Sharad Heda is a member of the graduating class of 1960 from BITS Pilani. He is arranging the 50 years reunion for class of 1960 during Nov 9th-11th in Pilani. He is trying to reach far and across to all BITSians so that maximum number of BITSians of class 1960 could show up for the reunion. Please read his message -

If you are from the class of 1960, you better not miss the event. If you are not from class 1960, pass the message around in your network so that it reaches every member of their graduating class and make the event successful from a distance.

For details --
Call or write to:
1. Satish Bahadur 13 Babar Road, New Delhi 110 001 India
Email: bahadur37@gmail.com

2. Sharad Heda 22 Moran Rd., West Orange, NJ 07052 USA
Email: S_heda@hotmail.com
973-731-0096 or 973-986-6499

Image Courtesy: http://www.vloggerheads.com/group/vloggersover50

Few of the objectives of the trust include -

• To encourage Education and Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation engineering and other related areas at BITS, Pilani by scholarly publications, educational material development and project work etc
• To award scholarship (full or partial) to needy and meritorious students of EEE and/or Instrumentation at BITS, Pilani and also award Travel Assistantship to students and young faculty of EEE and/or Instrumentation for presenting Quality Research Papers in national and international conferences.
• To arrange technical seminars/workshops, talks or any other related activities promoting the disciplines of EEE and/or instrumentation on a regular basis.

Contributions to the Trust Fund are exempted u/s 80G of the Income-Tax Act. Please get in touch with Professor L.K. Maheshwari if you wish to extend your helping hand for the Foundation.

BITSAA SVC Miles Team established a relationship with Rotary International to consolidate donated Airline Frequent Flyer Miles and award travel tickets to the deserving candidates. Currently, they are accepting United Airlines Frequent Flyer Miles. More details about the Miles Program can be found on the BITSAA portal - here

We are happy to share the recent success story of Arvind Pawan (2005B5A3404), who approached BITS alumni to see if we could help him. BITSAA Silicon Valley Chapter, then came up with this brilliant idea to turn Arvind's dream (presenting his paper on nanotechnology at IEEE 9th Conference) to reality. What started as a one-time initiative has now become a full-fledged Travel Scholarship under the BITSAA Miles Program that can be provided to students for attending many reputed conferences and events across the world.

The story was covered in The Hindu (Read Here) by Divya Nawale (batch 2003).

Ankita Arvind Kejriwal pursuing her engineering in Computer Science from BITS Pilani Goa campus (Batch 2006) won the prestigious "Google India Women in Engineering" Award on February 27th, 2010.

The award recognizes women students in Computer Science and its related majors and aims to inspire them to become active participants and leaders in creating technology. This year, applications were invited from women engineering students across under-graduate, post-graduate and doctoral programs across 80 colleges in the country, which includes IITs and BITS Pilani etc.

Google received over 200 applications, from engineering schools across the country. An internal team of engineers and product managers read through the essays and assessed the overall quality of the applications to arrive at a shortlist of the 24 finalists and 8 award winners.

It gives us immense pleasure to know that one among the 8 is a BITSian. Congratulations on behalf of BITS fraternity on your achievement. Ankita steers into the list of BITSians who make the university and alumni proud.

Full Story: Link

The mission of Project Atma Nirbhara is to have a community resource centre for rural education and Employability. The current target is Pilani. They are trying to construct a community resource centre at Pilani to serve rural communities of Pilani, Jherli, Raila, Khedia, Harinagar etc.

The different partners in this project have different roles and BITSAA has been the primary catalyst. It provides corporate relationship, funding and has a major role in the execution of the project. BITS will help by proving land, guidance and relationship access. Nirmaan will take care of the day-to-day operations and will manage the program. READ (Rural Education and Development) will provide facilities of computers, small business seed funds and assistance in library setup.

As per the plan the various facilities provided at the resource centre include classrooms for Gyan-Bodh , facilities for Women Entrepreneurial Initiatives, Vocational Training, well stocked Library (3000+ books) for the community, Children's Room with Toys and Children's books, A/V Room with TV, VCR, Movies etc. and Computer Room with Internet, Fax, etc. The project is being carried out in 4 main phases:

Phase-1 (DISCOVERY) - Relationships, Credibility & Key Enablers
Phase-2 (CRITICAL MASS) - Facility, Equipment, Small Programs, Manpower
Phase-3 (EMPLOYABILITY) - Vocational Training, Placements, Women Businesses
Phase-4 (REPLICATION) - Replicate the model in other geographies

Currently the project is in its second phase.

This is an extra ordinary endeavour. The success of it in Pilani will lead the pave for community centres in other rural areas.

361° Minds (361DM) was founded by Gopi, Ram, and Ritu in 2006, aspiring to change the way corporate training conventionally happened.

As batchmates at BITS Pilani, the three (Gopi, Ritu and Ram of class 1991) struck a chord with each other and have remained good friends ever since. They walked their separate career paths for 15 years, and came together again in 2006. Gopi and Ritu have been entrepreneurs since 1997, and joined by Ram in 2006.

At 361DM, they understand each others' strengths and limitations, and perfectly complement one another's competencies. Today, the team functions with a near-perfect understanding and a strong wavelength match, with a focus on making 'today better than yesterday' in the world of learning & education.

Career Launcher India Ltd (CL), a Delhi-based education services company offering test preparation courses, is investing $1 million in 361 Degree Minds Consulting Pvt Ltd (361DM), and picking up a significant minority stake in 361DM.

This will foster the growth of 361DM and help them reach their simple yet hard-to-achieve goal of putting leadership knowledge to work among corporate managers. Congratulations :)

Full Story: Link

SchoolMATE [School Management AT Ease] is a CRM(Customer Relationship Management) + ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) software for Educational Institutions.

SchoolMATE helps schools in continuously updating parents about their child's status and his performance at school over their mobile phones through text messages (SMS) and also through e-mail and Web using a secure mechanism.

SchoolMate is a product of Bridle Information and Technology Solutions, a technology venture started by a passionate team of BITS-Pilani Alumni (Ramakrishna, Harikrishnan) with a vision "To Touch Every Parent in India Once a Day". Equipped with varied backgrounds and an overall industry experience of 10 years, these young turks started their entrepreneurial journey in the year 2004.

The company currently has association with over 68 educational institutions in Hyderabad and Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. It was recently acquired by Edserv Softsystems - which is the world's first 4th generation education company that uses technology to efficiently synchronize manpower demand and supply in number and skills right from development to deployment.

Bridle and SchoolMate is all set to grow much bigger with Edserv. If you are not tracking your kid's performance, you know which name to evangelize in the next parent-teacher meet !

The Association of Indian Management Scholars International, based in Texas, USA, is one of the foremost associations of management scholars of Indian origin based around the world. It was established in 2002 with a mission to unify Indian management scholars to foster excellence in education and research, advance knowledge, and support practice in all business and related disciplines. It organizes professional conferences and publishes its flagship journal- AIMS International Journal of Management.

During the seventh AIMS International Conference on Management held between Decmeber 20 - December 23 at IIM-Bangalore, BITSian Nilay Yajnik was honored with AIMS International Distinguished Service Award. Dr Nilay Yajnik is currently working as a Professor of Information Systems at School of Business Management, NMIMS University, Mumbai. He earned Electronics and Instrumentation degree from BITS Pilani in 1983. He did his Ph.D. in Management Studies from NMIMS(Mumbai University).

AIMS International Distinguished Service Award is given to recognize members for their outstanding service to AIMS International. The award was presented to Dr.Nilay by Senior Professor Nagadevara of IIM - B and Prof Om Gupta of the University of Houston on December 21st. He has presented several papers at AIMS International Conferences, served as session Chairman and judged several inter-B School contests. He is also on the International Editorial Board of the AIMS International Journal of Management. This award was given to him in order to honor his contribution to the Association and to the Management movement.

For more information on AIMS International, please visit: http://www.aims-international.org/default.asp

In his New Year's Address to the alumni, Vice Chancellor, Dr.L.K.Maheswari briefed the alumni about the achievements of the students of BITS in 2009 and the future initiatives of BITS. An excerpts from his address is presented below,

"It is a matter of great satisfaction and pride that the Alumni of the Institute have performed extremely well in their chosen profession and many have significantly contributed in the development of the Institute. In the coming years, the institute is planning to recognize Alumni who have excelled and contributed to the development of the society."

"I take this opportunity to give a clarion call to all alumni to contribute and participate in all possible manners so that the institute achieves excellence and makes its mark globally in the years to come."

It seems that the alumni have responded to the call. Quite a number of alumni have visited BITS pilani in the past couple of months, to name a few, Dr SP Kothari , Dr. Amitava Babi Mitra, Jitendra B Divgi and Rajiv Gupta. They delivered talks on topics ranging from Technology Supported Learning ... For anyone, any where, any time ... and transformational" to "Broad Perspective on Medical Imaging and its Challenges" to "Economic Recovery: Global Trends and Implications for India". This shows the diverse fields the BITSians have ventured into. Besides the talk on the specific topics, they all thanked the broad based integrated and interdisciplinary education they received at BITS Pilani for achieving their career goals and urged the students to make best use of the opportunities and flexibilities offered by the BITS System of education to remain idea-leaders among student communities at global level.

These visits are inspiration for other BITSian to visit their campuses, talking of which reminds me of Punita Pandey who is visited the campus on 26th Feb 2010. When are you booking your tickets to BITS?

To the list of BITSians who have held the position of CEO, we can add the name of Mr. Amitabh Chaudhry. He has been appointed the MD and CEO of HDFC Standard Life. He has succeded Deepak Satwalekar who retired from the company on November 14, 2008. After the retirement of Satwalekar, the company's principal officer and executive director, Paresh Parasnis, was the acting CEO.

Amitabh has a bachelor's degree in engineering from BITS and a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. Before taking up his new assignment, he was the Managing Director and CEO at Infosys BPO. He has also worked with Bank of America and Credit Lyonnais Securities.

Mr. Deepak Parekh, Chairman of HDFC Ltd and Chairman of HDFC Standard Life said, "HDFC Standard Life has focused on building its brand in the market place and is today known for its fair business practices. To continue in its growth path and to achieve its desired vision, the Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Amitabh Chaudhry as the Managing Director & CEO for HDFC Standard Life. I am confident that Amitabh will be able to provide strong leadership and direction to HDFC Standard Life and offer a robust roadmap to make HDFC Standard Life the most obvious choice of all."

On behalf of BITSAA Congratulations, Amitabh!! Best wishes for the future.

BITSians have shown their leadership skills in almost every industry. Chetan Naik is yet another example. He is leading the Sales and Marketing division of Electracard December 1st, 2009 onwards.

Chetan did his electrical and electronics engineering from BITS Pilani. He has also done a post graduation in marketing management from JBIMS. Over a period of 23 years, he has gained extensive experience in sales & marketing in the IT industry across multiple geographies. His last position was with IBM, as Vice President-General Business India (West).

The confidence of the CEO of ElectraCard Services, Mr. Ramesh Mengawadecan is visible in his comment on this occasion, "We are delighted to have Chetan as part of our senior management team. He will play a vital role in strategizing and driving ECS closer its vision mission. I am confident that his vast experience in the field of sales and marketing will help us to deliver an experience to our existing and prospective customers that will not only give us a competitive edge but also set new industry benchmarks."

Hearty congratulations to Chetan and wishing him luck for the future.

A graduate of BITS, Pilani (class of 79') has authored a new book "Defeating Political Islam: The New Cold War."Among the highlights of the book is a must-read chapter on terrorism in India. Moorthy Muthuswamy, who has a doctorate in nuclear physics from Stony Brook University in New York, spent over ten years studying terrorism.

A review of the book notes: "Defeating Political Islam is a necessary primer for those seeking to understand the multiple-front jihads that have plagued India since the creation of Pakistan in 1947."

You can reach the author at http://www.moorthymuthuswamy.com/ or get a copy at http://www.amazon.com/defeating-political-islam-new-cold/dp/1591027047

BITS Alumni Association - BITSAA Delhi chapter which has the reputation of having celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2007 organized a dinner meet and networking session on Friday 08th January 2010. Vinod Puri, President BITSAA Delhi Chapter welcomed the gathering and Pradeep Sethi was the Master of ceremony. The event was put up on the bitsaa.org portal and a lot of enthused BITSians from Delhi registered for the same. The extraordinary organizational skills of Secretary BITSAA Delhi Chapter C S Goel was evident from the fact that the meet had over a 100 'Proud to be BITSians' participating, despite the cold December weather in Delhi.

Highlights of the event

• The Chief Guest for the function was none other than Proud to be BITSian multi port folioed Mr. Prithviraj Chavan Minister of State in PMO, Minister of State in the Ministry of Science and Technology and Earth Sciences as well as Minister of State for Personnel & Administrative Reforms. In his address, Chief Guest spoke about the role of science and technology in taking the nation to greater heights
• Prof LK Maheshwari Vice Chancellor BITS Pilani took time from his busy schedule to attend the meet and spoke about how BITS today is functioning as a multi campus university at Pilani, Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad as well as the role of alumni in the institution building task
• Proud to be BITSian SK Roongta Chairman & Managing Director Steel Authority of India addressed the gathering and spoke about Success Mantras in business emphasizing on the Human Resource Development aspect.
• Stainless Steel Udyog Ratan winner BITSian NC Mathur from Jindal Steel also addressed the gathering and shared his thoughts on various issues.

BITSAA Delhi honored the illustrious alumni present and the special event of the evening was a soul stirring mind blowing music session by the group of students from Music Club of BITS Pilani who had braved all the way to Delhi from Pilani beating the cold weather to bring back the good old BITSian days to the alumni. All those gathered left the place with a trip down the memory lane and the event ended with the 3Ds - Drinks, Discussions and Dinner.

Please contact csgoel@goelka.com to get in touch with the BITSAA Delhi chapter

After a hiatus of a couple of years, the BITSAA Singapore Chapter came back to life in the January of 2010. With the message being spread purely through a chain of emails, around forty BITSians and families came together on January 31st, 2010. Initially planned to meet at a popular pub in the city, the BITSian gathered at the Barbeque Pit facility at a BITSian, Karthik Krishnamurthy's place which made the whole event a more family-friendly affair.

The gathering was a diverse with BITSians from the late 80s to the 2009 batches (a representative of the Goa campus inclusive!). Catching up with batchmates and interacting with juniors and seniors, more than four hours passed in the blink of an eye. A fine example of the passion shared by BITSians was displayed when Divya Saurabh, from the 2001 batch, declared that she even chose to celebrate her first wedding anniversary evening with her husband at the BITSAA meet! A long round of intros of the BITSians commenced. It was followed a brief talk by Krishna Hegde, former treasurer of BITSAA International, who had recently moved to Singapore. He had played an important hand in organising the event.

Towards the end of the evening, copies of the 2009 Annual Report of the BITSAA International were distributed to ensure awareness of the organisation's activities amongst all the BITSians. Contact information of the BITSians were collected to build the database of the BITSAA Singapore chapter. Dinner and drinks continued till midnight. The BITSians parted with an agreement to bring more of their batchmates and friends to the next event - something everyone is looking forward to.

BITSians are achieving more and more every day. Recently, a 3rd year BITS Pilani M.Sc.(Hons.) Bio-Sciences student named Varsha Rajshekar has been selected as one of the young research attendee's at the annual Nobel Laureate Meet in Lindau Germany, June 2010. She was selected midst of multi-disciplinary applications from across the world.

It will be an interdisciplinary meeting bringing together young researchers from around the globe with Nobel Laureates from the fields of physiology or medicine, physics and chemistry.

We are happy on Varshas's achievement.

Click Here. She is on Page 25.

Image Courtesy - Official Page

Adding to the already growing list of BITSians spearheading Social Change in India, 8 BITSians (6 - Pilani campus and 2 - Goa campus) have been awarded the StartingBloc Social Innovation Fellowship for the 2008-2009.

The StartingBloc Social Innovation Fellowship is a five day transformational experience, where fellows interact with one another and StartingBloc alumni mentors. At the Institute students and young professionals (aged 20-29) are provided with the training, education, and networks necessary to turn any career into a socially responsible one.

The Institutes bring together fellows at three locations: Boston (125 Fellows), New York (125 Fellows) and London (125 Fellows). In 2007-2008, the 200 StartingBloc Fellows came from 42 countries and spoke 47 different languages.

Out of a total of 375 Fellows in 2009, 8 are BITSians, which is a staggering achievement since the fellows are selected from over 40+ countries and 75+ universities (2007.) Here is a list of BITSians who made it to the final list and will be attending the Boston and New York institutes in Feb-March 2010. It is also notable that 7 out of 8 awardees were Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) members at Goa and Pilani campuses:

Pilani Campus

• Hari Kishore 2003 Batch
• Keerthikiran K 2004 Batch
• Sriram V 2004 Batch
• Smitha K 2005 Batch
• Saurav N Patyal 2006 Batch
• Neeti Bandodker 2007 Batch

Goa Campus

• Akash Raman 2004 Batch
• Pankaj Agarwal 2006 Batch

Recently 4 BITSians (out of a total of 45 Indians) were also awarded the Paragon Fellowship in 2009 reiterating the fact that BITSians certainly are leaders in Social Innovation and Change.

In order to emphasize the importance of women in the larger interests of the nation building task, Govt of India has declared January 24 as National Girl Child Day. A question may arise as to why January 24th? This is the day when Indira Gandhi was sworn in as the first women prime minister of India. "This day will be celebrated every year till there is a gender balance in the country and till the time we match the required sex ratio," said Renuka Chowdhury, minister of state for women and child development.

To mark the day, the Ministry of Women and Child Development will launch a sustained campaign to highlight the evils of female foeticide, female infanticide and discrimination in matters of health, nutrition, education and opportunities. The importance of the girl child will be highlighted through TV spots, advertisements and announcements over telephone.

The students of BITS tried to spread the awareness by conducting a cycle rally from Pilani to nearby town of Chirawa on the occasion of National Girl Child Day. They were led by Abhijeet Mishra, a third year Mechanical Engineering student. The rally was flagged off by Dr SK Verma Chief Warden and Professor of Biological Sciences Group. These initiatives taken by the students reflect the values of BITSians and ensure that they will make their Alma Marta proud in the future. It is also to be noted that presently, the percentage (18%) of girls enrolled in BITS Pilani campus alone, is much better than those in other institutes of same standard.

A versatile person (natural for BITSians :)), Anu Hassan is an Entrepreneur, Film Actress, Model, Jazz Singer, Martial Arts expert, Bungee Jumper, Scuba Diver and TV Star. She currently hosts the celebrity talk show "Koffee with Anu". Organized by the Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka (Literature, Music, Theatre) Mandram, the 42nd Kalaimamani awards were organised by the Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka at the Kalaivanar Arangam Chennai on November 28, 2009. Proud to be BITSian Anu Hassan was one of the recipients of Kalaimamani Award 2009. Governor Surjit Singh Barnala and Chief Minister Karunanidhi distributed the medals to the winners.

Anu has earned a MSc degree in Physics and Management from BITS , Pilani. She is also a proficient basketball player who has represented the Trichy district. Anu has also worked as a dubbing artist, lending her voice for many non-Tamil-speaking actresses.The BITSians who were on campus between 1988 and 1993 remember Anu Hassan in some of the EDC productions of the day including Fiddler on the Roof and Spartacus. Anu takes up whatever she does as a mission with passion which ensures that there are no dreams too large and no frontiers beyond reach.

In an exclusive message to BITSAA, Anu Hassan was emphatic in stating that her alma mater BITS Pilani in addition to academic excellence gave ample encouragement to culture oriented activities during her student days (1988 to1993) and that she takes pride in stating the same.

Issue: Dec 09 - Feb 10

What is BITSAA International doing?

Placements@BITSAA
Career Centre
BITS Connect
BITSAA Travel Grants
BITS Embryo
BITS2MSPhD
BITS2Bschool
Lets Promote BITS Pilani
BITS Alumni Directory
BITS.aid
Sandpaper 2.0
BITSAA Newsletter
BITSAA Scholarships
BITSAA LinkedIn Group

Check out the BITSAA portal for complete description of all BITSAA initiatives
http://www.bitsaa.org

Any BITSian yet to register themselves in the Alumni Directory, please do so at our new portal www.bitsaa.org

Wanna share something with the BITSians all over the world. Mail in your news items to newsletter@bitsaa.org

We are looking for passionate BITSians to join the Newsletter editorial team. If you are interested, please shoot a mail evincing your interest to Satish Polisetti, Chief Editor BITSAA Newsletter

Become a fan of BITS Pilani page on Facebook

Newsletter Archive

Oct/Nov 09
Jul/Aug/Sep 09
Jun 09
May 09
Apr 09
Mar 09
Feb 09
Jan 09
Dec 08
Nov 08
Oct 08
Aug 08
May 08
Mar 08
2007