BITSAA Global Meet 2014, A Review

Bitsaa Global Meet 2014A Review

Foreword

Mr. Ramaswamy Nagarajan (Batch of 1961)

the BGM, with the student editors registering just in time to beat the 26th December deadline!

ThisThis journal is an expression of six young student editors from our campuses who blended together spontaneously as a student team to cover the BGM 2014. I connected with them just 10 days before the BGM. Lile did Keshav, who has put together this report, Harsha, Ayesha, Sanjana,Sanjana, Sahil and Sukanya and I know what they would achieve when they came together for the first time just the day before the BGM.

Enjoy!

Nagi(R. Nagarajan)Editor, BITS BEAT 1964-65,B.E. Telecom, 1961-’65, BITS PilaniCo-ordimator, BITSAA ANZ ChaptersMember, BITSAA International Board

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This is a report on the BITSAA Global Meet by a team of six young student editors from the 3 BITS-Pilani campuses: Keshav Parashar, Sukanya Venkataraman and Ayesha Farheen are from the Hyderabad campus representing their annual magazine ‘On TheThe Rocks’ and the newsleer ‘The Ink’s Gambol’; Harsha Koneru and Sanjana Ramachandran are the editors of ‘BITS-Herald’ and ‘Sizzling Sands’ in Goa campus; and Sahil Khatkar is the editor of ‘Cactus Flower’ from the Pilani campus and represents their newsleer ‘The‘The Fine Print’ as well. The ‘Perspectives’ of the Dubai campus is not represented in the team as they have exams at this time.

It all started with a desire to bring together the editors of BITS BEAT, the campus newspaper that I started in Pilani in 1964, when BITS was formed. And resulted in connecting with editors and editorial team members of campus student magazines from all four BITS-PilaniBITS-Pilani campuses over the last 50 years. Many of the past Editors were at

BITS and pieces- Along the sidelines

Sincerely,The Editorial Team

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years down the line.

With some amazing talks, inspiring panel discussions, and amazing life stories we realised that 4 years at BITS produces memories, literally, for a lifetime. AsAs Nagi told us, BITSians are one family of people, who you can be sure, that irrespective of your age and experience, will take you seriously, and will treat you with respect. The interaction with alumni from various walks of life held testimony to the kind of people that BITS produces.

BeingBeing privy to such an incredibly high number of success stories triggered in us a sense of responsibility: a responsibility to dream big, and begin working towards what we wanted. It was apparent from the stories told by these speakers, and the panelists at various discussions on entrepreneurship,entrepreneurship, leadership and innovation, that BITSians do not wait for things to happen to them, but instead make things happen. The editorial team hopes to implement the lessons it has carried away from BGM ’14, while leaving behind this memoir as not only a token of thanks from ourour side to the alumni, but also something for them to cherish.

BGM ’14 was conceived with the aim of reuniting BITSians across the world, to abet the exchange of memories and achievements, both of which are elements of the past, while also providing a new set of opportunities for the future. As student editors gathered at thethe event, from reporting on the variety of sessions taking place at any given time, to having the chance to meet and listen to illustrious personalities, the experience was an entirely enriching one.

What started off as a humble goal to document events taking place at the meet, gave us the exciting opportunity to interact with people whom we would be fortunate to emulate someday. Human beings are always keen to have a knowledge of the future, particularly theirtheir own, and this gathering of BITS alumni was perhaps the closest we students can come to experiencing that elusive clairvoyance. It was a truly heartwarming involvement to observe the congregation of old friends relive their youth and cherish old memories, all ofof which made us hope for a similar denouement for ourselves and our peers,

And finally, here's what we think. If you're a BITSian, aend a BGM. It's not just about the success stories you'll find, the amazing people you'll meet or the food and drinks. It is about the experience and the culture that'll make you fall in love with BITS. All over again!

CONTENTS

Inauguration and release of BGM Souvenir and ‘BITS of Success’ 06

50 years of evolving student publications in BITS 08

30 Under 30 Showcase 10

Keynote on ‘Innovation’ by GV Prasad 13

BITSian Social Innovations 14

How BITS is enabling startups to create a startup machine! 16

‘Leadership and Innovation’ by Rakesh Kapoor 18

Making BITS Pilani a research powerhouse 20

‘Entrepreneurship and Social good’ by Vijay Chandru 22

Corporate Trailblazers’ 24

BITSian Women Leaders 26

‘Vint Cerf in conversation with Harsh Verma’ & Keynote on Innovation by Lakshmi Narayanan 28

BITS to B School 31

Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship 32

Stop cribbing and start exploring! 34

‘Gurudakshina’ - Honouring the teachers 36

BITS Pilani - The way forward 38

Closing ceremony 41

Inauguration and release of BGM Souvenir and ‘BITS of Success’

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position of responsibility for the benefit of the society. A few feathers on our caps, like the BITSCONNECT initiative. BITSAT, ERP, etc. were mentioned in this age of immensely powerful Information and Communication Technology.

WWith the restless crowd fidgeting in their seats and toying through the souvenir and a book given to them in their registration kit, Mr. Harsh Bhargava went up the podium to introduce ‘BITS of Success’, a compilation of success stories of BITS alumni. The 50 BITSians whose stories are narrated in the book were chosenchosen by a panel out of hundreds of entries. He announced, to some applause, that the royalties from the book would go to the BITSAA Hyderabad chapter. A Coffee Table booklet formed by compiling photos from all the BITS campuses was then showcased on stage.

In the end, it was Mr. Sanjay Khendry himself, the CEO of BGM ’14, who gave a vote of thanks to all the other organizing board members, the sponsors and all the gathered BITSians for making it possible. And thus, at around 1530 hours, BGM ’14 was declared open for a rollicking two days for all of BITSians gathered there. there.

regretfully announced that the Union Cabinet Minister for Human Resources Development, Sri MM Pallam Raju, couldn’t make it to the event. Apart from this, he relayed a few interesting stats in his speech, such as the ‘90s batches having the lowest participation and the presence of 50 faculty among the crowd. A fewfew ‘spouse programs’ were also organised, he said, on some advice from the Jaipur chapter.

Next on the stage was Mr. Raju Reddy, the Chairman of BITSAA International. A proud BITSian, he called its alumni the pride of India, a statement compounded by BITSAA’s outing at NASDAQ. Prof VS Rao, the Director of the Hyderabad campus, narrated his journey from being a BITS student to a PS professorprofessor who laid the foundation of the Hyderabad campus after a chance meeting with the late ex-CM Mr. YS Reddy. The focus shifted from BGM to PS and WILP which he considers the engines of personal and professional growth with nearly 22000 students, 500 faculty members and 400 industriesindustries involved. Built in just five years, the campus is a sprawling complex with multi-storeyed buildings which undulate with the topsy-turvy ground beneath. Prof VS Rao apologized for the unavailability of the auditorium and passed on the mic to the Chief Guest of the event, our very own Vice Chancellor, Prof BN Jain.Chancellor, Prof BN Jain.

In a soft voice as different from the previous person on the mic as the Sun and the Moon, he lamented the planned Chief Guest’s change of plans and nudged all BITSians to use their

It’s not far too often that you see a gathering of people, from teenagers to those whose children have teenagers of their own, but on January 3, 2014, under a billowy shamiana set up in the lawns of a building surrounded by forests and established in the far outskirts of Hyderabad, one such confluence of young andand old take place under the banner of BGM ’14. This meeting had one thing connecting everyone, that every one of the nearly 1400 people siing in front of the stage had, at one time or another, been a part of a rather well known institute which has its roots in the sands of Rajasthan- BITS, Pilani.

At 1400 hours on this day, Mrs. Anu Khendry took to the stage to set the ball rolling on an event she had helped organize from the very grass root level. Anchoring the inauguration, she wasted no time in garnering some well-earned applause when she let narrated a few facts, like this second edition of BGM beingbeing the largest ever gathering of BITSians, like there being 10 people from the 1950’s batch, and many more.

Followed by a welcome song, which was beamed onto two huge screens on either side of the well-lit stage, Mr. Ashok Aggarwal, Chairman BGM, came up the podium to address the sea of BITSians in front of him. Well, filling up that sea with droplets from so many countries of the world would definitely hahave been a back breaking task and this sentiment, shared by the entire organizing commiee, was echoed by Mr. Ashok on stage. Thanking Prof BN Jain profusely for agreeing to be the Chief Guest of the event, he

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The present and past editors of various campus publications discussing the role of alumni in encouraging student journalism in the institute.

50 years of evolving student publications in BITS

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proposition was that of regularizing the gathering of current editors and interested alumni, to discuss similar issues and to encourage student journalism, by making the talks an annual event. The congregation and travel to and fro could possibly be fundedfunded by alumni and past editors. An interesting point noted was the involuntary exclusion of students of BITS’ off-campus programmes, two of whom were in aendance at the session. Suggestions made by them to increase the reach to such students and alumni includedincluded the seing up of an editorial team comprising both on-campus as well as off-campus students, which would work on a periodical dedicated to keeping off-campus BITSians abreast of the happenings in their college.

The conference was concluded on a positive note, welcoming the execution of all the suggestions that were made, while acknowledging that a heartening start had been achieved in the small but spirited gathering of student editors and editors of yore.

Parashar, Ayesha Farheen and Sukanya Venkataraman jointly represented On the Rocks, Hyderabad’s annual publication as well as their newsleer, The Ink‘s Gambol.

TheThe conference was aimed at exploring the role of BITS alumni in furthering student journalism in BITS, and the various methods of achieving this. While obtaining funding for printed copies and encouraging readership amongst students were some fundamental topics ofof consideration, the discussion gained scope as suggestions were made to accept the possibly inevitable and mostly beneficial digitization of print media across the world.

Various approaches to increasing the visibility of current campus publications amongst BITS alumni were considered, one of which was a well-received suggestion made by Abhas, a recent pass out from BITS Goa, that included seing up an online portal for facilitating communicationcommunication between alumni and students currently studying across the four campuses via BITSAA itself. Another enthusiastically received

The session began with an introduction on the topic, “50 Years of Evolving Student Publications in BITS”, by the session leader and founder editor of BITS Beat, which may just have been the first BITS student publication of all time, Mr. Ramaswamy Nagarajan. The discussiondiscussion took place in one of the latest tele-presence rooms at BITS Hyderabad, the host of BGM 2014. Deepak Manchanda, Pilani alumnus and former BITS Beat editor, joined the discussion through video conferencing from his home in Delhi. A short introduction by himhim about his involvement in the campus publications of his time was followed by a discussion initiated by the current editors of magazines and newsleers published across the three BITS campuses.

Sahil Khatkar represented Pilani’s annual magazine, Cactus Flower, as well as their periodical, known as The Fine Print. Sizzling Sands, the annual magazine of the Goa campus, was represented by Sanjana Ramachandran, and the campus’ monthly journalistic publication,publication, The BITS Herald, was represented by Harsha Koneru. Keshav

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The 30-under-30 Showcase honours BITSians who have made it big in their fields before turning 30. Abhijeet Gan (Co-founder, Rite Water)Harish Sivaramakrishnan (VP, FreeCharge.in and lead singer, Agam)Kavikrut (Operations Manager, Amazon/Co-Founder, Mobile Medics)Phanindra Sama (Founder and CEO, RedBus)Divya Nawale (Environmental Leader and Antarctica explorer)Samay Kohli (CEO, Grey Orange Robotics and founder,Samay Kohli (CEO, Grey Orange Robotics and founder, Acyut)Sid Loganathan (Stryker Corporation)

30 under 30 Showcase

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failures, he realized the importance of a clear vision, keeping a track of money v/s time and focusing on consumers rather than trying to tackle many problems at once.

TheThe last few years on the Pilani campus, there has been a group of people who sleep, eat and stay in their lab- ACYUT. Samay Kohli, its founder, has always been fascinated by robotics and saw ASIMO at an young age. That, and being ragged by the right seniors on the first dayday of college had him working on a robot, a tea-coffee-snacks serving ‘BITS IMO’ which he showcased in the campus Food King. In 2008, he started ACYUT which created the first humanoid robot in India and also contested robo-olympics. Since graduation, he has foundfound Grey Orange Robotics which produces robos for use in the industry.

BITS may not be known for its management program, but an M.Sc. (Tech) Finance student, Kavikrut, formulated a plan on mobile medics which won his team an award for the best business plan in the country. He left the well-trodden path and chose the obviousobvious one of a mobile medic start-up. However, hard realities took its toll on this venture when he realized that not many doctors are interested in going to villages for check-ups. So, they created a

Pasupunuri and Charan Padmaraju, after a failed aempt to reach home for Diwali breaks when the bus agents in town refused to give him a ticket. Their company offers you services which were yet unheard of in the roadways sector, like return bookings. He spoke about his journeyjourney and the various transformations redBus took over the years, from changing venues to logos.

Raman Garimella, a member of the national Sudoku team and adorned with four discos from his time at BITS, is no ordinary fellow. Wanting to be a sportsperson from an early age, he went beyond the cricket dream to cultivate a rather fresh one- cycling. Dispelling popularpopular misconceptions, he clarified that he had, in fact, not left his job and wasn’t (yet) a professional cyclist, although he has already covered 12000 kms on his cycle. His love for the sport could be gauged by the fact that he found a side job as a cycle mechanic as one of his most satisfying works to date!satisfying works to date!

Siddharth (Sid) Loganathan was the lead implant design engineer at NFOCUS Neuromedical- a start-up that focuses on developing implantable medical devices for treating haemorrhagic stroke and currently works at Stryker, a Fortune 500 company. However, the going wasn’t alalways so easy for him. After a few

BITSAA, the organization which made the BGM 2.0 not only possible but also a grand success, has done a lot more for BITSians from all the world. One such initiative has been the ’30 under 30 awards’, which have been given every 3 years since 2005 to those BITSians who hahave done things out of the ordinary before they even turned 30. To commemorate these shining stars of the BITSian flag, a session where some of the award winners showcased their work was held on the second day of this BGM.If you had a notion that BITS produces mostly entrepreneurs and partly engineers, look no further than Mahesh Ramasubramanian to find out what some BITSians do with their talent and interest. He recently served as Visual Effects Supervisor on DreamWorks Animation’sAnimation’s Madagascar 3, a glaring example of the BITSian spirit of excellence. With DreamWorks since 1999, he has worked on some of the most exciting animated movies of our time and even showed the audience a clip from the Madagascar series.

The memories of that rickety bus ride from Delhi to Pilani will never be forgoen by all those who studied at the Pilani campus, but there’s one BITSian who has had more to do with buses than the rest. Phanindra Sama started redBus with two other BITSians, Sudhakar

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one-page form which would help the doctor diagnose the patients from the comforts of his/her office and treat nearly 400 patients daily. A great plan indeed!

The environment may be crumbling down in bold headlines on our tv screens and newspapers, but it is nothing compared to visiting the nether regions of this Earth and seeing the ice shelf breaking, with its slow demise marked by a steady rise in the Earth’s problems. Divya Nawale joined the venture ‘2041’ and shared this experience (and many more) with the people assembled to this session. She urged everyone to think global but work locally for saving the environment rather than just talking about it.

AbhijeetAbhijeet Gan, a social entrepreneur, has been working on improving the facilities of safe drinking water to the largest population segment of our country. After observing the limb deformations and decayed teeth in one village caused by the excess fluoride content in the water, he formulated a technology to filter out the hazardous chemicals in the water. This technology has been added with a solar energy source so as to reach those villages without electricity, a thoughtful feat of engineering.

AllAll these BITSians, and many more out there who couldn’t make it to BGM, are the ones who make our college shine out amongst the thousands of other good institutes out in the world. If they’ve done so much before they’re even 30, who knows where they’ll take this world by the time they are old and withered? To a beer future, we feel.

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Keynote on Innovation by GV Prasad, Chairman and CEO, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories

academic institutes in this country ought to strive to create an environment of healthy competition and encourage students in the business/ entrepreneurship direction as well.

TheThe distinguished speaker concluded on a note that this institute has the infrastructure and the talent to become the MIT of India and that the alumni should give back to their alma mater to make it happen.

politician, who hasn’t been mocked for it, in recent times.

OnOn an objective level it is quite true but Mr. Prasad stressed on the fact that there is a positive change happening and that’s what maers. He also made notes on how creating wealth was largely dominated by people with power, contacts and those in high places, and howhow it has now become knowledge and innovation based. The broad examples of Facebook and Amazon were taken to introduce the idea of innovation, knowledge and technology based wealth creation. The speaker emphasized on the importance of good ideas and their popower and he believes that this is the era of ideas.

However that could be enabled only through a proper ecosystem of education, building top notch institutes in the country and good funding for these institutions. Converging talent in such institutions would help the build up of ideas. Dr. Prasad believes that the

The session started off with Mr. Balasubramaniam, director LV Prasad Eye Hospital, introducing the speaker Mr. GV Prasad, chairman and CEO of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. The pharmaceutical company which is based in Hyderabad was founded in 1984 and isis one of the most successful pharma companies in India. Mr. GV Prasad also serves on the board of Indian School of Business and is a nature lover; bird watching being a keen interest.

The session of course was primarily based on how innovation can help in growth of a company and the creation of wealth on a broader perspective. The speaker concentrated on how the winds of change in this country at present can have long lasting positive effects on a varietyvariety of subjects including economy, politics, education, etc. and also how innovation can help immensely in that aspect. There was a mention of Kejriwal’s speech in which Mr. GV Prasad quipped that the words honesty and sincerity haven’t been used by a

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BITSian Social Innovations

The panel included Mr. Ajay Chaturvedi, Founder and Chairman of HarVa and Abhishek Humbad, founder of NextGen PMS Pvt. Ltd. among others.

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water harvesting both in Pilani as well as in Rajasthan. BITS-Pilani, he said, was one of the first institutes to start social projects, such as the rain water harvesting proposal of Rajasthan Association of North America, proposed 20 years back. He also believed that the 4 main project requirements are design, reearch, implementation and marketing.implementation and marketing.

Various questions, such as if sustainability and scalability were the key challenges to a social enterprise, and how impact was to be measured, were posed to the panel. Mr. Gautam reiterated that the main challenge was the amount of time that could be devoted by the volunteers and people involved, since most of themthem had full time jobs. Mr. Ajay believed that the question is if we are looking at rural India the right way, and that how rural India sees itself is the actual reality. With respect to measuring impact, all the panelists agreed that impact is measured based on what the objective and the goals are.

Dr. B. N. Jain, Vice Chancellor, BITS-Pilani, conferred a short presentation in inter disciplinary research at BITS-Pilani and said that Rs. 12 crore had been set aside for the Centre for Water, Waste and Energy Management. Prof. Gupta then concluded the session, by presenting about the rain water harharvesting project and proposed his mission of a Water Security Bill in India, initiated by BITSians.

passion is the rise of a great nation. Started in 2005, with inspirations from Abdul Kalam and Swami Vivekananda, 10 people started rallying around villages near Pilani, and teaching on the sky lawns. Nirmaan now has 30 full time employees and over 700 volunteers with chapters in three campuses and has touched 1.5 to 2 lakh liand has touched 1.5 to 2 lakh lives.

Venkat Sriraman, Executive Director, eVidyaloka was the fifth panelist. His strong belief that education has the strongest impact on today's youth led him, along with 2 classmates to address the fundamental problem with government schools in villages – the lack of teachers, with digital classrooms. AnAn interesting story he shared was that of a school in Jharkhand, where one day, students had gathered despite there having been no class scheduled. When posed this question by Mr. Venkat, the students remarked that they had come and sat thinking that someone, somewhere would teach them.

The sixth panelist was Mr. B P Agarwal, Founder, Sustainable Innovations. When he had started off, he said, he had believed that sustainable meant economic sustainability but soon realised that it was cultural, ecological and social sustainability as well. He laid particular emphasis on the need for social enterprisesenterprises to be self sustainable, and the appalling water consumption situation in India. In Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, he said, 1 Bhakra dam's capacity of water is used every month. This remark lead to the last and final panelist, Prof. Rajiv Gupta of BITS-Pilani who has been continually working on rain

Innovations are constantly happening in various sectors of the industry. This session focus was on the social innovations being pursued by BITSians across India. Moderated by Mr. Niranjan Bose, Program Officer, Gates Foundation and lead by Mr. Vibhuti Agarwal, this session consisted of a panel of 7 members. TheyThey each briefly presented their social innovation projects, organisations and companies, and answered few profound and interesting questions.

The first panelist was Mr. Ajay Chaturvedi, Founder and Chairman of HarVa. HarVa, which means Green for the villages and stands for “Harnessing Value” of rural India, is a rural start up that primarily focuses on Skill Development, BPO, Community based farming and Microfinance. The second was Mr.Mr. Gautum Mazumdar of Atmanirbhara. Atmanirbhara enables various NGO's to visit Pilani and work with local people there. Its first project was obtaining insurance for the mess workers. He said that the main challenge that was faced by them was time.

The third was the young Abhishek Humbad, founder, NextGen PMS Pvt. Ltd. Born out of a research paper in BITS- Pilani, NextGen was incubated first at BITS-Pilani and then at IIM-Bangalore. NextGen is now one of India's fastest growing cleantech companies which operates in 6 countries with Fortune 500 clients across 16 different sectors. He belieclients across 16 different sectors. He believed that the s in social should have a vertical line meaning $. Social space is not just to give back but also for people to grow. The fourth was Mayur Patnala of Nirmaan, whose one

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How BITS is enabling start-ups to create a start-up machine!

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audience, as was apparent in the Question & Answer round that followed shortly after. When asked by Bloom Ventures, the moderator of the session, about the role that BITS had to play in nurturing these embryonic companies, it was clear that some common points of appreciationappreciation were the flexibility of the courses and electives offered at BITS as well as its robust, highly supportive alumni network. Pranay Agarwal, co-founder of Cubito and student of BITS Goa, also pointed out that the no-aendance policy that is unique to BITSBITS could not be overlooked as ‘not everyone wastes time siing back in their rooms’, an opinion that was received by knowing chuckles across a room full of alumni who understood best.

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mentored by BITS Spark, with four in total being funded by Spark Angels, the term used to refer to a network of BITSian ‘angels’ (comprising distinguished alumni entrepreneurs and select non-BITSian partners) which funds high potential seed stage BITSian start-upsstart-ups based in India. Their goal to make BITS one of the top three entrepreneurial destinations in the country necessarily involves a strong student entrepreneurial base, towards whose establishment it prescribes a four-step plan that stresses on being inspiredinspired and passionate about an idea, improving its accessibility, and then obtaining the resources and backing to do so.

With this goal in mind, the session saw the introductions of eight young BITSian startups, two of which were managed and run by students still studying on campus. While some of the startups that were seen, such as Grey Orange Robotics, FrameBench and Exotel, are establishedestablished names, Recopro, Cubito, Securite, Sava and Echosystem each had promising ideas that were enthusiastically considered by the

Day 2 of BGM ’14 saw its beginning with a keynote on ‘Innovation’ by Lakshmi Narayan, Vice Chairman of Cognizant Technology Solutions, followed by a branching into various discussions held in the many classrooms and lecture halls of BITS Hyderabad. The discussions werewere broadly classified into avenues that have seen great growth in BITSian history, namely Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Achievement and Leadership.

The session on Entrepreneurship was underlined by BITS Spark, a recent BITSian initiative aimed at encouraging the startup culture that is now strongly establishing itself across the BITS campuses, so much so that one company official was heard to comment, “Bhai BITSBITS mein logon ko kya khila rahein hain?”

Spark believes in an ecosystem wherein students are sans the fear of failure, and aempts to feed their ideas by building support systems for young startups, from alumni as well as interested investors and companies. Eighteen of the twenty-three on campus startups are

“Leadership and Innovation" by Rakesh Kapoor, Chief Executive, Reckitt Benckiser Plc

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school in Delhi, and to teach her son a lesson in seing a higher standard for himself, always. “As a leader, you have to raise the bar for people and yourself. You cannot stay in your comfort zone.” He believes the same incident was also an example in humility, another trait necessary in leaders. necessary in leaders.

“Stop complaining and take the life that you are given, and make the best of it,” advised Rakesh Kapoor, who believes that a tenacity to accept bierness goes a long way. The CEO of the company, of which he is an employee for 26 years now, also endorses commitment, which hehe describes as the feeling of ‘going to work every day like it is your first.’ His own moo is to find happier solutions for healthier lives, and he admits this wouldn’t be possible without an imagination, a quality inherent in a leader. “When you imagine a world, you createcreate it. And when you create it, other people want to live in it.”

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“People believe in individuals who do what they say.”

AnotherAnother important aspect of being a leader, he believes, is to cultivate a sense of social responsibility within oneself, and within the company. “Companies should stand for something, because capitalism in its current form does not fit the world.” TheThe social-worker-cum-businessman regards it essential that organizations move out of the mindset of accruing profits, and instead adhere to a purpose, which should be a constant goal to move towards, one that inspires change in the company, of its own accord. Along similarsimilar lines, organizations should also focus on their responsibilities, over solely results, so as to aid the aainment of a sustainable vision for the future.

Speaking of his childhood, Rakesh Kapoor remarked on a time when in response to his mother’s plea to study for his exam the next day, he said, “I’m going to come first in class anyway. What’s the use?” He commented that that was when his mother knew it was timetime to move him to a more competitive

The sessions held earlier on Day 2 regarding Leadership and Innovation saw their conclusion in the Keynote on Leadership and Innovation by Rakesh Kapoor, BITS alum from the batch of 1975, prominent businessman and CEO of Recki Beckister Plc, a 17 billion dollar companycompany based in United Kingdom. Post the completion of his engineering, he pursued his MBA degree at XLRI, Jamshedpur and is now also the founder of Aatmanirbhar, a non-profit social organization that has seen involvement from the likes of Mrs Neerja Birla.

Rakesh Kapoor gratefully acknowledged that speaking on the platform that day, in front of his batch mates and other esteemed BITSians was a privilege he never thought would come his way. He believes the world of leadership has changed significantly over the years, and inin its most modern form is a connected, knowledgeable and opinionated sphere of interactions. Facebook, Twier and other forms of social media have now made transparency a trivial maer, which brought him to his first point on contemporary leadership dynamics, in thatthat it exacts authenticity of a leader.

Moderator: S.P.Kothari (Deputy Dean, MIT)Session Lead: Mr. Ashok Agarwal Partcipants: B.N.Jain (Vice Chancellor, BITS-PILANI), Krishna Saraswat (Professor, Stanford University), B.P.Agarwal (Founder, Sustainable Innovations), Raju Reddy (Chairman, BITSAA International), Rajesh Balay (General manager ,Ericsson), Narendra Ahuja (Proffesor,University of Illinois).

Making BITS Pilani a research powerhouse

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Mr. Raju Reddy (Chairman, BITSAA) focused on how to build an industry environment that can be used in research areas. He highlighted the benefits of the PS2 program offered in BITS that gives hands-on industry experience to all BITSians.

MovingMoving on to improve the quality of research, Mr. B.N.Jain (Vice Chancellor BITS Pilani) rightly stated that it’s “easier said than done.” The need to create an eco-system of research was addressed by him and then and only then BITS Pilani can become a research powerhouse.

Finally,Finally, shifting focus to the fact that research is a “business of inspiration”, it is something that requires sleepless nights, intuitive mind, and inventive ideas, zestful passion and undoubtedly stamina to burn the midnight lamp. And after all this hard work the satisfaction of ininventing or discovering something cannot be expressed in words.

So keep your spirits high and your mind curious because after all “there is no teacher beer than curiosity.”

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light on one of the simple yet profound questions of why BITS should get into research. Well the answer to this was even simpler. He desires to see BITS as the “think tanks” of the future. The problem is solved once we understand what the society wants. Research combinedcombined with education is the way ahead.

Then we headed over to Mr. Krishna Saraswat (professor at Stanford) who has wrien 700 technical papers. I cannot imagine myself reading those many leave alone writing them! He focused on the ingenuity and quality of research faculty. After all “a good teacher doesn’t justjust teach, he inspires hope and ignites the imagination.”

Then, Mr. B.P Agarwal (founder of Sustainable Innovations) and a winner of the ‘Lemelson award for Sustainability’ focused on application of research and need to improve social entrepreneurship. He also pondered over whether replicating the US model to improimprove technology would work wonders in India. Well this question was definitely food for thought. The strategy should be to design a mechanism to take technology to the market place.

“Reserch is a business of inspiration” stated Mr. Surendra Pal the director of ISRO and one of our proud alumni.

WWell this 60 minute round table discussion led by Mr. Ashok Agarwal on making BITS Pilani a research power house was not just another futile AC room discussion. Here not just the problem of funding the research projects of BITS Pilani were addressed but also thethe various ways of improving the quality and outreach of research on all the four campuses was taken into consideration.

Moderated by Mr. S.P Kothari (Deputy Dean of MIT), who began the discussion with the need to take “work out into the fields”, the need to change the conventional class room teachings into applicative research.

TheThe discussion then proceeded to identifying the challenging topics in the area of research and also showcasing some of the proud Bitsian researches. Stating a few, the antibiotic, the urine infection the blood sugar levels etc.

WWe then headed to hear our first speaker Mr. Narendra Ahuja (professor at the University of Illinois). Mr.Ahuja shed

Mr. Vijay Chandru , Founder and chairman, Strand Life Sciences, giving the keynote speech

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"Entrepreneurship and Social Good" by Vijay Chandru , Founder and chairman, Strand Life Sciences

The session progressed to address the need for providing healthier solutions through happier lives and providing innovative solutions through social lives. A few examples of the perfect paraphernalia to improve our society are reduction of carbon foot-print to reduce paperpaper usage, to try and eradicate the second largest killer amongst children, the Diarrhea and being an active part of various social welfare programs, all of which can undoubtedly make a huge difference to the society.

The event concluded with the announcement of the winner of the Gagan Chadha memorial award. The vision of the Gagan Chadha award is to encourage and honor the BITS Pilani tradition of innovation, non-conformism and risk taking to build high impact organizations.organizations. The judging panel consisted of Mr. S.P. Kothari (Deputy Dean M.I.T) and Mr. Anupendra Sharma (Siemens venture capitalist) among others.

This session, “Entrepreneurship and social good” by Mr. Vijay Chandru, the founder and chairman of Strand Life Sciences was undoubtedly one of the water mark events of the BITSAA Global Meet. The session was followed by the inauguration of the first ever Gagan ChadhaChadha Memorial Award in memory of the unfortunate demise of Mr. Gagan Chadha the co-founder of Value First, a multi crore company.

The session began with a very straightforward question on why there is a need for entrepreneurship and social good. As the saying goes, “happiest are those who do most for others”, which underlines the need for companies to look beyond profits and feel a sense of responsibilityresponsibility towards our society. It’s high time we stand for something and do something.

The session’s primary focus was on the need to take up corporate social responsibility and the importance to act now. The need to move from profits to purpose and from results to responsibility.

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Mr. GK Pillai (batch of ‘68), Managing Director and CEO, Walchandnagar Industries Ltd.

Corporate Trailblazers

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Mr. Rakesh Verma, Managing Director of Map my India, explained how managers and leaders are different essentially and how one needs to be good with people to become a capable leader. He was apparently an average and simple student in school as well as in BITSBITS and is still very straightforward and simple. Conviction and a can-do aitude are a necessity for anyone to be successful and he reiterated that in his impromptu speech. He believes that developing trust with investors and good decision making skills with emploemployees helps in success and with that note, he ended his speech.

Mr. Jagdish Parihar (MD, Olam International Limited) and Mr. Rajat Gupta (Director, McKinsey & Company) were the last to speak in this session. Mr. Parihar graduated in 1979 and took a job, only to leave it after a short while and start a plantation of coon farms. He spokespoke about the how the word ‘Olam’ was coined over a lunch in 1988 and that it means the world, the universe and everything without boundaries. He made a valid point about how BITS taught us to learn at a faster pace which helps people in the real world. Mr. GuptaGupta spoke about how one might not be the smartest person around but with focus and determination one can become the most successful.

Mr. Jayan Ramankuy, founding CEO, YuMe and Managing Partner KRK Ventures spoke about how BITS taught him to how stand on his own feet and how key values help in building one’s character. He graduated in the year 1980 and while most of his batch mates were eithereither studying further or going abroad, he wanted to put his engineering and social skills to practice before anything else. He said that the need to be independent drove him. However, after a few years he realised that people wouldn’t take him seriously as BITS wwasn’t a globally renowned college at that point. He decided to change that and grow his career. He quit his job, wrote the GRE again and 7 years after graduation he sold everything and moved to the United States of America. In 1991, he co-founded his first company, NimbusNimbus Technology which was acquired by Alliance Semiconductors in 1993. He quipped about how he believed that stocks were nothing more than sheets of paper until he sold his first stock in 1994 and realised that the share market can be an addiction. He concluded by telling us howhow important free thinking and growing as a human being are in this competitive world.

The session was primarily focused on the stories on the eminent panellists and how their leadership skills have made them and their companies hugely successful. Girija Pande, executive chairman of Apex Avalon Consulting Pvt Ltd., who was also the moderator, startedstarted off the session speaking about how managing uncertainities and addressing large non-user markets are of utmost importance.

Mr. GK Pillai, MD and CEO, Walchandnagar Industries Ltd. noted that his graduation from BITS Pilani was the last formal education he has had and thus owes everything he is in life to BITS. He shared a few stories on how it was his father’s only ambition and how that drodrove him to get into Pilani. His professional career had a lot of ups and downs and he started off with a simple job in the public sector.

He studied people, understood them and strived to change their aitude towards their jobs. The most interesting part of his speech was when he told us the two important things he did to change the company’s fortunes. The first was when he began inviting the wives of workersworkers to aend sessions along with them and the second was scrapping the aendance rule in his company, both of which paid dividends.

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Panelists (not all in the above picture): Sangeeta Patni (Co-Founder, Extensio Software, Inc.), Sandhya Prakash (CEO, Beacon Energy Solutions), Anu Parthasarathy (CEO, Global Executive Talent LLC), Harsha Singh (Principal, Ekalavya Academy), Uma Devi (Vice President, ValueMomentum), Prabha Shankar (Director, ASM Group of Institutes)

BITSian Women Leaders

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computer.”

ApartApart from inducing this sense of empathy in them, the speakers also acknowledged the role that BITS had to play in being the first instance of diversity they had experienced in their lives. Sandhya Prakash, CEO of Beacon Energy Solutions, noted that the hobbies sheshe developed during her stay at Pilani opened her mind and instilled in her the understanding to make the life that she lived sustainable. “If you have an aitude of succeeding and believing in yourself, few things go wrong,” she said. With the heights scaled by these eminent businesswomenbusinesswomen and homemakers as testament, it was difficult to not have faith in Anu Parthasarthy (CEO, Global Executive Talent LLC) when she prophesized confidently, “The future will be far more favourable to women, and may not require the push we think it does. It will happen automatically.”does. It will happen automatically.”

speakers to talk about the contributions they made to their workplace that not only helped establish their merit, but also promulgate equality between working men and women. Particularly memorable was Chandni Sahgal’s humourous anecdote about the distinguishingdistinguishing signs in a washroom at her office, which read ‘Officers’ and ‘Women’, and prompted her to ask of her boss, ‘Which one am I supposed to use?’ What followed at her office was awkward. Sangeeta Patni, co-founder of Extension Software, admied that while the process of balancing her work with her personal life, as a mother and a wife, asked of her to make choices that men are perhaps never forced to even consider in their tenure, the same also mademade her a softer person, more open to the challenges faced by people who are not as fortunate. Her thoughts were echoed by Harsha Singh, Principal of Eklavya Academy, an institute dedicated to the education of children from disadvantaged economic backgrounds. “To“To me, education is my aaya’s children learning English, learning how to start a

The afternoon sessions of Day 2 saw an enlightening segment conducted by eight accomplished BITSian women, in a panel discussion titled ‘Making a Difference - BITSian Women Leaders’. The panelists were all women who’d left a mark in their respective careers, made a a difference to their workplace environments, and managed to juggle professional life with the responsibilities that come with being a mother, a wife, and above all, a woman in today’s patriarchal world.

The session was led by Kinera Murthy and moderated by Chandni Sahgal, founder of D’Essence Consulting. The panelists included several names significant in the business world, such as Anu Parasarthy, Sangeeta Patni, Sandhya Prakash, Harsha Singh, Uma DeviDevi and Prabha Shankar, many of whom are CEOs or the founders of their respective companies. The women all hailed from diverse backgrounds, different families, and had been brought up in different ways, with the only thread common to them all being their almaalma mater, BITS Pilani. The topic, ‘Making a Difference’, allowed the

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Keynote - “Vint Cerf in conversation with Harsh Verma”Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google.

“Vint Cerf in conversation with Harsh Verma” & Keynote

on Innovation by Lakshmi Narayanan (Vice Chairman Cognizant Technology Solutions)

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As Harsh Varma rightly summarised, Vint Cerf urged us to put on our “green thinking hats” and believe that “No maer what you dream, you can do it”.TheThe second part of the session was a speech and question answer session by Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Charman, Cognizant Technology Solution. Mr. Narayanan, although not an alumnus of BITS, began by saying that after interacting with the people, he felt as partpart of the alumni association as anyone else. Commenting on Dr. Cerf' video, he thought that with the new world wide sensory web(wwsb) coming into place, where in sensors from different places can be accessed, it would entirely be possible to stream to a personalised space,space, a CCTV camera placed in Times Sqaure. The question was merely that of availability of bandwidth. He then proceeded by answering some of the questions that were posed. The first one was on where Cognizant was headed and where he saw the future. Answering itit with calmness and precision, he said that IT firms should start thinking about opportunities in new emerging areas such as genetics, health care and education rather than the consumer IT market. He believed that computer, communication and IT were the second languageslanguages of innovation, the first being mathematics. He believed in the technology and business industry 29

would enable us to make more informed decisions, in order to build a more organised and structural world. The second, peer-to-peer communication, he said, was not entirely new as the TCP/IP protocol's design was essentially peer-to-peer and not client server, as is mainlymainly used presently. The third was the standarisation of hardware and software platforms, so that the management of applications across various industries such as entertainment, health, etc can be performed entirely by a third party system. The fourth, and arguably the one withwith the most human impact, was the interconnection of computer science and technology with health to provide, as a final aim, a superneural system of the human brain and body. The fifth, was the possibility of interplanetary internet, to develop internet protocols to communicatecommunicate across the solar system, whose prototypes are already operational. The sixth and the most important, was digital preservation. In a day and age where enormous digital content in created by the second, he believed that there needs to be preserpreservation of physical bits as well as software, and if necessary operating systems, without which history might evaporate as the software required to interpret the data might no longer be available.

The second day of the BITSAA Global Meet was kickstarted with two of the most inspiring keynotes on computer science and innovation. Chaired by Pratul Shroff, founder and CEO of eInfochips, the presenters Vint Cerf(in conversation with Harsha Varma) and LakshmiLakshmi Narayanan delivered with remarkable sensibility and clarity of thought.

Harsh Varma, belonging to the 1975-80 batch and currently the Vice-President at R Systems, introduced Vint Cerf, by saying that he is an acclaimed thinker, and one of the fathers of the internet. He is also currently the president of the Association for Computing Machinery, thethe Vice-President and chief Internet Evangelist at Google. Dr. Cerf addressed the gathering through a previously recorded video. Although not physically present, listening to video delivered specifically for BGM, by a Turing Medal, National Medal of Technology and PresidentialPresidential Medal of Freedom awardee was an experience in itself. He described six main areas of research, that would re-define the future. The first, the intenet of things, where hundreds of thousands of appliances are expected to be part of the vast and interconnected internet, he beliebelieved would provide information about the environment as well as the body in such a way that the material

convergence, and the growing relevance of computer science and mathematics in fields like genetics and biology. He also envisioned a revolution in the area of education and believed that what internet did to libraries, the online open courses are going to do to teachers, so that more of their time can be spent on the much necessary research. He also believed that alumni's contribution is extremely essential for research to gather pace in this country.

TheThe second question was what the secret to Cognizant's success was. Firstly, he acknowledged the contribution of BITSians to the company, and said that a company’s growth depended on investment. The more you invest, the more a company will grow. He believed that the secret of success was that after a certain comfortable level, the company invested its profits back into the company. Although this meant that the investors got lower margins, consistent delivery of profits and dividends was still guaranteed. He believed in investment in ideas, innovations, incubation centres, people etc.etc. He saw great opportunity in the healthcare industry as well as education. He commended innovation centres like the IIT Madras Research Park, where the companies pay for spaces and in return get the involvement of faculty and students for various projects. When told by the director of Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI) that he was always scared of corporates coming in, as they hire the brightest minds and take them away, Cognizant commied to collaborating with researchers and students.

What was most prevalent in both these keynotes, was the immense importance of innovation, and investment of time, money, and human resource in the same. Informative and inspiring, they left the aendees with a lot of food for thought.

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BITS to B-Schoolgood business schools and a person is expected to stay with his job for at least 2 years. Talking about social entrepreneurs, it was rightly said that they have beer chances against any other entrepreneurs as they have beer stories to narrate and are actually doing somethingsomething for the society in a more direct sense. The speaker also said that if you are an entrepreneur, you should apply for awards because they increase your chances of geing into good business schools and also strengthen your resume.

Technical education can be a plus point and technology driven businesses are more likely to succeed in this present world scenario. Candidates with family businesses are also preferred by good business schools as they have a good foundation and also can go back to it and helphelp it grow once they are done with an MBA.

The speaker ended saying that consultants are definitely an added advantage and people across the world with beer grades and scores use them and if you can afford it, you should too.

The BITS to B School conversations were mostly aimed at addressing the students and the recent graduates from the institute. The session leads were Anurag VNVJ and Animesh Tambi. ‘BITS2BSCHOOL’ is a group of over 3000 BITSians with the purpose of alumni guidanceguidance and discussions to increase the BITSian intake in the best B-schools across the globe. They organize audio conferences and publish e-interviews, maintain databases and forums for discussion.

Speaking about entrepreneurship and a business administration degree, the session leads advised the audience to first go for a job and experience the work culture before geing to an MBA. The session was quite to the point and there was a mention of how brand name maersmaers and helps the portfolio immensely when the competition is so vast and talented. The speaker made a valid point about how business schools have only a single look at a person’s portfolio and one with a good GMAT score and work ex in a reputed company is more likely to get selected.is more likely to get selected.

Also, a ‘switcher’, one who changes jobs frequently will not be entertained by

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Panelists: Harish Bhat (MD and CEO, Tata Global Beverages), Raj Gollamudi (Director, Intel Capital), Lalit Ahuja (Founder, Kyron Accelerator), Akila Krishnakumar, (Founder Social Venture Partners), Ravi Garkipati (CEO 24x7 Innovation Labs), Raman Venkatesh (CEO, Eureka Forbes)

Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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interest, he said innovation should aim to change consumer behaviour. He also emphasized on the need of an entrepreneurial mindset for innovation. He noted that many colleges lack entrepreneurial role-models, and that as alumni, they can provide that for the students of BITS.students of BITS.

Raman Venkatesh, who graduated from BITS in 1992 confessed that as a young graduate, he felt innovation was restricted to solid technological devices and improvements. He told the audience that any innovation in technology or science is only an enabler in a large ecosystem,ecosystem, and the only way it can be a game-changer is when it is used to affect society, to make life beer. He explained the term “valley of death” - the perilous path a promising product must cross before being commercially successful.

The session was highly informative. Each speaker gave the audience their interpretation of the meaning of innovation.

The panel then entertained questions.

this making customer insight the root of innovation.

HarishHarish was followed by Akila, who started out in Wipro at a time when it had only 150 employees (there are 150,000 employees now). According to her, the climate for innovation in any country is very different, and to innovate, one should observe and decide a a proper plan of action. She spoke about her team trying to implement Higher Education ERP for Ivy League institutions, and how with minute observations and innovations, they garnered 42% market share in that field. She then went on to speak about her new project,project, Social Venture Partners, which combines Philanthropy with venture investment. They now have offices in Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi.

Raj, who spoke after Akila, is the head of Intel Capital, and is a very respected venture capitalist. According to him, people who are not happy with the status quo, and want to change something are the pioneers of innovation. Adding to Harish Bhat's pointpoint about understanding consumer

The session on Innovation was held from 11:45 AM to 1:00 PM on Day 2 of the BITSAA Global Meet, 2014.

TheThe session lead was Sundi Natarajan, and the panel included Akila Krishnakumar (Founder Social Venture Partners), Raj Gollamudi (Director, Intel Capital), Raman Venkatesh (CEO,Eureka Forbes), and Harish Bhat (MD and CEO, TATA Global Beverages).

TheThe first speaker was Harish Bhat, the CEO of Tata Global Beverages. According to Mr. Bhat, consumer insight and understanding the needs of the customer is the root of innovation. He gave many examples from his work, like the Tanishq Gold Test, which showed manymany women who believed in their family jewellers that they were duped by them, thus increasing sales for Tanishq; like TITAN Raga, the watch designed specifically for the Indian woman; Fastrack, accessories designed to set the youth apart from the elder generations; FreshFresh TATA Tea etc. His whole talk bore one basic flavour – if one doesn't understand the target audience or the consumer, no innovation will be useful,

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Stop cribbing and start exploring!

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Last but not the least, Rashmi Du gave some insight into her work in the field of raising Emotional Intelligence. This concept came to her when a subordinate quit her job, blaming Rashmi for this drastic step. She was so shaken by this incident that she realized it’s always beer to ask ‘tell me where it doesn’t work for you?’you?’ rather than leing things go out of hand. She laid emphasis on doing away with the metaphorical cloak of fear which can only be done by connecting with oneself.With some insightful questions from the moderator Ajit Rao, this session came to an end. However, it left an indelible mark on all present in any walk of life to follow their dreams and shine rather than stay put and grind.

Mathew Cherian once saw a kid eating from a dustbin outside a five-star hotel in Mumbai. Now, he helps almost 16800 old age people in the last phase of their lives with his venture, Helpage India. Such is the power of one benevolent person’s dedication against all odds once inspired. From a volunteer in a nightnight shelter home to working all out for the old and helpless of the country, he has seen a lot of ups and downs. Mathew expressed his most deep felt anguish at the way today’s children were treating their own parents, and urged everyone in the crowd to always remember how they had reached wherever theythey had and find a place for their parents in our excessively busy lifestyle.

If you have an interest in the rich heritage of our country and its wonderful ancient culture, then you should hear Dushyanth Sridhar speak about with the enthusiasm of a child on a sugar-coated chocolate meal. He started learning Sanskrit when he was five, and delivered a lecture about Sita’s marriage with RamaRama in LTC in his first year at BITS. Almost never heard of in this institute of engineering excellence, that the VC himself called him in his room and told me to cultivate it and see where his passion takes him. After that, he hasn’t turned back. Appearing on many talk shows, he has become a public speaker of somesome renown with his discourses on Sanskrit. With four Gurus of his own, he has started teaching an eight year old boy the finer details of the ancient language and urged us to share our rich heritage rather than leing it slowly wither away.

We’ve been told time and again, by our parents and others in this society, that success is hard to come by, that the safest bet is to follow the herd and get placed, that hobbies are just that- hobbies. We’ve been told time and again, by movies and biographies, that following one’s interest is the most satisfying thingthing a person can do, that success comes to those who don’t fear the unknown. As BITSians, though the former may seem quite the natural path to follow, there are many of us who have taken their interests and hobbies one step further and found success with the laer. This session was all about the success storiesstories of four such BITSians who have followed their heart into the wild and struck nirvana on their way.

Dilip D’Souza, an ex-engineer who worked for ten years in a company before finally realizing his passion and jumping into the exhilarating world of story-telling, relayed the incident which inspired him to take on this step. While on a visit to a small village called Bilgaon, he made an interesting engineering find-find- two young engineers carving out a dam with the most basic tools necessary so as to produce enough electricity to light up the village for the first time in its centuries old existence. With a nation full of vibrant minds and unmatched potential, it is such points of excellence that build our country. He realized thatthat writing about such stories was more exciting and challenging than writing computer codes. He left his job, and has had multiple awards for his many columns and has authored four novels.

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Gurudakshina – Honouring the teachers

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years ahead of his time, in the academic restructuring at BITS, which happened even before Delhi University updated its course work. He also thanked his students, who despite being students of engineering, took particular interest in economics.

Prof.Prof. Dr. C. S. Rao, had been one of the finest teachers of chemical engineering at BITS-Pilani. He particularly appreciated the entrepreneurship side of the BITS-75 charitable trust, which would particularly be useful for the chemical engineers, whose job opprtunities are sparse. He fondly recollected how he had justjust returned from USA, and had joined BITS wearing colurful clothes and smoking, sometimes even in class! He particularly enjoyed interacting with the students, and playing cricket and table tennis with them.

Prof. Dr. V. V. Mandke, had started his career at BITS as a faculty of the electrical engineer departement but is not well known for implementing the BITS Practice School(PS) program, which set BITS-Pilani apart from other institutes and universities. He believed that his life was divided into before PS and after PS.PS. Practice School was not inducted as a means to provide jobs in industries, but to initiate a teaching-learning process and what resulted was a phenomenon of creating knowledge and a new process of delivering education.

The program was concluded with a short presentation on the various trust activities and a video on the previous Guru-Dakshina programs.

a student present, his classic compliment was “Not bad”. This intriguing phrase enabled the students to look for perfection in the finer, lile things. Chandhoke recollected his year of joining BITS. He had come to BITS not knowing where Pilani was, and to obtain a doctorate in a subject he did not have enough marksmarks in, but passion and interest. He believed that what he achieved was not his own, but what was given to him by his bosses, fellow faculty and his students.

Prof. Dr. R. B. Saxena had been an instructor for the first Practice School batch, and one of the finest teachers in electrical machines, power electronics and electrical devices. He believed that “teachers never retire”, and true to his word, he continues to teach at College of Engineering at Roorkee. He also said that his gurudakshinagurudakshina had already been obtained when his students reached top positions in their industry and work, contributing to society in a positive way. He also recollected how he was given a “title” almost every year, which reflected his character, but didn't take offense to it and in fact felt happy.

Prof. Dr. G. P. Avasthi had an illustrious teaching career as an economics faculty at BITS Pilani from 1971 to 2004. He had been instrumental in designing the unique five year degree course, M.Sc. Economics, with inputs from mathematics, science and engineering. As he received his momento and began his speech,speech, he said that he was a very simple person, and was just a simple and honest teacher. He believed that late founder chairman Mr. G. D. Birla was remarkably 40

The first day of the BITSAA Global Meet(BGM) saw a one-of-its kind event, Guru-Dakshina.

StartedStarted by the batch of 1970-75, on October 25, 2009, it aims at recognising and honouring faculty at BITS-Pilani, for their tremendous contribution to the Institute, as well as the lives of the students. The idea was sparked by a 1970-75 batch student, Mr. Hanuman. As the comperer Mr. Sanjay remarked, despite therethere being no modern Arjuna or modern Ekalavya, the students of the 1970-75 batch still conduct this event, yearly. It is a part of the activities of the BITS-75 Charitable Trust. Started by the same batch, this trust is an initiative to collect and utilise funds for various activities, including promoting entrepreunershipentrepreunership and funding and mentoring business ventures(Phyzok Learning Solutions LLP being one).

The faculty members who were honoured during this year's session of Guru-Dakshina were Prof. Dr. R. P. Jain, Prof. R. R. Gulati, Prof. Dr. C. S. Rao, Prof. Dr. G. P. Avasthi, Prof. Dr. K. R. Chandhoke, Prof. Dr. R. B. Saxena and Prof. Dr. V. V. Madke. Only the laer five were present during the event, and whatwhat was interesting was that every one of them believed that teaching is a learning process. Their humility was unmistakable shown in their speeches. Each of them received a momento, a cheque and two coconuts.

Prof. Dr. Chandhoke had been a pioneer in the field of biology, and was fondly remarked by

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The distinguished panelists on stage for the event

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BITS Pilani: The way forward

audience.

Prof.Prof. V.S Rao, who came next spoke about the Hyderabad campus – its rapid growth, the three pronged approach it is taking (research, innovation, entrepreneurship), the Rs. 25 crore worth projects being taken up by faculty and students, and about how it is named exactlyexactly as in the Pilani Campus (Bhavans, Connaught Place etc.). He apologized profusely for not being able to make the Auditorium ready for the event. According to him, the plan was to increase the number of students to 5,300 (from the 3000 present now) He ended his talk by thanking all alumni.his talk by thanking all alumni.

Next on stage was Prof. RK Mial, who began his talk with a note of slight dissapointment that very few Dubai Alumni visited the meet. However, he stated that the alumni in the Middle East have been very active. The Dubai Campus now houses 900 students and is nownow a full BITS Campus. It is the first off-shore campus of any university in India.

Prof. Sanjeev Aggarwal, spoke very lile about his own campus, and more about the University's vision for Alumni engagement. He appealed the alumni to start donating more the the University, as most private universities have a very

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University as a whole towards the end of his speech. Covering milestones such as PS (I and II), BITSAT (139,000 students took BITSAT in 2013), introduction of chair professors, distinguished alumni awards, OPERA awards, revival of the convocation, full scale ERP system, ProjectProject Parivarthan, BITS Connect 2.0 and the new research focussed faculty hunt, Prof. Jain spoke about the incredible rate at which the University is growing. He then highlighted the basic plans for 2015, which include a structured quality assessment system, participationparticipation in the QS Global College Rankings to set a benchmark for ourselves, improvement of applied research projects and innovation on campus (he highlighted the role of the new Centre for Excellence in Water, Waste and Energy management). Prof. JainJain concluded by thanking the alumni again.

Prof. Jain was followed by Prof. G. Raghurama. Prof. Raghurama showcased the achievements and plans of the Pilani campus through a five minute short film. As the film was running, he spoke about how the quality of recruited faculty improved dramaticalllydramaticallly over the last few years, and showed a set of pictures describing the changes taking place in the C-lawns as part of Project Parivarthan to the

The secret to building a great institution is to keep improving. While improvment in terms of intake of students, faculty, infrastructure and research are of utmost importance, emphasis should also be laid on evolving to suit themselves to modern developments in methods of delidelivering quality education. And the best people to help bring about these advancements are the alumni. To keep the pass-outs in the loop about various developments in their alma mater, and to seek their help, BGM '14 had a panel discussion named “BITS Pilani – The WWay Forward”.

The panel comprised of the Vice Chancellor, Prof. BN Jain; the directors of all four BITS campuses – Prof. G Raghurama (Pilani), Prof. VS Rao (Hyderabad), Prof SK Aggarwal (Goa), and Prof RK Mial (Dubai); Prof G. Sundar, Deputy Dean, Off-Campus ProgramsPrograms and Prof. Arya Kumar, Chief of Entrepreneurship, development and IPR, BITS Pilani. The session lead was Prof. RN Saha.

After Prof. RN Saha set the ball rolling, the dias was taken up by Prof. BN Jain. Prof. Jain started off by thanking BITSAA for its efforts to organize an event of this scale. While he mostly laid emphasis on the progress made by BITS Pilani, he also outlined the plan for the

large endowment. According to him, a position in the top 3 colleges of India and the top 25 in Asia can not be achieved with only a predominant UG program. There is an urgent need for specialized PG labs. He then talked about the things which can be done with sufficient funding, like faculty collaboration, inviting visiting faculty, research fellowships, lecture series' etc, construction of world class labs. He concluded his talk by pleading the alumni to contribute more towards their alma-mater.

Prof.Prof. Aggarwal was followed by Prof. Sundar and Prof. Arya Kumar, who spoke about off-campus programs and entrepreneurship respectively. There are currently 24,000 odd off-campus students, and 46,000 odd off-campus alumni, with over 40 corporate partners and 31 degree programs. Prof. Kumar laid emphasis on Conquest, the Technology Business Incubator, team BITSSpark etc, showing the alumnus the growing trend in entrpreneurship across the University.

Overall, it was a very informative session, as it showcased the University's rapid growth, its potential and its plans to help realize its potential.

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Closing ceremonyprogram which will help BITSians across the globe with career planning, job referrals and support.

TheThe final part of the closing ceremony was hosted by Mr. Raju Reddy (Chairman, BITSAA International) and Dr. Ashok Agarwal (Chairman BGM 2014). The entire core-team of BGM 2014 was called upon stage and thanked by Dr. Agarwal. It was announced by Mr. RajuRaju Reddy that the next BGM will be held in late-December - 2016 or early-January -2017 in Dubai. The event will be headed by Sandhya Prakash.

This was then followed by a small photo session involving the whole team – core team, volunteers, mentors, the chairman etc., a fiing end, considering the meticulous planning and the substantial effort of hundreds of students, alumni and faculty that went into planning and executing an eexecuting an event of this magnitude.

BGM '14 was a tremendous success, and now all of us know where we'll be for new years in 2017 – Dubai.

It was almost forty minutes past noon on the third day when the crowd finally seled down for the closing ceremony of BGM '14.

TheThe proceedings were started off by Rohit Koul, a 2002 Batch alumnus and CEO, BITSAA International. Rohit pointed out various accomplishments of BITSAA, which include graduate application scholarships, student project funding, BITS Connect 2.0, helping fellowfellow BITSians bear medical expenses etc. Each point was supplemented with a video, where a beneficiary of the above programs spoke about how BITSAA helped them. One of the most interesting facts was that BITS Pilani was saving upto Rs. 1.34 crores due to the BITS Connect 2.0 program.Connect 2.0 program.

The closing ceremony also marked the launch of a new BITSAA program – BITSAA Career Center. The program, intended to be a career support platform powered by BITSAA International, was launched by Suhas Kashyap, Director, BITSAA Career Center. It is a remarkable

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The Editorial Team Photographs(from left to right)Harsha Koneru - 2011 batch, BITS GoaSanjana Ramachandran - 2011 batch - BITS GoaSahil Khatkar - 2011 batch - BITS PilaniAyesha Farheen - 2012 batch - BITS HyderabadKeshav Parashar - 2010 batch - BITS Hyderabad((not in picture)Sukanya Venkataraman - 2010 batch - BITS Hyderabad

Selva Mani - 2004 batch - BITS PilaniDept. of Photography - BITS Hyderabad