by Prof. S.L.N. Murthy, Office of the Dean (Resource Development)

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14th September 1999

Dear Friends,

It's the tail end of monsoon here and the campus looks very beautiful with the added green cover; of course a lot of renovation and painting has helped. The School of management building, interesting architecturally, has blended well into the LT- CC surroundings. You must visit the campus to see things for yourselves.

The admission process for the year 1999-2000 is over. In all 1210 students were admitted this year. The Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology admitted its first batch of students. The KReSIT building is coming up next to the Computer Centre. Temporarily the school is functioning from the Mathematics Department, ground floor.

The 37th Convocation was held on 6th August '99. This year, we crossed the 1 K mark, and 1012 students received their degrees. The Convocation has become quite colourful- with the graduates wearing traditional 'Uttariyas' , the Senate members sporting pastel gowns, and visuals accompanying the Director's report. Sri Azim Premji, Chairman WIPRO Ltd. (with the public image of being the richest Indian today) was the Chief guest. It was most appropriate that the CEO of a very successful software group should have addressed the last Convocation of the century, bridging the modest past with the exciting future in software.

The Vanamahotsav of IITB was held on 21st August. Saplings of flowering trees were planted in the lake side residential area. Over 40 Alumni who were on campus (including one from Dallas) for the "Monsoon Dhamaka" programme were enthusiastic participants at the tree planting. As IITB grows and spreads knowledge, we hope that these saplings planted by our Alumni will soon grow into big trees spreading their branches.

IIB celebrated Teacher's day on 6th of September. Eight of our faculty members were honored with 'Excellence in Teaching' awards. The award carried a citation, and a cash component of Rs.10,001 sponsored by IIT Bombay Heritage Fund.

The School of Management and the Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre (IRCC) have shifted to the new building adjacent to LT. Today, Shri. Mukesh Ambani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries is inaugurating the School of Management building, while Prof. M.G.K. Menon, Chairman, BOG is inaugurating the IRCC building.

The first beneficiaries of campus networking have been the girls of H-10. Since July, they have been able to access email and Internet from the comfort of their hostel. The proximity of H-10 was one catalytic factor - the other being Prof. Dipan Ghosh's (currently Head Computer centre) special concern for the hostel of which he was the warden some years ago!

This time I am writing a short letter, since Prof. Sukhatme and I expect to meet most of you personally during the forthcoming Road show.

Looking forward to meeting you all!

With best wishes,

Narayanamurthy.

(Prof. S.L. Narayana Murthy)

Dean (Resource Development)

Office of the Dean (Resource Development)

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

Powai, Mumbai-400 076, INDIA.

Ph.No. : +91 (22) 576 7090 / 576 7091

Fax : +91 (22) 578 3475

Email : deanrd[!]admin.iitb.ac.in

Slnm[!]cupid.che.iitb.ac.in