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Published on Aug 20, 2007 The Chronicle August, 2007 issue. Vol.2007 : Issue 0008 Send news to : chronicle [AT] itbhu.org, news [AT] itbhu.org [Click here to start reading] |
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This issue includes many important articles and special reports. First and foremost is the special report covering collaboration agreement signed between our university ad University at Buffalo, New York. This agreement will allow students and faculty exchange, collaboration in research, etc. between two universities.
There is also a complete coverage on incoming freshers and IIT-JEE rank information. For the first time, we are providing a complete branch-wise list of incoming students. As usual, we have listed top 5 toppers and conducted brief interview of this year’s topper among freshers, Mr. Deepesh Reja, Computer Science.
There is also progress on IIEST front, as the Kerala govt. has come to an agreement with central govt. for handing over its institute. We are hopeful that in the next few weeks, IIEST Bill will be introduced in the parliament.
On the alumni front, there is breaking news about Prof. P. M. Ajayan (Metallurgy 1985) and his team inventing a flexible battery using nano tubes and nanotechnology.
We need more news. Please send us news, events, articles, information, etc, at: chronicle [AT] itbhu.org. Please indicate your branch/year.
Thanking you,
The Chronicle Team
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(Prof. P. M. Ajayan, along with the world-renowned Japanese nanoscientist, Dr Sumio Iijima are considered as the pioneers in the field of nanotechnology. The article states the invention by Prof. Ajayan and his team of flexible batteries using nano tubes and nanotechnology. He is shown in green shirt in the photo.
Prof. Ajayan has recently joined Rice University at Houston, Texas, from his earlier job at PRI, New York.)
http://www.rice.edu/search/query.php?search=ajayan&tab=People
Article in The Hindu:
http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/19/stories/2007081955061100.htm
National
Indians, key to nanotech battery breakthrough
Anand Parthasarathy
Three departments at Rensselaer Polytechnic in the United States collaborated
Photos: Special Arrangement
Paper-thin pundits: The nanotech paper battery developed in the U.S. — and the Indians behind the breakthrough. (Top) Ajayan, Nalamasu, and Murugesan. (Bottom) Manikoth, Pushparaj, and Kumar.
Bangalore: Researchers — most of them Indians — at the oldest technological university in the United States, have announced a breakthrough that might see ultra-thin batteries, made up of cellulose, the main component of paper.
Using nanotechnology — the science of the very small — the faculty and students of three departments at the Rensselaer Polytehnic in Troy, New York State, have created a flexible device, 90 per cent of which is composed of cellulose, the same plant cells used in newsprint. They infused this material with a nanotechnology material called carbon nanotubes, which acts as the plus and minus terminals of the battery and allow the device to store electricity. It can also be used as a capacitor to store a charge.
The device can be rolled, twisted, folded, cut ... and holds out the hope that, when the process is refined, batteries can be ‘printed’ in continuous rolls just as one prints paper in a printing press.
The findings are being reported in the August 21 issue of the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” in the United States. The three department heads who joined hands on the project are Pulickel M. Ajayan, Professor of Materials Science and team leader of the carbon nanotechnology research centre at Rensselaer; Robert Linhardt, Professor of Biocatalysis and Metabolic Engineering; and Omkaram Nalamasu, Director of the Centre for Integrated Engineering.
Professor Ajayan did his B.Tech. in Metallurgy, at Banaras Hindu University in 1985, before moving to the U.S. and obtaining his Ph.D in Materials Sciences at Northwestern University.
Dr. Nalamasu, an alumnus of Osmania University, Hyderabad, and a Ph.D in Chemistry from British Columbia University, Canada, is also the Chief Technology Officer of the Nanotechnology Consortium of New Jersey State.
Others who co-authored the paper are Victor Pushparaj, Senior Research Specialist in the Materials Science Department who originally did his Ph.D at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; and three post doctoral research associates: Shaijumon Manikoth, who did his Ph.D at IIT, Madras; Ashavani Kumar who came with an M.Sc. in Chemistry from IIT, Kharagpur and a research doctorate at the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune — and Saravanababu Murugesan, who did his B.E. in Chemical Engineering from Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, and his Ph.D at Rensselaer.
Co-authors
The two non-Indian co-authors are senior research associate Lijie Ci and Nanotechnology Centre Manager Robert Vajtai.
Dr. Manikoth is quoted in the Polytechnic’s release, pointing out that the paper battery is free of any toxic chemicals, and therefore a ‘green’ device. Dr. Pushparaj suggests that it could be safely used to power devices such as cardiac pacemakers.
Team leader Professor Ajayan says: “The technology is just right for the current energy market ... looking for smaller, lighter power sources.” The team has applied for a patent and working on ways to turn the technology into a manufacturing process.
The full paper entitled “Flexible energy storage devices based on nanocomposite paper” by Dr. Pushparaj et al can be downloaded from the web page at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0706508104v1
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/0706508104v1
Engineering
Flexible energy storage devices based on nanocomposite paper
( batteries | carbon nanotubes | supercapacitor )
Victor L. Pushparaj *, Manikoth M. Shaijumon *, Ashavani Kumar *, Saravanababu Murugesan , Lijie Ci *, Robert Vajtai , Robert J. Linhardt , Omkaram Nalamasu *, and Pulickel M. Ajayan *
Departments of *Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180
Communicated by Mildred S. Dresselhaus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, July 11, 2007 (received for review February 23, 2007)
There is strong recent interest in ultrathin, flexible, safe energy storage devices to meet the various design and power needs of modern gadgets. To build such fully flexible and robust electrochemical devices, multiple components with specific electrochemical and interfacial properties need to be integrated into single units. Here we show that these basic components, the electrode, separator, and electrolyte, can all be integrated into single contiguous nanocomposite units that can serve as building blocks for a variety of thin mechanically flexible energy storage devices. Nanoporous cellulose paper embedded with aligned carbon nanotube electrode and electrolyte constitutes the basic unit. The units are used to build various flexible supercapacitor, battery, hybrid, and dual-storage battery-in-supercapacitor devices. The thin freestanding nanocomposite paper devices offer complete mechanical flexibility during operation. The supercapacitors operate with electrolytes including aqueous solvents, room temperature ionic liquids, and bioelectrolytes and over record temperature ranges. These easy-to-assemble integrated nanocomposite energy-storage systems could provide unprecedented design ingenuity for a variety of devices operating over a wide range of temperature and environmental conditions.
(Chronicle note: We published the news about IT-BHU being involved in steel technology in our last month’s issue.)
Friday 17th of August 2007 A Rs.200 million steel technology centre will be set up at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, for higher learning and research in the field of steel making.
The proposal for the centre, which would be run according to the rules and regulations of other such centres in the institution, was cleared by an empowered committee in the ministry of steel, according to an official statement.
IIT Kharagpur will provide facilities like manpower, administrative and infrastructure support and available equipment and laboratory.
The centre will encourage faculty members to offer more courses in iron and steel, take up research projects relevant to the industry in India and encourage students to take up projects relevant to the sector for their dissertations.
It will also carry out laboratory trials of technology developed jointly by the faculty of IIT, Kharagpur, scientists from the National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur, and other scientists and engineers from the steel industry.
The estimated expenditure of Rs.200 million for setting up the centre includes installation of laboratory facilities to address problems in iron and steel making and related areas.
The department of science and technology will bear 20 percent of the cost, including the expenditure on the chair professor and five research fellows. After five years, the recurring expenditure will be taken care of by the income generating activities of the centre, the statement added.
The empowered committee also cleared a proposal to create a post of chair professor in the department of metallurgy in IIT, Kharagpur, Benaras Hindu University and the National Institutes of Technology in Rourkela, Durgapur and Jamshedpur as also other institutes.
The salary of the chair professor will be at par with the individual institute's norms.
Each of these institutes will also provide scholarships to five undergraduate students to pursue studies in areas related to iron and steel.
The undergraduate scholarships will carry a stipend of Rs.4,000 per month during the entire period of the course.
The empowered committee, led by Steel Secretary R.S. Pandey, also approved a proposal for conducting a study to assess manpower requirement for the growing steel industry in the country. The study, to be undertaken by the Indian Institute of Metals, Kolkata, will project the manpower requirement of different skills from technicians to engineers over the next decade.
The report will be submitted by the end of December this year.
The committee reviewed the progress of ongoing research projects as well.
http://www.brabeion.com/news/pr080105/
Press Release
Brabeion Software Appoints Surajit Chatterjee Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering
Chatterjee to Lead Development of Company’s World Class Solutions that Manage IT Risk and Drive Regulatory Compliance; Tasked with Hiring World-Class Engineers
MCLEAN, Va.—August 1, 2005—Brabeion Software, a McLean, VA-based provider of IT security risk and compliance management software, today named Surajit Chatterjee Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Engineering. In this role Mr. Chatterjee will be responsible for advancing the development of Brabeion’s solutions to address the demands of organizations across the globe, including the company’s current roster of more than 20 leading enterprises. Mr. Chatterjee will report to Brabeion president and CEO Julian Waits.
“Our customers are some of the biggest brand names in the world, and they are constantly challenging us to advance our solution to address their global compliance needs,” said Waits. “In order to execute our aggressive growth strategy we felt it was important to find a technology leader who could help recruit the right talent to drive our solution through its next phase of development. I have worked with Surajit in the past and have tremendous respect for his management skills and keen understanding of how to develop solutions that positively impact the day-to-day operations of customers.”
Brabeion’s solution, the Enterprise Security Architecture System (ESAS), enables enterprises to maintain a policy-based, measurable security program to manage the constantly evolving demands of government compliance via a secure, web-based software platform powered by the world’s most comprehensive risk and audit content provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Mr. Chatterjee brings 20 years of development and software architecture leadership to Brabeion. Most recently he was responsible for the creation, design, and implementation of BNX Authenticated Sign-On, a state-of-the-art controlled access management software for Vienna, VA-based BNX Systems. Prior to his six years at BNX, Mr. Chatterjee was responsible for building AutoTreev, a workflow product from the Herndon, VA-based Treev, Inc.
Mr. Chatterjee also has worked as a consultant for IBM, the Center for Development of Telematics in India, and Bharat Electronics. His educational background includes a Masters in Computer Science from George Mason University and a Bachelors Degree in Electronics and Communications from the Institute of Technology, B.H.U. India.
About Brabeion Software
Brabeion enables enterprise to protect their technology assets, manage risk, and achieve and maintain compliance. Brabeion does this by delivering a secure, web-based software platform powered by the world’s most comprehensive IT risk and audit content. For more information on how Brabeion can protect your IT capital and enable you to achieve and maintain compliance, visit www.brabeion.com.
Ajit Singh, Ph.D., is president of the Oncology Care Systems Group of Siemens Medical Solutions. Assuming the position in August 2001, he launched a turn-around initiative to refocus the division into a solutions-oriented and more profitable business. The resulting process-driven structure is the worldwide headquarters for strategy and systems development encompassing the necessary functions of manufacturing, sales, marketing and service.
(He was also quoted in chronicle Sept. 2006 issue.)
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2007/01/08/story10.html?page=1
Excerpts from the article
At long last a lingering idea comes to fruition for Singh
Philadelphia Business Journal - January 5, 2007
by Peter Key Staff Writer
MALVERN -- Fifteen years ago, Ajit Singh looked into the idea of creating a computer system that could provide doctors with the precise information they needed about a patient at the exact time and place they needed it.
Singh quickly realized that there was no demand for such a system and even if there were, the technology needed to make it didn't exist. So he turned his attention elsewhere. Still, he never completely let go of the idea.
"In the back of my mind, this was always an area that I wanted to come back to," he said.
Good thing, because he's been working on it full time since September. That was when Siemens Medical Solutions created the Image and Knowledge Management division and named Singh to head it.
The division was formed from three full-fledged business units and one unit that was just getting started.
One of the three mature units is responsible for syngo, Siemens' software for creating, processing and archiving medical images. Another is focused on RIS/PACS, a combination of two acronyms that stand for Radiology Information Systems/Picture Archiving and Communications Services. The last specializes in computer-aided diagnosis, or CAD.
The fledgling unit is developing software that uses artificial intelligence to help make treatment recommendations. ……
NAME: Ajit Singh
AGE: 43
JOB: President and CEO of Image and Knowledge Management division of Siemens Medical Solutions
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: For Siemens Medical, he has headed the Oncology Care Systems Division; led the global Health Initiative; and been responsible for the Managed Health Care Services and Picture Archiving and Communication Service business.
EDUCATION: BS in electrical engineering, Banaras Hindu University; MS in computer engineering, Syracuse University; Ph. D. in computer science, Columbia University.
HOMETOWN: Aligarh, India
CURRENT HOME: New York
(Forwarded by Subhash Shanbhag and Salim Shamshery of 1985 batch)
Achievements:
Founder and CEO of ITN Energy Systems, Inc (http://www.itnes.com/x.php?page=3)
BOD in Ascent Solar (http://www.ascentsolar.com/ascentsolar.php)
Mohan S. Misra, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer: Dr. Misra also is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of ITN. Before founding ITN in 1994, Dr. Misra spent 19 years with Martin Marietta in the areas of material research, development and manufacturing. While at Martin Marietta, Dr. Misra worked first as manager of Research and Technology, then led the company’s development of long-term technology strategies. Dr. Misra has helped develop and implement several key technologies for aerospace applications including thin-film photovoltaic, smart materials, advanced composites and lightweight structures. Dr. Misra holds a B.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from Benaras Hindu University in India, a M.S. degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.
Our alumnus has started an unusual but profitable business of catering ready-to-eat meals in Pune.
The partners are:
Vinamra Pandiya (Chemical 2004, IT-BHU) vinamra [DOT] pandiya [AT] momskitchen [DOT] in
Ashwani Kumar Singh Rathore (Civil 2005, NIT-Allahabad) ashwani [DOT] rathore [AT] momskitchen [DOT] in
Their interview appeared in Youth Curry magazine:
http://youthcurry.blogspot.com/
Interview with Vinamra Pandiya and Ashwini Rathod
Company: Mom's Kitchen
Founded: September 1 2006
Age: 26
Educational background: Vinamra (IT BHU 2004 batch, Infosys from campus placement); Aswini Rathod (NIT Allahabad 2005 batch, Cognizant from campus placement).
Vinamra and I are childhood friends. He graduated from IT BHU in 2005 and I passed out of NIT Allahabad the same year. I joined Cognizant while he was in Infosys. Initially we were in Bangalore, then we moved to Pune.
We had big dreams in our college days. Ki kuch karna hai. That coupled with the frustration of working in a big company ("at the end of the day you know, you do nothing!) led to the idea of starting a business.
Website: http://www.momskitchen.in/Aboutus.htm
Also good to see techies involved in such a hands-on business.
Mom's Kitchen got a canny feel for the market as well. A budget version of the dabba was introduced esp. for students @ Rs 25. It has everything except foil packaging and raita!
At current order levels Mom's Kitchen will do Rs 65 lakhs worth of business in the coming year. Probably more, with expansion in Pune as well as Chennai on the cards.
Here's wishing them all the very best!
Posted by Rashmi Bansal at 7:22:00 PM 42 comments
Dr. Deepak Hegde has been appointed as VP of Formulation Development Services by WuXi PharmaTech Co., Ltd.
His bio-data is here.
Dr. Deepak Hegde is an alumnus of IT-BHU. He completed M. Pharm in 1993 from IT-BHU in Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry under the guidance of Dr. Ratan Lal Khosa. He was at IT-BHU from Aug 1991 to Feb 1993 for his M. Pharm study.
Education
B. Pharm, Mumbai University (1991)
M. Pharm, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (1993)
PhD in Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics, Mumbai University (1996)
MFM-Master of Financial Management, K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management, Mumbai (2000)
Deepak Hegde. PhD,
Vice President of Pharmaceutical Services
Wuxi PharmaTech Co. Ltd
288 FuTe ZhongLu
WaiGaoQiao Free Trade Zone
Shanghai 200131, P.R. China
E-mail: Deepak_hegde [AT] pharmatechs [DOT] com
Phone: +86(21) 5046-2687
Fax : +86 (21) 5046-1000
Cellular: +86 13817982074
Website: www.wuxipharmatech.com
http://www.biospace.com/news_story.aspx?NewsEntityId=63986
The complete news:
WuXi PharmaTech Co., Ltd. Appoints Deepak Hegde as VP of Formulation Development Services
7/24/2007
SHANGHAI, China, July 24 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- WuXi PharmaTech, China's leading supplier of pharmaceutical R&D outsourcing services announced today the appointment of Dr. Deepak Hegde as Vice President of Formulation Development Services.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040705/CNM002LOGO)
Before joining WuXi PharmaTech, Dr. Hegde served as General Manager of Drug Delivery Research Lab at USV Ltd., one of the largest Indian generic pharmaceutical companies. In this position, Dr. Hedge oversaw the development and registration of formulations to be exported to the American and European markets. His undertakings at USV Ltd. involved closely collaborating with the US-FDA on Abbreviated New Drug Applicant (ANDA) products and EMEA for the Product Dossiers for the European markets.
Prior to joining USV Ltd., Dr. Hegde worked in Sandoz (the generic arm of Novartis). At Sandoz, he implemented cutting-edge drug development technology transfers from Novartis development sites in India to Novartis commercial launch sites in Austria, Bangladesh, and South Africa.
Dr. Hegde's formulation and commercial manufacturing acumen, coupled with his operation experience makes him a valuable strategic addition to WuXi PharmaTech's rapidly growing Pharmaceutical Development Services (PDS) division. In his new role as Vice President of Formulation Development Services, Dr. Hegde will oversee the company's growing portfolio of formulation based service offerings. Dr. Hegde will report directly to Dr. Ge Li, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of WuXi PharmaTech.
"I am excited to welcome Dr. Hegde to WuXi PharmaTech. His strong and diverse industrial and operational background will be a great asset to our growing PDS division," commented Dr. Ge Li, Chairman and CEO of WuXi PharmaTech.
Dr. Hegde received his Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Mumbai (formerly the University of Bombay) before going on to receive a Master of Pharmacy in Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry from Banaras Hindu University. He returned to University of Mumbai to earn a Ph.D. in Biopharmaceutics and Pharmacokinetics in 1996, and has most recently received a Master of Financial Management from Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research. Dr. Hegde is a lifetime member of the Indian Pharmaceutical Association.
About WuXi PharmaTech Co., Ltd.
Founded in 2000, Shanghai-based WuXi PharmaTech is China's leading drug R&D service company. As a research-driven and customer-focused company, WuXi PharmaTech offers global pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies a diverse, value-added, and fully integrated portfolio of outsourcing services ranging from discovery chemistry, and process chemistry to service biology, bioanalytical chemistry, and large scale GMP manufacturing. WuXi PharmaTech assists its global partners in shortening the cycle and lowering the cost of drug discovery and development by providing cost-effective and efficient outsourcing solutions that save our clients both time and money. Currently, our customer list consists of 9 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world. For more information, please visit:
http://www.wuxipharmatech.com.
(This article in The Indian Express is written by Sandeep Pandey (Mechanical 1986). He is one of the foremost social activists in our country, fighting for common men’s rights. He is winner of Ramon Magsaysay award (considered as equivalent to Asian Nobel Prize) in 2002 in the 'Emergent Leadership Category' for his work 'towards the upliftment of the poor and the underprivileged in India'.)
Government under your gaze
Sandeep Pandey
Posted online: Thursday, August 02, 2007 at 0000 hrs IST
The Right to Information (RTI) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) Acts are considered to be two of the most progressive pieces of legislation in recent times. They are seen as a much-required corrective in an atmosphere where the government is considered to be coming increasingly under the influence of international financial institutions/corporations and getting more and more indifferent to the concerns of ordinary people.
Take the RTI Act. Meant to create more transparency and accountability in governance, it has for the first time provided an opportunity to ordinary people to intervene in political and administrative decision-making. Politicians and bureaucrats have, thus far, considered it their prerogative to keep information secret. What is not widely recognised is that this mindset characterises not just secretaries and under-secretaries but those who man the lowest tier of government. For instance, in January 2003, the gram pradhans of Ambedkar villages and two MLAs (including a minister in the then Mayawati government) unanimously passed a resolution calling for the jailing of anyone demanding income-expenditure details from the Gram Panchayat Bharawan of Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh, or for holding dharna to push for their claims. As people’s representatives, they argued, they enjoyed a privileged position and were above providing a statement of accounts for public funds.
Before the RTI Act came into force, officials would humiliate citizens who asked for information and sometimes even threatened them. In their arrogance they did not even bother to do basic book-keeping. The first statement of accounts for the Bharawan Gram Panchayat, which was given to the people by the block development officer (BDO), did not carry any entries under expenditure. When asked about it, the officer explained that that was how accounts have been kept all those years. This was confirmed by the District Rural Development Agency, where employees confessed that once funds left their office, they did not bother to follow up on any details of how they were spent — the assumption was that the funds disbursed were spent for the intended purpose. In a detail of accounts the Bharawan Block Panchayat obtained using the RTI Act, it was discovered that the desilting of a canal was shown to have been performed for more than Rs 3 lakh when no work was done at all.
The RTI Act has made a difference to this situation of complete unaccountability. Today, if an ordinary villager goes to an office with an application seeking information under the RTI Act, she would be treated with respect, offered tea and asked about her problem. Officials would promise to address her problem in a bid to convince her to withdraw her application. Although officials try their best to evade accountability, there is a realisation that they cannot continue to function like they used to. This is good news for democracy. The BDO of Behender block in Hardoi recently confessed that it is only since people have started asking for information that the office has been compelled to keep books.
The NREGA goes a step further and secures the legal right of the people of a gram sabha to conduct social audits of work being performed under the NREGA. This is the first acknowledgement by the government that it requires people’s help in tackling an imperfect system. Earlier, one could only complain if one suspected a misappropriation of funds and then it was up to the authorities to institute an inquiry. Now ordinary citizens have the right to all data pertaining to the workings of the NREGA and must receive it within 15 days of their application. They can then place the records before the villagers for physical verification. The social audits conducted at various places in the country under the NREGA have uncovered numerous discrepancies, ranging from fake names in muster rolls to the fact that facilities for workers are not provided for. Labourers are at last getting their dues in most places where the NREGA is in force.
Today, there is a need to build on the newly instilled sense of confidence among the great majority of rural north India that the RTI and NREG legislation has engendered. At least people can now discern the contours of a functioning democracy. But we need to build on the fact that people no longer need to be at the mercy of bureaucrats or politicians. They should now be involved in the process of decision-making and planning, even as social audits are extended to cover all schemes and government offices.
The writer, a Lucknow-based social activist, is a Magsaysay awardee
Dr. Topan K. Bhattacharya is Professor of Finance and Funds Manager of the Cameron Foundation Inc. at Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma, USA. He has a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 1967 from IT-BHU, a Ph.D. in Finance (University of Oklahoma), and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
For chronicle, Sourabh Tripathi (Ceramics 2006) discusses with the professor about his teaching career in finance:
Q-1: Please tell us about yourself.
After graduating from BHU, I joined DCM as a Senior Management Trainee and served with them for 4 years. I them joined MICO BOSCH and worked for 13 years. In my last assignment I was head of Sales and Service for Eastern India, a territory that at that time extended up to Agra. I took advantage of a terrific early retirement scheme (4 years salary) to pack up my bags and pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Oklahoma. It was a fun experience, particularly living in “comfortable poverty” level for 5 years. At the University I was able to win a number of prestigious awards like the Barnett Scholarship (only one is given every year to a Ph.D. student in the College of Business), the Cleo Cross Scholarship (a university wide scholarship given to international students). My wife’s contribution during my student days was phenomenal. She looked after our two small children, earned very good money teaching Indian Music and giving musical performances locally and out of town and taking care of an Indian husband (American (or born in America) husbands are much better in helping out at home). My American fellow students used to say “Your wife spoils you rotten.”
Q-2: What prompted you to switch the career from engineering to finance?
During my career in the industry, I realized the importance of finance and developed a keen interest in the stock market. After taking an early retirement from MICO-BOSCH I decided to earn a Ph.D. in Finance. What is interesting is that a large number of Indians who have Finance PhDs. have engineering degrees.
Q-3: How do you feel about working as faculty of Cameron University?
I have had a terrific time working at Cameron University because I was afforded unusual opportunities to participate in some interesting areas.
In my first year at the university, I was appointed Director of the Business Research Center and within two years was awarded the Lawton Independent Insurance Agents Chair. In this position I was able to contribute to Economic Development in Southwest Oklahoma and start the Southwest Economics and Business Journal, a scholarly refereed journal that is still being published.
I have had the opportunity to teach a very interesting two-semester program class that uses real money to teach investments. What is unique about this program is that the source of the money is a bank loan. The second semester students prepare investment plans for real people and have been able to make significant improvements to the investment portfolios of many individuals.
Managing funds for the University Foundation is a real privilege, and I have been doing it for 14 years. I won the job in competition with large firms like Merrill Lynch and Smith Barney and have been reappointed without a break.
I was also the Chairman of the Business Department for years and was the first foreign born professor to get that position. As Chairman, I led the effort to get the Business Program accredited.
One of the things I do here is to arrange the “India Nite.” We get great speakers (Consul General Tayal from Houston, who is now an ambassador, was our first speaker), top notch musicians from India (Debashish Bhattacharya, Slide guitar; Satish Vyas, Santoor) and have a mouth watering Indian dinner. Seventy five percent of the audience is non-Indian. The event gets completely sold out weeks in advance.
The university has been good to me. They have awarded me the highest teaching and research honors and I have been inducted in the faculty hall of fame.
I could go on and on, but I better stop here. Overall, I have so much fun doing what I do that I call my job my retirement.
Q-4: Please tell us the research work done by in the field of economy & finance.
My research work can be classified into three categories:
1) Research in Finance
One of the interesting research projects I have done is:
"Bond Yields Compared to Amortizing Yields." Published in the Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, (1993) with my co-author and mentor Dr. Duane Stock.
This paper is on fixed income securities and analyzes yields of bonds and amortization instruments and yield spreads between these instruments. This involved a fair amount of mathematics, but the final version that was accepted had the math toned down.
2) Research in Economics
These are applied economics projects that are found to have useful applications. Example:
"The Role of Interactive Universities in Regional Economic Development." Southwest Oklahoma Economic Review, (1992).
This paper was written at a time when there was a major push to improve the contribution by universities to economic development and we thought it would help universities to build a road-map for getting involved in economic development.
3) Pedagogical Research
The papers are devoted to improving the teaching process. Example:
"Teaching the Introductory Finance Course: What Can We Learn from Student Perceptions and Expectations?" Financial Practice and Education, (1999).
We realize the importance of student feedback in teaching and we used this research to improve our courses.
For more research projects please click here.
Q-5: What advice would you give to an engineering student wishing to enter a financial field?
Finance consists of three major fields (1) Financial Markets and Institutions, (2) Financial Management and (3) Investments.
1) Financial Markets and Institutions
The institutions consist of banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and investment banking firms. Skills required are knowledge of how financial markets work, different financial instruments and how these are used, risk-management, computer skills, general business skills for managing business.
2) Financial Management
This involves raising funds, allocating funds and monitoring the use of funds. Decision areas include long-term investment decisions like setting up or expanding factories, buying up new companies, purchasing equipment; short term financing decisions like cash management, inventory management, credit management; financing decisions like issuing stocks or bonds, paying dividends or repurchasing stocks, financial controls like preparing and monitoring budgets.
3) Investments
This is my field and it is very exciting. New developments are occurring all the time. Finance is getting very quantitative and is thus a great field for engineers. In fact, one area is called financial engineering where new products are created to meet investor needs and to manage risk.
Those who read business newspapers and magazines have probably seen that hedge funds and private equity firms are in the news. People are making very large sums of money in these areas (a few are billionaires).
Doctorates in Finance are in high demand in academia as well as in the industry. For investment professionals a CFA is highly desirable. For those interested in pursuing a CFA, check out the web site of the CFA Institute www.cfainstitute.org.
To sum up, finance is a fascinating and rewarding area.
Q-6: How do you remember your college days at IT-BHU?
BHU days were absolutely great. Some of my good friends during that time were Dr. B.B. Bansal, currently a professor at IT-BHU and one of the top brains in our class. He was one of the three UP board toppers we had. Dr. Bansal holds our group together and keeps in touch with us from time to time. My room mate used to be Sudhir Bishnoi, a terrific badminton player and a big oil guy now. Arvind Majumdar was the best table tennis player we had ever had and I could never beat him despite the fact that I was a ranked player for five years and was the university captain in 1966-67. I wonder what he his doing now. I could go on and on.
Some tidbits about our professors: Dr. Govil would often tell us in class “When I was in Germany,” Mr. Banerjee, dean of Woodology (carpentry shop) would not allow students to come in if they wore chappals. Mr. P. Sen (electrical) would offer cigarettes to students (sometimes). We had great teachers and we are grateful to them for giving us a terrific education.
Then we had the two university doctors who were nicknamed “Cobra” and “Ghora.” These gentlemen took care of our health and we mean students gave them horrid nicknames. I am sure my students here have pretty nasty nicknames for me. I love them and they love me too (at least some of them).
I enrolled in Automobile Engineering because I could get a ride on one of the two Rolls Royce cars the college had. Do you still have them?
Q-7: Please tell us more about your personal life.
I have a wonderful family. My wife is an accomplished singer and a music teacher and is so well known in this multi-state region that when I introduce myself as Ruchira Bhattacharya’s husband people instantly recognize the name. She is a great human being and has sacrificed a lot for us, particularly when I was a student and when I was working very hard for tenure.
My elder son Shantanu is a math and computer whiz and works with Lockheed Martin designing highly sophisticated defense systems. He is a very good tabla player and is a disciple of Ustad Tari Khan. His wife Shauna is an adorable school teacher, speaks a little Bengali, but is dangerous in her understanding of the language. She understands everything we say. Their daughter, 3-year old Ila is absolutely gorgeous. Even those who are not her grandparents say so. She speaks a mixture of English and Bengali and her father hope to make a great table player. My younger son, Sanjit, is a “Bania” born in a “Brahmin’s” house (so my friend Ramesh Bhardwaj says). He is an entrepreneur and has been in business since the age of sixteen. He reluctantly finished college, complaining that his time at the college was hurting his business. I am hoping that he will soon become very rich and buy me a Bentley on my 65th birthday. For my 60th he merely threw a big party. For the time being he just buys us vacations every year.
I still play table tennis and up till the age of 55 I could hang with youngsters. These days I can’t beat my sons anymore. My favorite hobby is to give pro-bono (free) advice in investments to low net-worth (meaning not rich) individuals. It is unbelievable how many educated people have no clue how to invest their money. I help my son out in his business and so does my wife. We call her the CAO (Chief Administrative Officer) and my son the CEO. I am the one who gets ordered around and I love it.
I am crazy about cars. As a student we could not afford to buy newspapers but we did subscribe without interruption to CAR and DRIVER magazine. My tip to those who love luxury cars but can’t afford them – “Buy them three to four years old. Let the rich suckers take the big hit on price depreciation.”
Q-8: Thank you Sir. It was nice talking to you.
I have said too much already. You will find additional information about me on my web site www.cameron.edu/~tbhatt.
For information about Cameron Univeristy, please visit, http://www.cameron.edu/info
Indranil Chatterjee is the Director of Wireless Marketing and Strategy at Alcatel-Lucent. He leads a team responsible for development and marketing of Alcatel-Lucent's wireless solutions. In this role, he has had extensive interactions with customers in Europe, Asia, and North America and has played a significant role in establishing Alcatel-Lucent as a leader in wireless solutions. He holds an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, in North Carolina, USA.
For chronicle, Rajat Harlalka (Electrical 2005) discusses with Indranil about his professional career in the telecom company:
Q-1: Welcome, sir. Please provide some background info about you to our readers.
Hi, I am Indranil Chatterjee and I am currently a Director of Wireless Marketing and Strategy at Alcatel-Lucent. I started off in the small industrial town of Jamshedpur in India, where I did my schooling and still have lots of fond memories of this beautiful city, my schools and the great friends I made here. Next stop was Banaras where I had four fun-filled years at IT-BHU and along the way, was fortunate to walk away with my mechanical engineering degree. Finally, it was time to earn some money and I joined Infosys Technologies, though I have to admit that I didn’t stay long enough to make any notable money.
After 4 years of love-fest with IT and software, I headed off to business school at Duke University. Business school, to put it bluntly, really opened my to the world of business and really was a lesson for me in the nuances of marketing, strategy, and finance – areas where I had very limited experience so far, as most of my experience in Infosys related to operations and business development. The final stop in the journey so far has been my current job which started off with an offer in Lucent’s Technologies Leadership Development Program. On the personal front, life is busy to say the least, as I am constantly juggling work, playing the husband and playing the dad to my 3 yr old daughter and 5 month old son.
Q-2: What have been Alcatel-Lucent main areas of focus and growth strategies since the merge?
On completion of the merger, Alcatel-Lucent became the world’s largest network equipment manufacturer with a presence in more than 130 countries and revenues of about $25 billion. In terms of focus, simply put, it is to grow revenues while taking cost out the business to the tune of about $2.2 billion over 3 years. The primary growth strategy is to use the broadest and deepest portfolio in the industry across wireless, wireline (cable) and services coupled with strong in-country local resources and talent to provide our customers with an end to end solution as they transform their legacy networks to support more IP based voice, video and data communications.
Q-3: What are some of the key changes in the industry that Alcatel-Lucent has witnessed over the past year? How has the company aligned itself to reflect these changes?
I believe that there are a few key changes that have impacted the telecom equipment changes. One relates to Porter’s five forces. Basically the bargaining power of suppliers (i.e. companies like Alcatel-Lucent) has remained low since the dot com bubble burst and while recent merger of equipment vendors like ours is a step in the right direction, the power still rests with our customers (i.e. operators like Verizon, AT&T etc.). This has had negative impact on our margins because of severe pricing pressure, especially from Chinese competitors such as Huawei and ZTE.
The second key trend for telecom infrastructure suppliers in general is that legacy network equipment revenue, mainly deployed for voice, continued to decline in recent years, while the volume of next-generation business related to IP based voice, video and data is not yet large enough to make up the difference.
The third key trend is the emergence of ‘over the top’ players like Google, Skype, Yahoo etc. They typically ride on the networks of our customers and provide similar services, albeit with a much quicker time to market, and often times free accelerating the decline in voice revenues of our traditional customers.
The combination of the three trends has made the fundamentals of the telecom industry very challenging in mature economies like US and Western Europe. As I have mentioned previously, Alcatel-Lucent is aggressively trying to cut costs to be more price competitive and investing in developing end to end IP solutions to address the trends mentioned above.
Q-4: What are some of the major challenges specific to Alcatel-Lucent in the industry today and how do you overcome them? What are Alcatel-Lucent strengths and core competencies that have allowed it to remain successful even in these difficult market conditions?
The immediate challenge that Alcatel-Lucent faces is strong post merger execution and functioning as ONE company. Right now we have to invest time and resources in making the merger a success in terms of integration of people, culture, processes, systems etc. and this takes away from focus on the customer. Lack of focus on the customer opens the door for our competitors such as Ericsson and Cisco to take share from us. Secondly, we have to improve our margins and become profitable (we have had losses in our last two quarters but hope to be profitable by close of fiscal year 2007). This is also related to the success of post merger execution.
Our core strength is our people and the local support and talent we have in 130+ countries to win business by being the trusted partner of our customers. Also because we have the broadest and deepest portfolio in the industry in terms of wireless, wireline, applications, enterprise and services, we have the unique ability to provide our customers a complete end to end solution that meets their needs.
Q-5: A significant part in the process of developing wireless networks is ensuring that the data on wireless devices is secure. What do you see as the biggest threats to that security?
Like with any mode of communication and interaction, security is a big threat in the world of wireless. While hackers initially focused on the wired internet world, now they have become increasingly sophisticated with the current wireless protocols, encryption methods, and of course, the carelessness and ignorance that exists at the user and corporate IT level have made things easier for the hackers. For example it is estimated that 95% of all corporate laptop computers that were planned to be purchased in 2005 were equipped with wireless. Issues can arise in a supposedly non-wireless organization when a wireless laptop is plugged into the corporate network. A hacker/cracker could sit out in the parking lot and break in through the wireless card on a laptop and gain access to the wired network of the enterprise and do considerable damage. Bottom line, security is becoming a major concern in the wireless world and it’s important to take steps like enhanced encryption of data and education of users among other things to secure wireless networks and data.
Q-6: What are the objectives pursued by Alcatel-Lucent across Asia Pacific? What are some of your specific strategies to achieve these objectives?
Asia Pacific market is huge growth market for Alcatel-Lucent. More than 20% of our global revenues in 2006 came from Asia Pacific including India and we have invested more than a billion dollars in the region in multiple R&D centers. Our objective is to tap into the strong growth opportunities we continue to see in mainly India, China and South East Asia, in the wireless and broadband markets. For example, anywhere from 5 to 8 million wireless subscribers are added in India each month and a similar number is added in China. This number is almost 3 to 4 times the number of new subscriber added in the US but on the other hand what makes this market challenging is the low Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) that our customers get – the ARPU could be as low as 1/10th of the US market or even lower. Therefore our customers like China Mobile, Reliance etc look to us to reduce our prices.
Our primary strategy is to localize development of products for these markets, develop strong relationship with the customers and last but not the least, be aggressive on pricing.
Q-7: How do you see the Asia Pacific telecommunications landscape changing over the next 2-3 years and the roles that Alcatel-Lucent will play in this evolution?
There will be a few things that could happen, given the strong growth potential of this region. From an industry standpoint, I can see more foreign telecom operators trying to enter the market before it gets too late and the premium to acquire local players make them unaffordable. For example we recently saw Vodafone entering the India market and China Mobile entering the Pakistan market.
From an end user standpoint, I see a bigger need for broadband services. For example while broadband penetration in mature economies like the US, western Europe, Japan, S. Korea, Australia etc is well above 50%, it is still in the single digits or in early teens, in most Asia Pacific countries. Alcatel-Lucent is the industry leader in providing wireline broadband services like DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) and GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) and also in enabling wireless broadband services.
Q-8: in the past Lucent has spoken about how Wi-Fi and 3G are complementary technologies and how it has pioneered 3G /WiFi LAN integration. Is Wi-Fi up to the task of handling voice in the enterprise? Does the appearance of WiMAX, Ultra-wideband and various on-the-horizon 4G technologies change the scenario?
I think the usage of Wi-Fi for voice is more of a business issue than a technology issue though technology does play a role too. Currently, from a business perspective, the number of Wi-Fi-enabled cell phones available in the United States pales in comparison to mobile phones without Wi-Fi support. And that’s for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the cell phone companies’ hesitance to offer phones that support the technology; for fear that their customers will increasingly employ wireless hotspots instead of paying for the use of their cellular networks.
From a technology perspective there are a couple of items that still need some work – one is seamless roaming and handoff between the Wi-Fi network and the macro cellular network and the other is that Wi-Fi sucks up handheld battery life. Hopefully with the iPhone and other Wi-Fi enabled phones in the market corporate CIOs (Chief Information Officers) will take more interest in enabling voice over Wi-Fi in their enterprises. Bottom line, the cost of Wi-Fi enabled phones are still high, there aren’t employees using them or asking for them and last but not the least, the cellular companies give good volume discounts on voice calls to the CIOs ensuring that the business case for Wi-Fi voice in enterprises is still not a slam dunk.
As for 4G technologies, except WiMAX (World Interoperability for Microwave Access) which is being trailed by multiple operators including some big names like Sprint, in reality 4G is still a few years away. Even WiMAX is at least a couple of years away from having a eco-system (chipsets, devices, network deployments, consumer/enterprise adoption etc.) as mature as that of Wi-Fi.
Q-9: We’ve heard time and again that developing product for the SMB (Small or Medium Sized Business) space is very tough to get right. What is your viewpoint?
I agree that the statement holds true at a high level but if you dig deeper, you do see some trends emerging. For one, in the past, we often saw that technology companies developed products for consumers and/or large enterprises and tried to resell that same product to the SMB without paying focusing on this market segment. Now we see the likes of Salesforce.com being successful by understanding how to use the web to address the needs of this price sensitive segment and not surprisingly now we see others like SAP and Google (downloadable Office applications) following suit.
Q-10: After graduating from IT-BHU in 1997, your first job was with Infosys Technologies; what was that experience like and what did you learn that you believe helped you get to where you are today?
When I joined Infosys in 1997, it was still a relatively small company with a few thousand employees and in fact I joined the Bhubaneswar office where we were the first batch of less than hundred employees. I joined a project for a customer in Los Angeles, California and right from day one we had some tough deadlines that we had to meet on a regular basis. A strong customer oriented culture and constant project delivery against tough deadlines was immensely helpful as I look back and reflect on my Infosys career. It has helped me stay focused, especially when you are working in a big company where you often see employees work ‘hard’ versus ‘smart’. In other words, people stay busy doing a long list of activities versus working on the right set of items that are aligned with the objectives of the business, and ultimately drive results for the business.
Secondly, I was lucky to get exposed to direct customer interaction early in my career. That clearly helped me hone my communication skills, which I believe is imperative for success in your career. While command of English language can’t hurt, communication, if you think about it broadly, is much more than just speaking English and involves preparation, analytical thinking and organization of thought and actions. I do believe that the fundamentals of strong communication hold true whether you are in a meeting, in front of your boss, presenting to a customer or managing/leading a project and my days in Infosys definitely helped me work on this important skill.
Q-11: Any memories from IT-BHU that you would like to share with us.
I think I speak on behalf of most of my peers that my memories of IT-BHU come pouring out when I get together with a couple of my batch mates. In general, the list of memories is long and involves a lot of great ones like the ‘night cricket’ tournaments we used to have under floodlights in the basketball court. Make no mistake that these tournaments were taken very seriously and involved a deep sense of pride and bragging rights for the winning year/branch team. As you can guess, one can go on and on about the hostels, friends, the mandir etc that became a part of my daily life as I spent 4 great years in this busy as hell, cramped but lively city of Benares.
Thank you, sir. We hope information provided by you will be useful to engineers who want to become leaders of corporate world.
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal
Email address for Indranil Chatterjee:
ichatterjee [AT] alcatel-lucent [DOT] com; post2indranil [AT] yahoo [DOT] com
IIT-JEE was held as single exam for admission to the IITs and other selected colleges for the academic year 2007-2008. Out of total seats, 15% seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste students and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribe students, besides 3% for Physically Handicapped candidates.
The total number of students who appeared for the JEE this year was 2,43,029 of which 7,209 were eligible to seek admission to 5,537 seats in IITs at Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Chennai and Roorkee, IT-BHU Varanasi and ISMU, Dhanbad. This number is 30% more than the available seats, with the assumption that not all qualified candidates will accept admission offer.
IITs admit SC/ST students with relaxed criteria and this year 20,892 Scheduled Caste candidates appeared for the JEE of which 594 qualified and similarly of the 5,909 Scheduled Tribe candidates who wrote the exam, 109 candidates qualified.
Candidates with certified physical disabilities (PD) are also granted admission with relaxed norms and 15 candidates qualified under these norms. For students with reading disability specially enlarged question papers were provided this year.
IITs have also put out an extended merit list and students on this list were counseled by the Indian Institute of Space Science and Space Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Pune, Kolkata and Mohali. The Directorate General of Shipping also offered admission to Marine Engineering Colleges in Bombay and Calcutta, based on JEE result (extended merit list).
For this year, 562 students were admitted to our institute, out of which 531 were from general category and 31 from SC category, and nil from SC category. 40 were girls. 124 students from SC/ST category were selected for preparatory course, where they will spend extra one year for learning, and shall be admitted based on satisfactory progress.
The students were admitted for 4 year B. Tech programs (total 10 programs) and 5 year DDI-Duel Degree Integrated M. Tech program (total 11 programs) and 5 year M. Tech programs (3 programs) for Applied Sciences. 419 students were admitted for 4 yr B. tech program and 143 for 5 yr M. Tech programs.
The opening rank was 1612. The students’ preferences for 4 yr B. Tech programs were Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics Engineering and Electrical Engineering respectively, For 5 yr M. Tech programs, preferences were CSE, Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. The preferences are arrived based on median IIT-JEE ranks of students in a particular class. (Median rank is defined as the one for which 50% students above it and 50% below it in the class.)
We are thankful to Prof. Som Nath Mahendra, IIT-JEE coordinator for our institute, to provide us with JEE data of admitted students.
The complete list of admitted students:
We are pleased to provide the complete the list of admitted students, branch wise. This is based on official list received from the institute. For privacy concerns, Registration number, category (Gen/SC/ST) and JEE rank is omitted from the list. The names are arranged randomly.
To view the complete list of admitted students, please click here.
Following is the speech by Prof. S. N. Mahendra delivered to the incoming batch of students.
Brief report of Joint Entrance Examination – 2007
Professor S. N. Mahendra
Chairman IT-BHU JEE -2007
Introduction
We all know the purpose of education.
It is, in principle, value addition in the human being.
I earnestly hope that the candidates selected, their parents and our Institute will have this aspect for the next four or five years, so that when the new entrants move out of the portals of this University we all feel that their value has been enhanced. Let us all work for it.
During discussion with our alumni (graduated about 5 to 50 years back) it came out that ‘In IT-BHU the value-addition is in the form of a life-time Education with a human touch and this is special and very different from any other institution’.
I will now present a brief report of Joint Entrance Examination – 2007
Objectives of JEE Operation in IT-BHU are as follows:
- Smooth conduct of Joint Entrance Examination in BHU.
- Counseling of JEE qualified candidates.
- Admission of Candidates at IT-BHU.
- Joint Entrance Examination
- Joint Entrance Examination was held on 8th April 2007 as per guidelines of JEE. There were 14 Examination Centers. Team behind the complete operation consisted of 14 Presiding Officers, 21 Deputy Presiding Officers, 14 Observers from IIT-Roorkee, 28 Observers from IT-BHU, about 320 Invigilators and a large number of Administrative and Supporting Staff. Efficient control and execution was done by the Vice-Chairman, JEE, Coordinating Presiding Officer, Secretary, JEE and Academic Section of IT-Directorate. The Chief Proctor, Banaras Hindu University and his team effectively ensured security. The examination was held smoothly without any untoward incident. IIT-Roorkee team was satisfied with the entire operation of JEE-2007 Examination at BHU.
- This year the number of JEE candidates appearing in BHU was about 4800. To accommodate so many candidates 14 centres were created in BHU.
- This year the candidates’ performance in physics, chemistry and mathematics was judged in two sessions (instead of three as was done in 2006). Each session had questions in all the three subjects but the approach for examining the capability of candidates was different in each case.
- As in previous years this year also the whole JEE operation was quite challenging and big. With the grace of God, the entire JEE operation was carried out satisfactorily due to a very good and overwhelming cooperation from all the teachers of the University, who acted as Presiding Officers, Deputy Presiding Officers, Observers and Invigilators during the examination. Everyone worked very hard to maintain the prestige of JEE. I take this opportunity to thank one & all for the cooperation, in particular the Academic Section and the JEE office of the IT-Directorate.
- Thanks are also due to the Airport Authority, Babatpur Airport, Varanasi and the Indian Railways in Varanasi - the Station Manager and Assistant Station Master, Varanasi Cantt. Station. It was because of their immense cooperation that the boxes carrying examination materials from Roorkee were easily unloaded and loaded at Varanasi Airport and Varanasi Station respectively. Thanks are also due to the Chief Engineer, Eastern Zone, UP Electricity Board, for ensuring uninterrupted power supply during the examination period.
- Counseling & Seat-Allocation
During counseling there is an interaction of the Counselors with the aspiring candidates and their guardians. The counselors act as an effective interface between the candidates and the Institutes to help the candidates in making their choices. Depending upon the interest of the candidates and the image of the institutes, the qualified candidates fill-up their choices of the branch and the Institute.
You may be interested to know few significant details of JEE Operation related to counseling & Seat-Allocation.
The Qualified candidates get Counseling Brochure for JEE which contains information regarding various branches of engineering available in the participating Institutes, the courses offered by different Institute together with the number of seats available and opening and closing ranks of the candidates who had opted to study in different Institutes in the respective branch of engineering in the previous year.
From the choice-sheets, depending upon AIR of candidate, his choices and availability of seats the candidate is allotted a particular seat in a particular Institute.
- New Courses of Study at IT-BHU
During last two years following new courses were introduced at Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
Five-Year M.Tech. Integrated Course
1. Engineering Physics
2. Industrial Chemistry
3. Mathematics & ComputingFive-Year M.Tech. Dual Degree Course
4. Ceramic Engineering
5. Computer Science & Engineering
6. Civil Engg. with M.Tech. in Structural Engg.
7. Mechanical Engineering
8. Metallurgical Engineering
9. Materials Science and Technology
10. Biochemical Engineering
11. Bioengineering with M.Tech. in Biomedical Engineering
12. Electrical Engineering with M.Tech. in Power Electronics
13. Mining EngineeringFive-Year M.Pharm. Dual Degree Course
14. Pharmaceutics
- I will give a glimpse of IT-BHU 2007 Admission Statistics
Total of 562 students have been selected for admission in IT-BHU that includes 40 girls. The breakup of the selected students is as follows:
General Category: 531
SC Category: 31
ST Category: NilIn addition 124 (72 SC + 52 ST) candidates have been selected for Preparatory Course in IT-BHU.
- Concluding Remarks
Immediately after the seat allocation, the information was put on the Institute websites. The offer letter from IT-BHU was sent to the respective candidates along with a letter from our Director giving necessary information and actions required from the candidates for admission to IT-BHU. Welcome Brochure was put on the website to introduce IT-BHU to the selected candidates and their parents.
I, once again, take this opportunity to express my personal thanks to my Vice-Chairman, Prof. P.K. Jain, Coordinating Presiding Officer, Prof. A.K. Ghose, Secretary, JEE, Dr. S.N. Singh, Assistant Registrar (Academic) with his team for the tremendous amount of support and cooperation.
Since Varanasi fascinates me very much, I will conclude my report by placing before you few observations related to Varanasi which have been made by eminent persons.
First one is from Mr. Shyam Benegal, the famous film director:
‘Varanasi is a photogenic city.
Like Aishwarya Rai – shoot her from any angle and it gives a perfect shot.’
Second one is form Ms. Abha Narain Lambah, Conservationist, (which appeared in India Today 30th Anniversary Issue, July 03, 2006).
“My favourite destination would be Varanasi.
On the first visit, the over-riding emotion would probably be shock – at the sensory overload and the chaos.
On your second visit, prepare to be astounded by its architectural grandeur.
On the third, the cultural nuances (i.e. delicate shades of differences) become obvious.
On the fourth, you can just sit by the Ganga and soak in the sights and sounds.
Thanking you.
Chairman, JEE-2007
IT-BHU.
2007 Programs and Students Enrollment:
| Sr.No. | Programs | Course | No. of students | Topper of 2007 |
| 1 | Computer Science and Engineering | 4-yr | 35 | Deepesh Reja |
| 2 | Ceramics Engineering | 4-yr | 30 | Anand Goyal |
| 3 | Chemical Engineering | 4-yr | 61 | Prakhar Jain |
| 4 | Civil Engineering | 4-yr | 40 | Dheeraj Arora |
| 5 | Electrical Engineering | 4-yr | 48 | Alok Dwivedi |
| 6 | Electronics Engineering | 4-yr | 48 | Ms. Stuti Bazaj |
| 7 | Mechanical Engineering | 4-yr | 54 | Vivek Jain |
| 8 | Metallurgical Engineering | 4-yr | 35 | S. Vishwanath |
| 9 | Mining Engineering | 4 yr | 50 | Rahul Singh |
| 10 | Pharmaceutics | 4-yr | 18 | Ankush Shah |
| 11 | Applied Physics | 5-yr M. Tech | 10 | Achint Gupta |
| 12 | Applied Chemistry | 5-yr M. Tech | 10 | Saket Suman |
| 13 | Applied Mathematics | 5-yr M. Tech | 10 | Ahuja Vishal Rajkumar |
| 14 | Computer Science and Engineering | 5-yr dual | 9 | Ms. Nidhi Gupta |
| 15 | Ceramics Engineering | 5-yr dual | 10 | Gaurav Singh |
| 16 | Civil Engineering | 5-yr dual | 10 | Prasanna Kumar G V N K |
| 17 | Electrical Engineering | 5-yr dual | 12 | Ms. Mugdha |
| 18 | Mechanical Engineering | 5-yr dual | 12 | Vaishak S |
| 19 | Metallurgical Engineering | 5-yr dual | 10 | T S Nikhilesh Iyer |
| 20 | Mining Engineering | 5-yr dual | 10 | Anup Kumar Digarse |
| 21 | Biochemical Engineering | 5-yr dual | 10 | Roshan J Pradeepam |
| 22 | Biomedical Engineering | 5-yr dual | 10 | Sreedhar K. |
| 23 | Material Science | 5-yr dual | 10 | P M Prashanth |
| 24 | Pharmaceutics | 5-yr dual | 10 | Rajat Malik |
| Total = | 562 |
JEE 2007 top five rank holders among IT-BHU students:
| Merit | Department | Course | Name | Rank |
| 1 | Computer Science and Engineering | 4-yr | Deepesh Reja | 1612 |
| 2 | Computer Science and Engineering | 4-yr | Animesh Aditya | 1647 |
| 3 | Computer Science and Engineering | 4-yr | Shailendra Sharma | 1750 |
| 4 | Electronics Engineering | 4-yr | Ms. Stuti Bazaj | 1799 |
| 5 | Computer Science and Engineering | 4-yr | Saurabh Gupta | 1812 |
(By Ankit Khanna, 3rd year Engineering Physics)
The IT Kholu (topper among freshers) this time around is a mild mannered, hard-working person from Orai (district Jalaun U.P). Deepesh Reja with a JEE Rank of 1612 has opted for Computer science in IT.
Here is what he had to say in an interview with the IT-BHU Chronicle:
Chronicle: Why did you opt for Computer Science and Engineering?
Deepesh: The world of software and programming has fascinated me since childhood and it offers great career prospects too. So Computer Science and Engineering was an easy choice for me.
Chronicle: Why IT-BHU?
Deepesh: With my rank I wasn’t getting Computers in any of the IITs. So I consulted my teachers and elders and they unanimously suggested IT-BHU and today I am happy with my decision. IT-BHU is no less than any of the premier IITs.
Chronicle: What is your assessment of IT so far?
Deepesh: Here one gets to participate in all sorts of activities like sports, music, literary etc. The type of technical activities and workshops that are conducted groom one into a smart individual, well acquainted with the best of technical knowledge of one’s respective fields. The teachers of IT-BHU are very helpful in all respects. If one has any problem the teachers help him personally.
Chronicle: How do you like Banaras?
Deepesh: Banaras is a kaleidoscope of Indian culture. I am proud to study in such a place.
Chronicle: What are your future plans?
Deepesh: I wish to pursue an MBA from the IIMs.
Chronicle: Tell us something more about yourself.
Deepesh: My achievements till date are only due to hard work and full cooperation of my parents and my brother. Whatever I do, I do with full devotion. I believe you can cheat others but you can’t cheat yourself. For me, there is no shortcut to success, I believe in giving my best and leave the rest to god. I love to make people laugh. Listening to music is my favorite pastime just. I love to play pranks on friends.
We wish Deepesh great success in life and look forward to publishing more of his success stories in the future.
You can get in touch with Deepesh at deepesh [DOT] reja [DOT] cse07 [AT] itbhu [DOT] ac [DOT] in
This is for the second time that freshers of 2007-08 batch of ITBHU gathered in the Swatantra Bhavan but after witnessing orientation program it was there chance to enthrall IT with some stunning performances.
The official Freshers’ Nite 07 was held in Swatantra Bhavan on Saturday, 4 August 07. This is the first time when first yearites stepped on the stage of Swatantra Bhavan. The event was graced by Prof.S. N. Upadhyay, Director, ITBHU; Prof.J.N.Sinha, Dean, BHU; Prof.V.P.Singh, President, IT-Gymkhana and Dr. P.K.Singh, President, IT-Gymkhana cultural wing.
Like previous years, this time also these performances tried to keep ITBHU immersed in music and joy for a whole evening. One could have taste of every type of cultural sweetness here like music, theatre, dance and literary. Each and every performance claimed to be better than others; but one have to mention such blazing musical performances by Abhinav Pandey (1st year Electrical) and Shireesh.
Apart from that, Nandit Pathak (1st year Ceramics) hypnotized the crowd by his all round performances in music, dance and theatre. However these guys were always assisted in their task by a dedicated team of seniors from 3rd year.
There was darker side also; for some 2nd yearites it was an opportunity to take ragging, but due to strict administration this practice could not reach to an extent.
Ceramic Engineering students ruled the stage on freshers’ night. This should be said by keeping the fact in mind that both Mr. and Miss freshers are from that single branch. Mr. Nandit Pathak and Ms. Pankhuri Agarwal (1st year Ceramics) were selected as the best for their exceptional performances.
(Reported by Dishank Gupta 2nd year Biomedical)
There is a novel blog directory called BlogPane which lists all blogs from any college into one group:
http://blogs.edotte.com/search.php
The blogs are arranged based on year of pass out of bloggers.
At the initiative of our alumnus Prasoon Agarwal (Mechanical 2004), the BlogPane has added IT-BHU on the BlogPane script. To register your blog on BlogPane, please search for IT-BHU and search for Plugin Script. Copy the Script, and add as an HTML element on your blogspace. In case you are an alumnus of more than one institute listed (IT-BHU + IIM Bangalore, for example), please check both institutes on the search page, and a script for both will be generated.
Prasoon is doctorate student at IIM-Ahmedabad. His blog is listed under IIM-A, Class of 2008 on BlogPane. It is hoped that in due time there will also be a separate group for IT-BHU blogs on BlogPane. For additional details please contact Prasoon Agarwal at the following contact address.
Prasoon Agarwal
Doctoral Student
Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad- 380015
Phone(R): +91-79-26327506
http://agarwalprasoon.blogspot.com/
prasoon [AT] iimahd [DOT] ernet [DOT] in
Following is the excerpts of the email reply received by Prasoon from the BlogPane owner Ajith Prasad:
IT-BHU BlogPane script is now available from http://blogs. edotte.com/ search.php. Your blog has been added under IIMA BlogPane too.
BlogPane is supposed to be a utility using which bloggers can track blogs from their alma-mater from their homepage itself. The purpose of creating IIT / IIM BlogPane pages was to illustrate the multi directory concept. It is not to showcase some of the institutes.
We initially started off with only a page having NITC, IIMA, IIMB BlogPane, but people from other institutes wanted their college panes too to be listed on our home page. This led us to IIT & IIM BlogPane pages. Maybe some time later depending on the popularity of application, we may choose to remove IIT / IIM BlogPane pages and provide individual pages for each college.
So, for the time being, we are not putting IT-BHU BlogPane in our site, though anyone from IT BHU is welcome to add their blogs or generate the widget and use it. If you want to add IT BHU to your page, generate the script by selecting IT-BHU and IIMA again. It'll display the IIMA - IT BHU BlogPane in your
page.
Regards,
Ajith & Jerome
Team BlogPane
ajithprasadb [AT] yahoo [DOT] com
TECHNEX (TECHnical EXcellence) is a yearly inter-college technical competition dating back from 1939. It consists of various challenging events such as Bytes the Bits, Modex, Papyrus, Panchtantrika, e-motions, Robotrix, X-treme Engineering, Bal Vigyan, Nano mania, etc. There also some relief events such as, Knowsarium, Chillology, Pro-nights.
Last year, there were over 2,500 participants and over Rs. 400, 000 were distributed as cash prizes for various events. The details of last event, which was held in January 2007, can be viewed on our institute’s website: http://www.itbhu.ac.in/technex/
This year a new event (perhaps first time in the country) called SPACE PRO-AM is planned and a leading personality from the space technology field is expected to grace the moment as a chief guest. The event will be an exclusive five-round competition based on space technology. We are also processing a separate event on air borne design and also have plans to conduct workshops on rocketry. Any updates regarding these will be reported to you as soon as possible.
Technex-08 is planned for Feb 2008. The exact dates shall be announced later.
To view Technex-08 flyer, click here.
Pradyumna Ghosh
Chairman Technex-08
Reader (Thermal Engg.)
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Instituite of Technology,BHU
pghosh [DOT] mec [AT] itbhu [DOT] ac [DOT] in
Appeal for Sponsorship:
With the event getting bigger by bigger each year, it requires funds to execute all the events. We need more companies to sponsor the Technex-08.
We appeal to all our alumni in influential position to help us by sponsoring the event through their companies.
We, at TECHNEX believe in building lasting relationships. Our sponsors are not just sources of funds, but are equal partners, who share our vision and walk in tandem with us to achieve the levels of excellence that have been associated with TECHNEX. Hence we go all out to ensure that our partners get value for their faith and make this relationship symbiotic in the truest sense.
Last year’s sponsors included, IBM, HP, Cognizant, State Bank of India, Indian Oil, etc.
We look forward for your help and cooperation in the matter. Please see the flyer for more details.
For further enquiries please contact:
A. Rakesh Aditya Kandoi
Convenor Marketing head
Technex Technex
Ph: +91 9935614572 Ph: +91 9889522922
Email: itbhu [DOT] technex [AT] gmail [DOT] com
A comprehensive public research university, UB is the lead campus of the State University of New York (SUNY), the largest system of public higher education in the U.S, with more than 415,000 students on 64 campuses. The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) was signed on August 8th at Buffalo, New York. The agreement was the result of over a year of discussions between BHU and the Provost of UB, Dr. Satish K. Tripathi. Dr. Tripathi earned his M.Sc in Statistics (1970) from BHU.
Like UB, BHU is a large comprehensive research university, with more than 20,000 students in 14 faculties and 124 departments. The largest residential university in Asia, BHU has more than 12,000 students living on its campus. Banaras Hindu University is setting up a 3,000 acre Rajiv Gandhi South Campus at Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh.
The University at Buffalo is in the process of signing similar agreements with other leading Indian universities and engineering institutions. UB is currently partnering with Amrita University to offer a dual master’s degree program in Management of IT-Enabled Services at the Amrita c