Thursday, 9 January 2014

BITS of Success is Released

____________ The Book 'BITS of Success' is Out ______________

Dear Reader,

Thanks for browsing Ghumakkad’s blog.

Further to our last post giving a preview of our book “BITS of Success” (http://ghumakkadhb.blogspot.in/2013/12/bits-of-success.html  ) , we are happy to share with you that the book has since been released. Here is a picture.


The book was released by Dr BN Jain, Vice Chancellor, BITS Pilani on 3rd Jan 2014 during BITSAA Global Meet at Hyderabad campus of BITS.

Forewords
Here is an excerpt from the Foreword written by Dr Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chancellor BITS Pilani and Chairman Aditya Birla Group.
“The book ‘BITS of Success’, captures admirably, how this great institution has spawned and shaped generations of leaders in India and globally.  An eclectic tapestry, this volume presents – the passion of 50 BITSians, their success drivers, their deep hunger for meaning and the lessons learnt in the journey of life!”
Here is another excerpt from the Foreword written by Dr K Kasturirangan, Former Chairman ISRO and Member Planning Commission, Govt of India: “The heart-warming stories of its alumni who have made a mark in the world through their contributions in myriad fields should make any Indian proud of this glorious institution.”

Highlights
Here are few highlights of the book.
  • ·         It features 50 achievers over last 50 years of BITS
  • ·         12 out of 13 Distinguished Alumnus Awardees who consented, are featured in the book. Balance 38 were selected from the nominations.
  • ·         Number of alumni achievers featured in the book from the first three decades of 1950s, 60s and 70s, and the next three decades of 1980s, 1990s and 2000s are almost evenly distributed i.e. 56% : 44%. Younger alumni have also made a mark in their professional life.
  • ·         Out of 50 achievers the book has:
    • o   36 Entrepreneurs i.e. 72%
    • o   6 Social Entrepreneurs
    • o   Five Researchers and Academicians
    • o   Two from the world of Art and Media
    • o   And the only adventurer who has skied to both North and South Pole besides climbing Mount Everest
  • ·         Only three out of 50 are women
  • ·         One alumnus graduated through WILP route – i.e. Work Integrated Learning Program
  • ·         More than 80% chose to set up their ventures in India
  • ·         Sadly two of the alumni are no more—namely Mr Ramesh Grover of 1971 and Ms Shanti Vaidyanathan Sharma of 1978. We are grateful to their families for being present at the book release.

We would like to mention that there are countless other achievers who could not be included in the book as they did not want to be in the limelight. We salute them as well.

List of Achievers (In chronological order of the year of graduation from BITS) 

1. D Balasubramanian (LV Prasad Eye Institute) Eyeing success in vivo, in situ! 1
2. Ashok Kumar Agarwal (Former Chairman SQL Star International) Driven by curiosity 5
3. Gulu Mirchandani (Co-Founder Onida brand) Neighbor’s Envy, Owner’s Pride 9
4. Prithviraj Chavan (Chief Minister Maharashtra) A technocrat chief minister 11
5. Krishna Saraswat (Professor Stanford University) Attuning academic research to the needs of the industry 13

6. Bhagwati P Agrawal (Founder Sustainable Innovations) Championing innovations for people 17
7. Kishore Rajvanshy (Founder Fleet Management Ltd Hong Kong) Quality brings growth 21
8. Surendra Pal (Former Program Dorector, Satellite Navigation Program) Reaching out to the unknown 25
9. Babasaheb Neelkanth Kalyani (CMD Bharat Forge) Forging ties globally but firmly founded in India 29
10. B C Jain (Chairman Ankur Scientific) Enlightening lives 33

11. Chandralekha Bhaskar (Co-Founder Bhaskar Power Group) Generating power 37
12. Jinesh C Jain (Chairman Texplas India) One man, many dreams—and many more to fulfil! 41
13. Ramesh D Grover (Founder and Late Chairman CMS Group) An exemplary model of leadership 45
14. Surya P Sethi (Former Chief Investment Officer IFC) Heavy hitting pioneer 49
15. Narendra Ahuja (Director IT Research Academy) Innovative research through societal sensitivity 53

16. Rakesh Verma (Founder MapMyIndia) Business is like running a marathon! 57
17. C P Talesara (Founder Pyrotech Electronics) Raising the bar of success 61
18. Prem Jain (Former Senior VP Cisco) An entrepreneur and an executive 65
19. Shirish Chinoy (Co-Founder Electronics Devices) A true entrepreneur never sleeps 69
20. Vinod K Agarwal (Founder LogicVision and Applied Solar Technologies) Your dreams make you what you are 73

21. Pankaj Patel (Exec VP Cisco) Networking into success 77
22. Shanti Vaidyanathan Sharma (Late Hindustani Classical Vocalist)  A musical journey 81
23. Vijay Chandru (Founder Starnd Life Sciences) Innovating technology for life sciences 83
24. Vijay Kumar Kedia (Founder Kedia Rain Water Harvesting) No one can stop you 87
25. Mani Shankar (Film maker and Creative Director) Let the facts speak the story 91

26. Sunit Rikhi (VP Intel) Happiness is a decision 95
27. Rajesh Hukku (Former Chairman I-Flex Solutions) Dream big and persevere 99
28. S P Kothari (Dy Dean, Sloan School of Management MIT) Success hinges on teamwork 103
29. Sunil Nanda (Founder ThinkIt Technologies and Pilani Resource Centre) Ten thousand hours 107
30. Vivek Paul (Former Vice-Chairman Wipro) Reinvent yourself 111

31. Chandni Sahgal (Former Head MTV India) Thriving on uncertainty 115
32. Manoj Gaur (CEO and MD Jaiprakash Associates) No dream too big 119
33. Raju Reddy (Founder and Former Chairman Sierra Atlantic) Live your values 121
34. R Parthasarathy (Founder CADD Centre) Align your dreams to solving problems 125
35. Manoj Saxena (Founder Exterprise and Webify Inc) Your focus determines your reality 129

36. Ramesh Ramanathan (Founder Janagraha) Seize this moment 133
37. Diaz Nesamoney (Founder Informatica, Celequest and Jivox Inc) Luck is not a strategy 137
38. Suresh Kabra (Founder Clk2C.com) Two false starts and success! 141
39. Sabeer Bhatia (Founder Hotmail) A good entrepreneur never gives up 145
40. Sanjay Anand (Founder Microsoft India Development Centre) If your heart is dissatisfied, walk away 147

41. Sanjay Anand (Founder CMP Institute) Jumping in with both feet 151
42. Ajay Chaturvedi (Founder HarVa) Empowering people economically 155
43. Shashikant Khandelwal (Co-Founder The Find Inc) Sky is the limit 159
44. Kartik Hosanagar (Co-Founder Yodle Inc and Professor, Wharton School) Seek your own path 163
45. Sarathbabu Elumalai (Founder Foodking) Entrepreneurship is like a Japanese Bamboo Tree 167

46. Suhail Kassim (World Bank) Promoting tolerance and compassion in the world 171
47. Raj Kumar (Polar Skier, Submariner and Mountaineer) Skiing to the Poles 175
48. Kavikrut (Founder Mobile Medics) Wake up to a mission everyday 179
49. Mayur Patnala (Founder Nirmaan) A dreamer with a cause 183
50. Srikumar Murthy (Co-Founder, National Social Entrepreneurship Forum)  Give it a shot 187
____________________________________________________

Acknowledgements
We owe this book to the collective effort of so many people:
  • ·         Firstly, all the alumni who nominated their fellow alumni
  • ·         All the achievers featured in the book for sharing their life stories in a tight time frame.
  • ·         The selection panel for working against time
  • ·         Mrs Indira Susheel Kumar- for her unmatched line drawings which are on the book cover as well as the stage backdrop as also her editorial support
  • ·         Mrs Bhashwati, Mrs Shyamola Khanna, Mr J Ramamoorthy and Mr N Raghuveer for editorial and research support
  • ·         Mr Deepak Manchanda and Mr Vinay Prasad for their story on BITS and pictures respectively
  • ·         Mr Rohit Koul, Ms Sherin Kurien and Mr Rahul Sengupta for web support
  • ·         Mr Jatin Chuglani for suggesting the title. Thanks are also due to more than 500 alumni who voted for this title on-line! Jatin you rock buddy!
  • ·         BITSAA Hyderabad team led by Dr Ashok Agarwal and Mr Sanjay Khendry for making this happen
  • ·         And lastly, the entire team at the Universities Press led by Mr Madhu Reddy deserve special mention for doing a splendid job!

Book Review
Book reviews have started appearing in the media. Reader may browse the link for one of the book reviews: http://epaper.thehansindia.com/PUBLICATIONS/THEHANSINDIA/THI/2014/01/05/ArticleHtmls/BITS-of-Success-05012014143046.shtml?Mode=1

The review in The Hans India (5th Jan 2014) says that “The book is about passion, dreaming and the ability to realise the dreams.”

On behalf of my co-authors Kinnera, Anu and myself, we would like to thank BITSAA Hyderabad for giving us this opportunity. As we said earlier, as a humble gesture from our side, we have pledged the entire royalty from the sale of this book to BITSAA Hyderabad.

We hope you enjoy reading the book. We look forward to your feedback on mail ID bitsofsuccess@gmail.com.

Thank you all.
-          Ghumakkad Harsh (with Kinnera and Anu)/ 9th Jan 2014/ Secunderabad India



____________________ The Book 'BITS of Success' is Released __________________________ 
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