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Published on June 20, 2007 The Chronicle June, 2007 issue. Vol.2007 : Issue 0006 Send news to : chronicle [AT] itbhuglobal.org, news [AT] itbhuglobal.org [Click here to start reading] |
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We are pleased to announce that chronicle has completed two years of publication and enters into the third year with this June issue. A brief article followed by FAQ about chronicle is provided in this section.
This issue has a number of interesting articles, including AIBA meeting report. The meeting’s high point was the IT-BHU alumni award of excellence, given to three of our distinguished alumni. The issue also contains a section about college rankings, with recently published college rankings by magazines.
IIEST section contains news articles in which Prof. Abdul Aziz, outgoing VC of CUSAT has complained about state interference in preventing CUSAT from becoming an IIEST. The section briefly mentions about struggle by BEC college and alumni to convert their college into an IIEST.
In IT-BHU news section, we are able to provide more coverage to news about institute, particularly about our Main Library.
We need more news. Please send us news, events, articles, information, etc, at: chronicle [AT] itbhuglobal.org. Please indicate your branch/year.
Thanking you,
The Chronicle Team
We are pleased to announce that chronicle has completed two years of publication. The first issue came out in June 2005.
For html version of the first issue, visit http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2005/06/index.html
To commemorate the completion of two years of publication, we plan to publish the background info about our magazine and clarify our stand on various issues.
FAQ for Chronicle
Q-1: What is the Chronicle?
The Chronicle is a monthly news magazine published by IT-BHU Alumni Organization. It is published around 20th of each month. The first issue came out in June 2005. The magazine is available online on www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle. So far the magazine has been published every month, except in Dec 2005 & Jan 2006, when the server (itbhuglobal.org) was down.
The chronicle, as the name suggests, is meant to chronicle (record) the events happening around the IT-BHU institute and IT-BHU community. It faithfully records all events happenings related to our college, our community and engineering education in our country.
Chronicle is emailed to 6,000 registered alumni of IT-BHU Alumni Organization each month. It is open for general public to view. A significant number of readers are from other engineering colleges, and we welcome them.
The magazine team can be contacted at chronicle [AT] itbhuglobal.org.
Q-2: How was the idea of chronicle started?
The idea was started around May 2005, when a group of alumni volunteers expressed the concern about lack of information exchange among IT-BHU community, including students/alumni/faculty/administration. Although discussion forums such as itbhuglobal.org, yahoo groups and reverberations magazine existed, they were lacking mechanism for uniform information collection and distribution within community.
Q-3: How is the chronicle published?
The chronicle is published in a team effort, where each member has his/her pre-assigned task. The work schedule includes, collecting info from the institute and faculty, scanning national/international news media for alumni news and general college & education related news, planning for news and articles for next month’s issue, conducting interviews, and finally uploading on the web server.
The uploading of articles on the server is by MovableType Personal Publishing System. It allows to edit the article, its font & also provide way to upload files and images on the server and has many other features as well for the easy usage.
After the uploading is complete and the issue is ready to publish, an announcement is made on itbhu yahoo groups. The issue is also emailed directly to about 6,000 registered members of IT-BHU Alumni Association.
Q-4: What is the publication policy of chronicle?
The chronicle is an independent publication for the benefits of IT-BHU community, which includes students, faculty, alumni and administration. Although some of the chronicle team members are also active volunteers of alumni association, the chronicle does not reflect the views of the alumni association. It is chronicle’s policy of not to take sides.
Chronicle believes in free information transfer across the society. It publishes news from the public news media where the permission to reprint is not required. Chronicle encourages everyone to freely copy any article, photo or event from its published issues. Its team members are constantly scanning various newspapers, magazines, blogs, etc. to collect news & articles related to our community.
The chronicle aims for being educative, informative and entertaining. It subscribes to 4 golden pillars of journalism, namely: accuracy of news, identifying source, style/structure, and grammar/spelling.
Q-5: How is the interview conducted?
The interview is an important section of chronicle. The idea was started when so many of our distinguished alumni could not get enough media coverage, which they deserved. Because of open format, articles in chronicle gets prominent place in Google search for names/key words. The interview is also meant to inspire our students. It is chronicle’s wish that our students should not only shine in engineering field, but also in management, business, finance, arts, social service, political leadership, etc.
Chronicle conducts 1-2 interviews per month. First the list of possible candidates are selected and approached. If the person agrees, he is provided with a questionnaire to reply. The questionnaire contains about 6-10 questions with hint answers and type of reply expected. This makes the task of interviewing easier. The interview is conducted mostly by email exchange and sometimes over phone. After receiving the reply, a draft is prepared and sent to the person for final approval. We have found that alumni respond well and with open heart for their college magazine than in a public news media.
Q-6: How the chronicle compares with national magazines?
While we cannot compare ourselves with mainstream national or regional news media, we are in a different category. Our aim is to act as a platform for information exchange for our limited community; hence the articles are of that specific interest. Because of this some of the news about our college and about engineering education in India published by us, may not be found in other news media.
However, because of our open format (no login needed), our news are prominently displayed during Google search. Each year, our alumni rank swells by few hundreds, and we believe that when that number reaches a critical mass (say, about 20,000) from the current 6,000, then we shall have the same exposure as any mainstream media.
Q-7: What are the chronicle’s future plans?
The chronicle is among very few monthly news magazines published by alumni of colleges in India. However, we want to take it to next level, by introducing new sections, expanding our coverage, etc. It is our desire to bring it to the level of international alumni magazines such as, Harvard Crimson (http://www.thecrimson.com/) published by students/alumni of Harvard University and Yale Alumni Magazine (http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/index.html) published by students/alumni of Yale University.
It is our wish that we shall continue publishing the chronicle as long as our institute exists. The chronicle, as its name states, will faithfully record all the events around us for the use of future generations.
Apart from itbhuglobal.org, the chronicle plan to publish a copy of its future issues on other web sites.
Q-8: What are the concerns for chronicle?
The chronicle needs more help to achieve its goal. For example, it needs more volunteers to handle increased load of articles, to collect and edit more news, to conduct interviews, etc.
We also need more flow of information from faculty and institute. We need more reporters who can cover events, cultural programs, seminars, etc. and provide us with details.
Q-9: How can I contribute for chronicle?
Any kind of help from anyone will be helpful to us. We need people to send us news about their departments, batches, hostels, branches, etc. Please email to us at chronicle [AT] ithbu.org. Please respond by 15th of a month (but not later than 20th) for news/articles to be included for the issue of that month.
The chronicle team is here to serve you and the magazine belongs to the entire IT-BHU community. We welcome any comments/criticism to improve our publication.
Q-10: Who are the volunteers working for the chronicle team?
The following are the volunteers for chronicle team:
- Ankit Khanna (Applied Physics 2010)
- Varun Murali (Mechanical 2008)
- Sai Santosh (Chemical 2008)
- Vikalp Agarwal (Civil 2008)
- Arun Kumar Mishra (Electronics 2007)
- Pushpendra Kumar (Mechanical 2007)
- Sourabh Tripathi (Ceramics 2006)
- Arun Tangri (CSE 2006)
- Rajat Harlalka (Electrical 2005)
- Keerty Nath (CSE 2004)
- Animesh Pathak (CSE 2003)
- Anshuman Singh (Electrical 1998)
- Yogesh Upadhyaya (Chemical 1977)
In order to serve our readers and to accommodate a variety of news and articles, we constantly update our sections and add new ones, as needed.
In this issue, we have added two new sections. A section called Opinion is added to accommodate personal views. Another news section for National Education is started. In this issue, it contains the news item about the speech of our Prime Minister in which he announced setting up of 30 more central universities.
The Opinion section is being started to publish views expressed by our readers in a wide varieties of topics. The general guidelines for publishing the article under this section are as follows:
- Any one from IT-BHU community (students/alumni/faculty/administration) can submit the article for publication. Outsiders can also submit articles pending chronicle’s prior approval.
- The articles can be on any topic of general interest, preferably for students and professional engineers. The topics may include science & technology, business & finance, education, travel, art & literature, etc. The author may provide figures, charts, tables, links, etc. as required.
- The articles shall be about 600 to 800 words long. Please submit your articles by 10th of a month, for publishing it for the same month’s issue.
- You may submit your article, post a query, etc. by writing to; chronicle [AT] itbhuglobal.org
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Prof. S. N. Sarbadhikari, (PhD Biomedical Engineering, 1995, IT-BHU) has joined the panel of distinguished writers and experts on biomedical subject for Citizendium. Prof. Supten is considered as pioneer in the field of bioinformatics education in India. His interview also appeared in the chronicle, August 2006 issue. |
Citizendium is a new service launched by Wikipedia to invite distinguished writers and panels to write high quality article in their chosen subject of expertise. They will also review articles written by others for the same subject.
Till now, Wikipedia was taking proud in having named as common man’s encyclopedia, as anyone can claim himself as an expert and post/edit any article. However a recent incident (in which a ‘noted’ writer and reviewer on religious subject claimed to have attended Harvard University for theology subject, but later found to be false) gave bad name to Wiki. Hence it is planning to roll out a new service called Citizendium, in which only the approved experts will write an article in their field of expertise only. It will use the new Web 2.0 initiative, which is defined as further use of internet for human interaction and benefit, such as social networking websites and further reach to knowledge base.
Dr. Sarbadhikari has following message for all of us to join the panel of expert writers for Citizendium.
“Now Web 2.0 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0] has taken a new step to harness the tremendous potential of the apparently chaotic market place where the "wisdom of the crowd" prevails. Citizendium [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Main_Page] is trying to establish a knowledge community which is not anarchist as in many of the very popular knowledge serving websites. I am happy to announce that I have become the first Secretary of the Editorial Council and Chairman, Rules Committee of Citizendium. [http://en.citizendi um.org/wiki/Category:CZ_Editorial_Council_Members].
I would personally request each of you to actively participate in the movement to make accurate knowledge freely accessible to all, by registering as Author/Editor at Citizendium. You would be proud to associate yourself with the strong movement going on.”
With warmest regards
Dr. S N Sarbadhikari, MBBS, PhD
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
TIFAC-CORE in Biomedical Technology,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham,
Amritapuri Campus, Amritapuri,
Kollam - 690 525
Homepage: (1) http://www.amrita.edu/biotech/people.htm#supten
(2) http://www.amrita.edu/cdh/sarba.htm
(3) http://medicineonearth.com/display.php?id=1642
The 5th Annual General meeting of the Association of IT-BHU Alumni (AIBA) was held on May 26, 2007 at India Habitat centre, New Delhi.
The meeting discussed the adoption of 4th AGM minutes of meeting, the approval of annual and financial reports, and to award three of its distinguished alumni the Alumni Award of Excellence 2007-2008.
The awardees were:
- Mr. R.P. Singh, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Power Grid Corporation of India
- Dr. U. S. Awasthi, Managing Director, Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO)
- Mr. L.C. Singh, Founder and CEO, Nihilent Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
Each of them was given a standing ovation as their respective citations were read out to a full house of their co-alumni.
The events included cultural programs and family dinner.
More details can be found in the secretary’s report posted on itbhuglobal.org website:
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chapters/geo/delhi/archives/secretarys_report_ag.php
About AIBA
Association of IT BHU Alumni (AIBA), a not-for-profit society Registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860, Registration No S44440, is the nodal organization of the alumni of Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University. Our Association is a non-profit organization, and has a wide representation from our alumni senior officials from the government, public, and private sectors, and from various industry flora.
The activities of the association center on our efforts to improve quality of the technical education, viz., institute-industry participation, and alumni participation in education; we also maintain a network of alumni through various events and programs.
The current office bearers of AIBA are:
President- Prof. B. B. Dhar
Vice-President- Debashish Bhattacharyya
Secretary- Rajeev Gupta
Treasurer- Sanjay Sorick
More details about AIBA and awards can be found at itbhuglobal.org website: http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chapters/geo/delhi/
Rajeev Gupta (Chemical 1993) is the Secretary of AIBA. He forwarded background details about AIBA and its award ceremony to chronicle.
Rajeev Gupta,
Managing Director
Resource Development International (India) Private Limited
India Corporate Office: V-12/19, DLF City-III, Gurgaon (Haryana), India-(PIN-122002) Telephones:+91 (124) 4062227, 8, 9 Facsimile:+91 (124) 4060454
rgupta [AT] rdiindia.com
Selection Procedure
As a means to the recognise the contributions of the engineering alumni of BHU who have participated in the technical resurgence of the country right since its independence and further the cause of technical education in the country, our association has decided to honour “Significant Contributor” every year from amongst the engineering alumni of Banaras Hindu University, on the occasion of its Annual General Body Meeting. The selection of the Significant Contributor this year was done through fairly extensive process spanning 8 weeks. First a jury was constituted having some very eminent people Mr. Kashi Memani (Ex-Chairman Ernst & young), Mr. M.K. Modi (Chairman Modipon). Mr. A.K Sah (ex CMD NTPC), Mr. Chandiok, Mr. Deepak Pahwa (CMD Bry-Air) & Padma Bhushan Dr. Pritam Singh (Director MDI Gurgaon) along with (Mr. SS Kohli ex- CMD Punjab National Bank).
The nomination can be done by any AIBA member /office bearer/IT BHU alumni but it should not be a self nomination.
The process of identifying nominees for this award was through the sponsorship by the existing members. We received 42 Nominations .A predesigned form was sent to all the 42 nominees to capture details of their achievements.
The list of 42 respondents is here.
We received a total fifteen responses out of which 2 nominees expressed their wish not to be considered by Jury for the awards. The Jury finally met on 15th May and each nomination received was thoroughly discussed and evaluated on the following criterion
- Level of achievement in his (nominee’s) chosen field
- Contribution to the society as a whole
- Contribution to Alma Mater
- Known Awards/Accomplishments
- Innovation / Research Work/ Entrepreneurship
The list of 13 nominees is here.
The citation and brief description for each of the three awardees can be found in the attached PDF file.
The list of 3 awardees is as follows:
| Serial No. | Year | Branch | First Name | Last Name | Designation | Organization | Residence |
| 1 | 1967 | Chemical | Uday Shanker | Awasthi | MD | IFFCO Ltd. | New Delhi |
| 2 | 1970 | Chemical | Laxmi Chand | Singh | Founder & CEO | Nihilent Technologies | Pune |
| 3 | 1971 | Mechanical | Rajendra Prasad | Singh | CMD | Power Grid Corporation (India) | Gurgaon, Haryana |
The event was covered in news media including print and TV (Doordarshan and Sahara TV) media.
LC Singh presented IT - BHU Alumni Award of Excellence
2007-06-07 17:25:02 Source: Moneycontrol.com
The Association of IT - Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Alumni conferred on Mr. L C Singh, Founder and CEO, Nihilent Technologies the Alumini Award of Excellence 2007-08 at a glittering function organised at the Indian Habitat Centre in New Delhi. The other awardees were Mr. R.P. Singh, CMD, Power Grid Corporation of India and Dr. U. S. Awasthi, MD, Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO). All the awardees were given a standing ovation as their respective citations were read out to a full house of their co-alumni. The assemblage warmly applauded the singular achievements of these stalwarts in their respective fields and their commitment to the noble task of nation building.
The high-profile list of guests at the function included Mr. Vinod Rai, IAS, Secretary Banking, Govt. of India; Dr. T.Ramasami, Director General, CSIR & Secretary to the Govt. of India and Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan, Founder President, RBEF & Chairman, AKC Group of Companies. The guests were unanimous in expressing their overwhelming appreciation of the rich contribution made by the alumni of the Institute.
Rajiv Gupta, Secretary, Association of IT BHU Alumni said, “IT-BHU has been at the forefront of nation-building from even before independence, when the vision of Mahamana Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya Ji created the Banaras Hindu University and its constituent colleges of technical education. Long before the IITs came into existence, IT-BHU engineers were already leading the way in building the country’s nascent foundations. Naturally the galaxy of IT-BHU Alumni is much larger and it is really difficult to select from the many outstanding alumni who have served the country during its many phases of growth. Yet, we felt we needed to make a start, and the awardees tonight have been carefully chosen by an independent jury of peers”.
Sourced From: Adfactors Public Relations Pvt Ltd
Below please find some of the photos of AIBA meeting. More photos can be found at:
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chapters/geo/delhi/archives/photographs_of_itbhu.php
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We are pleased to state that Gaurav Punir, our alumnus has cleared Union Public Service Commission exam for the year 2006 with All India Rank of 317. We congratulate him for the success.
We also invite our other alumni who have successfully cleared the above mentioned exam, to contact us.
Hindustan Times has a nice news item giving statistics about UPSC-2006 exam:
474 candidates qualify for civil services
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, May 14, 2007
A total of 474 candidates have qualified this year after cracking the prestigious
civil services examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), it was announced in New Delhi on Monday.
Mutyalaraju Revu from West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh topped the examination, while Anindita Mitra, ranked eighth, was first among the woman candidates.
They were among some 200,000 applicants who appeared for the tests - a selection rate of a mere 0.237 per cent. Of the 474 selected candidates 373 are males and 101 females.
The list of the successful candidates includes 214 general category aspirants, 144 from other backward classes (OBC), 80 scheduled castes candidates and 36 from the scheduled tribes.
A total of 18 physically challenged candidates qualified the October-November, 2006 Main examination and the April-May, 2007 personality test, and they include 13 general category candidates, three OBCs and two scheduled caste members.
The successful candidates generally get appointment in the four categories of services - the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Central Services Group A and B.
"Appointment to the various Services will be made according to the number of vacancies available," the UPSC said in a statement.
The number of vacancies reported by the government is 89 for the IAS, 20 for the IFS, 103 for the IPS and 294 and 27 respectively for Group A and Group B of central services.
Apart from Revu, others who made it to the top 10 of the merit list are: Amit Saini, Alok Tiwari, Prasanth N, Shashank Misra, Vyasan R, Anish Rajan, Anindita Mitra, Aravind Agrawal and Juhi Mukherjee.
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 | This is the profile of Prof. Vinod Kumar Bansal (Mechanical 1971) who started coaching classes called Bansal Classes (http://www.bansaliitjee.com) in Kota, Rajasthan to better prepare students for IIT-JEE and other professional exams. Despite being handicapped, his devotion to teaching is remarkable. |
The article:
Muscular dystrophy & warnings of imminent death led Bansal up an unusual path: preparing students for IIT
Kota, Rajasthan: One hundred and fifty students sit elbow to elbow, packed into the long, stuffy hall. They’re in a whirl, trying to keep up with the complicated maths problems in which they’re immersed—and with the wheelchair-bound man before them who just might be responsible for their destiny.
The teenagers, like countless others across the country, aspire to gain admission to one of the Indian Institutes of Technology. And that’s why they have ventured to this dusty town in Southwest Rajasthan to coach with Vinod Kumar Bansal, a controversial businessman who revolutionized IIT admissions and helped rebuild a fading industrial centre by practising a profession centuries old: teaching.
Bansal begins a problem on permutations and combinations by saying, “six newly married couples are enjoying…”
The class erupts in hoots of laughter. Bansal joins in, then finishes the sentence.
“…a birthday party.”
Swiftly moving back to business, Bansal jots down a formula on a transparency projected onto a screen. More than two decades ago, Bansal was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy; today, he cannot stand without support. He zips from classroom to classroom in a motorized wheelchair.
Bansal Classes is situated in a tall office building. To the sharply dressed students trickling in and out of it, it offers rigorous courses in maths, physics and chemistry in preparation for the Joint Entrance Examination, the standard test used to determine undergraduate admissions at the seven IITs in India. More than three lakh students take the test each year; around 5,500 are successful.
To enter Bansal’s classroom, Class 10 students must graduate with more than 75% marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics. They must also sit for an entrance exam devised by Bansal. He says he has never advertised his classes, but his reputation lures in students from all over India, from urban Delhi and Mumbai to the more mofussil Jhansi and Indore.
Of the 3,000 students who took Bansal’s classes last year, 955 gained admission in an IIT. In 2005, of Bansal’s 2,400 students, some 784 got into an IIT.
Bansal’s coaching classes have spawned an imitative movement in Kota, a small town with a population of 1.5 million people, about 250km from Jaipur. The industry now trains an estimated 50,000 youths each year in standardized medical and engineering exams.
As teenagers sans parents enter the boot camp that has become Kota, they attend boarding schools, rent rooms, order food from caterers and restaurants, hang out at juice bars, watch films and frequent playstation cafes. The newcomers and their youthful pastimes have transformed Kota, a once-vibrant textile hub.
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This article discusses how Bijhar, a social and cultural organization tries to bring together people of Bihar and Jharkhand states for the better progress of the states. The organization (www.bijhar.org) is founded by our Singapore based alumnus, Sanjeev Kumar Roy (Electrical 1987) and others.
The article:
NILANJANA GHOSH CHOUDHURY
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Members of Bijhar celebrate Holi in Singapore. File picture. |
Jamshedpur, May 23: Hunger for homeland love among select group of that Indian diaspora gave birth to “Bijhar”, which, four years down the line, is one of the most vocal platforms for Biharis and Jharkhandis staying in Singapore today.
A brainchild of Sanjeev Kumar Roy, former student of St. Xavier’s School, Ranchi, and IIT (BHU), Bijhar, as the name suggests, stands for an association of Bihar and Jharkhand people.
Officially formed in 2003, Bijhar has over 200 members who were either born or at some point of time stayed in either of the two states. “In Singapore, people of Bihar often met informally, but there was no platform as such. It was about a few years back when I came across some like-minded people and Bijhar was formed,” Sanjeev Roy, president of Bijhar, told The Telegraph over telephone from Singapore.
But why Bijhar? Pat came the reply: “Bi for Bihar and ‘jhar’ for Jharkhand. The two might be separated but we are still a part of the same land,” Roy added.
So what started as an attempt to unite Biharis and Jharkhandis in Singapore, fast developed into a socio-cultural platform of people from the two states staying in Singapore.
“We discuss how to improve ties among the two states, observe our festivals and fund NGOs working in the interiors of Bihar and Jharkhand,” said Sudeep Kumar, senior executive of Bijhar, who passed out of Delhi Public School, Bokaro, before moving to IIT (Kanpur) and a job at Tata Motors. Bijhar got even better in October last year when Roy and his group of friends launched their portal Bijhar.org. And, if Roy was the brain behind Bijhar, its honorary secretary Rajesh Anand from Motihari, who completed degree from BIT (Mesra) in Ranchi, and Sudeep Kumar prize their portal.
“Right now we are working with four NGOs for the uplift of the poor and underprivileged,” added Rajesh. Bijhar is helping Children and Mother Earth (COME) of Gorakhpur, Gramin and Nagar Vikas Parishad (GNVP) and Nidan in Patna and Jharkhand Vikas Nyas (JVN), Ramgarh.
The organisation had a discussion with former chief minister Babulal Marandi when he visited Singapore in 2002 on how to strengthen their ties and early this week they gave a nod to the Nitish Kumar government for Bijhar to be part of the Bihar Foundation — an association of Biharis living around the globe.
“Sushil Modi, deputy chief minister of Bihar, was here recently. When he made a proposal, we accepted it readily,” added Roy.
Apart from being a social networking site, Bijhar offers latest updates on Bihar and Jharkhand, a complete gourmet gallery, book reviews, blog, details on festivals and events and several features pertaining to the two states. If that’s not all, the group plans to launch soon their branches in Malyasia, Thailand and other South East Asian countries.
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 | Rarely any opinion post is written for our alumnus. This is an excellent post written by Chdanand Rajghatta, a columnist for Times of India. It discusses the rise of India and how Indian tourists and people are accepted and welcomed in different parts of the world. The article is so interesting that we decide to publish in full. |
Mr. Lakshmi S. Narasimhan (Mechanical 1984) is Atlanta, Georgia based businessman and the founder of Paalm, Inc. (www.paalam.com). He has multi-faceted personality and takes part in local politics, social work and writing, apart from working as a faculty of Georgia Tech University. For more info:
http://www.ipnatlanta.net/narsi/
The article:
27 May, 2007 l 0000 hrs IST l Chidanand Rajghatta/TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Narsi Narasimhan was looking for a beer in an Arab bazaar in Jerusalem last week when a shopkeeper asked his nationality, confirmed he was Indian, and thrust a drink into his hand, saying, "Free beer... for Indian!" How things have changed, Narasimhan, an Atlanta-based entrepreneur, mused a little later with a group of us wandering the Promised Land. Time was when being Indian was a handicap. Now, in parts of the world, it's a badge of honour, and gets freebies.
Many friends attest to such encounters marking a makeover of the Indian image across the world, the odd discrimination incident thrown in. On the other hand, a recent survey of European hoteliers rated Indians as the second worst travellers in the world (sandwiched between the French, at the bottom, and the Chinese, rated slightly better). But the Indian tourist is a relatively new development; long before we turned touristy, we were hardworking itinerants building railway lines and power plants, running health and education sectors, in many countries, probably much better than we do at home.
There are few places in the world unvisited and untenanted by Indians. As i tell my American friends, we are a small country of a billion people. We get around. There are few corners that have not seen an Indian teacher, doctor, engineer, sailor or trader, including in the Second and Third World, which has also been our stomping ground for long, although those who make it good in US and UK dominate diaspora coverage.
But even in the US and UK, one frequently comes across Ethiopian and Jamaican immigrants who will tell you their teacher or doctor was an Indian; or Kenyans and Tanzanians who say their neighbours were fine Indian business families; or Libyans and Algerians who talk of Indian engineering teams which built railway lines and power plants. We honour our physician and programmer hordes who went west, but among our less celebrated envoys are grocers, hotel industry staff, merchant sailors, and construction crews. On a recent visit to the Caribbean one found an entire resort dominated by Indians — from the kitchen up to the front office.
Across many countries in Asia, Africa and Arab countries, Bollywood is the icebreaker. Stories of shopkeepers accosting Indians with songs from Raj Kapoor and Amitabh Bachchan movies abound from Beijing to Abuja. Indian cuisine provides another entrie. A Jewish couple i met recently rhapsodised about Indian food, and when asked where they first tasted it, said, "Oh, we lived in England!" A South African soldier we ran into near Gaza was only too happy to talk cricket, having missed the World Cup for more taxing action.
We can attribute all kinds of reasons why Indians are well-received across the world — from what could be our democracy dividend (many Third World and Arab countries admire our success in nationbuilding, however spotty it may be in our eyes) to spiritualism. But it could also be a mere function of demographics — and language. We are the world's largest diaspora after the Chinese (our 25-30 million to Chinese 40-50 million) with a crucial difference — we speak a little more English, variously accented though it might be.
Of course, there will always be the odd bad apple — the Ugly Indian — who brings in the bad reviews. But generally, Indians have come to be regarded as free, smart, hardworking people, which is a lot different from people from many other countries whose name invoke images of tyranny, terrorism, drug trafficking, financial scams, and sex trade. What a relief.
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Vanish Talwar |
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HP Labs
1501 Page Mill Road MS 1135 Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA Phone: (650) 857-5129 Email: firstname.lastname [AT] hp.com |
Vanish Talwar is a research scientist at Hewlett Packard Labs. His research interests are in the areas of distributed systems, operating systems, and computer networks, with a current focus on distributed systems management technologies.
Vanish joined HP in 2001 and HP Labs in 2002. He received his B.Tech degree in Computer Science & Engineering from Institute of Technology- BHU (IT-BHU), Varanasi, India in May 1999, and his MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in May 2001 and May 2006 respectively. He is the recipient of the David J. Kuck Best Masters Thesis award from Dept. of Computer Science, UIUC, and is an elected member of Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Xi.
His PhD work is on application model-driven resource management that investigates techniques and mechanisms to provide application QoS guarantees while maintaining efficient utilization of resources in utility systems. His MS work is on a secure architecture for supporting User Identification and User Mobility.
In addition, Vanish has also made contributions in the area of automated management systems for next generation data centers, specifically in automated service deployment and automated change management. In the past, he has also had a stint in Embedded Linux and Embedded Java Virtual Machines. He is currently investigating manageability architectures for next generation blade systems.
Mr. Abhijit has scaled many heights including working as part of jury for media competition and international media festivals.
For full interview:
Link
Excerpts from the interview:
 |
Piyush and Prasoon Pandey are better than any training programme.
Abhijit Avasthi group creative director, O&M |
Q1. You have worked in various fields before settling upon advertising. How did you decide this was the profession for you?
A. Advertising happened to me purely by accident. I couldn’t have planned such a devious route! (Laughs) After completing my engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (ITBHU) in 1993, I joined a steel plant. For some reason, I didn’t like the job and I quit it. Then, till 1996, I tried my hand at many other things such as dealing in textile dyes, exporting playing cards and match-boxes from India, and trading in saris. By this time, I had left engineering far behind and I never did have an inclination for doing an MBA. So, I was kind of groping with what to do and what not to. I knew I enjoyed lateral thinking and I was well read.
Having grown up with them around, I used to hang out with Piyush (Pandey) and Prasoon (Pandey) and we used to talk on every topic under the sun. One fine day, Piyush suggested, “I’ve seen that you have a fertile imagination and you really enjoy discussing ideas. Why don’t you give advertising a shot?”
So, I went to Enterprise Nexus and applied. They liked what I did and hired me. I was really lucky to have an established bunch of seniors guiding me. Besides Mohammad Khan and Rajeev Agarwal, who gave me a lot of freedom, my immediate boss, Zarwan Patel, was really encouraging and helpful. And I was also fortunate to have found my art partner in Raj Kamble at a very early stage in my career.
“One fine day, Piyush suggested, 'I’ve seen that you have a fertile imagination and you really enjoy discussing ideas. Why don’t you give advertising a shot?'”
Q2. Have your experiences in various fields given you the advantage of understanding the consumer more deeply?
A. Yes, it has definitely helped me. Most people get into advertising when they are 20-21. I started late at the age of 25-26. But all the years I spent working on other things before entering the profession of advertising, have paid dividends. I have been very lucky also to travel, which has helped me a lot in advertising. My dad was in the Indian Air Force and, because of the nature of his job, I got to see a lot of places. Even during my engineering days at Banaras, I got to travel immensely because of college festivals. In fact, the other day I was calculating and I felt so good about the fact that of the 28 states in the country, I have visited 22 already.
Mr. Shiv Shukla (Chemical 1986) is CEO of MECS Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., a company specializing in design and construction of Sulfuric acid and other related plants. It is amazing to see our alumnus shining in non-IT/hardcore engineering field. We hope this interview will be useful to students as well as professionals alike.
For chronicle, Yogesh K Upadhyaya interviews Shiv Shukla about his success:
Shiv Shukla with his wife
Q-1: Welcome Mr. Shiv Shukla. Please tell us about your background.
I did my graduation in Chemical Engineering from IT, BHU in 1986. I got a job in SAIL through campus interview and joined at Bhilai Steel Plant as a trainee for very short duration of two months. I was very much interested in working in a refinery or petro-chemical company. So I moved to Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and joined as a GET. I got best possible training as a chemical engineer by starting my career in a refinery.
I worked with BPCL for 3 years before changing the track and joining DMCC (Dharamsi Morarji Chemical Company). I started as a process engineer and my role use to be process design of sulfuric acid plants and equipment, plant commissioning, de-bottlenecking, trouble shooting etc. Later on I moved on into handling projects and marketing & sales of projects. I developed software for design of sulfuric acid plants and equipment. I spent lot of time in my career on sulfuric acid projects.
I changed jobs in between and worked with different companies. At one point of time before joining Monsanto-DMCC, I was running my own business of engineering consultancy for sulfuric acid plants. But that did not last to sustain my interest and it did not generate enough money to meet my financial needs. So, I joined back the joint venture between Monsanto & DMCC in 1998 as marketing manager and went on to become head of marketing. That’s when I did my MBA from School of Management, IIT Bombay while working with Monsanto-DMCC as marketing head.
Before I could complete my MBA, I was given responsibility of running the organization and became a CEO. Those were my final semester in IIT. A job as a CEO and finishing my MBA was really demanding on my time, nerves. I was handed over the reins of company, while it was having troubled times. We had accumulated losses over past several years and balance sheet was not very healthy. When I became a CEO, I had to immediately address the cost issues and restructure the entire organization. I had to ask some people to go as they were not in a fit with new structure. Today, many of the storms have passed. We have grown and for last three years we have consistently doubled our turnover each year and gone from accumulated loss to good bottom-line position. Today, we have good measure of reserves and company is in good financial health.
Q-2: Please provide details about your company, MECS Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.
MECS Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. called as MEPL is a 100% subsidiary of MECS Inc., USA. It was started in 1996 as a joint venture between Monsanto and The Dharamsi Morarji Chemical Company Limited (DMCC). Monsanto had a fully owned subsidiary namely Monsanto Enviro-Chem Systems Inc. (MECS), a world leader in sulfuric acid. DMCC was the local Indian company manufacturing sulfuric acid, which had an external project division. The name of the company changed to MECS Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. (MEPL) in June 2006. MEPL operates as an EPC company doing Sulfuric Acid, oleum, liquid SO3, liquid SO2 and related chemicals, Phosphoric Acid projects in India and abroad.
MEPL’s parent company MECS Inc., as a premier global technology and EPC company has teamed up with its clients, licensees and suppliers to provide world class solutions to the sulfuric acid industry. MECS Inc. worldwide is a global company and has designed and built more than 800 sulfuric acid plants in 50 countries.
MECS has offices in Europe, South Africa, South America and Hong Kong and a 100% owned entity in India. The entire MECS group turnover is about US$ 300 million, whereas the turnover of MEPL in India is about Rs. 600 million.
Q-3: What is the technology behind Sulfuric Acid manufacturing process? How it has evolved over the years?
Sulfuric acid is manufactured by contact process. During the early 20th century in Germany, development of vanadium catalysts to replace platinum encouraged the use of the catalytic contact process.
Advances in catalyst technology have reduced the SO2 emission levels in these acid plants. These days we can design and build plants with less than 1 kg SO2 emission per ton of sulfuric acid produced. While as many countries have very strict norms for emission of SO2 (sulfur dioxide), SO3 (sulfur trioxide), acid mist, but some countries in Africa still allow single contact plants to be built. There are predominantly three kinds of feedstock for Sulfuric Acid manufacturing viz. Sulfur, Smelter off-gases coming out from metallurgical plant, spent acid. Sulfuric acid production involves generation of SO2 gas, conversion of SO2 to SO3 and then absorption of SO3 into sulfuric acid being circulated in absorption tower.
MECS has always been at the front edge of technology development for sulfuric acid plants. A major technology is its Heat recovery Process (HRS) for sulfuric acid plants. In this process almost 90% of energy generated during acid manufacturing can be recovered as steam and subsequently converted to power. In fact, some of sulfuric acid plants operate as a power plant with sulfuric acid being treated as a bye-product. Sulfuric acid plants can be designed in a wide variety of capacities ranging from as small as 30 tpd (tons per day) to as large as 4500 tpd. Generally in India we have 300 tpd as a typical capacity, while as in many developed economies capacities tend to be much larger. Typical range of capacity in these nations is around 2000-3000 tpd. Capital investments vary on the size of plants and location. A plant of 1000 tpd plant capacity in India will cost around US$ 25 million. While as the same plant will cost at least US$ 60 million in a developed country.
Q-4: Where are the products used?
Sulfuric acid is the world's largest volume industrial chemical. Sulfuric acid is a very important commodity chemical, and indeed a nation's sulfuric acid production is a good indicator of its industrial strength. The major use (60% of total worldwide) for sulfuric acid is in the wet process for the production of phosphoric acid, used for manufacture of phosphate fertilizers as well as tri-sodium phosphate for detergents.
Sulfuric acid is used in large quantities in iron and steel making principally as pickling-acid used to remove oxidation, rust and scale from rolled sheet and billets prior to sale into the automobile and white-goods business.
Ammonium sulfate, an important nitrogen fertilizer is most commonly produced as a byproduct from coking plants supplying the iron and steel making plants. Another important use for sulfuric acid is for the manufacture of aluminum sulfate, also known as paper maker's alum.
Sulfuric acid is used for a variety of other purposes in the chemical industry. For example, it is the usual acid catalyst for the conversion of cyclohexanoneoxime to caprolactam, used for making nylon. It is used for making hydrochloric acid from salt via the Mannheim process. Much H2SO4 (sulfuric acid) is used in petroleum refining, for example as a catalyst for the reaction of isobutane with isobutylene to give isooctane, a compound that raises the octane rating of gasoline (petrol). Sulfuric acid is also important in the manufacture of dyestuffs solutions.
Sulfuric acid is also used as a general dehydrating agent in its concentrated form.
Q-5: Where are the challenges faced by your company?
EPC business in sulfuric acid is cyclic in nature. We are highly focused on working outside of India, markets particularly in African countries.
In today’s boom time, we are not finding enough of high quality people to manage our growth. Employee attrition is a big problem which we are facing. Our current attrition rate at 20% is very high and this is forcing us to focus more on our processes. We have plans to expand and are likely to double our size in view of our strategic plans for new areas specifically renewable & bio-energy.
We have a business model, in which we execute turnkey projects as well as engineering only projects at the same time. For turnkey projects, man-hour costs are not a major component. But for engineering only projects man-hour costs become very critical.
Also, lack of good infra-structure in our country is posing a lot of problems to EPC companies like us, which are doing turnkey projects outside. Another problem we face is on the foreign currency risk management. We do not have access to sophisticated financial instruments to allow us to hedge our currency risks. We face this problem because our payments are related to project progress and not fixed in time.
Q-6: What will you suggest to someone who wants to make career in hardcore engineering field?
I find it very satisfying to work in a hardcore engineering field, even though it is not as much glamorous. Today most of engineers want to work in soft fields like IT and do not want to dirty their hands working in their own field of specialization.
There are many challenges in hardcore engineering fields and it needs patience & hard work. One has to start at the base and work his way towards the top of pyramid. One has to be good in whatever one is doing, at each stage of his career.
There are plenty of opportunities. The key is in adding value by whatever
activity you are involved with. Other thing is gathering variety of experiences by rotation in performing different roles. As much as wide is your experience, the more you are likely to rise to the top.
With such a huge crunch for people in hardcore engineering field, demand will be there for long time to come. As these sectors of economy do well, companies will not mind paying good salaries to their best people.
Q-7: How do you recall your days during study at IT-BHU? At IIT-Bombay?
IT-BHU was the best thing to happen in my life and I can never forget those four years which I spent in BHU. There was so much to do, so many new things to learn, so much fun. Eating Aloo Sukha in the hostel mess, visiting the Ghats, watching cine-club movies in G-11, Lankating, Thandai with bhang at Godowlia, Old Vishwanath temple, lying on the lawns of Birla temple inside campus & discussing everything under sun, during nights eating bun-maska & coffee at Mochu, eating laung lata at Pahalwan’s shop in Lanka, during summer evenings drinking mango shake for Rs 2, jogging on the tracks, bunking the morning classes to sleep; I remember all those things. It’s still fresh in my memory and there are indelible marks of all these in my mind. There are so many incidents which I remember, writing those can fill up many pages.
I remember many of my professors. Prof. Vijay Shankar used to be head of department and used to teach us Thermodynamics, a subject for which I had special fondness. Something else which had caught my attention was computers.
We had some very good association with professors like S. N. Upadhyay. When we were in final year, we (Bhavnesh, Milind Bhise, Ajay Chavan) did some work for analysis of Ganga water to determine pollution levels. This was done for a campaign which was being run by Prof. Virbhadra Mishra & Prof. S.N. Upadhyay. I remember a time when Prof. S N Upadhyay went with us in a boat from Godowlia to Assi ghat discussing with us which points to draw the water samples from. At the end of boat ride that day, we were treated to some desi ghee gulab jamuns at Assi by SNU. And whom he gave a treat of gulab jamuns. Oh! There are so many fond memories of my BHU days!!!!
Life at IIT-Bombay campus was different from BHU life. IIT-Bombay life was more regulated in terms of studies, working. Those three years when I was doing my MBA from IIT-Bombay, life had become a fine art balancing the work, family & studies. I remember we would have surprise quizzes, presentations, case studies and these would be never ending. No matter what you did, you finish one case study & presentation, next one was waiting for you.
We used to discuss case studies at the Maggi stall. Stall fellow will make so many dishes out of Maggi noodles; Maggi pakora, Maggi noodles, Maggi sandwich. We would be sitting around a table eating drinking soup, coffee or tea and discussing the case presentation.
Today when I look back, I find whatever I learned during those days, the rigor of all those things have prepared me well, to handle anything I encounter in my work life.
Q-8: Thank you Sir. It was nice talking to you.
Thank you. It has indeed been a pleasure talking to you and sharing my thoughts.
Link for MECS Enterprises Private Ltd.: http://www.mecsenterprises.com/
Shiv’s personal website: http://sulphuric.tripod.com/
Bio-Data of Shiv Shukla.
This interview of about 2,200 words is condensed from the original full-length interview of 4,400 words to match chronicle format. The original interview contains much more interesting details about Shiv’s business model, interesting corporate life experience, sulfuric acid manufacturing process, uses, etc. To view the full length interview, please click here)
Contact info:
Shiv Shukla,
Chief Executive Officer,
MECS Enterprises Pvt. Ltd.,
110, LBS Marg, Mumbai - 400 083. India
ph: +91-22-6688 9700 cell: +91-98204 38752
Shiv [DOT] Shukla [AT] mdeel.com
Photos of plant built in Zambia by MECS for Mopani Copper Mines.
(This is an occasional section published to assist our alumni needing any kind of help)
Ramendra Singh (Mechanical 1996) is a doctoral student (Marketing) at IIM-Ahmedabad. His bio-data can be found on his personal page:
http://ramendra2005.googlepages.com/
He runs a blog “Living on the Edge” at http://ramendra2006.blogspot.com
He requests everyone’s help in filling out questionnaire online, as part of his study. The questions are about rating (on 1 to 7 scale) of B2B brands and their personality traits.
The survey is posted on online survey forum, http://freeonlinesurveys.com
Following is the appeal by Ramendra Singh:
“Dear Friends,
Please spare 10 minutes to complete this survey on Brands. Click o the following link. Before submitting, please do make sure you have answered all questions.
http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=ieeb4iozmi8vpa2315326
Thanks and Regards,
Ramendra Singh
Doctoral Student (Marketing)
FPM House # 1, IIM Ahmedabad;
Vastrapur, Ahmedabad -380015,INDIA
# Tel: 91-079-26327901
# Mob: 91-9821509427
E-mail: s_ramendra [AT] yahoo.co.in
Govt. is asking to all central universities, including BHU, to implement 27% OBC quota for recruitment of lecturer posts. Telegraph is in forefront for publishing national level education related news.
Excerpts from the article:
Enter, central OBC teacher quota
CYRIL SAM
New Delhi, June 25: The 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes has been extended to lecturer posts in universities run by the Centre.
The human resource development ministry has asked all central universities and deemed universities to implement the quota for OBCs on the basis of a declaration of intent made after the Mandal commission flare-up.
The Backward Classes Commission, through which the central recommendation must pass, has also given its stamp of approval.
“The government is using the fact that it doesn’t need to go through the legislation route to implement job quotas to bring reservations for lecturers silently,” said Nisha Tomar, the Delhi University co-ordinator for the anti-quota group, Youth For Equality.
Unlike reservation in education — which needs a law — the government can bring in quotas in jobs on its discretion under Article 15 of the Constitution.
It is heartening to know that class of 1976 took up Books for Library project for contributing books worth Rs. 2 lacs to our library. We all congratulate the class of 76 for their initiative for a good cause. We hope others will follow the example.
The class submitted a total of 539 copies consisting of 366 titles. The list of books contributed can be seen in this file.
Here is what Ashok Srivastava and Sandip Sen have to say about the project:
“In response to the appeal of Director IT-BHU during our 30 yr Reunion of class of 1976, we collected some money and took up the project of Books for Library. First a list of Books was sought from the Institute. We were pleasantly surprised by a very prompt response from our Director and from our Librarian Shri Navin Upadhyay.
We decided to add to the list provided by BHU with some more content and depth. We expanded and modified the list by selecting lot of books from catalogues of leading publishers; some books being very new introductions. We did mix the selections initially to add books of Mining, Metallurgy and Ceramics which were missing from the original BHU list and then added some new International Student Edition books as well as a few leadership, motivation and competitive exam titles.
This was a joint effort of the batch of 1976. Other active volunteers for this project include Shankar Roychowdhury, Pradeep Shrivastava, Pradosh Chakravarty and UN Dubey
Books worth over Rs 2 Lacs, costing us Rs 1.52 Lacs were dispatched to Library of IT-BHU on 8th June.
We hope that these books will be found useful by the students.
Regards,
Ashok Srivastava (Mechanical 1976)
ashok [DOT] srivastava [AT] gmail.com
Sandip Sen (Mechanical 1976)
sen [DOT] sandip [AT] gmail.com
For the year 2006-2007, the library of IT-BHU spent an estimated amount of Rs. 1.35 crore. The major expenses included books worth Rs. 45 lacs and 60 computer terminals (TFT monitors worth Rs. 25 lacs).
The online link for library is provided on our institute’s official website (www.itbhu.ac.in) . Please go to institute’s website and click on the top bar for library; or go to http://www.itbhu.ac.in/library/about/.
The site contains useful information about library, such as books available, library hours, introduction of library staff, etc.
Please direct all your inputs / suggestions for the library to
1. Librarian: Mr. Naveen Upadhyay -- librarian [AT] itbhu.ac.in
2. Prof. Incharge: Prof G V S Sastry -- gvssastry [DOT] met [AT] itbhu.ac.in
US gurukul in town to coach the poor
The learning organization Math GK is run by a group of young engineers/ professionals in USA. The team includes Manoj Sinha (Electronics 1999) and Gyanesh Pandey (Electrical 1999). Its website (www.mathGK.org) is not functioning properly and links for FAQ and Contact are not working.
Read the excerpts:
PATNA: There is good news for poor school students who are weak in mathematics as the US-based Math GuruKul (Math GK) has set up one such institute here at North SK Puri which is all set to be inaugurated next week.
The main focus of this institute will be to impart quality education to mediocre students to enable them to face the challenge of maths for any exam their career goal requires them to face.
Pandey, who is a professional from the semiconductor industry, holds a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from BHU and a Master's each in electrical and electronics engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York. He has a teaching experience of over a decade. The institute at North SK Puri will start with a maximum of four batches of 25 students each and a possible Super 15 group comprising students who are extremely weak in the subject.
The Math GuruKul was started by two Indian professionals, Manoj Sinha and Mehul Nagrani, in US three years back. The primary aim of this organisation, run by volunteers, (all of whom are engineering professionals of different nationality) is to coach the students in relatively poorer districts of America for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
http://www.indiaenews.com/pressrelease/20070605/54841.htm
The news item states that Impetus will recruit 300 engineers this year from several leading institutes, including IT-BHU.
From correspondents in M.P., India, 03:41 PM IST
Imeptus Infotech (www.impetus.com) has always been renowned for the exciting careers they offer to talented engineers in the high-end niche of Software Product Engineering. The company has pioneered Outsourced Product Development in India. With a client base of companies in fields as diverse as Digital Media, Telecommunications, Mobile Applications, Web2.0, IPTV, and Internet Advertising, Impetus’ 900+ employees are constantly challenged to create innovative and inspiring new products.
Impetus has been on an aggressive Campus Recruitment drive across the country since April ’07. The company has visited 18 prominent campuses including Delhi University, Jammu University; Dehradoon University, Amity Delhi, MLSU Udaipur, Himachal University, LD College & Rollwala Ahemdabad, DDIT Nadiad, MBM Jodhpur, MNIT Bhopal, SVIM Indore, MIT Ujjain; etc. till date. The company has already selected close to 125 engineering graduates with specialization in Computer Sciences and Information Technology. Impetus is offering a very attractive compensation package and interesting training opportunities to these graduates.
The campus joinees undergo a rigorous and comprehensive Induction and Training program in order to prepare them to handle the demands of their professional life. They get a chance to work on live client projects very soon, and the fast paced work gives them an opportunity to learn and grow much ahead of their counterparts. Impetus also gives a chance to many of its deserving employees to visit the client offices onsire, fairly early in their career.
Ambrish Kanungo, Sr. Manager HR, Impetus says, “We are overwhelmed with the response that we are getting from Institutes and students alike. The youth today is very composed and professional and willing to embrace the opportunities and challenges with immense zeal and fervor. The 250 campus graduates we hired last year are already proving themselves to be indispensable to the organization. We have even way higher expectations from this year’s recruits.”
Impetus is planning to hire close to 300 students this year also and is scheduled to visit leading engineering institutes such as SGSITS Indore, IIT Chennai, IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, BHU Varanasi , BITS Pilani, BITS Ranchi, Nirma University Ahmedabad, Banasthali Vidyapeeth Rajasthan, MNIT Raipur etc in the coming days. The organization announced a growth of over 70% in 2006-07 and credits the same to its talented employees who are passionate techies, always willing to innovate and learn.
Now university students can remotely log on the university website (www.bhu.ac.in) and view their results, without waiting for mail.
http://dbalumni.bhu.ac.in/xampp/regularresult/result.html
Banaras Hindu University
Office of the Controller of Examinations
University Examination Results
Examinations Results in India -- Brought to you by --Computer Center BHU Please enter your roll number 
Link (pdf)
The 11-page document contains application form and information brochure for the admission to 2007-2008 M. Tech and M. Pharm. courses of the institute.
The Global Alumni Association of Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur, West Bengal ((GAABESU), erstwhile Bengal Engineering College hosted a press conference at Kolkata Press Club on June 7th demanding IIEST (INI) status for the college before its 150th anniversary celebration is over in Nov 2007. The college was established in 1856.
A total of 32 reporters from print and TV media attended the press conference. The news report of the press conference was covered in many media releases. The press-articles can be seen at http://www.becollege.org/news/news_item.asp?NewsID=328
There are three press items on comments made by outgoing VC of CUSAT (Kerala) about state govt.’s politics to retain control over the college and to stall it from becoming an IIEST.
Prof. P. K. Abdul Aziz is an internationally reputed research scholar and his research work includes ecology, agricultural and environmental issues. He was a sharp critic of corruption and govt. interference in day-to-day affairs of CUSAT. He suffered because of his principle. He joined Aligarh Muslim University as Vice Chancellor with effect from June 11, 2007.
According to media reports, HRD ministry is planning to introduce IIEST Bill in the coming monsoon session (July 30 to August 31) of the parliament provided state govts. agree and all issues are resolved.
Prof. P. K. Abdul Aziz
a) The first is a news item in Newindpress (login required) about Prof. P. K.Abdul Aziz resigning from the post of Vice-Chancellor of CUSAT.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEX20070522020326&Title=Kochi&rLink=0
The article:
After Aziz, Cusat may not have full-time VC
Tuesday May 22 2007 12:24 IST
KOCHI: After P K Abdul Aziz is relieved of his charges, Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) is unlikely to have a full-time Vice-Chancellor.
With the Centre’s proposal for upgrading the varsity into an Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology (IIEST) pending, the State Government is moving towards handing over the varsity to the Centre, though it is engaged in hard bargaining to make the Centre agree to certain conditions put forward by it.
According to sources, the Centre is likely to concede to certain demands put forward by the State Government, and the demand for a quota for Malayalis in the seats of IIEST is proving to be a bone of contention.
Funds have been allotted for the IIEST project in the 11th Plan, which was launched this April. But Bengal and Kerala are yet to agree to the conditions put forward by the Centre.
Once Cusat is made an IIEST, a director will come in place of the VC, who will be appointed by the President.
‘‘The Centre is not averse to having a nominee of the State Government in the three-member panel to select the director.
The State may also be given five members in the 17-member board of governors, in place of the three members proposed now.
The talks are deadlocked on the demand for a 50 percent quota for Malayali students,’’ sources said.
The Centre is waiting for a consent letter from the State Government to move legislation in Parliament in this regard in the coming monsoon session itself. Hence, the state has to move quickly on the issue.
More than Rs 520 crore is to flow into Cusat in the first five years once it is made an IIEST. If this money doesn’t come, the university is doomed, a professor at the university said.
Already, the State Government is struggling to find funds for the salary for the staff at the university. A meagre Rs 20 crore is set apart by State Government for the university, but even this is not properly granted by the cash-strapped government successive years.
According to varsity sources, around 160 teaching posts are lying vacant for the past few years in departments as the state is not in position to arrange salary for the staff.
The funds for research too brought by professors in their individual capacity from Central and other agencies.
According to sources, the government is considering giving the charge of Cusat Vice-Chancellor to Calicut University Vice-Chancellor Anwar Jahan Zuberi as Cusat Pro-Vice- Chancellor Enasu is a previous UDF Government appointee.
With the Centre’s proposal for upgrading the varsity into an IIEST pending, the State Government is moving ahead with handing over the varsity to the Centre.
b) The second press item is from New Kerala, in which Prf. Aziz raises the concern that the state govt. is preventing CUSAT from becoming an IIEST, because it does not want to give up the control over the institute.
'University syndicates should work without political interference'
http://www.newkerala.com/news5.php?action=fullnews&id=36859
The excerpts from the article:
Kochi, June 7: Outgoing Vice-Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) Dr P K Abdul Aziz today said varsity syndicates should not be a platform for political parties to wield power through their representatives.
Dr Aziz, who will take charge as VC of Aligarh Muslim University on June 11 said, ''Political parties are trying to influence the working of the syndicates by appointing their representatives.'' ''The syndicate should have able people as its members and there was no need to expand it to include more people,'' he noted.
Dr Aziz said the syndicates should be allowed to work independently and efficiently without any political interference.
Regarding the proposed Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Dr Aziz alleged that 'some forces' were stalling the prospects of the institute for fear of losing power in the syndicate.
c) In this press brief, Prof. Aziz states that the state govt. is delaying upgrade of CUSAT to IIEST.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEX20070608023513&Title=Kochi&rLink=0
The article:
'Negligence preventing upgradation of CUSAT'
Friday June 8 2007 12:56 IST
KOCHI: CUSAT Vice- Chancellor P K Abdul Azis said on Thursday that the negligence of the State Government was preventing the upgradation of Cusat into an Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST).
He was addressing a meet-the-press programme organised by Ernakulam Press Club. He said the State Government was showing no interest in submitting the letter of concurrence to the Central Government.
The MHRD grant to the tune of Rs 518 crore in that regard was being wasted as a result of the poor response from the government.
“This is the only issue troubling me as I leave Cusat”, Azis said. He has been appointed Vice- Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University.
He said that the politics played by the employees of Cusat had affected the smooth functioning of the university and almost all the unions tried to torture him several times.
“There had been a concerted effort to cast aspersions on me that included the Sreelakshmi case and the cases related to the alleged tampering with marks.
“Whenever there is a shift in the government at the state level, the working of universities usually gets affected and it is better for VCs to resign when there is a new government,” he said.
He said he was happy working at Cusat and all the academic achievements that the university received helped in capturing national attention.
- India Today (IT-BHU 18th)
- Outlook India (IT-BHU 8th)
- Dataquest (IT-BHU 10th)
| Year | India Today | Outlook India | Dataquest |
| 2007 | 18 | 8 | 10 |
| 2006 | 9 | 8 | 8 |
Note: In 2007 India Today survey, IT-BHU is 7th in factual parameters (infrastructure, quality of students, faculty strength, academic, etc., but overall rank is low due to perception factor).
This year also the college rankings are out at the expected time i.e. just before the start of college admission process.
It can be seen that college rankings differ from magazine to magazine and year to year for the same magazine for a given college. The reasons are manifold. First, each magazine calculates the parameters (such as students’ quality, faculty strength, infrastructure, job placement, etc.) with its unique formula. Then it mixes the above factual parameters with perception factors (arrived by conducting opinion survey of faculty members across country about other colleges); the ratio of factual to perception differs from magazine to magazine.
However, the main reason for wide differences in results is due to fact that magazines are trying to measure the parameters which cannot be easily quantified and compared. The only parameter which can be accurately calculated is the research output, such as numbers of research papers published, seminars/conferences held & attended, number of patents applied for, international awards received by faculty, etc. This ‘true rankings’ lead to the rush for establishing and declaring research universities in the west in the first part of twentieth century.
Some magazines also resort to the obscure way of handling and generating data. For example, India Today gave weightage to factors such as students care, perception, etc., but there was no mention about these factors in the 6-page questionnaire sent to colleges by the magazine.
However, the effect of college rankings cannot be wished away. It is a useful tool for students, recruiting companies and colleges alike. Students use it to quickly decide about the branch versus institute syndrome, as decision for life is to be made in a few weeks prior the start of admission counseling session. This can be evident from questions raised by students in a new but immensely popular yahoo website-Yahoo! Answers (www.answers.yahoo.com).
The detailed analysis reports on college rankings are bought by hiring corporation from magazine publishers to get background details about colleges from where they plan for campus recruitment drive. The reports help in deciding about which campuses to visit for selection of prospective employees, how many students are to be hired, what salary range to be offered, whether to opt for prime (first day) slot at the opening of campus recruitment season, etc. For example, Schlumberger International (a leading oilfield services provider- http://www.slb.com) recruited engineers in various disciplines for its India operations last year, from several IITs, IT-BHU, ISM Dhanbad and other reputed colleges. Salaries were offered from $75k to $15K per year (Rs. 33 lacs to Rs. 6.5 lacs per year). Barring some exceptions, salaries offered were roughly proportional to the college’s reputation and magazine rankings.
The college rankings can also serve as a useful tool for a college administration to introspect and overcome the deficiencies listed in the magazine reports.
For further reading:
a) Recent news item in CNN News:
Many American colleges balk at U.S. News rankings
Excerpts:
Thacker told CNN that "rankings have reduced students to consumers, education to product, and gaining admission into college a high-priced game that has to be played."
b) A discussion about some of the international college rankings published in Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle (http://chronicle.com) is a highly respected international magazine in the field of higher education. It is published online daily on weekdays and is headquartered in Washington D.C., US.
College Rankings Catch On Overseas
c) 
Go to http://answers.yahoo.com and enter key words such as IT-BHU, IIT-JEE, AIEEE, etc. to view students’ queries about selection of colleges.
The survey of top engineering colleges in India by India Today-A C nelson-ORG-MARG:
Following the list of top 20 engineering colleges as per June 20, 2007 survey conducted by Dataquest magazine and research firm IDC India, both run by Cyber Media India Ltd.
| Rank 2007 | Institute | Score | 2006 rank |
| 1 | IIT- Khadagpur | 84.4 | 3 |
| 2 | IIT- Madras | 77.9 | 1 |
| 3 | IIT-Bombay | 74.3 | 5 |
| 4 | IIT- Delhi | 74.1 | 2 |
| 5 | IIT-Roorkee | 72.5 | 7 |
| 6 | IIT-Guwahati | 68.8 | 4 |
| 7 | IIT- Kanpur | 66.0 | 6 |
| 8 | NIT-Warangal | 63.2 | 12 |
| 9 | IIIT-Hyderabad | 62.5 | 10 |
| 10 | IT-BHU | 62.1 | 8 |
| 11 | BITS-Pilani | 61.9 | 9 |
| 12 | NIT Trichi | 61.4 | 13 |
| 13 | IIIT-Allahbad | 61.1 | 17 |
| 14 | Jadavpur Unversity | 59.0 | 18 |
| 15 | NIT- Calicut | 58.2 | 14 |
| 16 | NIT-Rourkela | 57.9 | 24 |
| 17 | MNNIT-Allahbad | 57.1 | 19 |
| 18 | Thapar University | 57.0 | 20 |
| 19 | BIT-Mesra | 55.4 | 17 |
| 20 | NIT-Hamirpur | 55.3 | 34 |
The news item for the above survey from livemint.com:
IT hires more from engineering colleges
Link to the article.
(With this issue, we are starting a new sub-section called national Education news. It will contain prominent news about national institutes and govt. policies for higher education.)
The Prime Minister has announced the setting up of 30 more central universities. Banaras Hindu University is among the 18 existing central universities. This is a welcome move by the govt. It is to be seen how fast the proposal is implemented.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070623/asp/nation/story_7962355.asp
Centre lines up 30 new varsities
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, June 22: The Centre plans to set up and fund 30 universities across the country to reduce the burden on existing centrally funded institutions and raise the standard of higher education in India, the Prime Minister announced today.
Unveiling the latest chapter of his pet project — transforming India into a “knowledge economy” — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said work on the new central universities would begin within two to three months.
“Work on the modalities for sett