ALUMNI NEWSMAKERS
- Shantanu Srivastava (BT/ME/77)
| Friday, May 19, 2006 |
 | Taking a road less travelled Shantanu Srivastava made sense out of nonsense, and success followed
Srivastava is a businessman thriving on joint ventures between companies of two different nations (India and Vietnam). A self made man, Srivastava chose to try his luck in a small country trying to stand up after a spine-breaking war.
The promoter of Ishan Internation Pvt Ltd, a trading company committed to promote and facilitate trade between India and other countries, Srivastava has Vietnam as his top most priority. Ishan's areas of specialization include machinery, turnkey projects, raw materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Srivastava has been living and working in Viemam since 1982 where he went first as the second secretary of the Indian embassy at Hanoi.
Eager to apply his knowledge and confident of making a difference to the world of trade, he made significant contributions to trade relations between India and Viemam. He was the founder chairman of the Indian Business Chamber from 1998 to 2000. He was awarded the Friendship Medal by the President of Vietnam, the only
Indian to receive this honour.
Today, with his network spread across Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, South Africa, USA and South America currently, travelling has become a way of life.
"The acumen of hiring a dedicated workforce and remote-controlling the network come of help here," says Srivastava. He will soon launch his office in US, besides a trade chamber to build IndoVietnamese relations further.
Srivastava enjoys travelling to the utmost. "In fact, this is one of the loves I have stuck to till date. Vacationing every year with family is a must," he says.
Other passions are tennis, watching comic serials on television, meditating and reading, all of which he manages to imbibe in his routine day.
When on a business meeting abroad, Srivastava prefers meeting people.
"This is very important for my profile. When one is dealing with a range of companies from different nations, it becomes important to strike a chord with all those involved." |
- Arvind Gupta (BT/EE/75)
| Monday, April 10, 2006 |
An Indian educational expert is making science learning fun in Pakistani schools by using his simple, inexpensive models made from everyday items that explain the fundamentals of science.
Arvind Gupta from Pune has held training sessions for hundreds of teachers and students in several cities across Pakistan.
Over the last 20 years, Gupta has developed a technique to make simple toys presenting fundamental scientific laws from junk.
"This is a cheaper way of learning with no cost of laboratories, by using junk like matchboxes, thread etc," Daily Times quoted Gupta as saying. "You don't need sophisticated equipment to learn many of the fundamentals of science."
Gupta, an electrical engineer from IIT, Kanpur, said his technique was about making learning fun. "This process goes beyond words. It helps students learn in an innovative manner."
He urged the introduction of India-Pakistan exchange programmes for teachers and for increased people-to-people contacts in all sectors.
"Such links and the people-to-people contact needs to go further... it's time for both countries to share and learn together," he said.
On his visit, he said he had been looking forward to it for several years and had enjoyed it thoroughly.
Gupta held workshops in Karachi, Hyderabad, Islamabad and Lahore. Describing the feedback as "fabulous", he said a number of schools in Sindh had asked him to start an exchange programme.
Gupta said he "stumbled" onto children's education on account of his interest in the field. He later started developing toys to train teachers and teach students.
Gupta has worked as an adviser to Unesco and is currently associated with Pune University's Children Science Theatre. He has authored 12 books in the field of educational techniques.
His teaching techniques are already popular in several Indian states and over 600 different types of toys are being used to educate students in more than 1,000 different schools across India.
His training module, which he started developing in 1972, has now been translated into several languages. He has travelled all over the world to impart training. |
- Suresh Chandra
| Friday, March 31, 2006 |
Business Intelligence software provider Cognos has announced the appointment of B N Suresh Chandra as its country manager for India operations.
Chandra, who will be based in Mumbai, is responsible for all sales, marketing, consulting and administration in the region.
“Cognos is experiencing strong growth in India.” said David Runacres, vice president, Asia Operations, Cognos. “ Chandra's experience in operating & growing a software business will be a significant advantage to Cognos' expansion in India.“
Before Cognos, Chandra held senior positions at Rational, TCS and HCL. He is also an alumni of IIT Kanpur. |
- Vishnu Varshney (BT/EE/69)
| Sunday, March 19, 2006 |
Winner of the Asia Pacific Venture Capital Association 2006 Inaugural Award Vishnu Varshney defines himself as “hard working and god fearing” and gives the credit for the award to his “family and colleagues”. An electrical engineer from IIT Kanpur, Varshney is one of the earliest venture capitalists in the country and is currently the managing director and CEO of Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd (GVFL).
After completing his MBA from Louisiana University, USA, Varshney returned to India, planning to start his own business. But under compelling domestic circumstances, he ended up joining a stream where he channelled the business of new investors. "I came back to India in 1975 after I lost my father. Not being able to start my own business was a little humiliating initially but things fell in place later. And today I have no regrets about coming back to my country," says Varshney. He terms his journey as a “great learning experience”. He adds, “I keep advising all young professionals studying abroad to utilise their talent in the Indian market.”
With almost 30 years of experience in equity investments, project planning, implementation and turnarounds, he was selected by the World Bank and the Gujarat Industrial Investment Corporation (GIIC) in 1990 to start GVFL as an independent, autonomous organisation in Ahmedabad. Over the past 15 years he has built GVFL into a specialist in funding small and medium scale technology-based innovative companies.
"Venture capital has enormous scope in India and though we have crossed the learning stage, it hasn't yet got its due. The model is lopsided and much stress is laid on private equity as it involves less risk," he explains.
Pointing at its success in the international market, he elaborates, "If you see the economic model of one of the most successful economies, US, you will find that venture capital has taken it to its present stature. Even in countries like Israel it is being encouraged on a large scale and the result is a number of successful firms."
Varshney is on the advisory board of incubators at IIT Kanpur, IIM Ahmedabad, National Institute of Design, Nirma University and MICA. A guest faculty with leading management institutes, he has come up with a revolutionary course.
“Spread over a span of two months, this course encourages students to start their own business within the campus,” he informs.
A firm follower of Shirdi Sai Baba, meditation and classical music help him bust his stress. “I just have to visit his temple and my tensions vanish in no time,” he confides. A voracious reader, Varshney holds that playing tennis is also a potential stress buster. “I was never an avid sportsperson myself but I make it a point to encourage the kids in my family to be one,” he quips.
Varshney is now concentrating all his efforts to set up a “Rs 50 crore fund to boost biotech in Gujarat and a national fund of Rs 100 crore to encourage” small and medium commercial units". |
- Rajesh Gopakumar (MSC5/PHY/92)
| Tuesday, March 07, 2006 |
 | Rajesh Gopakumar (PhD Princeton), currently at Harish-Chandra Research Institute, has been awarded the B.M. Birla Science Prize in Physics for 2004. He is among six scientists to win the B.M. Birla Science prize in various subjects for the year 2004.
He is sharing this prize with Abhishek Dhar from the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore. |
- Amit D Agarwal (BT/CSE/95)
| Monday, February 27, 2006 |
 | Amit Agarwal always preferred the road less travelled. He launched his career with a consulting firm but even after a one-and-a half-year stint, he did not get ‘professional satisfaction’. So, he moved to a Seattle-based three-year old company, Amazon. That was in 1999 and Agarwal has never looked back since.
“I was an IIT (Kanpur) graduate with a post graduate degree from University of Texas. So, I was expected to earn a lot of money from companies that were big names in the field of technology, at least while I was beginning my career,” he says.
So, what really got him to Amazon? The answer: “The consumer industry was beginning to bloom on internet, the innovation levels were high and the system was in the process taking a concrete shape.” He wanted to be a part of it.
It sounds simple, but things did not simply fall into place. “There were days when I thought it was not working, but it did, eventually,” he recalls. In September 2004, he was sent to India to handle the fledgling yet emerging business opportunities in India.
“Realising the potential of Indian sub continent and developing a platform for Amazon in india was probably the toughest assignment I could have asked for,” tables the managing director (Web Services), Amazon Development Centre, India.
Ask him about his biggest contribution to Amazon India and pat comes the reply, “Third-party selling platform.” Agarwal pioneered the concept of vendors selling their wares/services through Amazon’s platform, which added the ‘just right’ momentum to the online marketing sphere.
Get him talking on the business of internet, and Agarwal has his speech ready. “The idea of innovation is changing,” he reasons, “Making money, even if you are at the bottom of the pyramid is possible if your customers are kept happy.” When he is not brainstorming about what clicks on the internet, Agarwal likes to unwind with Kishore Kumar songs and a book on any business/management related topic. His favourite? “Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid was a great read,” he answers. |
- Sumit D. Chowdhury, (BT/EE/92)
| Friday, February 10, 2006 |
 | Sumit D. Chowdhury, (BT/EE/92) is joining Reliance Infocom as Chief Information Officer (CIO) where he will be responsible for IT system integration. Prior to this, he was the Managing Director of consultancy and IT systems integrator BearingPoint Australia.
During his tenure in BearingPoint, Mr. Chowdhury led the system integration practice for several major companies, including Vodafone, British Telecom, Verizon, Singtel, Australia Post, BHP, Coles Myer, National Australia Bank, Cadbury Schweppes and GE Capital. |
- Utpal Bhattacharya (BT/ME/80)
| Friday, February 10, 2006 |
 | A paper from Utpal Bhattacharya (BT/ME/80), Associate Professor of Finance, Indiana University, and one of his graduate students, Neal Galpin, featured in 1 January 2006 edition of New York Times. This paper titled, "Is Stock Picking Declining around the World?" has been circulating in academic circles as a working paper since late last year. The details of the paper are at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=849627 |
- D. D. Sarma (MSc5/PHY/77)
| Friday, February 10, 2006 |
 | D. D. Sarma (MSc5/PHY/77) FNA, FASc., FNASc., Professor, Solid State & Structural Chemistry Unit and Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has been awarded the Sir C. V. Raman Award: Physical Sciences, for his contributions in the field of condensed matter physics related to electronic and magnetic properties of strongly correlated electron systems. |
- N. R. Narayana Murthy, (MT/EE/69)
| Friday, February 10, 2006 |
| N. R. Narayana Murthy, (MT/EE/69) the founder of India's Infosys Technologies, has been ranked as the eighth best CEO in the world in a business survey. The new global study of the world's 15 most admired CEOs was conducted by Burson-Marsteller of the Economist Intelligence Unit. At the top of the list is Microsoft's founder Bill Gates while British-Asian steel magnate Laxmi Niwas Mittal comes in at 15. Murthy was ahead of the News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch who came in at number 10. Jorma Ollila of Nokia was ranked 13. Nearly 700 leading business people in 65 countries took part in the survey. |
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