Friday, March 5, 2010

Green Globe Foundation YUVA Award goes to BITS Pilani Chemical Engineering Student Raghav Mimani

(Refer: prlog.org/10540541-green-globe-foundation-yuva-award-goes-to-bits-pilani-chemical-engineering-student-raghav-mimani.html)

Youth who bear the brunt of the negative impacts of climate change, also symbolize a great force in combating it and carry immense potential to be the flag bearers of change.

Feb 19, 2010 – It is known that Climate change not only impacts the ecology but has far-reaching consequences for the society, culture, and politics of the nations. Youth have the potential to be the change-makers, who through their knowledge, observations and action, can go the way and show the way to combat the challenges of climate change for a greener today and for an environment that will nurture the future generations.

World Sustainable Development Forum DSDS 2010 the tenth Delhi Sustainable Development Summit – Beyond Copenhagen: New Pathways to Sustainable Development took place during February 5-7, 2010. One of the highlights of the DSDS is the Green Globe Foundation Award which is a WIZCRAFT initiative with TERI as Knowledge partner and OUTLOOK as Media partner. Green Globe Foundation has the motto Together we can save the world and the awards are for honouring the real heroes who are making efforts to save the planet.

This year the YUVA (Youth Unite for Voluntary Action) was bagged by Raghav Mimani third year B.E. (Hons) Chemical Engineering student of Birla Institute of Technology and Science – BITS Pilani. In a glittering function held at Delhi, Raghav received the award from Mr. Jigmi Yoser Thinley Prime Minister of Bhutan. Raghav joined BITS Pilani in the year 2007 after clearing the online BITSAT examination.

Its indeed a matter of pride that Raghav also had participated in the “World Youth Meeting for Sustainable Future” held at Bari, Italy during January 19-21, 2010. For Raghav who is presently the General Secretary of the BITS Pilani Students Union, entrepreneurship is a Mission with Passion and like a true BITSian he firmly believes that there are no dreams too large, no innovation unimaginable and no frontiers beyond reach.

Proud to be BITSian Raghav Mimani is bound to climb many more green peaks in the years to come.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Proud to be BITSian Anu Hassan wins Kalaimamani Award

(Refer: prlog.org/10431458-proud-to-be-bitsian-anu-hassan-wins-kalaimamani-award.html)


This award is given to artists who have rendered valuable service in the field of performing art.

Anu who holds coveted dual degree MSc (Hons) and MMS from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (popularly known as BITS) Pilani is a Multi Talented Entrepreneur, Film Actress, Model, Jazz Singer, Martial Arts Bungee Jumper, Scuba Diver, TV Star and TV Anchor well known for “Koffee with Anu” show.

Organized by the Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka (Literature, Music, Theatre) Mandram, the 42nd Kalaimamani awards took place at the Kalaivanar Arangam Chennai on November 28, 2009 and the winners received the awards and medals from Governor Surjit Singh Barnala and Chief Minister Karunanidhi.

In an exclusive message to BITSAA, Anu Hassan was emphatic in stating that her alma mater BITS Pilani in addition to academic excellence gave ample encouragement to culture oriented activities during her student days (1988 – 1993) and that she takes pride in stating the same.

Proud to be BITSian Anu Hassan is bound to climb many more peaks in the years to come.

For Alam Ali Kayam Khan to do SRK BITS Pilani says Main Hoon Na

(Refer: prlog.org/10430455-for-alam-ali-kayam-khan-to-do-srk-bits-pilani-says-main-hoon-na.html)


Proud to be BITSian Alam Ali firmly believes that When a Mission is taken up with Passion, there are no dreams too large, no innovation unimaginable and no frontiers beyond reach.

In mid 2007, 95 year old Nola Ochs completed her degree in General Studies with history focus from Fort Hays State University Kansas USA to break the Guinness record held by Mozelle Richardson, who at age 90 in 2004 had received a journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma.

The US universities have the academic regulations and flexibilities such as modular approach, credit based curriculum, continuous internal evaluation, choice of electives, interdisciplinary approach, substitution as well as withdrawal from courses combined with well maintained easily retrievable student records etc built in the system to facilitate such things to happen.

Reading the above, one might conclude that such things happening in India and Indian University is unthinkable. All that is possible in India is a Bollywood potboiler such as Main Hoon Na with Shahrukh Khan going to college after many years as undercover agent stuff and making box office history.

For those who know about Birla Institute of Technology and Science popularly known as BITS Pilani will say that well such a thing is possible in India also. For those who think the other side is green for sure have not seen the grass at Pilani and the college Fest aptly known as OASIS which is a jewel in the crown among such Festivals in India. Students of this Institute take pride in stating that they came here by taking the road not taken by others and that has made all the difference – lines from the inspirational poem Road Not taken by Robert Frost.

Alam Ali Kayam Khan a topper from Rajasthan Board joined BITS Pilani in 1977 to do his B.E. (Hons) Electrical & Electronics (EEE) which was of five year duration then. Due to personal and pressing family problems, he took the decision to discontinue from the degree and went into oblivion. His batch mates who had joined with him graduated in 1982 and ended up being dreamers, performers and achievers in many walks of life. Year 2007 being the silver jubilee year of graduation, for the reunion to be held in October 2007at Pilani organized by the BITS Alumni Association – BITSAA, Alam Ali’s friends located him in Ranasar village in Churu district of Rajasthan teaching in a school science and mathematics to kids and brought him to join the reunion.

Pushed by his batch mates and his own burning desire to complete the degree from BITS Pilani, in November 2007, Alam Ali applied for readmission and appealed to reinstate him. BITS Pilani brought back his records, worked out the balance of curriculum to be completed in four semesters to enable Alam Ali become eligible for the award of the degree.

From January 2008 for the next two years, Alam Ali stayed in the hostel with students who were close to the age of his eldest daughter, ate in the mess, attended classes, wrote examinations, spent night outs in the All Night Canteen (ANC) and the famous Sarath Babu FoodKing restaurant etc. First day when he entered the class, other students thought that the faculty had come to deliver the lecture and were pleasantly shocked when they found him sitting along with them. He was referred as Sir by his class mates even though he was one among them.

On November 24, 2009, in the farewell tea party for graduating students, Alam Ali broke his long silence and gave an emotional and inspirational speech. He profusely thanked the Vice Chancellor and all officers of the Institute for enabling him to achieve his burning desire. He had words of praise for Dr RK Mittal Deputy Director Administration – Dean Academic Registration and Counselling Division and Dr BR Natarajan Dean Work Integrated Learning Programmes who had mentored him all through.

He made it a point to thank Dr V K Coubey Group Leader EEE who guided his final semester thesis. He got a loud round of applause when he thanked the young fellows with whom he attended classes for respecting him and helping him to catch up with difficult subjects and new technologies. Alam Ali became
emotional while thanking his batch mates for standing by him all along to ensure that he accomplished his
dream to complete the degree from BITS Pilani.

Alam Ali was emphatic in stating that BITSians are destined to achieve the impossible and he was proud in joining the worldwide community of BITS Alumni.
Those who know Alam Ali close enough will vouch for the fact about his intimate knowledge of Vishnu Purana, Upanishads and believe it or not Vedas as well as Buddhism.

If any one thought that after all these years, Alam Ali must have come out of BITS Pilani as Five Point Someone, you will be surprised to know that he has cleared his B.E.(Hons) EEE with a First Division and he is not one among 3 Idiots who may be found here and there.

For Alam Ali, this Id-ul-Zuha (Bakrid) festival is special and his entire Ranasar village in Churu district is waiting to welcome him. Who knows Alam Ali may be destined to achieve his next dream of doing his masters from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology – KAUST Jeddah Saudi Arabia.

BITS Pilani Finance student Aayush Deora Habitat Young Visionary Award 2010 Runner-up


(Refer: prlog.org/10517321-bits-pilani-finance-student-aayush-deora-habitat-young-visionary-award-2010-runnerup.html)

His role model is none other than IT Czar Infosys N R Narayana Murthy.


Feb 03, 2010 – Starting from 2004, India Habitat Centre has been engaging with the youth, who are successor generation and form the largest component of our population, through the Habitat Young Visionary Award competition. For more details click indiahabitat.org/main.htm

This award carries a fully funded summer programme at Cambridge University and is awarded to a young voice that expresses the vision to build a society of their choice based on a theme that enables and urges the young minds to search their values and relate them to the future. The runner-up gets an internship at National Geographic Hong Kong.

The competition for the Habitat Young Visionary Award is open to students all over India who go through three rounds of rigorous participation, at the end of which the finalists are chosen to compete for the Award. Participants are required to write an essay on their specific vision, based on a theme that is provided each year. The theme for this year was “The Change you wish to see”.

A committee of academic experts then evaluates these essays and selects the best ten from each zone - North & East and South & West. These semi-finalists are invited to present their vision in greater detail before a panel of judges comprising of well-known and eminent persons - journalists, bureaucrats, writers, politicians, policy-makers and achievers. This year, the semi-finals for North & East zones took place in India Habitat Centre, Delhi and for South & West zones in IIT Madras, Chennai. Three semi-finalists each from the two Semi-Finals - a total of six - were short-listed for the Finals, in which their vision was questioned in greater detail.

The grand finale for the Habitat Young Visionary Award 2010 was conducted at India Habitat Centre Lodhi Road New Delhi on 30 January 2010. The finals had six contestants - Rishika Das Roy from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata; Neha Kamra from Indira Gandhi Institute of Technology, GGSIPU, Delhi; Kushal Bhimjiani from National Law School of India, Bangalore; Rohit Keshav Pothukuchi from NALSAR, Hyderabad; Abhinav Aggarwal from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai and Aayush Deora from Birla Institute of Technology and Science – BITS Pilani.

In the hotly contested finals, Rishika Das was declared winner for her presentation on Saving Lives of victims after natural disasters while Aayush Deora was declared runner-up for his presentation on Empowering India through Education. It is indeed a matter of pride that Anurag Dutta also a student of BITS Pilani won the runner-up position in 2009.

Aayush Deora did his schooling in Calcutta Boys School and joined BITS Pilani in the year 2006 for the MSc (Tech) Finance degree program after clearing the online entrance examination BITSAT. In September last year as Group Leader for the team with 2 other BITSians Anirudh Mandhana and Gaurav Shahlot, he participated in the Youth Business Development Competition 2009 organized by the Oxford Business Network for Social Entrepreneurship - The Said Business School and won the first position. He is all geared up to participate in ASES (Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society) scheduled during April 4-10, 2010 at Stanford University, USA.

Proud to be BITSian Aayush Deora is bound to climb many more peaks in the coming years and bring laurels to BITS Pilani.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Novel “BITSAA-Silicon Valley Miles Program” helps BITS student present at IEEE Nano Conference


Arwind Pavan's personal account of how he won the BITSAA Miles Program last year...

It was a lazy saturday evening when I resorted to my most-repeated activity of the day - check email. And there it was! My paper to the 9th IEEE International Conference on Nanotechnology to be held in Italy had been accepted. This was followed by franctic calls to my guide, friends and family to convey this news. However, once the initial bubble had burst a few days later, realization dawned. These international conferences, inspite of the prestige it garners, comes at a hefty price. The registration alone costed me close to $500. It was in this predicament that I contacted BITSAA. Everything was stacked against me - I was not on campus to get the signatures of Dean, SWD on the forms, it was only a month before I left for the conference while the official deadline for these issues is a minimum of two months, and to top it all, the prices of the flight tickets and accomodation kept increasing by the day.Notwithstanding these stumbling block, BITSAA did come forward in a genuine effort to help me not miss this golden opportunity. And I definitely owe Dilip from BITSAA, who took much pains to arrange for my tickets to Genoa, a travelogue of my experience.

Needless to say, IEEE NANO 2009 saw some of the best brains in the world presenting their research ideas and breakthroughs. It covered a whole range of topics including nano-biomedicine, issues in nm feature size fabrication, the latest fad on graphene and nanowire devices, organic materials and terahertz nanoelectronics to name a few. All of the sessions that I had attended had been a true cornucopia of learning and interesting research themes that were of immediate concern to current day problems of energy and security. At this juncture, I would definitely give it to BITS for the brilliant idea of offering the dual-degree scheme. With a background in Physics and EEE, I was able to fully appreciate the problems and their solutions in cutting edge areas of technology. I was able to seamlessly integrate what I learnt in Physics with the plethora of applications that Electronics engg. emphasizes on. What BITS offers in these two degrees is often partial to students who would like to take up nanotechnology as their research area. By the end of last week, I stood enchanted, Physics being the enchantress and for this, I definitely have a lot of professors at BITS to thank.

Having been brought up in an environments surrounded by our own folk, it was refreshing and exciting to meet new people and along with it, new ideas and differing view-points. I had the good opportunity to meet a lot of eminent faculty and industry barons in this field. Notable among them were my discussions with Prof. Steven Goodnick, Programs Chair for the conference, and Director of the Centre for Nanotechnology in Arizona State University. He told me he had been to BITS Pilani and was vocally happy that our work is among the best in the world. I could also meet up and network with a lot of Indians, students and professionals, including BITSians from abroad working in different areas. The numerous discussions I had with all the professors and graduate students gave a lot of inside information on how research happens around the world. It probably taught me the most improtant thing that I would need all my life- the art of networking. On a lighter note, it was a classic case of culture shock in the first few days of my trip. The food they eat, the etiquette they follow, the customs they believe in - all of them affect the way they run their lives in a very profound way. And when we are one among them, I realized it becomes very essential to realize this and adapt to the new surroudings.

I certainly believe that an institution derives its strength from its alumni group. And in our case, it cannot be more than true. If we are able to enjoy the benefits of night-out sessions of counter-strike on LAN, the design assignments in ADVD, almost paid trips around the world for conferences, a sounding board for Ph.D / MBA aspirants to name a few, we have only BITSAA to thank for. For me, and so many others whose lives have been touched by BITSAA, it had been truly defining moments. Without the help from the BITSAA SVC miles program, it might have been almost impossible for me to make the trip of my life. Another three months and I would become a previleged member of the BITS Alumni Association, ready to take on the world, and help fellow BITSians nurture and realize their dreams...

May the BITSian spirit live on...


(Refer prlog.org/10356734-novel-bitsaasilicon-valley-miles-program-helps-bits-student-present-at-ieee-nano-conference.html)

Arvind Pawan represented BITS Pilani at the prestigious 2009 IEEE Nano Conference held in Italy. The only undergraduate student selected to present, he fully credits BITSAA-Silicon Valley Miles Program in making this unique opportunity a reality.

Oct 02, 2009 – Silicon Valley: “This has been an amazing experience! It was exciting to meet eminent academicians like Professor Steven Goodnick, Programs Chair for the conference & Director of the center for nanotech at the Arizona State University and gain new perspectives and ideas. It was a rich experience, not just from an academic point of view, but also from a cultural viewpoint. I thank BITSAA-Silicon Valley for providing me with the travel scholarship in a timely fashion”, said Arvind Pawan, class of 2010, BITS Pilani.

Arvind Pawan was the only undergraduate student invited to present at the IEEE Nano 2009. The BITSAA Silicon Valley Miles Program enabled Arvind to travel to Italy, present his paper at the prestigious IEEE conference and interact with leading researchers in Nanotechnology, his field of study at BITS Pilani.

In 2006, a student from BITS Pilani was invited to present his paper at the ACM conference held in Milan but he had no means to pay for the air ticket. That was the impetus for establishing BITSAA-Silicon Valley Miles Program, an initiative by BITS Alumni Association - Silicon Valley (BITSAA-Silicon Valley), to support the international travel requirements of students and faculty from BITS Pilani. This is a very unique program that is funded by donated airline miles, which may otherwise expire and be wasted. Besides supporting travel requirements to renowned international conferences, BITSAA-Silicon Valley Miles Program opens new opportunities for both students and faculty of BITS Pilani to interact with the best in the world.

Arvind Pawan, a dual degree, electrical engineer and M.Sc Physics, student from the class of 2010 was the very first recipient of this program. His story is a testimony to the success of BITSAA-Silicon Valley Miles Program and its objective to enable BITS Pilani to be more active globally.

“We are extremely happy with the success of our first award in this program; it is one more way to further the potential of BITS Pilani at the global level. We are even more delighted to learn that Arvind’s paper co-authored with his Professor V.K. Chaubey and his class mate has been accepted at the IEEE International nanoelectronics conference to be held in Honk Kong in January 2010”, said Jayan Ramankutty, Founding President, BITSAA Silicon Valley.


About BITSAA Silicon Valley Miles Donation Program
The program was launched in April 2009 with a seed fund, provided by some members of BITSAA-Silicon Valley and sufficient for first few travel awards. The mission is to create a sustainable program funded through donated airline miles to support international travel requirements of both faculty and students from BITS Pilani to actively participate in reputed conferences. BITSAA-Silicon Valley has established a relationship with Rotary International to consolidate donated Airline Frequent Flyer Miles and award travel tickets to the selected candidates. Currently, the program is accepting United Airlines Frequent Flyer Miles.

More details are available at bitsaa.org/?page=Miles (BITSAA Silicon Valley Miles Donation Program) or you can send an email to milesadmin@bitsaa.org .

About BITSAA Silicon Valley
BITSAA, Silicon Valley Inc., is a not-for-profit alumni association of BITS incorporated in Silicon Valley, USA with a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status and Tax Id 82-0587411. Its mission is to enable alumni to initiate and participate in activities for the general development of BITS Pilani, its faculty and students. Additionally, it aims to strengthen the ties among alumni, faculty and friends of BITS through such initiatives.

What is BITSAA Graduate Application Scholarship?
See: bitsaa.org/?gradappscholarship

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

BITSAA origins & 9/11

There was an incident many years back that was one of the contributing factors in the formation of BITSAA and its show of strength. Today BITS Alumni Association International is a powerful huge organisation helping in a number of causes for the BITSians. I am taking these 2 very old articles from rediff that you may or may not have come across.

(Refer: rediff.com/news/2006/sep/14spec1.htm
and rediff.com/news/2003/sep/16spec1.htm)

He died. She killed herself.



When she learned that her husband was one among the passengers on the ill-fated American Airlines Flight 11 that slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Kalahasthi Prasanna's contract with the world ended.

It took her another 37 days to formally part ways with a world she no longer wanted to live in.

Five years on, friends of the family still battle guilt, sorrow and anger when they recall how Prasanna ended her life -- she hung herself from a rope strung from a chin-up bar in her apartment.

Vamsikrishna Pendyala, Prasanna's husband, never knew what it was to have an easy life.

Son of a technician at Avadi, near Chennai, India, Vamsi -- as his friends call him -- relied on hard work to find his way into BITS, Pilani, Rajasthan, one of India's premier engineering colleges.

That is where he met Ronnie Verghese -- in the queue of people registering for courses.

Vamsi was an average student, but by dint of hard work ensured that his grades were always steady. "He was really struggling to get the money," Verghese recalls. "He borrowed money, he wanted to go for higher studies, to get a better life, improve the lot of his family."

Verghese partied while Vamsi slogged; it was Vamsi's meticulous note-taking that helped Verghese pass his exams.

The two friends then held internships at the same places and kept in touch until, in 1992, Vamsi decided to study in the US. He worked at a petrol pump station there so that he could continue graduate school at the University of Missouri, Rolla in the Midwest.

He was working on his thesis there when he got a job at Monsanto in Missouri. He gave up on graduate school, but then Monsanto laid him off.

"He found a job in Houston and was working there," Verghese says, of his friend's life between 1994-1995.

It didn't get better in a hurry. Vamsi scrounged money together to buy a used sports car -- a Nissan 350 ZX -- to get to and from school. Came a day of unusually high rain in Texas, and his car was totalled.

"He lived his life with great difficulty," Verghese recalls. "I've seen him live in Houston on Thair Sadam (yoghurt rice) and pickle. He could not afford anything else. He never let his family know what was going through, though.

"He wanted to make sure his family didn't suffer."

And then, things seemed to change, for the better. He found jobs in Los Angeles, and ended up as a project manager for the consulting firm DTI.

He went back to India to attend the marriage of his brother Srinivas -- and his eye lighted on his sister-in-law's cousin, Prasanna.

The two families smiled benignly on what, despite their approval, could be deemed a 'love' marriage. Despite the usual immigration problems, Prasanna joined him in Los Angeles and began training under a dentist so that she could join the dentistry school at the University of South California.

As a project manager, Vamsi's job involved a lot of travelling. In September 2001, he went to Boston for what he thought was a quick job, but had to stay on to deal with another project.

He was to return that weekend, but got held up by another project.

Verghese recalls a conversation with Prasanna, in which she told her husband's friend how she had asked him to come home that weekend -- he could go back again if needed, she told him.

Vamsi, whose life was lived on the twin principles of dedication and hard work, decided that he would rather work on the project through the weekend, and then return.

On the morning of Tuesday September 11, he and a friend rushed to Logan [ Images ] Arport in Boston. He was the last person to get on board American's Flight 11 to Los Angeles -- and he likely considered himself lucky to have squeaked through in time.

As Vamsi rushed through the airport lounge and towards the departure gate, Flight 11 had already begun boarding -- and walking into the aircraft were, among others, Mohammad Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari.

Prasanna had insisted that he call her before boarding. Vamsi couldn't, in his rush, but once on board the flight he called his wife and left her a message on voice mail:

'Hi, sweetie, I've just boarded the flight, and I'll see you in Los Angeles this afternoon' was the message.

Neena Mukkamala first met Prasanna during the interview at the USC College of Dentistry in Los Angeles. "There were 30 Indians in our class. We were the only two Telugu people," she recalls.

They were classmates and, separated from each other by one student, worked in the same laboratory. When the lab work ended at midnight or later, Prasanna used to drop Neena home before driving to her own apartment on Catalina Street, downtown LA.

Because Neena's husband was in Delaware then and Vamsi was often away, the two found time to bond, discussing their husbands, family and the school work that ruled their lives.

"She was a very nice girl," Neena recalls. "She was outgoing and very friendly with everyone.

"Her husband used to go to work at different places. She was my main friend there. He used to be a good man, too. They were more like friends than wife and husband."

It was during their second semester together that Vamsi began working in Boston.

On September 11, Prasanna called Neena. "She said something about the flights," says Neena.

By then, the planes had struck the WTC, and the horrific images were all over the television screens. Prasanna, however, did not know which flight her husband had taken.

She bunked school and stayed home, waiting, hoping. 'I am getting scared,' she told Neena.

Verghese, meanwhile, was calling around to see if all his friends were safe. "I sent an e-mail to all my friends," he recalls. "I left a message with Prasanna.

"She called after a day or so to say he (Vamsi) was on Flight 11."

Her friends never saw Prasanna collapse; they never saw her break down.

"She was all upset." Neena recalls. "But she has this thing, she would not cry in front of other people. She was like a coconut: a hard shell, and soft inside."

"She was the bindaas type, a very strong person," Rajiv Patel, president of the class of 2003 at USC, recalls. "It was very surprising."

Prasanna refused counselling; she told her friends she was alright, that she would get on with her life. Neena kept calling her, meeting up with her, but Prasanna increasingly preferred spending time with a senior, one who had earlier lost her first husband.

'I want to talk to Neena, but she gets more upset than me,' she told the senior student according to Neena, who admits she was more prone to breaking down than Prasanna.

Neena recalls classmates asking her, is she okay? Why is she not crying?

Her father, brother and father-in-law had all come over; Neena had started attending classes again. Friends like Verghese and Neena, and Nadadur Kumar, then associate director of the office of international services at USC, were increasingly confident that Prasanna would recover from the tragedy, would eventually become whole again.

There were subtle signs, though, of the tragedy in the making. In separate conversations, Prasanna told the senior student, and Verghese, about one time when Vamsi joked about what she would do if he was not there.

'I'm not going to stay without you,' Prasanna said she told her husband then.

Was that the sort of thing young couples tell each other? Was there, in her retelling that story not once, but twice, a hint of what she intended?

The senior student, who for personal reasons did not want to be named, recalled Prasanna asking if it was possible to buy in stores the (poisonous) solvent they used in laboratories; the explanation was she wanted to clean something at home.

There was also, for those looking for straws in the wind, the fact that her sister in India had earlier committed suicide.

Verghese called Prasanna October 18. She was not in a mood to chat, Prasanna told him. She told her brother to go visit relatives in Chicago.

October 19, Neena noticed that Prasanna had not come to school. When she recalls that day, she unconsciously shifts into present tense -- for her, as for all friends of the couple, the immediacy of the tragedy has not been dimmed by the passage of time.

"She's not calling back; something's wrong," Neena recalls.

After multiple calls to Prasanna's home, Neena called Rajiv Patel at the International Dentistry Program, and asked him to come over to Prasanna's house.

"The house was locked," Neena recalls. "There was a sari or comforter hanging outside her window. The car was there."

That worried Neena -- Prasanna could not have gone anywhere at all without it.

Rajiv and Neena stood outside the door, and tried Prasanna's cell phone. They heard it ringing inside the house.

The lady who was taking care of the property would not open the door for them. "She suspected something was wrong. She called later. I went there during lunch. I guess she called the cops," Neena recalls.

She called Bob Taylor, deputy chief of the department of public safety at the university.

"We notified the LA police department," says Taylor, now chief probation officer of the Los Angeles County Probation Department. "We worked with them, confirming that she was a student of the university.

"She had committed suicide: she hung herself."

In the apartment, the police found a receipt, dated October 15, for a length of rope. Beside her was a letter from then New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, inviting her to a memorial service scheduled for October 28.

Neena did not enter the apartment -- she could not take that final look at her friend. "I didn't see Prasanna," Neena recalls. "I didn't dare go into the house; my friends would not let me."

The words stop. Memories, still fresh after five years, well up as tears.

Rajiv Patel, too, did not see the body. "We were fortunate in having good memories," he says. "If we had seen that, it would have stuck in our minds."

"When someone commits suicide, one of the first things you feel is, 'What a loss, what a tragic loss of a human being,' says Taylor. "When it's someone like this -- young, attractive, vibrant, intelligent -- you just wonder if there was some way to reach her, to understand her grief."

The incident shocked the student affairs department; its members began outreach efforts to see if there were other people who had been badly affected by 9/11, and who were silently struggling with the terrible wounds to their psyche.

Soon after the tragedy Venu Palaparthi who, like Vamsi, was an alumnus of BITS-Pilani, brought together a group of people to endow a fund in his memory. Finding that they were not qualified to collect funds, the group put together the BITS Alumni Association, which now has 16 chapters.

"We owe our entire organization to Vamsi," Venu says. "In dying, he created an organization."

BITSAA has now raised $ 1.5 million for the cause.

Nothing they have done has managed to assuage the feelings of guilt. And so, even today, Neena wonders if there is something she missed, some sign she should have picked up on, something, anything, she could have done to prevent the death of her friend.

Should she, perhaps, have stuck with her, refused to leave her side? Would that have meant the young widow would still be in the land of the living, attending classes, talking again of hopes and dreams?

For Verghese, it manifests as anger. "I was kind of pissed off," he says.

"We are the guys who are supposed to help. I kept thinking everyone's there (with Prasanna) and it's fine. I was kind of pissed off that I'd screwed up."

The words trail off into prolonged silence; Verghese retreats into a place of grief no outsider can fathom, no words can bridge.

Here is the 2nd article:

'His death brought us closer'

September 16, 2003 16:50 IST



When Vamsikrishna 'Vamsi' Pendyala moved to the US, he counted on a better life.

He wanted a second master's degree. He wanted to put his wife Prasanna through a dentistry programme. He wanted to spend more time with her.

But he died aboard American Airlines Flight 11 when it was flown into the World Trade Center [ Images ] on September 11, 2001.

A month later Prasanna, Vamsi's wife of two-and-a-half years, committed suicide.

Caught in the maelstrom of international terrorism, Vamsi died for a cause he wanted no part of. But thanks to the efforts of those around him, his death has become a symbol of defiance against those who caused it.

His friends and batch-mates created an organisation, the BITSAA International, to make a positive difference through a scholarship endowment in his name. The Pendyala Vamsikrishna Memorial Scholarship will pay for a year's tuition for a deserving student at the Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani, where Vamsi studied.

"To date we have raised about $10,000 specifically towards the scholarship," says Venu Palaparthi, founder-member of the BITSAA International. "The objective is to raise another $10,000 this year so this scholarship is fully endowed."

Academic performance in the first year at BITS is the primary criterion for selection. Last semester, the scholarship was awarded to Bhupendra Singh Manola, who scored a grade point average of 9.9 on a 10 scale -- among the highest -- in his first year at BITS.

Manola had lost his father, and his family income is less than Rs 20,000 per annum.

In 2002-03, Krishnachitanya P, who is doing a four-year engineering degree in instrumentation, was awarded the scholarship.

Vamsi lived in Los Angeles with Prasanna. She studied at the University of Southern California, and they lived close to the campus.

Since 1998, Vamsi had worked as a project manager for DTI, a Fremont based e-business integration company. As a key contributor to some of DTI's alliances, Vamsi travelled a lot.

For three weeks leading to September 11, 2001, Vamsi was on a 15-hour work schedule to complete a project for a client in Boston. He was scheduled to fly home September 10, but had to stay on to tie up loose ends, working till 3 am September 11.

Just as he boarded Flight 11, he called Prasanna, who was unwell. 'I'll be home soon, sweetie,' he said. 'I boarded the plane. It's on time. I'll be there around lunch time.''

But his flight was the first of the two to be hijacked and flown into the WTC.

At the time of his death, Vamsi was working on a master's in engineering management from the California Coast University. He wanted to save enough money to start his own company. He had also taken a loan to pay for his wife's dental classes.

Prasanna watched the televised images of the flight as it crashed into the WTC, knowing her husband was on board.

"She and her husband were very close," said Nadadur Kumar, an attorney who worked with international students at the USC. "Prasanna had come to lean on him and grow at the same time."

In the beginning, Prasanna appeared focused on her goals despite her loss. In an interview to the San Jose Mercury News, she said, 'I only wish I had more time with him. I wish it will never happen to anyone again. I wish this thing won't be repeated and that we will be more cautious about that. I am sure that would be Vamsi's wish, too.''

Her friends and family felt Prasanna would pull through the crisis. Her family and in-laws flew over from India [ Images ] for the funeral. They offered to take her home. She refused. She felt the best way for her to remember her husband was to complete her program.

"Prasanna was very determined to do what he wanted her to do -- to finish school," said Kumar. "I remember her saying, 'His memory is only going to strengthen my resolve.'"

But October 18, 2001, barely a month later, she hung herself from her husband's Nautilus exercise equipment.

"Prasanna was intelligent, ambitious," says Kumar. "But there was a sadness about her. She was a person unmistakably in great sorrow."

As her distraught family tried to deal with the double loss, Vamsi's friends rallied together. And the BITS alumni decided to do something to honour his memory.

"We knew of Vamsi's humble beginnings," says Palaparthi. "Starting off in the small town of Chilakaluripet in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, Vamsi had a dream. He was determined to get the best education India offered. So we agreed the best way to honour his memory was to give a chance to a deserving student."

The BITS Alumni Association, which was an informal organisation till then, was registered as a not-for-profit organisation.

Vamsi's death made the BITS alumni realise the fragility of friendships. They decided to meet more often to preserve their memories. They turned from a close-knit group of BITSians into an international organisation. And today, the BITSAA International is a network with 30 chapters worldwide, which raised $650,000 for its alma mater this year.

"Vamsi's death showed us how fragile our lives are," says Palaparthi. "His death brought us closer. In Vamsi, we saw ourselves. It could have been any one of us. It reminded us of the times we shared not very long ago, of our journey to the US, of our struggles and successes."

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