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We are pleased to announce that IT-BHU Global Alumni Association (IBGAA) plans to launch alumni funded projects very soon. The aim of the projects will be to improve select infrastructure and facilities on the IT-BHU campus as well as to support students and faculty initiatives.
A number of steps have been taken to plan for the launch of alumni projects:
a) Bank account has been opened in Varanasi by IBGAA (India) and 12A/80G tax exemptions have been obtained for the same. Now alumni depositing donations in the bank account can obtain tax-exemption for the amount donated, subject to certain conditions. Similar facility already exists for our US based alumni via the New Jersey bank account.
b) A campus office of our alumni association will soon be opened. The office space has been identified. It will be staffed with a full-time employee and assisted by student-volunteers.
c) A list of projects have been discussed within Board of Directors of our alumni association and will be finalized in consultation with our institute administration, who have better idea of exact needs.
d) A list of documents, including FAQs (frequently Asked Questions) is being prepared and will be published for fund-raising drive.
The partial list of projects is as follows (to be discussed and confirmed):
* For students: summer internships for India and abroad, scholarship for publications, research, attending seminar/conference/competition in India/abroad, financial assistance to needy students, students with excellent IIT-JEE ranks, etc.
* For faculty: scholarship for publications, research, attending national and international seminars/conferences * For departments: improving infrastructure. labs / lecture hall, etc.
* Campus facilities: improving library, workshop, etc.
* Hostels: improving hostel facilities such as mess, laundry room, heating, and emergency power
* Website: improving alumni website (www.itbhuglobal.org) with version 2.0 with vastly improved features.
* Brand building: Preparing/publishing, video, calendar, publish articles, advertize in news media, etc.
Each of these projects would be developed in conjunction with faculty and alumni inputs. More projects will also be added.
We hope to launch alumni fund drive by the year end. Further announcement will be done in the coming issues of chronicle as well as on our website (www.itbhuglobal.org) and by direct mail. All project information will be published and tracked on the alumni association Web site at www.itbhuglobal.org/projects
We hope that with the help from entire IT-BHU community (alumni, students, faculty, administration and well-wishers), we shall be able to launch the projects on mass-scale and achieve the desired results.
Thanking you
Vish Laxminarayanan (Electrical 1984)
President, IT-BHU Global Alumni Association
Email: vish.narayanan@gmail.com
On behalf of Board of Directors,
Email: directors[AT]itbhuglobal.org
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Introduction:
As we are aware, our alumni association, IBGAA (IT-BHU global Alumni Association) plan to launch alumni funded projects on our campus. For that end and to meet statutory requirements, an Indian entity of the association, called IBGAA (India) has been established and registered under Registration of Societies Act.
To handle fund collection, transfer and distribution, a bank account has been opened with Kotak Mahindra Bank with its Gadaulia, Varanasi Branch. We have now received tax exemptions under 12A and 80G. With this, our association is able to collect funds from alumni within India and abroad (under certain conditions).
This was possible with the active involvement & help from Prof. S. N. Upadhyay, Director; Prof. T. R. Mankhand, Faculty In Charge-Alumni Affairs; Avinash Sahai (Electrical 1982); Madhuranjan Kumar (Mechanical 1983) and Nihal Ansari (Mechanical 1982) besides the professional help from a CA and an Income Tax advocate.
We are pleased to state that we have received the first check deposit to our bank account from Mr. P. V. Mohan (Chemical 1983) for the amount of Rs. 107,000 (Rs. 1.07 lakhs) towards alumni projects. We appreciate his help.
We are presenting a report on this latest development from Nihal Ansari, Treasurer of IBGAA (India) who was involved in the efforts.
More details about IBGAA (India) Bank Account will be published in the next issue of Chronicle.
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We have now been granted the exemptions under sections 12A and 80G.
12A: all income & contributions received by the association is tax exempted on the part of association
80G: all contributions/donations are tax exempted on the part of donors
We may now move forward to transfer all the funds locked up in the individual batch accounts like batch’81, batch’82 & batch’83. Batch’84 can now deposit their scholarship funds to this account. Funds can be deposited directly into the account. Cheques may be sent to our office address, wire/bank transfers directly into the account. Tax exemption receipts will be issued only to those donors who will provide full addresses & PAN details.
Details of the bank account into which Indian Funds can be deposited:
Name of the account: IT-BHU Global Alumni Association (India)
Office address: IT-BHU Global Alumni Association (India), Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, U.P., India
Bank: Kotak Mahindra Bank, D37/27, SPICE KCM COMPLEX, BARADEV GADAULIA, VARANASI - 221 001
Account No. 03520010003434
Type of account: Saving bank
Bank’s IFSC Code: KKBK0000352
Those making contributions must provide their full name, complete address, Phone no., PAN, etc. A confirmatory mail may be sent to ITBHUGAAI@gmail.com for reconciling the account.
Please fill out the donation form. To view donation form & the mode of deposit, click here.
Donation form-ITBHUGAAI-Nov09.doc
Nihal Ansari
Treasurer, IBGAA (India)
Email: ansarinihal@gmail.com
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Additional Links:
*IT-BHU Global Alumni Association (India) registered-Chronicle May 2009 issue
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2009/05/index-alumni-world.php#004334
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The following is the announcement for fund-raising lunch event at Bangalore and meeting with our institute director on Nov 21, 2009. This appeal is being sent by IT-BHU Alumni Association to all alumni who wish to attend the event.
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Invitation for ITBHU Alumni Lunch Meet in Bangalore on Nov 21, 2009
Dear ITBHU Family Member,
The Bangalore chapter of the ITBHU Global Alumni Association (IBGAA) is pleased to announce its Alumni Luncheon and ITBHU fundraiser on Saturday, November 21, at the house of V. L. Narayanan (Electrical 1983, President, ITBGAA).
The Director of IT-BHU, Prof. S. N. Upadhyay has confirmed that he will be attending. It will be a great opportunity for the alumni to interact with him and get to know the latest happening at the institute, especially in the context of the greater autonomy and funds that we are slated to receive in view of the impending IIT announcement in the Parliament.
It is also a great opportunity for us alumni to reach out to the institute and ask how we can help, financially and otherwise.
Special Guests Include
Prof. S. N. Upadhyay, Director, ITBHU
Pankaj Chandra, Mining 1983, Director, IIM-Bangalore
Vish Narayanan, Electrical 1983 President, ITBHU Global Alumni Association
Event Details
When: 11:30AM – 2PM
Where: V. L. Narayanan’s (President-ITBGAA) house
#15, 9th Main Road, 3rd Block Jayanagar
Bangalore -560011
Directions are attached (you can Google this address and also get it on www.mapmyindia.com)
Landmarks: Cradle Nursery Hospital is 4 houses away,
Pai Viceroy is about 200 meters away,
Google Map with Landmarks:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=112049271942844347657.0004773f487c128c8bf6f&ll=12.938356,77.586887&spn=0.014953,0.01929&z=16
Donation: Minimum Rs. 500 per person attending (contributions higher than Rs. 1000 strongly suggested). All proceeds go to IT-BHU Alumni Organization. (Donations are tax-exempt under Section 80G)
RSVP – Click this Evite link
http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/KMSMGAAOCDNZJJABOCBV/itbhu-alumni-nov21, or Email Saurabh Chandra (chandrasaurabh@gmail.com)
Call Saurabh at 9845279446 for anything related to the event.
Best wishes,
ITBHU Global Alumni Association Bangalore Chapter
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chapters/geo/bangalore
RSVP Now at
http://www.evite.com/app/publicUrl/KMSMGAAOCDNZJJABOCBV/itbhu-alumni-nov21
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(Forwarded by Shalabh Goyal, Electrical 2002. Email: shalabh.goyal@gmail.com)
In continuation of its long tradition of hosting semi-annual meets in the bay area, the Silicon Valley Chapter of iT-BHU Global Alumni Association successfully organized yet another alumni meet on Sunday, 1st Nov. 2009.
The theme this time was markedly different from the last Holi meet, which was characterized by dance and live music performances. The get-together was held in the lush Central Park location in Santa Clara and featured several outdoor events.
The day that epitomized ‘the perfect California weather’ saw alumni pouring in with their families at noon. While some people took off to the ground with Frisbees and cricket gear, the others enjoyed hot Samosa-Chole and Medhu Vada with Chutney while chatting. Soon, the kids took the center stage at the park during the Lemon Race. It was a delight seeing the young ITians run to the finish lines while their parents cheered for them. Next in line were the couples for the needle and thread challenge. The wives held the needle at the far end and their husbands ran to put the thread across the needle. Gagan (Electrical 1998) and his wife, Rupali, showed superb coordination as Gagan beat Anshuman (Electrical 1998) to the finish line.
Another exciting event was Tug-of-War that exposed the rivalry between the ITBHU hostels. The crowd started cheering as alumni from DG (Dhanrajgiri) made the alumni from Raman-Morvi bite the dust. Moments later, the alumni from Vivekanand-Limbdi-Dey routed the alumni from Vishvesvaraya-Rajputana. However, the final bout between DG and Vivekanand-Limbdi-Dey was heart throbbing. DG recovered from the verge of defeat, owing mostly to their anchor Nishant (Metallurgy 2002), to win the inter-hostel Tug-of-War championship. Everyone enjoyed Dosas and Uthapam with Gajar Halwa after this incredibly thrilling event.
Vivek (Electronics 1986), who had mesmerized everyone with ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala’ at the Holi meet, re-casted his magic with an innovative Bingo. Replacing Bingo numbers with ITBHU events (Kashiyatra, Technex etc.), and hostels (Limbdi, Dey etc.), and Benares restaurants (Sindhi, Diamond etc.) and places (VT, Sankat Mochan etc.), he took everyone down that memory lane one more time. The get-together ended with a 30-second silence to pay homage to the alumni from Kashi’81 who have left us at a very young age.
Attended by more than 85 people (including kids), the event rejuvenated the ITBHU bond that has existed for several decades. These consistent meetings are helping Alumni and their families forge new links and expanding their social ambit beyond the traditional work and neighborhood networks.
It was great to meet the people who joined us for the picnic. For those who couldn't make it this time, we surely hope that you would join us for the next event that we are planning for in the March ~ April 2010.
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Photos and video of the meet
1) Photos of the event can be viewed at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Krontis/ITBHUDiwali2009?feat=directlink
2) Watch video of the alumni meet on YouTube:
An extremely great video of the IT BHU Picnic by Chandra's (class of 1981) son Neel ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoZvZuXOT8o
3) Additional photos can be viewed at:
* Mr. Jung's (Class of 1955): http://picasaweb.google.com/padamjung/BHUParty#
* Shalabh's (Class of 2002): http://picasaweb.google.com/shalabh.goyal/ITBHUNov2009
* Kranti's (Class of 1994): http://picasaweb.google.com/Krontis/ITBHUDiwali2009
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http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM8TBYRA0G_index_0.html
(Dr. Anil Bhardwaj)
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The Moon, seen by Chandrayaan-1 |
Hydrogen offers a new way to study the Moon
16 October 2009
The Moon is a surprisingly strong source of hydrogen atoms. That is the surprise discovery from ESA-ISRO instrument SARA onboard the Indian Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter. It gives scientists an interesting new way to study both the Moon and any other airless bodies in the Solar System.
According to conventional wisdom, the lunar surface is a loose collection of irregular dust grains. Any particle that hits it should bounce between the grains and be absorbed. But the new results clearly show that one out of every five protons incoming from the solar wind rebounds from the Moon’s surface. In the process, the proton joins with an electron to become an atom of hydrogen.
“We didn’t expect to see this at all,” says Stas Barabash, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, who is the European Principal Investigator for the (Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer) SARA instrument, which made the discovery. “It’s an amazing discovery for the planetary scientific community in general and for the lunar science in particular”, says Anil Bhardwaj, who is the Indian Principal Investigator from the Space Physics Laboratory, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum. SARA was one of three instruments that ESA contributed to Chandrayaan-1, the lunar orbiter that completed its mission in August 2009 and built jointly by scientific groups from Sweden, India, Japan, and Switzerland.
SARA measurements of hydrogen flux on the Moon
Although Barabash and his colleagues do not know what is causing the Moon to act as a hydrogen mirror, the discovery paves the way for a new type of picture to be made of the lunar surface. This is because the hydrogen atoms shoot off with speeds of around 200 km/s and so escape without being deflected by the Moon’s weak gravity. Also, because hydrogen is electrically neutral it is not diverted by the magnetic fields in space. So the atoms fly in straight lines from the surface of the Moon, just like photons of light. In principle, each detection can be traced back to its origin and an image of the surface can be made. The areas that emit most hydrogen will show up the brightest.
Barabash and his team are currently analysing the data to see if they can make such pictures, in order to look for so-called lunar magnetic anomalies. Whilst the Moon does not generate a global magnetic field, some lunar rocks are magnetised. These generate magnetic bubbles that deflect incoming protons away into surrounding regions. In a hydrogen image, the magnetic rocks will therefore appear dark.
The incoming protons are part of the solar wind, a constant stream of particles given off by the Sun. They collide with every celestial object in the Solar System but are usually stopped by the body’s atmosphere. On bodies without such a natural shield, for example asteroids or the planet Mercury, the solar wind reaches the ground. The SARA team expects that these objects too will reflect many of the incoming protons back into space as hydrogen atoms.
This knowledge provides timely advice for the scientists and engineers who are readying ESA’s Bepi-Colombo mission to Mercury. The spacecraft will be carrying two similar instruments to SARA and may find that the inner-most planet is reflecting more hydrogen than the Moon because the solar wind is more concentrated closer to the Sun. In the meantime, the SARA team is combing the lunar data for insight, and puzzling over just why the Moon is so good at reflecting hydrogen.
Notes to Editors:
SARA was one of three instruments that ESA contributed to Chandrayaan-1, the lunar orbiter that finished its mission in August 2009. The instrument was built jointly by scientific groups from Sweden, India, Japan, and Switzerland: Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden; Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum, India; University of Bern, Switzerland; and Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Japan. The instrument is led by Principal Investigators Stanislav Barabash, IRF, Sweden, and Anil Bhardwaj, VSSC, India.
This article reflects findings presented in ‘Extremely high reflection of solar wind protons as neutral hydrogen atoms from regolith in space’, by M. Wieser, S. Barabash, Y. Futaana, M. Holmström, A. Bhardwaj, R. Sridharan, M.B. Dhanya, P. Wurz, A. Schaufelberger and K. Asamura, Planetary and Space Science 2009, doi: 10.1016/j.pss.2009.09.012
Figure 'SARA measurements of hydrogen flux on the Moon' reproduced with permission from Elsevier.
For more information:
Detlef Koschny, ESA Chandrayaan-1 Project Scientist
mail: Detlef.Koschny @ esa.int
Erratum to an earlier version of this article:
How the Moon produces its own water still remains a mystery. The SARA discovery is that the Moon reflects a large fraction of the incoming solar wind protons as hydrogen atoms. What happens with the solar wind protons absorbed by the surface is out of the scope of the SARA investigation.
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Additional link
Interview of Dr. Anil Bhardwaj in Chronicle September 2007 issue
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2007/09/
(Look under alumni news)
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HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, October 30, 2009
First Published: 21:17 IST(30/10/2009)
Last Updated: 03:06 IST(31/10/2009)
ne of the Internet’s most influential figures on Friday painted the details of the humongous technological force unleashed on the planet, only to suggest that the revolution his company, search giant Google Inc, was spearheading beyond its own imagination.
(Nikesh Arora)
“Sometimes, even I am surprised what we can do!” Nikesh Arora, president, global sales and business development at Google, told the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi, on being asked if his company could possibly control everything that moves on the earth with the kind of personal information that is available to it.
Google specialises in software that helps users organise and sift through information – dramatically easing intellectual work but raising concerns on privacy.
On being asked whether Google’s Web-based operating system will be able to take on the preloaded operating systems on desktop popularised by Microsoft Corp, he said “The existing operating systems (OS) were designed for the times when we were not connected. We have already announced Chrome OS (Web-based) but I do not know if that will replace the existing OS. That’s for users to decide.”
High Internet penetration, low cost of computer storage and the creation of content from any corner was revolutionising the world, said Arora, a graduate of Varanasi’s BHU Institute of Technology in the 1980s now running a key aspect of the company that now purveys online videos, social networking, mobile telephony software and Web-based applications.
“Internet is the world’s largest communication, information and distribution network,” he observed, throwing numbers that showed the impact that has only just begun. There are 3 billion searches every day on Google, while 250 million people are on social networking site Facebook, while billions of emails zip across cyberspace everyday.
“Newspaper subscriptions are falling because of Internet. TV channels are registering fall in viewership. Therefore, Internet is disruptive force,” said Arora.
India was still to catch up on Internet infrastructure in a world where even Rwanda, the impoverished African country, is investing billions of dollars in providing broadband links, he said.
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Additional links
* Google Management-Corporate Information
http://www.google.co.uk/corporate/execs.html#nikesh
Nikesh Arora
President, Global Sales Operations and Business Development
Nikesh oversees all revenue and customer operations, as well as marketing and partnerships. Since joining Google in 2004, he has held several positions with the company. Most recently, he led Google's global direct sales operations. He also developed and managed the company's operations in the European, Middle Eastern and African markets and was responsible for creating and expanding strategic partnerships in those regions for the benefit of Google's growing number of users and advertisers.
With a background as an analyst, Nikesh's main areas of focus have been consulting, IT, marketing and finance. Prior to joining Google, he was chief marketing officer and a member of the management board at T-Mobile. While there, he spearheaded all product development, terminals, brand and marketing activities of T-Mobile Europe. In 1999, he started working with Deutsche Telekom and founded T-Motion PLC, a mobile multimedia subsidiary of T-Mobile International. Prior to joining Deutsche Telekom, Nikesh held management positions at Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments in Boston.
Nikesh holds a master's degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University, both of which were awarded with distinction. He also holds the CFA designation. In 1989, Nikesh graduated from the Institute of Technology in Varanasi, India with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.
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* Interview with Nikesh Arora in Chronicle November 2006 issue
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2006/11/
(Please scroll down near the bottom)
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http://www.potofthots.com/2009/10/interview-with-tedindia-fellow-neha.html
Monday, October 26, 2009
Neha Gupta is the third TEDIndia Fellow to be interviewed in this series (Other two – Lisa Heydlauff and Pulkit Gaur). She is the Chief Inventor of EachOneTeachOne (facebook) - a web-application designed to facilitate volunteer tutoring and learning. She is also very multi-faceted.
(Neha Gupta)
In this interview she talks about her various roles, her role models, the future of EachOneTeachOne and more…
You are pretty multi-faceted - Computer scientist, humanitarian, entrepreneur, dancer and co-founder of EachOneTeachOne. Which is your favourite role? Honestly!
Not to boast about myself, I m a very versatile person from childhood and have always been active in extra-curricular activities. I like each and every role of mine and sometimes get bored if I keep on doing one role for a while. Technology excites me and I am always eager to learn and be a part of it. Dance makes me happy; though dancing on stage requires a lot of discipline and hard work. For me entrepreneurship and humanitarian work are a pat on my shoulder and give me a reason to smile.
Unmentioned roles were, you being a wife and a student too. We all have the same 24 hours, how do you manage to juggle all these roles?
It is really difficult sometimes, being a wife comes with an additional responsibility of a home-maker and being a student demands 24 hour attention. But I am lucky to have a husband who shares my dreams and is supportive. At the same time he’s critical about what I do and that makes me succeed in my endeavours.
I would also like to mention that my PhD advisor Dr. Ashok Agrawala has been extremely supportive and a fatherly figure for me.
Let’s talk about Eachonteachone, a web-application you created to help some to teach and some to learn. Tell us about it - how it began and what inspired you to start this interesting program.
My husband and I come from very humble backgrounds and we both had a dream to help underprivileged children particularly those from low-income families to get good education.
I wanted my PhD topic to be use of Information Technology for Education. I did a lot of reading of related work but could not come across anything novel. One day I was browsing through Facebook and I got this idea of using Facebook or any other web-application for online education for free. The idea seemed very obvious and easy and I spoke to my husband and my advisor about it.
My advisor was offering a class at that time which was a seminar level course of use of IT for Quality of Life improvement. We decided to build this application as a part of class project and this is how it started.
Now that eachoneteachone is gaining momentum, what's the next step? From here, where?!
I’m talking to students at different high schools and various other voluntary organizations which require extra tutoring to know more about their needs and requirements and taking their feedback.
I’m starting with Math education but would like to spread to Science and English too. I want EachOneTeachOne to grow virally and also have a global outreach.
I'm sure every one of us has a role model. Who is yours?
I would say my role models have been my father and my advisor.
My father is a retired banker & a social worker and helps everyone whether he knows them or not.
My advisor is also like my father in the USA. It’s like he adopted me when I came to USA and has been by my side always.
Their hard-work and the goodness of their hearts inspire me to be the same.
I am also influenced by two great women in Indian history - Rani of Jhansi and Kiran Bedi. They have been my icons for bravery and they inspire me to not give up in any circumstances.
On a whole different note, you had had linked a post in your blog to a Washington post article on the "The disappointing performance of U.S. teenagers in math and science on an international exam". Isn't it ironic how people flock from India to the US to do their post graduate education?
I think the post-graduate education especially the research done in USA is world class and no other country in the world can beat that.
Yeah it is definitely ironic that there has been a disappointing performance of U.S teenagers in maths and this is the reason that a large number of post-graduate students are from other countries.
Talking about students from India who come for post-graduate education, a lot of them think that pursuing a higher degree will give them a way to come to America and this number has been increasing. But many still do come for research, which is the strength of American Universities.
Now you are a TED fellow too, congrats on that again! I am certain that a lot of people consider you to be their role model, what message would you want to give them?
Thanks a lot!!
I am humbled by the fellowship and would like to thank TED for offering it to me.
I am just a girl-next-door and the thought that I’m someone's role model is a bit scary but still the message I would like to give to everyone is -"No matter how much you fail, rise after each fall and keep going. And don't be afraid of failures because failures teach you the most".
Tell us about one thing in the past that you would do differently, given a chance.
One thing in my past that I would do differently is to live my years at my under-graduate school. When I cleared IIT-JEE and joined Electronics Engineering at IT-BHU in India, my seniors fed into my ears that we (all the new students) have studied enough and need not work hard & everyone will get a job in the fourth year no matter what we study, since 2000 was boom time for IT industry. My tendency became taking studies as a burden and I studied only as and when required; mostly two days before the exams.
So I would like to change that part of my life and enjoy my coursework which I now think was interesting.
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Additional Links:
* Neha Gupta in Chronicle August 2009 issue
"Come & Learn" Project to Practice Spoken English For Free -by University of Maryland
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2009/08/index-reports.php
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Executive Appointment at Terex
Jacob Thomas named Senior Vice President at Terex.
Terex Corporation
WESTPORT, CT - Terex Corporation announce the appointment of Jacob Thomas as Senior Vice President with responsibility for product development, marketing and the Terex Business System. In this capacity, Jacob and his team will support the full production cycle for Terex equipment, from customer insights through design, order, delivery and customer support. He reports to Tom Riordan, President and Chief Operating Officer.
(Jacob Thomas)
Mr. Thomas joined Terex in October 2007 as Vice President, Product Development and Technology, leading the engineering function globally in this role.
Prior to joining Terex, Mr. Thomas served as Vice President of the big-bore diesel engine business unit at Navistar International Corporation's Engine Group. From 2002-2004, he served as Managing Director of that company's mid-range diesel engine business unit. Mr. Thomas also worked in Navistar's Commercial Truck Group from 1998-2002, last serving as Director of the medium duty truck product center.
Prior to Navistar, Mr. Thomas advanced through various engineering and marketing leadership roles during six years at construction and farm equipment manufacturer Case New Holland. He began his career in the automotive industry at the Ford Scientific Research Laboratory.
Mr. Thomas holds an MBA degree from the University of Chicago with a concentration in marketing and finance, an MS in mechanical engineering from the Ohio State University, and a BS from the Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi in India.
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Additional Links:
* Terex Corporation
* Jacob Thomas in Chronicle October 2007 issue (under alumni news)
Jacob Thomas joins Terex as Vice President, Technology
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2007/10/
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'Swift is about attitude and targets younger audience'
21 Oct 2009, 1030 hrs IST, Bhanu Pande & Shailesh Dobhal, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: As the marketing head of the country’s leading carmaker Maruti Suzuki, it’s natural for Mayank Pareek to profess his love for cars.
(Mayank Pareek)
"As an engineering student, I opened and closed so many car engines," says the IIM-Bangalore and IIT-BHU alumnus. "And many I could not close," he chuckles. However, minutes into conversation, it’s easy to note that his real study is somewhere else––demographics.
“It’s a slow change, not palpable till its already upon you,” says the 47-year old. Marketing for Pareek is almost science. He pours into reams of demographic data to get a sense where his consumers will drive the car market––zippy hatchbacks, powerful , yet fuel efficient sedans, a segment of one, just where. And more critically, just who his consumer will be––the double-income-no-kids city dweller or the rural sarpanch.
A keen observer of the development-consumption linkages, Pareek cheered when finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a whopping 43% increase in outlay for rural development in his budget speech in July this year.
Speak numbers, and he’s got everything on his fingertips––villages in India, tehsils, agriculture growth over the years, the country’s income pyramid, well, you get the sense.
Years spend as a field salesman, a stint at managing
dealerships and then in corporate planning for taking the carmaker public in 2003, perhaps gave Pareek his appreciation for number-driven marketing approach.
“He’ll be a great guy if you need help on crystal ball gazing,” says Sunil Sachdeva, founder director of ad agency Capital advertising that handles Maruti’s Swift advertising.
But before you brand him as a marketing ‘nerd’, he corrects the perception . “In the end, all figures seen, it’s a gut decision. Otherwise, why would I go ahead with the Swift launch inspire of ‘no go’ calls from all internal research?”
Well yes, just why? “Somehow, deep down I felt that there was this consumer already there in urban India who was ready for pricier, yet different hatchback.” The hunch proved right, and Swift is now Maruti’s third-largest selling model after Alto and Wagon R.
“Though he is uncompromising on systems and processes, he’s also the intuitive marketer, who fundamentally believes in the power of young consumers, the Rang De Basanti generation as he calls them,” says Sachdeva.
To his credit, Pareek does see the big picture, even gives credit to competition where it’s due. “Tata Nano, a segment that we’re clearly not getting into, will put many more people on (four) wheels, and that will create a still lower ladder for car ownership in the country and that will be good for us too.” Declining a mega buck multinational bank at the IIM campus back in 1991 and settling for a modest sales job at Maruti seems to have more than made up as Pareek says he revels in the “challenges and complexity” of auto marketing.
Pareek’s talent was noticed early in his career when he was handpicked as a member of Maurti’s marketing team by former chief Jagdish Khattar. And he directly reported to Khattar for almost ten years.
During these years, Maruti broadbased its brand experience for consumers to encompass after-sales service (Maruti Service Masters), sale and purchase of old cars (Maruti True Value ), insurance (Maruti Insurance) and fleet management (Maruti N2N).
“Pareek’s role didn’t just confine to narrow brand marketing, instead he worked on a much wider canvas that has made what the brand Maruti is today,” says Khattar, who has now started his own auto sales and service venture, Carnation.
Most part of this decade, Maruti led by Khattar has worked on a simple principle––identify specific consumer segment and approach them with appropriate brand proposition. So, in came schemes targeting teachers, lawyers, PSU employees and now doctors and Pareek has been at the centre of it all.
Maruti’s initiatives weren’t just limited to making purchase decision easy, its segment specific product development remained fairly brisk.
Pareek says the company’s idea of multiple brands within each segment was driven by fast-emerging consumer niches. So never mind the overlaps, Maruti today has six models in a single segment (A2)–––Alto, Wagon R, Estilo, Ritz, A-Star and Swift.
But don’t they cannibalise each other? Pareek says, both Swift and Ritz models are meant for the people young at heart. “While Swift is about attitude and targets younger audience, Ritz does the same for the buyers in relatively older age group.” Wagon R is for the functional man, Estilo for youngsters with attitude, and A-star for the consumer who likes the “kick of the car” that could set their adrenaline flowing.
What sets Pareek’s adrenaline flowing is the rural market. It has been a single mindset obsession with him for the past two years now, something that has helped the company tide over the sales slowdown that started in October last year.
“Before last year’s slowdown, everyone, including us, used to merely reap the rural demand. But as urban markets froze last year, we were the early ones creating demand for cars in villages,” he says.
And that busted the myth that rural consumers are poor, he says. “Even if we can find one family in ten villages which can buy a car, then we have found our customer.”
Today, almost one in every six cars sold by Maruti is now bought by rural consumers, up from just one in thirty two-years ago. Rural India was an obvious market for every carmaker to explore, given the urban slowdown, but how did Maruti go about doing it?
“Like everything else, God is in the detailing,” comes back the man’s methodical, mathematical approach.
If you’re with the country’s leading car marketer, it is difficult to resist the question—why is car advertising in India so drab? “Since 50% of the buyers in India are the first time buyers, we have to give them some rational reason to buy.”
Well, numbers again.
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* Mayank Pareek (Chemical 1982) in Chronicle June 2009 issue
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2009/06/mayank_parekh_c.php
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(Forwarded by Prof. P. Ramachandra Rao. Email: pramachandra_rao@yahoo.com.)
We are pleased to inform that a trust in the memory of former Prof. T. R. Anantharaman is formed. It will be known as" T. R. Anantharaman Education and Research Foundation". As we are well aware, Prof. T. R. Anantharaman was professor & head of Dept. of Metallurgical Engineering at IT-BHU, Varanasi. He also functioned as Director of our institute and acting-Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University.
(Prof. T. R. Anantharaman)
The trust has been registered with the registered office at Hyderabad. The trust is managed initially by seven trustees, including Prof. P. Ramachandra Rao. Prof. Rao was a faculty at IT-BHU and Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University.
The objectives of the trust are broadly as follows:
* To help students and faculty at select institutions
* To help carry out research in material science and other fields
* To help carry out research in Indian philosophy, Yoga, etc.
* To establish Endowment Chair (to be named as “Prof. T. R. Anantharaman Endowment Chair”) in one or more premier institutions in India
* To organize Prof. TRA memorial seminars/conferences/lectures, etc.
* To organize publication and maintain a library in memory of Prof. TRA.
*To support research activities of students, faculty and scientists at select premier institutes in India, including at IISc, IT-BHU and IITs
More details about the trust and its planned activities can be found in the trust document here.
TRA TRUST.doc_________________________
Additional link:
Prof. T R Anantharaman in Chronicle issues:
* Time and Life of Prof. TRA
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2009/06/time_and_life_o.php
*Prof. TRA passed away
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2009/06/index.php#004398
*Interview with Prof. TRA
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2007/10/#001929
Interview of Prof. P. Ramachandra Rao in Chronicle April 2008 issue
http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2008/04/chronicle_inter.php
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We are pleased to announce the 2009 Scholarship awards for publications by undergraduate students. The award was given to the selected students who published their articles in national/international technical/scientific journals or at seminar/conference between May 1, 2008 and April 30, 2009.
We received a total of 20 entries from students and five were declared as finalists. The selection was based on total points system, in which each publication by a student was given points from 1 to 10 as follows:
The order of precedence and the number of points per publication/presentation are determined based on the place as follows
a. International journal – 10
b. International conference/Annual meeting of an international society – 9
c. National journal – 8
d. National conference/Annual meeting of a national society – 7
e. Student conferences (like Technex/Magnum Opus) – 5
For more details refer the “Scholarships for the undergraduate student publications” document. Click here.
Scholarship_for_ug_student-12April2009.pdf
The scholarship award was administered by a dedicated group of alumni for scholarship award and led by Revanth Babu Mutyala (Chemical 2001) and Anshuman Singh (Electrical 1998).
Contact email: revanth_babu@yahoo.com; singh.anshuman@gmail.com
For the scholarship special interest group: sig.scholarships@itbhuglobal.org
The funding for the 2009 scholarship was provided by a small group of alumni on behalf of our alumni association. It was a modest total amount of Rs. 20,000 to begin with. The prize money is already received by the finalist students. The first 3 finalists received top prize of Rs. 5,000 each and next two received second prize of Rs. 2,500 each. This is just the beginning and for the year 2010, more number of prizes and prize amount is announced.
Their profile and publication work is described below.
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2010 Scholarship awards for publications by students-funding by alumni association
We plan to launch more such programs with increased funding for the year 2010 and beyond. Depending upon fund collected through donations, we propose the following publication award for the year 2010. The number of scholarships and scholarship amount may be increase in the following years depending upon the funding received and the participation by students/faculty:
For the 2010 Scholarship award, following rules shall apply.
a) All publications by students/faculty in national/international journals or in seminar/conference are eligible.
b) The articles must be published between 1st May 2009 and 30th April 2010.
c) The prize winner shall be decided based on point system as described elsewhere here.
d) There will be 4 categories of prizes, and each will have equal number and amount of prizes.
* Undergraduate student category-for B. Tech students and students studying in first 4 years of integrated dual degree (IDD) M. Tech. course.
* Postgraduate and doctorate student category-for M. Tech. /PhD/post-doctorate students and students in final year of IDD M. Tech. course.
* International category-open for any student/faculty who publishes article in international journal or at international seminar/conference.
*Faculty category-open for any faculty member in teaching/research
Each category will have total 5 prizes:
Top 3 prizes- Rs. 10,000 each
Second 2 prizes- Rs. 5,000 each.
Total prize amount per category = Rs. 40,000
Total prize amount overall = Rs. 160,000
The prize amount may be increased based on response received
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The need for providing financial awards to students for publishing scholastic articles in technical/scientific journals
This will among the most desirable alumni funded projects, which will be launched soon. The project provides immense benefits compared to the cost involved. The advantages for launching the project are:
* It will encourage more students and faculty to publish their technical research/articles in reputed scientific/technical journals. This will enhance their reputation as well as that of our institute.
* It will orient/train students to pursue career in technical/scientific/academic field.
* By publishing quality articles in reputed national/internal technical journals, the student will vastly improve his career profile and may be accepted in reputed institution for higher study/research. He also tends to gain competitive advantage for getting technical/R&D type work in reputed industries/colleges.
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2009 Scholarship awards for publications by undergraduate students
The following students were short-listed for awards out of 20 applicants, based on point system.
Rank | Name of student |DEPT | Year | Points | Email |
1 | Ankur Agrawal | CIV | 4th Year | 37 | |
2 | Vijaya Bharti Joshi | PHE | 2009 passout | 28 | |
2 | Chandra Prakash Shukla |CIV| 4th Year | 28 | |
4 | Karan Jain | CSE | 4th Year | 24 | |
5 | Vipul Mittal | CSE | 3rd Year | 22 |
The year was at the time of applying for scholarship.
The profile and publication details of each finalist are published below.
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1. Ankur Agrawal (Civil Engineering, 4th year)
(Ankur Agrawal)
Profile
Ankur Agrawal is currently 4th year student in the dept. of Civil Engineering at IT-BHU. He got 2nd rank in his class. He did his schooling from St. Paul’s Senior Sec School, Jodhpur and Modi Public School, Kota.
Ankur’s area of interest include: Structural engineering, Earthquake Resisting Structures, Skyscrapers, Bridges, Stakes and Environmental Engineering.
Research Publication:
1. Mohan D, Agrawal A, (2009), An Eco-industrial Park Based on Animal Husbandry and Related Industeries, Published in Proceedings of National Conference on Recent Advances in Waste Management (RAWM-2009), Varanasi, pp. 522-526. Dated 20-21 February 2009
2. Mohan D, Agrawal A, (2009), Blasting Environmental Impacts: A Reveiw, Published in National Journal named 'VISFOTAK'. Dated April 2009
3. Mohan D, Agrawal A, Saran S (2009), Coal Related Industries and Kyoto Protocal: Some Issues, Published in Proceedings of International Symposium on Rock Mechanics and Geo-Environment in Mining and Allied Industries, Varanasi, pp. 537-545. Dated 12-14 February 2009
4. Mohan D, Agrawal A, Saran S (2009), Biological Control of Acid Mine Drainage: Recent Developments, Published in Proceedings of International Symposium on Rock Mechanics and Geo-Environment in Mining and Allied Industries, Varanasi, pp. 546-555. Dated 12-14 February 2009
5. Mohan D, Agrawal A, (2009), An Eco-Industrial Park Based on Livestock-Related Industries for Rural India, Published in Indian Journal on Rural Technology Published by CSIR. Dated March 2009.
6. Agrawal A, Srivastava M, Kumar P, Mohan D (2009), Iron For Control Of Global Warming: An overview, Published in Proceedings of International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Environment Science and Engineering, A.M.U, Aligarh
7. Mohan D, Agrawal A, (2009), Agricultural Residue a Potential Source of Power for Rural India, Published in Indian Journal on Rural Technology Published by CSIR. Dated July 2009.
8. Mohan D, Agrawal A, (2009), Issues Regarding Rural Sanitation, Published in Indian Journal on Rural Technology Published by CSIR. Dated September 2009.
9. Mohan D, Agrawal A, (2009), Removal of Color by Help of Agricultural Waste, Published in Indian Journal on Rural Technology Published by CSIR. Dated September 2009.
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Internships:
Summer Internship (B. Tech Part III): Successfully carried out 8 weeks summer internship with Ganga Pollution Prevention Unit, Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, Varanasi which involved:
* Timely inspection and testing of operation of sewage treatment plant situated in Varanasi, Mirzapur and Denapur districts.
* Carry out laboratory tests to calculate the efficiency of the plants.
* Regular site visits to check the sewer laying works carried out in trans varuna region intended with purpose of preventing varuna from pollution
* Site visits and inspection of the construction site of establishment of new drinking water treatment plant in Varanasi city
Presently working on a technical project under the guidance of Prof R.K. Agrawal and Dr. P. B. Ramudu on the issue of “Stabilization of Diesel Contaminated Soil by Cement Kiln Dust”.
Co-curricular and Extracurricular Activities:
* Worked as the Coordinator of Marketing in Opulence ’08 (All India National Management Fest) held by IT-BHU.
* Worked as the Event Coordinator of the event Tactitude in Opulence ’08 (All India National Management Fest) held by IT-BHU.
* Presently working as an active member of WMG (Website Management Group) of IT-BHU and is responsible for developing and maintaining the official website of Civil Engineering Department, IT-BHU.
* Worked as Hospitality Coordinator in Spardha ’08 (All India National Sports Fest) held by IT-BHU.
* Selected for Summer Camp ’08 held at IIT-Kanpur for 2nd year civil engineering student in India.
* Was the leader of student editor team in SHILP ’09 (All India National Civil Engineering Fest) held by Civil Engineering Society, IT-BHU.
* Lifetime member of Civil Engineering society of IT-BHU.
* Active member of Technical Activity Centre (TAC), a student body working for promotion of technical activity in IT-BHU.
* Took active part in truss bridge design competition I-Struct in Technex ’08.
* Have worked as volunteer for Technex, Spardha and Opulence in 1st year.
* Enjoy playing Tennis, Squash, Table-Tennis and Chess.
* Active Participant in Debates, Jam sessions and Group Discussions.
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2. Miss Vijaya Bharti Joshi (B. Pharm 2009)
(Vjaya Bharti Joshi)
Vijaya Joshi graduated with B. Pharm degree in 2009 from the dept. of Pharmaceutics at IT-BHU. Currently she is a graduate student at Division of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, University of Iowa at Iowa City, Iowa, USA. She did her schooling from DAV School and CRPF School at Rohini, New delhi.
Profile
I was born and brought up Delhi, India. I did my under-graduation in Pharmacy at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. During my under-graduation I did small projects in many fields of life sciences to explore what I like and find my calling. Since my schooling I had a curiosity for understanding therapeutics and a fancy for experimentation. This turned into a passion for research which led me to the University of Iowa where I am doing my graduate studies in Pharmaceutics, working in Dr. Salem’s Lab. Currently I am working on development of cancer vaccines. Besides studies, I like playing basketball. I also like writing poems, reading fiction, listening to songs and traveling.
ACHIEVEMENTS
* Member of Scientific Committee of Indian Pharmaceutical Congress-2007 organized by Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India (APTI).
* Captain of Girls Basket Ball team of IT-BHU during academic years 2006-07 and 2007-08.
* Cultural Secretary 2007-08 of Pharmacy Society at Department of Pharmaceutics.
* Winner of various State and National level tournaments in Handball and Judo during schooling.
AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIP
* Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) Fellowship-2008 for summer research
* BHU Merit Scholarship for excellence in academic performance in year 2005 and 2006
PUBLICATION AND REPORTS
* Poster ‘Evaluation of anti-stress activity of Eugenol’ accepted to be presented at Indian Pharmaceutical Conference-2008.
* Poster ‘Inverse bell shape response of Eugenol as an anti stress agent’ presented at National Seminar on ‘The present status of medicinal plants aspects and prospects’.
* Abstract 'Anti-inflammatory activity of seeds of Hyoscayamus Niger L.' accepted for presentation at Asian Symposium on Medicinal Plants, Species and other Natural Products (ASOMPS) XIII-2008.
* Begum S, Saxena B, Goyal M, Ranjan R, Joshi VB, Rao CV, Krishnamurthy S, Sahai M. Study of anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic activities of seeds of Hyoscyamus niger and isolation of a new coumarinolignan. Fitoterapia. 2009 Aug 29.
RESEARCH SUMMARY
My research was focused on evaluation of therapeutic activity of natural products. My work which mostly involved animal testing is an important contribution for the preclinical testing of therapeutic potential substances. I worked with two substances: Methanolic extract of seeds of H. niger (MHN) and Eugenol. In the project under the guidance of Dr. A. Sajeli Begum, Department of Pharmaceutics, BHU, I evaluated analgesic, antipyretic and anti-inflammatory activity of MHN. Analgesic activity was evaluated using writhing response model of mice which showed significant decrease in writing count in dose dependent manner against control group. For anti-inflammatory activity, rats were used to assess inflammatory response with cotton pellet granuloma. MHN group significantly decreased the inflammatory response which was quantified by weighing wet pellet obtained after surgically removing implanted cotton pellet. Yeast-induced pyrexia model was used to estimate reduction in elevated temperature which also gave positive results against control group. These study confirm that MHN is therapeutically active as an analgesic, anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic agent.
The other potential drug I worked on was Eugenol. I evaluated anti-stress activity of Eugenol with rat model of stomach ulcer formation in response to acute stress. Pre-treatment of Eugenol showed significant reduction in ulcer formation in a dose dependent manner until 50 mg/kg/day dose. On further increase in dose, I observed increase in ulcer induction which could be due to local irritation of gastric mucosa or it could be non-specific response in brain to high dose. The study is in progress in Dr. Sairam Krishnamurthy’s lab at Department of Pharmaceutics, BHU.
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3. Chandra Prakash Shukla (Civil Engineering, 4th year)
(Chandra Prakash Shukla)
Profile
Chandra Prakash Shukla is 4th year student at Dept. of Civil Engineering at IT-BHU. He got 1st rank among his class. He did his schooling from UP, India.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
* Worked as research student under the supervision of Dr Ganesh Subramanian, Engineering Mechanics Unit, Jawahar Lal Centre For Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore during the period May-June 2008 and also during period May-June 2009
Carried out the Mathematical simulation for the heat transfer at low Peclet
Number limited to diffusion only.
* Associated with Dr. S. K. Gupta, Dept of Civil Engineering, IT-BHU as a research student since B. Tech II. In these two years, I have worked on the following projects. I was actively involved with him in doing computational part of his research.
*Heat transfer through conduction and convection by the effect of sunlight in water bodies
* Slurry transport system
* Multiphase flow and particle Reynolds Number
* Sphericity in Multiphase flow
* Genetic Algorithms
* Associated with Dr Subir Das, Dept of Applied Mathematics, IT-BHU as a research student since B. Tech. In these two years I have worked with him in carrying out various computational research work.
* Currently associated with Dr Brind Kumar, Dept of Civil Engineering, IT-BHU, and assisting him in carrying out various mathematical and computational work using Matlab and Mathematica.
PUBLICATION
* V. B. Mishra, C. Prakash, J. Singh (2008),”Infiltration Through a Vertical Column of Unsaturated Porous Media” Proceedings of “THE MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY” Volume 24, 2008.
* Chandra Prakash, Utkarsh Shukla, Amandeep (2009), “Artificial Neural Application
in Geotechnical Engineering”, National Conference and Workshop on High Performance Computing Application, BHU, February(09-11,2009).
*Chandra Prakash, Vivekanand, Amit Agarwal, Utkarsh Shukla (2009),”Intelligent
Waste Management”, National Conference on Recent Advances in Waste Management, IT BHU, March (27-30,2009).
* Dr S. K. Gupta, Chandra Prakash, Parikshit Verma (2009),”Model for Prediction of
Pressure Drop in a Slurry Pipeline”, RACE-National Conference on Recent Advances in Civil Engineering, IT BHU, March (27-30,2009).
* S. K. Gupta, V.K. Agarwal, S. N. Singh, V. Seshadri, David Mills, J. Singh, Chandra
Prakash (2009)”Prediction of Minimum Fluidization Velocity for Fine Tailings Materials” Powder Technology
ACADEMIC AWARDS/ACHIEVEMENT
* My team was placed second in I-Struct a Civil Engineering Design competition held under Technex 08 All India Level Technical Festival of IT-BHU
* My team was placed first in I-Struct a Civil Engineering Design competition held
under Magnum Opus 09 All India Level Technical Festival of IT-BHU
* Selected for IAS (Indian Academy of Sciences) summer fellowship 2008
* Selected for IAS (Indian Academy of Sciences) summer fellowship 2009
EXTRA CURRICULAR