India Post News Service

NEW YORK: Alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, will celebrate their alma mater's 50th birthday with a Golden Jubilee Conference at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, NYC, from July 18 through 20. The US is home to an estimated 50,000 alumni or 30 percent of IIT graduates worldwide. Announcing the conference at a press conference at the Consulate General of India in New York on June 25, Sudhakar Shenoy, Founder, Chairman and CEO of IMC Inc., made a presentation on the conference theme -- Looking Ahead: The Next Fifty Years. "IITians are goodwill ambassadors," he said.

"They bring about economic and cultural fusion, are advocates of free trade; are agents for collaboration, are thought leaders and believe in a culture of 'giving back' to the communities they live in and to the country of their origin." While immigration and decline of math and science education in the US constantly make headlines in the media, IIT alumni have been quietly strengthening the engineering, business and academic backbones of America since the 1960's.

Firms founded by IIT Bombay Alumni have created tens of thousands of jobs in America; some of these firms are traded on NASDAQ, and a few alumni are featured on the Forbes List of America's richest. Besides making distinctive contributions to many American industries, IIT alumni are also raising their children in environments of educational excellence.

Already over a thousand IIT Alumni in the US have given back to IIT Bombay in a variety ways, Shenoy pointed out, through funding and championing new IT, management and bioengineering schools; through infrastructure projects; academic projects; faculty academic networks for enabling collaboration with top US schools on research etc.; and enabled alumni networking around the world.

"Our goal is to raise awareness of what can be achieved through global collaboration and education by viewing the achievements of the IIT System and to continue the dialog for future growth," added Shenoy. "India has come a long way since the days of the naked sadhus and snake charmers. We want to create awareness and show the world what India can deliver to the world.

In today's economic scenario, India has no choice but to grow, and we want to be the ambassadors of that growth." Victor Menezes spoke of how the alumni was working towards leveraging IIT to reflect India's growth and needs and towards expanding access to education. The alumni said they were supportive of the India's government's move to allow reservations in these elite institutions for the backwards castes.

Educational institutions in India were facing capacity constraints across the board, Menezes said. "From kindergarten schools to post graduate schools there is a dire need for more capacity induction. The Indian government is doing a noble thing by trying to get the OBCs into mainstream institutions," he added. Shenoy furthered that thought by adding that the alumni has had several meetings on the issue and have come up various ways by which the backward caste students can be ensured entry to the IITs.

The conference theme of Looking Ahead-the next 50 years, focuses on globalization and collaboration among corporations and Institutes of higher learning; education reform for a borderless society; excellence in research (new knowledge); and philanthropy as venture capital for social engineering.

The Golden Jubilee conference is expected to attract 1200 attendees from around the world, for three days of networking, knowledge-sharing and thought leadership. Already 600 attendees from 325 organizations from over 43 different industries have registered.

The conference will feature eminent speakers such as Ronen Sen (Ambassador of India to US), Jamie Dimon (CEO, JP Morgan Chase), Frank Wisner (Vice Chairman, AIG and former US Ambassador to India) and many others from business, academia and not-for-profits. The event is co-chaired by Victor Menezes, Retired Senior Vice Chairman, Citigroup, and Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman, Infosys.