Monday, January 12, 2009

Let's Promote BITS Pilani - A BITSAA Initiative

BITS Pilani, one of the top Universities in India (Click here for rankings), has never believed in publicizing itself like many other Private Engineering Colleges do. Even then, it has always attracted the brightest minds from all across the country. But till now everyone learnt about BITS Pilani through word of mouth. And now it's time to change that!

A lot of BITSians (both current students & alumni) felt that many meritorious students couldn't join BITS Pilani due to lack of information. Many students, even after joining BITS Pilani, aren’t aware of all the flexibilities that are offered by the university. This leads to them choosing wrong branches/campuses as they tend to believe in what they’ve heard from a friend/relative/teacher.

Thus, BITSAA decided to form a team of dedicated BITSians who prepared resource material which could be used to clear doubts of many BITS aspirants. Special care was taken to not over-publicize, which is common amongst other colleges in India. Instead, the whole initiative was aimed at giving aspirants authentic information and bare facts about BITS Pilani, the courses, flexibilities, opportunities etc.

The LPBP team visits Senior Secondary schools across the country and holds session on the above topics. The first session held in Hyderabad received a huge response and since then, a lot of BITSians have joined this initiative and taken sessions in their own schools. Currently, a total of 241 volunteers covering around 197 colleges across the country are a part of the LPBP team!

To know more about this initiative and how you can be a part of it, jump to the LPBP Group!


This was my first post on BITSian Wings, so pardon me for missing out on something! And don’t forget to let us know your thoughts about this initiative!

Rasagy Sharma, 

BITS Pilani, Goa Campus

Thursday, December 25, 2008

BITS Pilani : The true meaning of education

"Eventually it takes integrity of character to build something bigger than all fortune. Character that is built in a sprawling campus tucked away from the distractions of city life. Where students of life read between lines and theorems to realize true responsibility as human beings, to wield knowledge and bring about no less than a revolution, which ever path they choose to tread in life"

-- That’s what BITS Pilani believes. (From a rare Outlook advertisement of BITS)

The success of a university should be measured by the options and avenues it provides to its students, for them to learn and assimilate knowledge beyond books and beyond classrooms. Imagination, arts, languages, media and sciences are as important to engineers as technology. BITS fully understands that and unlike today’s namesake universities (or even the ones with huge names) believes that a student should have all such pathways in life, should involve in extra-curricular activities, should learn more than what a traditional engineer would learn.

Apart from all possible courses for traditional engineering branches and Economics, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Pharmacy and Management that a student from any branch in BITS can take (upon fulfilling the pre-requisites), BITS boasts of courses all the way from Gandhian Philosophy to Current Affairs. From Film Appreciation to Advertising, Effective Public Speaking to Creative Writing in Mass Communication, the students have enormous number of choices. There are courses like Film and Video Production, New Media, Creative Multimedia, Music, Contemporary India, Journalism, Aesthetics, Entrepreneurship, Commerical Law, Psychology, Drama, American Literature, etc., which are open for all students. There are regular workshops on topics such as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Soft Skills etc, which provide the type of outlook to students that is not available in any other Indian university. BITS also has Centers of Excellence like the Center for Desert Development (CDD), Center for Women Studies, Center for Rain Water Harvesting etc, which are first of their kind efforts in India for promoting research in the respective fields.  (For a comprehensive listing of courses:

http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/courses/body_oncamp_coursedescriptions.html)

It’s not a surprise then that BITSians are found not only at the top technology spots, but are also eminent authors, movie directors, animators, politicians, IAS, Army, police officers. In short, they are found in all fields of life since BITS–Pilani provides them with an unparalleled comprehensive and versatile education.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

BITSAA.org -- The portal that connects us all!

The new website for BITSAA - http://bitsaa.org was launched on 1st November, 2008. This website will surely go on to make the BITS Alumni Association one of the best networked alumni associations in the world. ALL the initiatives (Read: BITS2MSPhD, BITS2BSchool, BITSConnect, BITS Embryo and many more) have all been brought under one roof. ALL the batch registrations, (All the way from Pre-1964 to 2006) are managed on this website too. 

The website also contains the Databases of many BITSians who have made their mark in this world in the field of education, literature, entrepreneurship, leadership etc.:

1. Close to 50 books published by BITSians.

2. Over 320 names of BITSians in Academia out of which 200 odd are in the US itself. In-fact the list contains over 50 Department Heads/Chancellors/Vice Chancellors/Directors at universities like MIT, Purdue, Georgia Tech, Ohio State, Imperial College etc. along with Indian universities like IIT- Delhi, IIT- Bombay, IIM- Ahemdabad, IIT- Kanpur, IIT Madras, Indian School of business et al.

3. Over 230 names of companies founded by BITSian Entrepreneurs. The list includes names like Pennywise Solutions, Microtek, Hotmail, Onida, Bharat Forge, Mindtree, Amkette, LogicVision, Magma etc!

4. Over 225 names of BITSians who are CEOs/CTOs/MDs/Directors/VPs of companies like:
Veritas, Credit Suisse, Yesbank, Sony Ericsson, Cisco, Intel, Mckinsey, Ford Motors, Sun Microsystems, Tanishq, Philips, Dell, Star Sports, L&T, Ranbaxy, Samsonite, Yahoo!, Lehman Bros, CitiGroup, Barclays, Dabur, Idea Cellular, Airtel, Xilinx, Magma, IDBI... (The list continues. It gives a feeling that BITSians run this world!)

The website would not have been possible without the combined efforts and vision of BITSAA Leaders.

We as BITSians, urge all the other BITSians to come and join this website and contribute to the ever growing name of BITS-Pilani. It doesn't matter which batch or campus you graduated from. The only fact that matters is that we are connected together, and are indebted to our alma mater -- BITS-Pilani.

Update: The website had 500 registrations on the first day itself! Way to go!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

BITSian Entrepreneurs!!

Celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship is a feeling which BITSians have always enjoyed. Here is a "small" list of BITSian Entrepreneurs! (Compiled by BITSAA). Just 238 names :) To download the list in XLS (Excel) format (along with comments about each company) please click here. (65 kb download)

 


     Name                   Year Company           Industry  

Aarti Mohan2002SattvaMedia/Development
Abhishek Gupta20043i InfotechTechnology Consulting
Abhishek HumbadNextGen PMS Pvt Ltd.Energy and Environment
Ajay ChopraPinnacle Systems
Alok AroraChrysalis Information Systems Limited
Alok Mathur1980Novo Innovations, Inc.Healthcare IT
Alok Prasad1983RevenueXL Inc.Healthcare Revenue Cycle
Amar Kapadia1989Aarohi
Amar Lakhtakia1986SherpaZ India Pvt Ltd, InfoKnox, Webify, Cymbal Corp, AristaSoftIT - Software Products
Amruth B R2008Vita Peracta Solutions Pvt. Ltd.Web Apps [Recruitment. Market Research]
Anand Morzaria2001Pennywise Solutions Pvt Ltd.IT
Anand Rajaram1997PixilyOnline Service
Anil GeraeViapar
Anil GuptaMicrotek
Anil Khasgiwala1991Arucom Electronics Pvt LtdWeighing and Process Controls
Anil MansharamaniNetscout Systems
Anilesh Kumar2005Frequency Middle EastMarketing/Media
Anita AroraThe Cornell Group
Anne Anita SakuruKenPeople
Anurag JainVision Healthcsource Brigade
Arjun ValluriIntelligroup
Arpit Bagade2005MyKidsArena
Arun Kumar1973Haulers India, EMS IndiaMining Contracts, Transport Solutions
Arun Raghavan1998UnifySquareIT/Services/Unified Communications
Arvind Agrawal1983LS2 CorporationIT
Arvind SinghValue Communications
Ash PahwaDV Studio Technologies LLC
Ashish Dixit1982Tensilica IncSemiconductors Intellectual Property
Ashok Agarwal1964Sql Star International, ACS Technologies Ltd, Era Softwre (P) LtdIT
Ashok LuhadiaAmol Pharmaceuticals
Atul Agrawal1979Object CTalk Inc.IT
Austin JTruescope Technologies, Inc
Baba KalyaniBharat Forge
Balaji Deshpande1996TechnoHealth IncTechnology and Healthcare
B.C. Krishna1981Memento, Inc.Computer Software/Security
Bharat NarayananHunter Foods
Bhargav Marepalli1993GSS America Infotech Ltd.IT
Bhasker Agarwal1970ISSIIT
Binod K PatodiaGTN Textiles
BP Agrawal1968Sustainable InnovationsWater, Health
Brij Bhushan1964Reston Consulting Group Inc.Services - US Fed Government
C.J.Surendar1978Stellar Space Pvt. Ltd.Project Management / Turn-Key Projects - Construction Industry.
C.P.Gopinathan]]1991361 Degree Minds ConsultingLearning, Training
Chaitanya Kalipatnapu2001Kenviron Corporate Education Pvt LtdExecutive Education
Chand Prakash Garg1973Global Business, IncInternational Trade
Chander Shekhar Goel1979Goel Engineers (India)Manufacturing of Perforated Metals
Chandra Bhople1981Nuva College of Engineering & Technology, NagpurEngineering Education in India
Chandrasekhar Nair1989BigTecHealth care, MEMS/Nano technology, IT
Chhatra Singh Nahata1982Fabric Plus Private LimitedSilk Exports( Fashion Accessories and Home & Fashion Fabrics)
Chinmoy Panda1994Mindfire SolutionsSoftware and IT Services
CP RangacharYuken India
Cuckoo KocharDCR/Phoenix Group of Companies
Deep KapuriaHi-tech Gears Ltd.
Devendra Raut1993Inspirebridge technologies, Nuva College of Engineering & Technology, Nuva Infrastructure, TiMetra Networks (bought by Alcatel-Lucent)Networking, Software Services/products, Education
Diaz NesamoneyInformatica, Celequest
Dipankar Datta1983eSynapsysSoftware Application Dev-IT
Dr. Deven Verma1969Edgewood VenturesHiTech - Technologies
G.V.Ramana1994IdlebrainMedia
Gautam ChandaAccordion Networks
Gayathri Vishwanathan1995Maarga Systems
Geetha Krishnakumar2001inherITIT Training
Gerard Pushpanathan1988Indusmedia Technologies P LtdIT
Girish JunejaSarvega
Gopi Krishna V.1992MeraTrip.com
Govind BhandariClearpak SingaporePackaging Solutions
Govind N. JethaliaSulux Phosphates
Gulu MirchandaniOnida
Hari Krishnan2002Bridle ITEducation; Mobile VAS
Harish Lakshman1995Rane GroupAuto Components
Harsh Verma1980Glocol IncIT/Wireless
Harsha Konduri2008VipashyinWeb 2.0
I. C. Sarma1982Advance Systems & Concetpts, Inc.IT Services
Inderpal BhandariVirtual Gold Inc
J.S. Mazumdar1982Oil India LimitedOil exploration & transportation
Jai Raj GuptaWorldcast Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (Shaadi Online)
Jay Chopde1987Infospectrum India Pvt. Ltd.Software development and engineering
Jayan RamankuttyNimbus, Lara Technologies, EmpowerTel, YuMe networks
Jayanth L Narayanan1992HO Food Services Pvt. Ltd. (Cafe Aarogya)Restaurant/Food Services
J.C.JainTexplas Group
K Vijay RaoEpicenter Technologies Inc.
Kamal Kant1984Busysoft Systems Pvt. Ltd.Software Development Company
Kapil Kathpalia1982ISUUSI Inc.Management Consultancy
Karthik Balasubramaniam1996KB-Vis Technologies Pvt. Ltd.Graphics & Visualisation Software, Medical Imaging
Karthik Krishnamurthy2000Youngsoft IncHealthcare IT
Karthik Laxman2004RedCube Consulting Group, Pi CommunicationsConsulting (Social Sector / Communications and PR)
Kavikrut2006Mobile Medics Healthcare India Pvt. Ltd.Rural Healthcare
Keerthy Mysore1987Shakti Corp Pty LtdControl & Automation; Safety Engineering & Consulting
Ketan Khandkar1989Navatar GroupFinancial Services, CRM
Kiran Addepalli2006OpenGambitSoftware Consulting
Kiran KundargiApsora
Kishore RajvanshyFleet Management Ltd
Krishna Vaidyanathan1989EILABS India Pvt. Ltd
K.R.V.Subramanian1986Ascendum Systems, Answerpal, Radix Learning
Lalit AgrawalOstern
M.L.Agarwal1973Central India Packaging / Ankit Packaging LtdPackaging
Madan BellamMaya Corp
Madhu S. KejriwalRamtech Industries
Manish RathiRetrevo Inc.Web
Manohar BahetiDewas Metal Sections Ltd
Manoj Kumar Mittal1985SHELTER Consulting EngineersConsultancy in Civil and Structural Engineering
Manoj Saxena1986Webify Solutions, Inc., Exterprise
Manoj Vasusdevan2006SourcePilaniBPO
Maruti Tangirala1990SAFERTEK Software, LLC.IT/ERP Software
Mukesh ChatterAxiowave Networks, Inc., NeoNet LLC, Nextabit
Murali V Alam1999iTrendz IncIT Services
N.S.Parthasarathy1983MindTree LimitedIT Services
Nagesh GuptaRedwave Networks, Inc
Nanda Vaidyanathan1989Nova WriteCommercial Printing
Naren Dubey1993Scancafe.comPhotography, Internet Retail
Naresh KhattarAvalon Resorts
Narpat BhandariVasona Systems Inc.
Naveen Puttagunta1992Rishtays, Inc.Internet/Media
Navindra JainExcelan
Nitin Nistane1987Infospectrum India Pvt. Ltd.Software development and engineering
Nivi Padhy1989TiktalaSoftware
P.Ram Mohan1981Threesixtyone Degree Minds Consulting P. LtdLearning and Development
Padmanabhan Sreenivasan1990Zmanda
Phanindra Sama2002redBus.inTravel
Philip Thomas1976Powertech Pollution Controls Pvt LtdEnvironment,air pollution control
Poonam Agarwal2004doSomethingsocial innovation
Prabhat Garg1998Inventive IT Solutions
Prabhu Ramamoorthy2004Telesto InfotechSoftware
Pradeep Kumar ChetalSavera Systems
Pradeep Mittal2003AspirantHuntMBA/Education
Pradeep Sethi1977Corporate InsightConsulting Human Resource
Praful Shroff1976Einfochips
Pramad Jandhyala1993LatentView AnalyticsConsulting/Analytics
Prasad Thammineni1991PixilyDocument Processing, Content management & Business Processing
Prashant GuptaSyndera, Liquid Price
Prashanth PalakurthiReflexis Systems, Inc, Techlead Corporation
Praveen Gupta1994CROSS-TAB MARKETING SERVICES PVT LTDMarket Research Services
Praveen Wicliff1998Icicle Technologies Private LimitedSoftware IT (BFSI)
Prem Jain1973Crescendo Communications
Priyanka Mehta Agrawal2004Multimetals LimitedManufacturing
Punita Pandey1984netCustomer Inc.
Purnendu OjhaNextag
Raghavan MayurTechnometrica
Raghu Rajagopal1990Energeate Business Solutions Pvt LtdManagement Consulting
Raj Kumar KoneruIntelligroup, A number of BPO companies
Raja Sekhar2005Haofreshe-commerce
Rajeev KumarAruba NetworksWireless
Rajesh Butta1990Vishubh Consulting ServicesService Industry
Rajesh Chelapurath1993Ceera Investments, LLC
Rajesh HukkuiFlex Solutions Ltd
Rajiv BapnaAmkette
Raju Reddy1981Sierra Atlantic
Raju Sethi1981Precision Coatings Pvt LtdPharmacetical/Surgical Dressings
Rajul Rastogi1986Astron International, Inc.Petrochemical/Refining/IT
Rakesh Khullar1978Cluster Telecom Pvt LtdTelecom
Ram Mohan1991361 Degree Minds Cons. P LtdLearning in Individuals and Organizations
Ramakrishna Gaddipati2005BridleIT Soultions
Ramana MulpuryMetricStream
Ramendra Baoni1991Bisquare Systems Pvt. Ltd.IT, Product Design, Consulting
Ramesh GroverCMS Computers
Ramesh RamanathanJanagraha
Ramesh TainwalaSamsonite India
Ramesh Yerram Setti1992GSS America Infotech Ltd.IT
Ramnish Kalsi2000Meriyatra.inTravel
Ramu Annamalai Ramasamy1996InLott
Ranvir TrehanSETA Corporation
Rathinavel Pandian2008PCSService Oriented
Ravi BaidAlliance Infotech
Ravi KrishnamurthyExemplary Software
Ravindra Kumar Yerramsetti1997SMSCountry Networks Pvt LtdTelecommunications/Internet
Ravindra Vytla2003Bridle Information & Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd.Education
Ravishankar WS1991Banyan Tree AdvisorsPortfolio Management
Ritu Vinayak1991361degree MindsLearning and Development
Rohit Prakash2006Petro Gold InternationalReal Estate
Ruchika Gupta1993Cross-Tab Marketing Services Pvt. Ltd.Market Research
S. Rajesh Kumar1992Dr. Rajesh ShahSocial Service
Sabarinath Saran2001IT Resources International, IncIT Consulting Services
Sabeer Bhatia1985Hotmail.comWeb mail
Sailesh Krishnamurthy1995Truviso, Inc.Software Infrastructure
Samir AroraGlam, Tickle.com
Sandeep NalgundwarBridge-X
Sandeep Paladagu2003Whiz IT Solutions, Inc.IT Services
Sandeep TalwarBanyanTree Advisors
Sandeep Varma1991ICOMO Advertising India Pvt. LtdMedia/Advertising
Sangeeta Patni1985Extensio Software, Inc. Enterprise Software
Sanjay AnandSox Group
Sanjay Minocha1986Armaan Inc.
Sanjaya GuptaInomy
Sanjiv Taneja1981Inetegra DesignElectronics/SSI
Sanjoy Chatterji1980Entomo, Inc.Enterprise Software (SaaS)
Saran1999IT Resources International
Sarath Babu2001Foodking Catering Service
Sasikanth Chemalamudi2004Habits
Satheesh Vattem2001MerrionITSoftware Services
Satish GuptaBPO Frontline, Cradle Technologies
Satish TandikotaTribiosys
Satyajit Mohapatra1996RS India Sales Force Pvt. LtdInternational trade, Supply Chain, Export/Import
Shailendra MalaniApnaguide.com
Shantanu Dash1982MosPay
Sharad Mehrotra1982Fabric7 Systems and Procket
Shashikant Khandelwal2001TheFindSoftware/Internet
Shrikant KhadyeInviziblehand, Inc
Siddarth Chaturvedi1981Green Top Services Inc., Safeway Services Inc.Telecom BPO
Siva Cotipalli2001dhanaX Information Services Pvt LtdInternet/Financial Services
SK GargEldeco Group
Sreenivasa Reddy Musani1998EkthaIT, ITES and Business Process services
Sridhar Adurti1993PSS SolutionsSoftware Consultancy
Sridhar ObilisettyVianeta Communications
Srikanth Krishnamurthy1992Alfa Rubber and Springs P Ltd
Srinivas BalasubramanianInfravio
Sriram ChandrasekaranLogical Digital Corp.
Sriram GuttaMobile Medics Healthcare LLC
Subir MalhotraMAS DesignsCommercial Interiors
Sudhir GuptaXOP Works and Spatial Wireless
Sudhir Ippagunta2006FrequencyMarketing/Media/Advertising/Creative/Web and Interactive
Sujana Dasari2004Implesap LtdIT Consulting
Sujit Panigrahi1996Convergent TechnologiesSoftware/IT
Sukhnandan Vohra1990Veracity ConsultingStrategy and business consulting
Sundi Natarajan1992COEUS Federal Government
Sunil Goel1977Theme Solar Systems
Sunil Hinduja1982Synergis MTSConsulting and Professional Development
Thampi ThomasPostX, NexGen, Elxsi
Tushar Jain1993Automat Industries Pvt Ltd.Manufacturing
Vandana Malaiya1984EximSoft, Reliance Systems Private Ltd
Vasan V.S.1992Sahasra Solutions & SANAT TechnologiesIT Training, Network storage product
Venk KrishnanNuware
Venkat Sharma1977iMedX inc. (USA), iMedX Information Services Pvt. Ltd (India)Healthcare KPO
Venu PalaparthiDreamcricket.com
Vidhyashankar Sathya1998Times Internet, Inc.Media
Viggy MokkaralaOberon Financial Technologies, Inc
Vijay Chandru1975STrand Life SciencesBiotechnology
Vijay ParikhStratumOne Communications
Vijay VaidyathanNet Effect Media
Vikram Gupta1989Zeevo
[[Vikram Kohli1988Ameriprise Financial (franchise)Financial Planning & Investment Services
Vikram Rai2002I Think I Have A SolutionNon Profits/Social sector publishing and consulting
Vinod Agarwal1973LogicVision, Inc., SEMIndia
Vishnucharan Datta Rayapeddi1985Productivity Solutions LimitedBusiness Services (Consulting, Training, Coaching & Mentoring)
Vivek Kumar1991Holtec Consulting Pvt. Limited
W.S. RavishankarBanyanTree Advisors
Yogesh VaidyaSoftware Tech Group


Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Glorious Trail

BITS Pilani lost Dr. K.K.Birla, Chancellor and a pioneer in Indian education system, who completely moulded the concept of teaching, stressing on complete and overall development of a student; be it mentally or spiritually, which is even more divine than just imparting education through conventional methods. The ideas and pratices brought by him into action would always be remembered and valued. We salute him for all he has done for the country, BITS Pilani and most importantly for the students.
But life moves on, so will BITS, with the fond memories and blessings of Late Dr.Birla along with it.
In view with recent development, Shri Kumar Mangalam Birla has taken over as the Chancellor and Smt. Shobana Bhartia as the Pro-Chancellor of BITS Pilani. With numerous awards and achievements under their belt and experience of running one of the biggest industrial houses in India, they are truly set to take BITS to new heights and make the name proud which is "BITS Pilani".


Saturday, August 30, 2008

BITS loses it's two gems

K K Birla, the Chancellor of BITS Pilani and Dr. C R Mitra, the director of BITS for two decades (from 1969), are no more. Dr C R Mitra passed away on August 27th, 2008 while Dr. K K Birla expired on August 30th, 2008. Both were visionary leaders; ones who understood the importance of education and brought revolutionary changes in it. Education was made available to even poorest of the poor, and made relevant to the indian context by them.

We pray for their souls; may they rest in peace.

Dr. K K Birla
http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/NewsModule/detail_page.aspx?id=228
http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/condolence/condolence.pdf
http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/aug/30birla.htm
http://www.livemint.com/2008/08/30110518/KK-Birla-dies-at-90.html

Dr. C R Mitra

http://www.livemint.com/2008/08/30110518/KK-Birla-dies-at-90.html
http://www.pr-inside.com/former-bits-pilani-director-dr-cr-r775845.htm
http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/29/stories/2008082956181300.htm
http://www.prurgent.com/2008-08-28/pressrelease17522.htm

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

BITS Pilani Industry-University Collaborations

Here is a list of "some" MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) which BITS-Pilani has with various institutions/companies across India. It was made after extensive "Google" search and is in no way a complete list. Just the fact that it contains 75+ companies, including the likes of Texas Instruments, Yahoo!, HP, ST Microelectronics, Cisco, IBM, Dell speaks volumes. These MOUs put BITS at the very top of Industry-University collaborations among all the universities in India.

1 Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Bangalore
2 Yahoo, Bangalore
3 Sap Labs, Bangalore
4 Maytas Infra Ltd
5 Indian Institute of Quality Management (IIQM) Jaipur
6 Tata Chemicals
7 Texmaco
8 Patni Computer Systems
9 Dabur Pharma
10 Persistent Systems
11 HP India Bangalore
12 Bharat Forge
13 Mahindra British Telecom (MBT)
14 Honeywell Bangalore
15 Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI)
16 Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Hyderabad
17 RL Institute of Nautical Sciences - "RLINS", Madurai
18 TVS Motor
19 Intel India
20 Cognizant Chennai
21 Wipro
22 Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL)
23 ST Microelectronics
24 nLeague Services Inc, Hyderabad
25 Andhra Bank
26 Ashok Leyland Chennai and Hosur
27 HCL Chennai
28 HCL Bangalore
29 Accenture Bangalore
30 Essar Power Hazira
31 NTPC
32 Texas Instruments, Bangalore
33 Grasim, Nagda
34 CFCL, Kota
35 Hindalco Renukoot
36 Satyam Hyderabad
37 CMC Vellore
38 Valtech Bangalore
39 Qualcomm Bangalore
40 Hindustan Zinc Udaipur
41 Bombay Hospital Mumbai
42 NCSM Kolkata
43 NDPL Delhi
44 DELL Bangalore
45 Strides Arco Bangalore
46 Bharat Forge Pune
47 Tech Mahindra Pune
48 THDC Tehri
49 IBM
50 Elite School of Optometry, Medical Research Foundation, Chennai
51 Bausch & Lomb School of Optometry, LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad
52 Madras Medical Mission, Chennai
53 Frontier Lifeline, Chennai
54 Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital (THONEH), Malaysia
55 Tolani Maritime Institute, Induri
56 Tolani Maritime Institute, Pune
57 Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad
58 Ford India Ltd
59 Finolex Industries, Ratnagiri
60 Indogulf Fertilizers & Chemicals, Jagdishpur
61 Development Consultants Ltd, Calcutta
62 Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad
63 Bhakthivedanta Institute, Mumbai
64 Consultancy Development Centre, New Delhi
65 SPIC, Chennai
66 DJ Academy for Managerial Excellence, Coimbatore
67 Tata Elxsi Bangalore
68 Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai
69 Bombay Hospital, Mumbai
70 Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases, Chennai
71 CISCO
72 EMC (Benelux) B.V. SARL (EMC)
73 Jindal South West Group (JSW)
74 Nasscom IT
75 Infotech Enterprises
76 L&T e-Engineering Solutions
77 Sabre Travel Technologies, Bangalore

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

BITS Pilani in Rankings

Though rankings should never be trusted while making final decisions for admissions, they do give a general perspective of the overall standing of a university. 

BITS has consistently ranked among the top engineering institutions not only in India but also in Asia. Notably, other than the Dataquest rankings, BITS Pilani has never been ranked lower than any university other than the IITs. Also, in last 11 years, BITS has ranked above IIT Roorkee 9 times and above IIT Guwahati 10 times. Shown below is a compiled list of rankings BITS-Pilani has participated in, since 1997. 

Government of India's National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) rated BITS as a five star Institution (highest rating) for the period ending February 7, 2007. BITS has scored 82.55 out of 100, higher than comparable public universities (with a five star rating and a focus on science and technology) such as Anna University (75.7), Jadavpur University (77.35) and IIT Roorkee (77.15).   

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Merit at BITS Pilani

As Camelpost once said:
BITS Pilani has ensured the creation of a classless, casteless society and thousands of BITS alumni take pride in identifying themselves as Indians and not belonging to any caste, religion or language.
Never ever did we see any discrimination towards or for a student@ BITS based on caste/language/religion and never will we see it too, for in India today we are the ONLY UNIVERSITY which does not entertain any quota; be it Management/NRI/SC/ST/OBC. The only admission criteria at BITS is Merit with equal rights to all, and it will always remain so.

Monday, June 9, 2008

BITS Pilani, IIT Bombay, NIT Trichy, NITK Surathkal, DCE, ISM Dhanbad and Jadhavpur University give Dataquest T-schools 2008 rankings a Skip

A revolution has started. 

After BITS Pilani decided to quit participating in India Today rankings since 2005, BITS decided to give the Dataquest 2008 rankings a skip too. IIT Bombay and NIT Trichy followed suit and quit participating in DQ rankings. Since 2006, NITK Surthkal has been giving rankings a miss too. Jadhavpur university, another very reputed university in east-India gave a miss to these rankings too. ISM Dhanbad isn't found in them either. DCE decided to ignore these rankings as well. Only 6 out of 20 NITs are visible in the rankings.

One wonders what credibility these rankings have, with India's major and most reputed universities deciding not to participate in them:

IIT Bombay
BITS Pilani
NIT Trichy
NITK Surathkal
Delhi College of Engineering (DCE)
ISM Dhanbad
Jadhavpur University

Arguably all the above universities have the potential to rank in top 15 universities in India, with 6 of them (IITB, BITS, NITT, NITK, DCE, ISM) having the potential to rank in top 10 too. If 6 out of top 10 potential frontrunners decide to give these rankings a miss, then surely the credibility of these rankings is doubtable.

Some Surprises in the rankings:

1. 14/20 NITs missing/did not participate.
2. DA IICT at 12th. Though I know it is an upcoming college, but surpassing IIIT-A, BIT-Ranchi, PSG Tech, MNNIT in a year? Sounds undigestible.
3. New Horizon College of Engineering at 20th.
4. Amrita School of Engineering at 21st.
5. Agrasen at 25th.

All these were placed above Manipal Institute of Technology.

6. Almost all the colleges (Except AIT, PESIT, Galgotia) below the 30th rank are relatively unknown.

7. In HR perception MIT tops the list, and IIT Kharagpur, Guwahati are no where to be found.

8. A major flaw in these rankings is that they equate T-Schools with IT schools and take into account majorly IT placements and IT recruiters (During perception rankings). It's about time that they understood that T-Schools are "TECHNOLOGY" Schools imparting complete "ENGINEERING" skills to their students.

9. On a lighter note, the ranking lists IIT Madras as "IIIT Chennai". Yes you read it right! "IIIT" and not "IIT". "Chennai" and not "Madras". The last time I checked they were still called by the name of IIT Madras. Also I didn't know that they were calling IIIT-A as Indian Institute of "Informantion" Technology now-a-days. 

It is about time that these magazines, which self-righteously take upon themselves the responsibility of publishing such rankings without any credibility, learn to either pursue responsible journalism, or decide to shut down their businesses. I would not be surprised if more reputed IITs/NITs decide to ignore these rankings which do nothing, but misguide the future generation of students.

http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/top_stories/2008/108060901.asp
http://dqindia.ciol.com/images08/Cover%20story%20table.pdf

Monday, May 26, 2008

BITSians develop India's first fully indegenous humanoid!

India's only entry in Robogames'08: World's largest Robo competition!

Here is more:

About ACYUT

ACYUT is India's first humanoid Robot conceptualized, fabricated, assembled and programmed by five students from BITS, Pilani. ACYUT has been created on Pilani soil in its very own workshop and labs and is the only entry from India into RoboGames 2008. Check out http://acyut.wordpress.com/ to know more about how ACYUT was
born and how it is gearing up for the biggest contest in robotics. Catch a glimpse of ACYUT at http://www.youtube.com/v/QjAIaNiB1KI&hl=en

About RoboGames

Robogames is the world's largest open robot competition (even the Guinness Book of World Records says so!), being held at Fort Mason, San Francisco, from June 13, 2008 to June 15, 2008. The 2007 event had 249 teams participating from 28 different countries, in 70 different competitive events. There is only one Indian team participating in the 2008 event. www.robogames.net


Kudos to Samay Kohli, Arpit Mohan, Harsh Sinha, Prayag Mukherjee and Sushma Vallabhaneni for keeping the BITS flag flying high!! :D

Here is another video of Acyut:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhxYAeBOROs

Sunday, May 18, 2008

MS/PhD admission statistics for BITS-Pilani, Pilani, Goa and Dubai Campuses, Fall 2008

Here are the admission statistics (for MS, MS/PhD and PhD) for all the three campuses of BITS for 2008.

BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus has done very well in its first ever admit scene ( The first batch of the Goa campus is passing out this year) with admits with full scholarships to universities like University of California – Berkeley, Harvard University, Stanford University, Purdue University etc. 

Average no. of admits per student stood at 3.27 (Total 454 admits for 139 students)

The list given below is NOT exhaustive.


Also,

Approx. 34% of applicants received some form of aid or the other (Fellowship, RA, TA, Tuition Waiver).

Top colleges like CMU (14 students), Stanford (11 students), Cornell (12 students), Purdue (29 students), Georgia Tech (16 students) etc. took a large number of BITSians this year.

These are the best (arguably!) admission statistics I've seen for any Indian University!

Kudos to BITS and BITSians!

MOUs with Foreign universities (Foreign collaborations of BITS)

Here is a list of reputed universities abroad, with whom BITS has collaborations with. The collaborations range from Exchange Programs (For both faculty and students) to joint research facilities. This is again not an exhaustive list and does NOT include Indian companies:

For more information go to: http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/iru_site/mou.html


  1. Advanced Business Language Group Inc, USA
  2. Altera International Limited, Hong Kong
  3. Arizona State University, USA
  4. Ben Gurion University of Neger, Israel
  5. Binghamton University (State University of New York), New York, USA
  6. Braton Bitech Inc, Maryland, USA
  7. Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute
  8. Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore and Tulane University, Louisiane, USA
  9. Cornell University, Ithaca, USA
  10. ETA Ascon, Dubai
  11. Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland
  12. Hogskolan I Boras(University College of Boras), Sweden
  13. Iowa State University, Iowa, USA
  14. Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA
  15. Kathmandu University, Nepal
  16. Lund University, Sweden
  17. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA
  18. Motorola Inc., USA
  19. Nokia Research Centre, Finland
  20. OSTN, Cleveland, UK
  21. Purdue University, Indiana, USA
  22. State University of New York at Buffalo, USA
  23. Techlead Software Engg Pvt. Ltd, USA
  24. The Commonwealth of Virginia George Mason University, USA
  25. The George Washington University, USA
  26. The Jacob Blaust Institutes for Desert Research of Ben Gurion University(BIDR-BGU), Israel
  27. The Tun Hussein Onn National Eye Hospital, Malaysia
  28. Transtech International Inc., Maryland, USA
  29. Tulane University Medical Centre, New Orleans, USA
  30. Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, USA
  31. Universities Of Ontario, Canada
  32. University of Colombo, Sri Lanka
  33. University of Dundee, UK
  34. University of Maryland, College Park, USA
  35. University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
  36. University of Oklahoma, Norman, USA
  37. University of Southern Califonia, USA
  38. University of Windsor, Canada
  39. Utah State University, USA
  40. Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
  41. Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
  42. York University, Canada

Friday, May 2, 2008

BITSAA and IPL Partnership! Wow! :D

Ahh! Finally BITSians joined the IPL frenzy!! Here is a first of its kind honor bestowed on ANY college community (read: BITSians!) by IPL, Rajastan Royals. This a mail I received sometime back:::: 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Dear BITSians 

BITSAA is glad to announce that Rajasthan Royals (IPL Cricket Team based in Jaipur) and BITSAA have signed an exclusive partnership deal to create the first International fan base of an IPL team. A press release to this effect went out to the India Newswire today (see below). 

This deal came to BITSAA through Dreamcricket.com (founded by BITSian Venu Palaparthi- 1987 batch). Given that Rajasthan Royals is the natural home team for BITSians because of the memorable times we spent at Pilani, BITSAA was more than happy to oblige to kickstart a new trend in Indian sport history. 

As part of this deal BITSians around the world will get: 
• 50% discount on all season tickets for all Home Games (Played at Jaipur) 
• 20% discount on purchase of 10 or more tickets for specific games (i.e not season tickets). 
• Free tickets for home games that BITSAA will raffle to its members for specific promotions 
• 50% discount to BITSians who may want to purchase a VIP box for the season 
• Special tickets to RR away games like the ones in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata 
• Discounts on RR merchandise 
• Articles from Shane Warne and other Rajasthan Royals players for the Alumni Magazine, Sandpaper 2.0 

Please watch out for an announcement on how BITSians can avail of these benefits for IPL games. Send your thoughts and feedback to garg@bitsaa.org 

Thanks, 
Ashish Garg 
CEO, BITSAA International 

Here is the link:: 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 
Rajasthan Royals announces Global Fan Community alliance with BITS Pilani International Alumni Association! 
The first international fan base by an IPL team is launched! 

Jaipur, 30th April 2008: Emerging Media, owners of the Jaipur IPL franchise, Rajasthan Royals announced a first-of-its-kind global fan alliance by signing an exclusive relationship with BITS Pilani International Alumni Association. 
With this association Rajasthan Royals will induct over 30,000 BITS Pilani Alumni into the Rajasthan Royals support base, providing all members of the community with special offers, free tickets and discounted merchandise of the Rajasthan Royals. In addition, the Rajasthan Royals will also contribute to the BITSAA community with special articles written by Shane Warne and a charity auction at a later stage. 
BITS Pilani, the premier engineering and sciences institution is located in Rajasthan, only 5 hours away from Jaipur. Rajasthan Royals is also extending the benefits of this alliance to over 5000 students and members of faculty of BITS Pilani. 
Manoj Badale, Chairman of the Rajasthan Royals said, “We are extremely excited about this partnership. BITS-ians worldwide are a fine representation of India, highly educated, well settled and truly global citizens, yet deeply connected by a certain bond they share. With this alliance, we hope to provide them another reason to bond: supporting a fierce team in the Royals.” 
“BITS Pilani alumni around the world are rooting for Rajasthan Royal’s victory in the IPL tournament. Go Royals!”, said Professor S.P.Kothari, Chairman of BITSAA, who is currently Deputy Dean at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

“This is the foundation of what will be a huge community for us in due course. We have a number of initiatives on the anvil, both online and offline for increased interaction between our global members and of course, the Warnie Army has begun to take shape”, said Ravi Krishnan, Vice Chairman of the Rajasthan Royals 
Commenting on the relationship, Fraser Castellino, CEO of the Rajasthan Royals said, “Of course, the fact that Pilani and Jaipur share a home in Rajasthan was the primary connection between us. This is another first for us and we look forward to support from the BITS-ians.” 
With Shane Warne being the only international captain of an IPL franchise and a few fine winning performances, the Rajasthan Royals are already attracting fans from all over the world. 

"Rajasthan Royals is the natural home team for the global BITS Pilani Alumni because of the memorable times we spent at Pilani, Rajasthan. BITSians all around the world are rooting for Shane Warne and the team", said Ashish Garg, CEO of BITSAA. 

Thursday, April 17, 2008

BITSians of Note - I

Here goes the inaugural profile:

Name: Mr. Mahesh Ramasubramanian
Batch: 93, Computer Science
Present designation: Digital Effects Supervisor
Company: Dreamworks Animation, Greater Los Angeles, USA

After completing his under-graduation from BITS in 97 Mahesh went on to the Cornell University to do an MS in Computer Graphics. After completing his MS he went on to work at Pacific Data Images as a Visual Effects Animator where he worked on movies like Shrek, Shrek-2. The company was then bought by Dreamworks SKG where he worked on movies like Madagascar. Presently he is working at Dreamworks Animation and has also worked on movies like Over the Hedge, The bee movie, etc. (Been the lead!)

Mahesh has his own IMDB page (Wow!) which lists:

  1. Monsters vs. Aliens (2009) (digital effects supervisor)

  2. Bee Movie (2007) (head of effects)
  3. Over the Hedge (2006) (head of effects)
  4. Madagascar (2005) (visual effects lead)
  5. Shrek 2 (2004) (visual effects)
  6. Shrek 4-D (2003) (visual effects)
    ... aka Shrek 3-D (USA: DVD title)
  7. Shrek (2001) (effects artist)

In 2005 Mahesh also won the "Global 30 under 30" award under Arts and Culture category instituted by BITSAA in recognition of thirty students or alums for their extraordinary achievements before the age of 30.

Hats off to you Sir!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Updates: Facts!

This one is going to be a regular one. 

1. 25% teams in Eureka finals (2 out of 8 teams in finals, one from Goa and another from Pilani)
2. The first book on verilog was written by a BITSian. (Mr. Yatin Trivedi, Director Industry Partnership Programs, Magma Design Automation, USA)
3. The two indians on the 50 topmost connected people on Linked in: BITSians. :)
4. Ipv6 standard developed at BITS-Pilani.
5. Only college in India to have not agreed to reservations based on caste! BITS only entertains reservations based on Merit!
6. The first online examinations in India: BITSAT.
7. The admission selectivity is around 2%.
8. The Entrepreneurship Cell, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership is one of the Top-5 such cells in India.
9. Companies like Onida, Tanishq, Amkette found by BITSians (Full list will be up soon!).
10. ISB topper for this 2008: BITSian, Chitra Raghunath (http://www.isb.edu/gradday2008/ScholarsofExcellence.shtml)

More to come...

More about Goldman Sachs Leaders

To read more:
http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/NewsModule/detail_page.aspx?id=214

Goldman Sachs Foundation conducts the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program with the motive to train and develop tomorrows educators, policy makers, business leaders, research scientists, social entrepreneurs, and other professionals and to create an international network through which they can share ideas, work collaboratively, and begin to change the world, together. In this regard, the Institute of International Education (IIE), in partnership with educational organizations in selected countries, conducted an annual international competition at 100 top-ranked universities in about 19 countries. Initially, the foundation named 150 Goldman Sachs Global Leaders, Class of 2008 from the world. They were further interviewed for the next level to select a group of fiften (from 75 all over the world) to receive an all-expense-paid trip to represent the group at the Global Leadership Institute in New York City in July 2008.


Last two years
100 universities --- 1 BITS Pilani
300 winners      --- 10 from BITS

The universities are allowed to nominate maximum 10 students, i.e., an yield rate of 50%, if BITS nominated 10 each year! Wow!
Congratulations to Srikumar, Rachit, M Harsha Vardhan and Anantha Padmanabhan! :)

PS-II list out

233 companies registered for provinding internships (Practice School) to BITSians.

Surprise Entrants
----------------------

Dreamworks, USA. (Wow!)
Insead, Singapore (Finally Infineon, Singapore guys will have lots of company!)

Stipend has increased for a lot of companies with the highest in India being Rs. 30000 (by infinera) for BE and Rs. 35000 (by Cisco) for Higher Degree Students. The highest stipend outside India is by Insead, France - 1440 Euros followed closely by Cypress Semiconductors - 3000$. Dreamworks has yet not released the stipend amount (Which I guess will more than the others)

Way to go Mighty BITSians!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

4 BITSians named Goldman Sachs Global Leaders 2008

Disclaimer: All the posts on this blog are meant to talk about BITS and not intended to offend any other college/university students. (You exactly know what I am talking about!) Please do not claim anything until you can give facts/news clips. Do not make comparisons between various colleges until they serve a higher purpose. The aim of this blog is to talk about achievements of BITS and BITSians and not to undermine others. Unless comparisons are fruitful to our discussion, they will be duly rewarded with a click on the delete button.

You can read the original article here:
http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/NewsModule/detail_page.aspx?id=203

Four students of BITS Pilani - Anantha Padmanabhan (2006B1A3338), M Harsha Vardhan (2006A7PS156), Srikumar Murthy (2006A3PS235) and Rachit Chandra (2006A7PS012) have been named as Goldman Sachs Global Leaders. The Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program identifies exceptional, second-year college students and provides them with training that will enhance their leadership abilities. Thee four students are among the 29 Global Leaders selected from top 10 universities of India and among the 150 students selected worldwide from close to 100 top universities and colleges. Each student will be awarded US$3,000, and given the title of Goldman Sachs Global Leader in the Regional Recognition Ceremony at Mumbai. In the next round, 15 of them shall be selected through personal interviews at Mumbai to represent India at the annual Global Leadership Institute in New York. During the week long stint at the Institute, students shall participate in leadership training and seminars on timely international issues. Last year, six students from BITS, Pilani won the Global Leader title taking the tally to 10 in two years. Goldman Sachs Foundation conducts the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program with the motive to train and develop tomorrows educators, policy makers, business leaders, research scientists, social entrepreneurs, AND other professionals AND TO CREATE an international network through which they can share ideas, WORK collaboratively, AND BEGIN TO change the world, together.

The top 10 universities which were shortlisted from India can be found here:
http://www.iie.org/programs/global_leaders/universities.htm
  • Birla Institute of Technology and Science
  • Fergusson College
  • Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
  • Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi
  • Loyola College, Chennai
  • Mt. Carmel College, Bangalore
  • The National Law School of India University
  • Nizam College
  • Presidency College, Kolkata
  • St. Stephen's College, Delhi
  • St. Xavier's College
It is a proud moment for us all. Best of luck to these future leaders!

BITSAT: Selectivity of 1.71%, 2008-2009!

Disclaimer: All the posts on this blog are meant to talk about BITS and not intended to offend any other college/university students. (You exactly know what I am talking about!) Please do not claim anything until you can give facts/news clips. Do not make comparisons between various colleges until they serve a higher purpose. The aim of this blog is to talk about achievements of BITS and BITSians and not to undermine others. Unless comparisons are fruitful to our discussion, they will be duly rewarded with a click on the delete button.

You can read the original article here:
http://discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/NewsModule/detail_page.aspx?id=196

For the first time in India, in 2005,BITS Pilani introduced a computer based online admission test known as BITSAT (BITS Admission Test). BITSAT has been witnessing a phenomenal increase in the number of applications. BITSAT 2008 has received 1,16,980 applications for 2000 seats ( 800 in Pilani and 600 each in Goa and Hyderabad Campus). As compared to last year, the number of girl-applicants has increased by 4% and this year it is 32% (37460). Last year the test was conducted in 16 centres across India. To cater to the increase in number of applications BITS has announced three new centers ( making the total number of centers 19 )in Delhi , Bhubhaneswar and Nagpur. BITSAT2008 will be offered from 9th May to 12th June. Another significant change BITS has introduced this year is that it has allowed students with Physics Chemistry and Biology also for BITSAT-2008 and they are eligible for its M.Sc(Hons) Biologial Science and B.Pharm(Hons) programmes.

A selectivity percentage of 1.70969% in 2008-2009. Perhaps the best in Asia. The statistics on the other university(s) with best selectivity (IITs) are here: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Indian_Institute_of_Technology_Joint_Entrance_Examination?t=3.
(Their authenticity needs to be verified) according to which for 2006 their selectivity is close to 1.81%. (I am unable to include 2008-2009 data here, since I don't have access to it. Can someone help me here?) I have included IT-Bhu and ISM-Dhanbad because:

1. ISM and BHU have long been admitting students by JEE. They definitely deserve to be in the list.
2. Due to the more technical problem of all 300000 students giving JEE for all the IITs, ISM and BHU. If I count only 4078 seats for IITs, then the number 300000 should also be reduced to an appropriate number which I am unable to estimate correctly.

Here are the acceptance percentages for various US universities:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-11-02-collegerates_x.htm

HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
19,690 2,054 10.4%

STANFORD UNIVERSITY 
19,172 2,486 13.0%

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
10,466 1,665 15.9%

DUKE UNIVERSITY
17,749 3,804 21.4%


I'd like to add that best selectivity does not mean the best input of students. Nevertheless, the input in BITS has always been one of the best in the country and that is proven by the amazing distinctions which BITSians have held over time.

Finally!

Ahh! It's two in the night, I have lots of work to do and have office tomorrow. But I have something sacred to do! I am writing this post! Why you ask?!

Well, I love BITS-Pilani and this has been the blog I've always wanted to write/compile! I am damn proud to be a BITSian (some people tell me that i'm infatuated with it!) and I just love it when I read news about BITS! I've always wanted to compile it all under one roof and this blog is an effort exactly to do that. And of-course as long as you are related to BITS, you are invited (read: urged!) to contribute. Just send a mail to akaash[dot]bits[at]gmail[dot]com and I will add you in the authors list.

The journey begins here...