____________ The Book 'BITS of Success' is Out ______________
Dear Reader,
Thanks for browsing
Ghumakkad’s blog.
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
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.
Thank you
all.
-
Ghumakkad
Harsh (with Kinnera and Anu)/ 9th Jan 2014/ Secunderabad India
____________________ The Book 'BITS of Success' is Released __________________________
You may also browse another story titled 'Convocation Excitement' about BPHC convocation.
