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December 2001

• In connection with Fundraising Drive 2001, read the letters from Director Ashok Misra, Anil Kshirsagar, Jude Netto and see the Information Brochure / Pledge Form. Chem. Engg. alums  should click here to read about Avi Nash's offer to match donations dedicated to the Chemical Engineering Department for a total of upto $0.5 million.
  

• Mumbai Chapter meets on December 29th at Haji Ali ... click here for more.
  

• India Abroad's Priya Ganapati reports on how IIT Bombay, will play host to a gurukul on its campus, where budding engineers will learn one of the oldest forms of Indian classical music - the Dhrupad. The gurukul is a throwback to the ancient Indian system of education through which a student and his teacher lived together on campus, extending their interactions beyond the scheduled teaching hours. The Dhrupad Sansar, the gurukul, will be run by renowned vocalist Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar .. click here for more.
  

• The Central Intelligence Agency-backed, private non-profit venture catalyst firm, In-Q-Tel, has invested millions of dollars in an Indian start up, Stratify, formerly known as Purple Yogi. The company was founded by an IITB alumnus, Rakesh Mathur (BTech '78 ME), former co founder of the successful company Junglee that was ultimately bought out by Amazon.com ... click here for the report from India Abroad.
  

• In an effort akin to the famous GE Management Development Institute in Crotonville, NY, Infosys has set up the Infosys Leadership Institute on a 200-acre stretch of land in Mysore in Karnataka with an investment of $7.3 million. Infosys managers including Chief Operating Officer Nandan Nilekani (IIT Bombay - BTech EE '78 ) and selected employees from senior levels to drivers and peons will undergo extensive training to improve their leadership skills and emerge as thought leaders ... click here for excerpts from the report in India Abroad.
  

• "Maharashtra aims to ride the biotech boom" ... rediff.com article add that "... IIT Bombay set up a biotechnology school on the lines of the Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology. It also offers an M.Tech in Biotechnology that can be undertaken by students from different fields."
  

• Career Moves : Former Alcatel chief operating officer Krish Prabhu, 46, has joined Morgenthaler Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif., as a venture partner. Prabhu who began his career with Bell Labs in 1980, will scout investments in communications and IT. A resident of Dallas, Prabhu will keep his base there and focus on two companies funded by Morgenthaler, Yotta Networks, a Piano, Texas maker of optical equipment, and Westwood Communications, a Santa Rosa, Calif, maker of advanced switching equipment. And Kanwal Rekhi has joined the board of directors at NetScaler Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif., maker of Web traffic management products.
  
• Y-Point Inc., a Hazlet, NJ, based technology services firm issued a press release outlining how its "Managed Competency Center Assists IIT Bombay Heritage Fund To Launch And Operate Portal". Y-Point has announced an expansion into the second year of its successful relationship with the IIT Bombay Heritage Fund ... click here for the Yahoo! Finance report.
  

• The New York Chapter's Holiday Family Fiesta is on Saturday, December 15th, 2001 at Nielsen Hall, Douglass College, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (click here for directions).  The event begins at 5:30 pm with Meet & Mingle and ends with Gazals and music at 9:00 pm. Click here to pre-register and save $$$ ... http://www.iitbombay.orgiitb_db/main/EventResponse.asp?ID=15.
  

• The MMM scheduled for December 8 has been postponed  ... click here for more.
  <<On Saturday, December 8th, the Mumbai Chapter is holding an extraordinary meeting in more ways than one.  For one, Mr N.Vittal, Chief Vigilance Commissioner, will talk to us. Having run down corrupt officials, he has even *hosted* them on his website :-) This firebrand son of the soil speaks in multiple languages and punctuates with profound slokas! This out-of-turn event is for the IIT alums who wish to learn Vittal's First Law of (Government) Dynamics AND tell him a couple of things.>>
  
  
  The Time : 5.30 pm, Saturday December 8th.

  The Theme : Make no mistake, we'll get them

  The Place : Institute of Engineers, Haji Ali

  The menu : (squeaky clean)

November 2001

• Dr. Deepak B Phatak is going to be in the Bay Area on the 1st of December and would like to meet us to have an informal chat on "The Bridge to the Campus" . Dr. Phatak will update us on what's currently going on campus, the new directions IIT Bombay is taking, a lot of anecdotes from our campus days and would love to take back suggestions from the alumni on making these Alumni-Campus bridges stronger. This informal meeting will be help on Saturday, December 1st, at 4:00 pm at the Recreation Room of Elance Inc, 820A Kifer Road, Sunnyvale, CA 94086.  Many of us who remember him will surely be there. So do make it and we would appreciate all participation and suggestions from anyone. There will not be any charge for this event. Cheers ... contact Aman Walia or Balaji Srinivasan at san_francisco[!]iitbombay.org for details.
  
• Prof. Deepak B. Phatak will be visiting the New York area too and would like to meet with as many alumni as can be rounded up. We have organized an informal chat with him over dinner on Monday, December 3rd at 6:30 pm at Raagini Restaurant, Rt. 22 (East bound), Springfield, NJ. If you are interested, and available, please register by clicking here as soon as possible, or click on - http://www.iitbombay.orgiitb_db/main/EventResponse.asp?ID=16.  Space at Raagini will be limited, but there will be no cover charge - just the cost of your own dinner.
  
• A Times of India article on November 21st titled "Forging Ahead: Changing Face of IIT Mumbai" talks about the latest goings on at IIT Bombay.
  
• Mumbai Monthly Meet on Saturday, November 24th features Ram Jethmalani the celebrated, *feisty* Ram Jethmalani, erstwhile Law Minister, acknowledged legal brain and defender of the virtuous (and not so virtuous) who has promised to turn our legal fundas around ! Mr Jethmalani, to jog your memory, was shooting 10-questions-a-day to the PM during the Emergency faster than today's Kalashnikovs, fiercer than SCUDs. And has come a long way thence.
  
  The Theme: Legal eagle takes on Techies
  The Time: 4.30 pm,Saturday,24th November
  The Venue: Institute of Engrs. Haji Ali
  The Menu: Constitutional, with early-bird incentive
  
• Beginning Sunday, November 11, 2001, the Pune Chapter has started Vaishali meets on Sunday. Twelve persons were present on that day,  of which five were from the Thursday group and seven were new alumni who do not have a holiday on Thursday.
  Venue: Vaishali Restaurant on Fergusson College Road.
  Time: About 09:30 hours.
  Day : All Sundays.

   

• The India Abroad magazine issue dated November 9th has a cover story titled "Class Apart" about IIT Bombay's Class of 2001 ... "the crème de la crème of engineering students in India ... Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai — a name that has come to signify educational excellence in boardrooms across the world ... It's a name that can open doors to the best American universities, bring the most lucrative job offers from the biggest brand names in any industry and offer a chance to make dreams come true."
  
• Mumbai meet   ... an audio-visual presentation of the exhilarating yatra to Kailash Mansarovar with a commentary by Ms Leena Vaidya is slated on Sunday, 4th November at 6.30 pm, at SOM Auditorium,IIT Bombay.  Breath-taking slides will be followed by dinner at H8, like ye ol' times.All are invited and that means anyone :-) - to  ensure that you get dinner, please confirm to the Kambe's by Email: kambe[!]vsnl.com or by calling 444 9567 / 98211-39272.
  
• New York Chapter Manhattan meeting was a big success  and more such informal meetings to be held ... click here for a report from the Manhattan cack session.

October 2001

• Mumbai Monthly Meet on October 27th, 2001, on "India - the Growth Imperative",  features Anish Tawakley (IIT Delhi) of McKinsey & Co., who will talk about a report which was presented to Prime Minister Vajpayee. The report is about how India, by removing certain key barriers that are shackling its economic potential, can achieve a 10 per cent growth rate per annum. In 3 years! Is this the road to progress or will we advance to the rear?  Dr. Rajan Kamat (IIT Kanpur), a distinguished academician who is internationally acclaimed for corporate strategy will then give some related insights and also his expert opinion on the "Growth Report" ... click here for more information.
  

• The October newsletter from IIT Bombay has news about Hindi Utsav, technology development in Indian languages and a competition to address the problems facing Powai lake ... click here for more.
  

• The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter announces a GRAND DIWALI DINNER on the 3rd of November, at Mayuri Restaurant in Sunnyvale ... block your calendars and the organizers shall send you the details soon. Do plan to come over with family and integrate with the IIT Bombay Alumni Family. We shall celebrate the Festival of Lights (without the noisy lights) with a grand Dinner and togetherness ... contact Aman Walia or Balaji Srinivasan at san_francisco[!]iitbombay.org for details or click here to register and to get more details.
  

• New York Chapter to meet on October 18th at 6 pm in Shaan Restaurant (48th between 5th & 6th Avenue) ... you are invited for drinks with other IITB alumni in Manhattan.

  When:  Between 6 and 8 pm on October 18th
  Where: The Cocktail Lounge at Shaan (48th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue - Telephone: 212-977-8400) ... click here for a map.

  No prepaid registration, no entry fee ... there will be a cash bar to serve you. This a social event, which will give you an opportunity to meet with fellow IITB alumni in Manhattan.

  The professional development event on November 8th has been postponed.
  

• Vijay Vashee (BTech '74 EE) is featured in a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal on October 3 titled - "Attack Reverberates for Some Indians, Creating a Painful Ethnic Backlash".  Vijay is quoted as saying that he vowed for a while after the terror attack that he wouldn't let possible bias disrupt his work. But he says that two weekends ago, while his teenage stepson waited at a bus stop in Seattle's affluent Mercer Island neighborhood, two men in a green van pulled up and drew fingers across their throats. "Until then, I felt I should stand by my principles," he says. "But if it can happen to my stepson on Mercer Island, it could happen anywhere." Mr. Vashee has sharply cut back his travel schedule.
  

• Victor Menezes was the Chief Guest at the 39th Convocation of IIT Bombay held in August in Powai.  Click here for the full text of his speech ... quotable quotes include - "When I look back at my IIT group – among them were a Chitpavan ..., a Parsi, a Christian, a Kashmiri, a Tamilian, a Nepali and a Sikh.  Very different backgrounds, religions and languages.  Yet, we all had to pull together.  I submit to you that this is a unique part of your education." and "As you become Masters of the Universe, I hope you won’t forget your alma mater.  Several of us formed the IIT Bombay Heritage Fund to help channel ideas and money.  So, wherever you are, I hope you will stay in touch."
  

• Kanwal Rekhi was interviewed in the September issue of NRIWorld ... "As of now the dotcoms have disappeared. The new generation dotcoms will have to emerge viable, sustainable and profitable and nobody knows what that form is yet", and "failure is not a problem, it is a learning experience" ... click here for more.
  

September 2001

Please donate generously to help those affected by the attacks on September 11 ... click here for details.

• The India Abroad magazine has a cover story on Victor Menezes ... click here for more. The article says that "IIT Mumbai, from where he acquired a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, taught him nearly all the lessons he would need to call upon in his career." When asked about his charitable works, he said that “It is my way of giving back to society."
  

• The Times of India profiled Arun Firodia (BTech '65 EE), Chairman of Kinetic Engineering Limited, which is one of India's premier manufacturers of two-wheelers. When asked about what his position allows him to do, he responded that - "the main thing is that you can do something positive. You can create employment and take part in nation building. You can create new products which reach out to so many people" ... click here for more.
  
• Scientists at IIT Bombay are working in conjunction with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in Bangalore to develop a helium based "Flying Ship" similar to the Zeppelin airship ... click here for more.
  
• Indian Express editorial on the clean-up of Powai Lake gives a bit of history of how the lake acquired its name Powai Lake was built by the British at an initial cost of Rs 6.5 lakh in 1890, and was named after the Framaji Kavasji Powai Estate, which was given to one Dr Scott in 1799 on payment of yearly rent of Rs 3,200 ... click here for more.
  

• It could only happen in India - an Indian Horatio Alger story about Siddharth Pawar, the son of a mali (gardener) on the Powai campus who has just graduated from IIT Bombay and taken up a job with TCS in Thiruvananthapuram. An editorial in the Times of India used this example to point out how far the the reform process has come ... " A whole generation of Indians has come of age with only dim memories of life before Maruti and colour TV, of the intelligentsia's sneering at Rajiv Gandhi's obsession with computers ... this `Dil Chahta Hai' gang may never truly understand how much ground we have covered in the last 20 years, leave alone the last 10. ... a gardener's child going through IIT, of a village headmaster's son working in a consultancy abroad, of a peon's daughter becoming a professor " ... click here for more.
  

• Following the announced conversion of the University of Roorkee, the floodgates have been opened to demands from politicians for more IITs ... including IIT Chandigarh, IIT Dharwad, and now a Union Minister has proposed to convert the Bihar College of Engineering, Patna, into an IIT Patna.
  

• In other news about IIT and IITians ... while the US Justice Department was prosecuting the Berkeley Nucleonics Corporation for "illegally" supplying "sophisticated" nuclear equipment to India, several Indians, including two IIT Bombay alumni, with nuclear expertise gained in India were winging their way to the University of Illinois-UC to "deposit knowledge picked up in India !" ... Krish Prabhu, former COO of Alcatel USA promises an end to the tech downturn by mid-2002 - click here for the story in the Times of India on September 2 .... "The social streak has been slowed down until I regenerate some money" says the Silicon Sage Kanwal Rekhi in an interview dated August 21. Other quotes from Kanwal include - "NASDAQ giveth, NASDAQ taketh away", and "the market is still overpriced" ... yet another book on the Indians of the Valley ... Gurmeet Naroola launched "The Entrepreneurial Connection : East meets West in the Silicon Valley" on the Powai campus on August 20, and featured the usual suspects ... Kalpak Kothari chose to stay in India and teach Physics in a college in Ahmedabad after graduating from IIT Mumbai, preferring to mould young, impressionable minds over looking for a job in the US - click here for the story.

August 2001

• "Even IITians get the market blues" ... Indian Express article on the economic slowdown in the India ... "For the much-wooed IITians, the truth is still settling in. ‘‘We never thought this could happen at IITs as well ...".
  

• IIT Kharagpur to open campus in Silicon Valley ...as part of its efforts to go global in its golden jubilee year, the premier Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur will open a campus in Silicon Valley to impart distant-learning courses ... click here for more.
  

• NRI World article on IIT Bombay alumnus Salil Donde ... "Salil Donde ascends to hot seat of Ascend".
  

• The Economic Times, Mumbai, ran a lead story titled "IIT-B old boys plan Big Apple bash" on Sunday, August 19.  The article says that "A VIRTUAL who’s who amongst Indo-American CEOs and academics will meet in New York City on September 22 at the headquarters of Citibank, the world’s largest bank. The event: The third annual distinguished alumni summit meeting of the IIT Bombay Heritage Fund." ... click here for the full article.
  

• The new IITPartners site launched by IITBHF highlights Pratham, a non-profit organization dedicated to the universalization of primary education. Several IIT Bombay alumni are lead volunteers for Pratham, and a joint IEI - Pratham fundraiser is to be held on September 12, 2001, in New York City. IEI in turn is sponsored by the American India Foundation which has IITians Menezes, Rekhi and Mehta as Trustees. Amongst the distinguished attendees expected at the fundraiser which is to be hosted by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are Azim Premji, Chairman of WIPRO, and Rajat Gupta, Managing Director of McKinsey & Co. ... click here for more.
  

• New York Chapter announces the Annual Reunion Banquet on Saturday, September 22nd at 5:30 pm in Trayes Hall, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ ... click here to register. Many distinguished IIT Bombay alumni are expected to attend this special event.
  

• Also planned by the New York Chapter is a Full Moon Boat Cruise on Saturday, September 29 from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm starting from Newburgh, NY, including Bhangra and Disco music plus Indian vegetarian food ... click here to register.
  

• August campus newsletter has news about a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Goa ... Drupad mestro Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar to join as guest faculty.
  

• Mumbai Monthly Meet on Saturday, August 25 in Lecture Theatre, IIT Powai campus ... "Varsha Stuti promises to take you to heights metaphysical. Amidst the lush green, the pristine nature now fecund. The strident calls of the koels during the day reflected by the frogs at nights amidst gurgling water. Alumni from all IITs are welcome to revel and soak in the joys of monsoon." - Poetic decription courtesy Janak Daftari ... click here for more about the event featuring Swami Chidananda and Hindustani music by Ashwini Bhide.
  

• IITBHF is pleased to announce IITPartners, a new site for IITians wishing to connect with other IITians ... whether to seek business partners, investors or advice.  We hope that this will help IITians find business partners for start-up ventures, and especially help those who are in the early stages of launching a new idea or project. The assistance could be in finding investors or in obtaining expert advice from experienced alumni.
  

• Houston speaker series event on Tuesday, August 21, features Marty McCaffrey of SORG and Bharat Desai, Chairman and CEO of Syntel, Inc. - click here for more details and directions.
  

• IIT Bombay alumnus Hemant Kanakia is featured in the July 29-August 04 issue of NRIWorld - "A "Torrent"ial Downpour of Networking Success".
  

• Padmashree Kumar Ketkar, Editor of Maharashtra Times and Political Editor of Times of India, who worked at the Electrical Engineering Department of IIT Bombay and later at the Computer Centre from 1964-70, is currently a Visiting Professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, NJ, teaching on the Challenge of Globalization and International Affairs ... click here for more.

July 2001

• IIT Bombay alumnus Krish Prabhu has resigned as COO of Alcatel and has joined its Board as a Director. Alcatel's CEO Tchuruk said that Krish has been instrumental in driving the transition of Alcatel into a leading telecom company -- click here for more. A Wall Street Journal article adds that "... a native of Bombay, Mr. Prabhu lives in Dallas, reads the New Yorker magazine and is obsessed with baseball's World Series. What's more, he doesn't speak French. That stands out at a company rivals sometimes jokingly have written off as a Belgian-run maker of antiquated phone switches."
  

• IITBHF in conjunction with the IIT Alumni Association Singapore is organizing a professional forum on "THE CHANGING BUSINESS LANDSCAPE - ECONOMIC, MANAGEMENT & ENTREPRENEURSHIP PERSPECTIVE" in Singapore on July 28 ... click here for more.
  

• The Pune Vaishali Club of IITians has been meeting each Thursday since March 1997 in the famous Vaishali Restaurant on Fergusson College Road ... click here for more.
  

• IIT Bombay in the news - "IIT branch in Goa on the anvil" and IIT Bombay alumnus Kota Harinarayana gave a talk on India's light combat aircraft project (LCA).
  

• The July 2001 newsletter from IIT Bombay has word about an MoU with Northwestern University along with other news from Powai.
  

• A team from IIT Bombay has won the Microsoft Award for Innovation at the IEEE Computer Society's International Design Competition, for their project titled "SkyMobile: Safe In-Flight Mobile Connectivity". The top ten teams were invited to present their projects in Washington, DC on June 23-25, 2001 ... click here for more on the competition, and see their presentation and project report.
  

• Speaker Series event in the Bay Area - “Network Silicon” - features Kamal Gunsagar (BTech '66) who will share his experience on founding Lara Networks, and Madan Avadhani (BTech '87) and Vijay Parmar (BTech '83) who will share their experience in founding VxTel. Prof. S.C. Lakkad, Deputy Director IITB, will also update alumni on IIT Bombay events.  The Bay Area Annual Picnic is on August 18th ... click here for more.
  

• A wayward panther has finally been captured on the IIT Powai campus on July 11, 2001. Forest service officials along with security guards successfully managed to trap the panther who was later released in the Borivli National Park ... click here for more.
  

• Mumbai Monthly Meet is now for all IITs ... "PIL and the citizen" on Saturday, 28 July at 4.30 pm at The Institute of Engrs, Haji Ali.  Public Interest Litigation (PIL) is one course of action proving effective for the citizenry to enforce the rule of law (and common sense) ... for more, catch the Mumbai Monthly Meet habit, now for all IIT alumni. Debi Goenka of Bombay Environment Action Group will share with us the mechanics of PILs and insights from his long-standing experiences. Pradyumna Kaul, convener of IIM-C Alumni, will then update us on ENRON, its PILs and problems.
  

• The NY Chapter picnic on June 30th was a great success ... read an eyewitness news report and click here for pictures from the event.
  

• Prof. S. C. Lakkad, Deputy Director, will be on a visit to the US from July 13/14 to August 13. He is visiting the US after many years, and he will need some support and local help from IIT Bombay alumni. Interested IITians should contact Prof. Gaitonde, Professor-in-Charge (Academic Affairs) by e-mail on picaa[!]cc.iitb.ac.in or write to - click here for additional details about his schedule.
  

• The State Government of Goa is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IIT Bombay in Pawai next month on the issue of exchanging educational facilities and expertise ... click here for a report in the Times of India.  Manohar Parrikar (BTech '78 - Metallurgical) is the current Chief Minister of Goa in a BJP-led coalition Government (read the Times of India article and in Rediff on the Net - "IIT graduate is Goa chief minister").

June 2001

• June 2001 newsletter from IIT Bombay with all the news including Alumni Day 2001.
  

• Our (BJP) man in New Delhi, Sudheendra Kulkarni (BTech '80), is in the news reportedly writing PM Vajpayee's speeches. Rediff reports that "... Sudheendra Kulkarni no longer interacts with scribes. The IIT graduate and former journalist now writes the PM's speeches and sits on the Telecom Committee. The workaholic Kulkarni was recently promoted to the rank of joint secretary". India Today reports that "... Sudheendra Kulkarni, joint secretary in the PMO, was in regular touch with "Didi" (Mamata Banerjee), calling her frequently ...".
  

• The "Save the Powai Lake" campaign is gaining traction, especially after the "Save Powai Lake Team" was formed in July 2000 ... read the report and click here for a photo album.
  

• New York Chapter picnic has been rescheduled for Saturday, June 30th ... click here for more information, and note the new time - 12 noon ... rain date is Saturday, July 7th. Visit http://www.ypoint.com/iitbevent/eventdetails.html for last minute updates.
  

• Mr. B. Rajaram, Managing Director of Konkan Railway, will speak on "Commuting in Mumbai" at the MMM in Mumbai ... time and place is as usual at 4.30 pm on Saturday, June 30, at the Institute of Engineers, P. Khadye Marg... click here for more information.

• The IIT Kharagpur Foundation and Cisco Systems, Inc. have announced an agreement to build a powerful state-of-the-art campus-wide computer network at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur in its Golden Jubilee year. The project, supported by contributions from IIT Kharagpur alumni Suhas Patil (1965) and Arjun Malhotra (1970), is aimed at providing high bandwidth universal Internet access and personal computing capability to the entire student body.

• The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter announces a hike on June 16, 2001 on the Skyline-to-the Sea Trail ... click here for details.

• Business India's June 2001 issue on Indian-American success stories includes 10 IIT Bombay alumni:

   Matunga to Murray Hills - Arun Netravali (BTech '67 EE)
   Summer of the patriarch - Kanwal Rekhi (BTech '67 EE)
   Intrapreneur - Krish Prabhu (MSc '75 Physics)
   The Yang - Sunil Wadhwani (BTech '74 ME)
   Capitolist - Sudhakar Shenoy (BTech '70 EE)
   Home sick chipman - Satish Soman (BTech '82 EE)
   A man to bank on - Shailesh Mehta (BTech '71 ME)
   "I am a parallel entrepreneur" - Hemant Kanakia (BTech '76 EE)
   The IP musketeers - Vijay Nadkarni (BTech '83 EE)
   Challenges of reinventing - Bharat Desai (BTech '75 EE)

• Bell Labs. Chief Arun Netravali (BTech '67 EE) is to be awarded the Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal by the IEEE on June 23 in Jersey City.
  

• The McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University is partnering with the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay - an MoU was signed on June 1 by Dean Birge and Director Misra ... click here for a full report.
  
  

• The American India Foundation held a major fundraising dinner in New York City on May 22, 2001, chaired by Victor Menezes (BTech '70 EE) and Rajat Gupta (BTech '71 IIT Delhi), with special remarks from Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary of the US. The AIF Trustees include former President Clinton as Honorary Chairperson, and several IIT alumni including three from IIT Bombay - Victor Menezes, Shailesh Mehta (BTech '71 ME) and Kanwal Rekhi (BTech '67 EE).
  
  

• Ramani Ayer (BTech '69 ChE), Chairman and CEO of The Hartford Financial Services was featured in "Indian American is chief guest at Immigrant Day bash".
  
  

• A Forbes.com story titled "Boot Camp for Engineers" covers the IITs as the elite Indian schools that "train winners".
  
  
• Forbes Top CEO list includes 3 Indian-Americans and one IIT Bombay alumnus - Shailesh J. Mehta (BTech '71 ME) ... click here if you are not a member of forbes.com.
  
  
• Dr. Mangesh Korgaonkar, Dean of the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management at IIT Bombay was interviewed on IndiaInfoLine on May 10, 2001. Dr. Korgaonkar talks about the role of IIT alumni and the SOM's association with top business schools including Wharton and Kellogg.
  
  

• IIT Bombay drops to #6 in India Today rankings for 2001, but stays #1 in reputation.  IIT Bombay had been ranked #1 in the 2000 survey, but IIT Kharagpur leapfrogged to the top spot in the survey this year.
  

• "Out of India" - IITs as the "stuff of legend" ... "its more selective than MIT ... its alumni shine in Silicon Valley ..." in University Business ( April 2001). 
  

• Media Lab Asia, the third such Media Lab in the world, is to be set up in the Mumbai-Pune corridor in conjunction with MIT. The Economic Times reports that the Indian Cabinet has given its approval for the project on May 31.
  

• IITian Jairam Ramesh (BTech '75 ME), a senior Congress Party official, who writes the Kautilya column in India Today has highlighted a proposal for a US-India Free Trade Agreement in a column in the June 4, 2001 issue of India Today ... Sudhakar Shenoy (BTech '70 EE) is shown "Helping Minorities Make Capital Connections" as reported in The Washington Post on May 24, 2001 ... the Washington Post reports about the role played by the IITs in its May 27, 2001 story titled "Boom Bolsters Indian Community" ... the "China threat" to India's IT revolution is highlighted in several recent reports, including one based on the comments of Vipul Tuli of McKinsey & Company as reported on ZDNet and on the Hindu BusinessLine ... a column by Jairam Ramesh in India Today has also pointed out the risks of complacency about India's Information Technology prowess while the Chinese "... plan to set up 100 IIT-type institutes" ... the Ottawa Citizen has two stories on the successes of Indians and IITians in Silicon Valley and in Ottawa - "The Indian Influence" and "The Modern Face of India" which covers the story of Nandan Nilekani (BTech EE '78 ) and Infosys, and Kanwal Rekhi (BTech '67 EE) ... a few stories from 2000 which cover the IITs and alumni such as Kanwal Rekhi - " Virtual Villages: India", " Reversing India's brain drain", and CNN Interactive Chat -- Kanwal Rekhi on the IITs.
  

May 2001

• An IIT Bombay alumnus, Huzefa Mehta (BTech '87), recently ran the gruelling Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands) in southern Morocco ... click here for a report. 
  

• The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of IITBHF announces a Speaker Series 2001 event on June 2, 2001, featuring Rakesh Mathur and Rashmi Mishra at the Recreation Room of Elance Inc, 820A Kifer Road, Sunnyvale, CA 94086. Rakesh would be speaking on "Entrepreneurship at IIT" and Rashmi Mishra would be speaking on "India through a Woman's Perspective" ... click here for details.
  

• The Greater New York Chapter of IITBHF announces its annual picnic on June 17, 2001, at 10 am in the Duke Island Park, Bridgewater, NJ ... click here for more information.
  

• The University of Roorkee, founded in 1847 as Asia's first school of engineering and ranked 8th in the India Today rankings is going to be transformed into an IIT as per an announcement in Parliament.  A recent news report has suggested that many RECs may also be converted to IITs ... click here to read a collection of views about the idea of converting RECs and other universities to IITs.
  

• Goa Chief Minister Parrikar (BTech '87) will speak at the MMM in Mumbai on the topic of "Excellence in Politics". Time and place is as usual at 4.30 pm on Saturday, May 26, at the Institute of Engineers, Haji Ali ... click here for more information.
  

• May 2001 newsletter from IIT Bombay has all the latest news from campus, including an item on Eureka 2001, Asia's largest technology entrepreneurship competition.
  

• The Public Policy Institute of California, together with Professors AnnaLee Saxenian of Berkeley and Rafiq Dossani of Stanford, are conducting a study aimed at finding what's behind the successes of Indian and Chinese IT professionals ... to participate or to learn more, click here or contact Rafiq Dossani at (650) 725-4237.
  

• More news reports on IIT Bombay's recently announced Mehta School of Biotech ... in Silicon India and in the Indian Express.
  

• MyZus, a start-up incubated in the IIT Business incubation cell has announced a mobile access solution ... click here for a recent article in the Financial Express and here for an interview with the CTO of MyZus in the Times of India.
  
• Yogen Dalal was featured on National Public Radio on the 3rd of May, in a report by NPR's Chris Arnold from San Francisco on venture capitalists -- the money machine behind the Silicon Valley tech boom -- and what they've learned from the dot-com crash.
  
• Almost five years after July 1996 when the IIT Bombay Heritage Fund first received an advance ruling confirming its tax-exempt status, we are delighted to report that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the US has now given its final and permanent 501 (c) (3) certification to IITBHF as a public charitable foundation.  The process of going from an advance ruling to a final certification required a great deal of effort on the part of Sandeep Pandya, our Treasurer, as well as the entire team which included our accountants and legal advisors. Congratulations to everyone who helped IITBHF achieve this key milestone.
  
  
• Bangalore chapter announces its new website located at http://www.iitb-bangalore.com/.
  

April 2001

• The Class Notes and Message Board Bulletin Boards have been updated and fully automated ... click here to check out Class Notes and here to visit the Message Board.
  
  
• Please review the Disclaimer and Terms of Usage ("TOU") for this site, which are updated from time to time, and can be found at ../misc/disclaimer.html.
  
• IITian Ramesh Thadani has been appointed as EVP and CEO of Biomedical Services at the American Red Cross ... click here for the press release from Red Cross which mentions that he graduated from IIT Bombay with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering.
  
  
• The generous gift to IIT Bombay from the Mehta Foundation for a School of Biosciences and Bioengg. is the first ever from a non-IIT alumnus ... click here for details and read the India West article and the April campus newsletter. This school will integrate the existing bio-related activities of various science and engineering departments of the institute and provide a new thrust to them.
  
• Class of 1991 update.
  
• Preparations are under way for Reunion 2001 and an expanded coordinating team is in place with around 15 members, including 4 from the US, 3 in Pune and the rest in Mumbai. The Reunion day has been fixed as December 23, 2001, and twelve coordinators from the Bombay and Pune area are meeting in Mumbai on April 13 to plan out the "Reunion 2001" task list and to assign responsibilities. Watch this space for updates ... or write to for any queries.
  
• India West headlines a story about the new School of Biosciences and Bioengineering at IIT Bombay ... click here for the article.
  
• Campus Newsletters ... read in the March 2001 newsletter about the Wadhwani Electronics Laboratories, and in the February newsletter about the Republic Day awards for IITians plus the Laboratory for Intelligent Internet Research.
  
• Vinod Khosla is featured in a Red Herring article as the "No.1 VC " and the article adds that "IIT has historically produced some of the smartest technologists in the world, including Sycamore Networks cofounder and chairman Desh Deshpande, i2 Technologies' Sanjiv Sidhu, and US Airways head honcho Rakesh Gangwal." ... click here for more on the article.

March 2001

• IIT Bombay is establishing a new School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, officials of IITB announced today. This school will integrate the existing bio-related activities of various science and engineering departments of the institute and provide a new thrust to them. The announcement came at the launching ceremony of the new School of Biosciences and Bioengineering on the IIT Bombay campus. The establishment of the school is made possible in large part through a generous gift from the Mehta Family Foundation in Houston, Texas ... click here for details.
  
  
• Upcoming events in Mumbai - click here for details:
  • The Bhupat and Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences and Bioengineering will be launched on Monday, March 26 at 2:15 pm in the Lecture Theatre.
  • Arun Netravali, President, Bell Laboratories, USA, and an alumnus, will speak on "INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE BEYOND 2001" on Tuesday, March 27, at 4 PM in the Lecture Theatre.
  • MMM (Mumbai Monthly Meet) : Discussion on the Indian Budget with participation by Deepak Satawlekar, MD of HDFC Insurance (alumnus), Jairam Ramesh, Secretary, INC (Econ Wing), (alumnus), and Ritu Dewan (Prof of Econ, Bombay Univ) at Haji Ali at 4:30 pm.
  • Hostel Alumni Day on April 7 - visit http://www.alumni.iitb.ac.in/Events.htm for details
    
    
• The New York Chapter of IITBHF announces "A Business Networking Event" - a wine & cheese reception with gourmet hors d'oeuvres at The Fall Creek Room of The Cornell Club in New York - 6 E. 44th Street, New York, NY 10017, Tel. : (212) 986-0300, on Saturday, April 21, 2001 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM.  Keynote Speaker: Bidyut Sen (BTech ‘75), Lexam Capital Management. Business Casual Attire, jackets optional ... click here for details.
  
  
• Former Director S.P. Sukhatme and nine other alumni were honored during ceremonies held on IIT Bombay's 42nd Foundation Day - click here for a full update. "What are these politicians doing at IIT Bombay" - the Indian Express story on Foundation Day highlights the Distinguished Alumnus awardees which included a CM of Goa and a senior Congress Party official amongst others.
  
  
• IIT Delhi alumnus Vinod Khosla has pledged $5 Million to his alma mater to set up a school of Information Technology as per a story in the Economic Times on March 12. "It is possible that I may fund more engineering colleges in the country", says Khosla in the interview.
  
  
• MIT's Media Lab may come to IIT Bombay - click here for a recent news item from the Deccan Herald, and as reported in the Wall Street Journal on February 15, 2001 - "MIT and India are close to bringing a 'Media Lab' to the Asian region".
  
  
• Class of 1989 update.
  

February 2001

• IIT Bombay's Department of Chemical Engineering is sponsoring ChemSplash 2001, a Symposium on 21st Century Chemical Engineering ... click here for more information.
  
  
• IITB-MMM on Saturday, February 24, 2001 :The earth-shaking events in Kutch have pushed Enron into the background. Prof. V. Subramanyan, IIT Bombay and Prof. Ravi Sinha, IIT Bombay will speak on "Tremblors" at Institute of Engineers, Haji Ali (near Willingdon Club)
  at 4.30 p.m. Plus IIT Bombay's Foundation Day is on March 12 (note the change of date) from 3 pm to late evening. Click on http://www-alumni.iitb.ac.in/Events.htm for more information.
  
  

• In the January 2001 newsletter, read about the Class of 1975's pledge for the Gymkhana, as well as the inauguration of the C-Block of KReSIT and Hostel 8's New Wing, which were all funded by alumni and IITBHF.
  

• Vinod Khosla (IIT Delhi - BTech EE '76), Yogen Dalal (IIT Bombay - BTech EE '72) and Kanwal Rekhi (IIT - BTech EE '67) are featured in "The Midas List" - a Forbes article on the top Venture Capitalists of the world. Mr. Khosla is credited with turning $50 million in early investments into $15 billion on just half a dozen makers of telecom gear, and the article adds that he "earned degrees from some of the world's best tech-savvy institutions—the Indian Institute of Technology, Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and the Stanford business school in northern California."  Coincidentally, he is also featured in a recent cover story of "Red Herring" magazine as the most powerful VC in the world.
  

• "IIT Bombay aims for an Olympic Gold" ... headline in Indian Express. "After streaking the Silicon Valley with their multi-million dollar success stories, IITians are now out to prove their mettle in a totally different zone -- the Olympics. This sounds hard to believe but the IIT Bombay Class of '75 has raised Rs 20 crore at its silver jubilee reunion on Sunday for this purpose".
  
  

• "IIT Mumbai to get Rs.20 Cr from Class of '75" ... BLAME it on Santa. The by-now famous magnanimous alumni of IIT-Mumbai, has succumbed to the Christmas spirit coughing up a large sum for its Alma Mater.
  
  

• "There's action for the teching" - article about the Class of '75  and their pledge of Rs. 20 crores towards the construction of a sports complex on the IIT Bombay campus. The complex will have an indoor track, tennis courts, an Olympic-size swimming pool, basketball and badminton courts.

    ^{... click here for news on the Class of 1975 Fundraising Drive.} 
  
  

• "Support the IITs" - article by IIM Bangalore professor in the Economic Times on January 8, 2001, on how to improve the IITs and engineering education in general in India.
  

January 2001

• Dr. Arun N. Netravali, an IIT Bombay alumnus and the President of Bell Labs. was awarded the Padma Bhushan, and former Director S.P. Sukhatme was awarded the Padma Shri on Republic Day 2001.
  
  

• A Prof. K. Shankar Memorial Fund has been set up to honor the late Prof. Shankar of the EE Department ... click here for more information.
  

• MMM on Saturday, January 27, 2001 features a talk on "The journey to worldclass manufacturing in India". The speakers are Mr. Yogesh Vaghani, Director, Milton Plastics and Mr. Hemant Mondkar, MD-Hytech (IIT Bombay Class of 1970).
  
  

• TechFest in IIT Bombay from January 26 to January 28 ... . launched in 1998 as a platform for students to showcase their technical talents, Techfest has attracted top companies such as IBM as sponsors. "Today, it has become the largest festival of its kind in Asia," says Anuj Krishan, coordinator of the event.
  
  

• The Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SAC-C) has approved private sector efforts to set up an IIT-like global institute for science and technology with almost $1 Billion in funding from NRIs.
  
  

• Alumni enter pact to wire IIT Kharagpur - Economic Times report.
  
  

• The foundation stone laying ceremony for the Girish Gaitonde Lecture Hall Complex was performed on January 2, 2001 in Powai, in the presence of the Gaitonde family, past and current faculty members from the EE Department and Prof. Ashok Misra, the Director of IIT Bombay.
  
  

• TCS sets up Net Research Center in IIT Bombay - Tata Consultancy Services has set up a centre for intelligent Internet research (IIR) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, through a collaborative effort between IIT and the Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Pune.
  
  

• Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke at the Sixth Convention of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) in New Delhi on January 6, 2001, and sought the help of expatriate Indians to convert the country into a major global player.  Reminding the overseas Indians that many of them owed their successes to the quality education they received in this country in government-run institutions like IITs or medical colleges, Vajpayee said: "You owe it to your motherland to associate yourselves with India's search for rapid and enduring social change and enormous progress.''
  
  

• Class of 1966 update - calling all Class of '66 Metallurgical Engg. graduates.

January 1, 2001

• A McKinsey & Co. study on modernizing the IITs which was conducted in consultation with alumni and IITBHF was presented to K C Pant, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. The Economic Times article quotes the report as stating that "the academic engines of excellence are staring at a severe faculty crunch ... the other problems dogging the IITs are funding for research, R&D programmes lagging behind world's leading institutions and stifling management practices. Attracting -- and retaining -- faculty is the biggest problem facing the IITs ... neighbouring China has addressed ... issues and quality technical education has gained momentum".

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