshwarwww.iitbbs.ac.in
Patnawww.iitp.ac.in
Roparwww.iitrpr.ac.in
Mandiwww.iitmandi.ac.in
Jodhpurwww.iitj.ac.in
 


Please forward missing information to newsletter@IIT.org so that we can include it in future newsletters..  Thanks

IIT Alumni - Join us on LinkedIn

 

IIT Alumni Linkedin Group has emerged as a very vibrant resource for our community. We are now 25500+ strong and growing. The group is a great way to connect with fellow IITans living in your area, working in your industry or from your batch. It is great resource to find employers, employees, contacts or customers via qualified introductions on an opt-in basis. The members are finding it as a great place to discuss their ideas or to promote their products.
 

 

Click here to join the LinkedIn Group. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Contribute to the Newsletter!

We would love to hear from you! If you'd like to contribute a short IIT-related story or article to be published in the Newsletter, please send a 200-or 250-word writeup to newsletter@iit.org. Include your contact information and your IIT affiliation in your email. 

 

To subscribe or to be added to the mailing list, click on the button on the left panel that says "Join Our Mailing List"

  

Newsletter team at Pan IIT USA Inc.

(Alumni Association of Indian Institutes of Technology)