India Post News Service

SANTA CLARA: The IISc Global Conference 2007 was held at the Santa Clara Marriot in Santa Clara, CA on June 22-24. With 600+ attendees from India as well as Indian Institute of Science (IISc) alumni from the Bay Area and other US regions, the intent of the conference to reconnect old relationships was fulfilled well.

Inaugurated via interactive video feed by Indian President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and with a plenary speech by Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau, UC- Berkeley, the conference also had the senior officials of the institute along with distinguished scientists like Dr VK Aatre (ex- Director General, DRDO) and Dr Chidambaran (Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India) in the US. Local Silicon Valley bigwigs also turned out along with various university luminaries.President Kalam, true to his style, enthralled the audience with his 30 minute address which was peppered with witty anecdotes, brief comments in Tamil and pointed comments, all of which had the audience clapping away.

Dr Kalam compared the IISc Global conference 2007 in Silicon Valley, CA to the journey of Swami Vivekananda and JRD Tata from Yokahoma (Japan) to Chicago (America) in 1893 and called this the second journey from Bangalore (India) to Silicon Valley (CA) marking the beginning of the next 100 years of IISc. At the start of his speech, he gave a brief introduction of his initial association with IISc and elaborated on his association with faculty members and scholars from the institute as a scientist and researcher.

He talked about India 2020 and IISc, Challenges of 21st Century, Global Human Resource Cadre, Sustainable Development and Integrated Development Studies, Suggestions for Global IISc Community, etc.Prof. P Balaram, Director IISc, spoke at the conference about future research challenges and IISc and its role in the future. He said that when the idea of an alumni meet was presented by Dr Ram Akella, he had never thought it would be so successful. Prof. N Balakrishnan, Associate Director IISc, talked about how science cannot be practiced in isolation and how the present paradigm is 'manufacture locally, market globally'.

Dr VK Aatre, ex- director general DRDO, told us that IT and pharmaceuticals have become known as Indian niches but aerospace and other development is also doing well. He said that more research is done by the government but the private sector percentage is also increasing. The TCS president, North America, Surya Kant, talked about how TCS CEO S. Ramadorai is the first recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award.

With plenty of alumni reconnections some made after many years, serious research focused panels and entertainment like musical jugalbandi, the IISc Global Conference 2007 was a happy mix of business and pleasure for all the attendees. The foundation seems set for the next 100 years which was the main goal of the conference as the institute sails into its centennial next year. (2008-09).