Global event marks 50 years of BITS Pilani

image0011Corporate Moguls congregate at BITS-Pilani Hyderabad for BGM 2014

 Unveil ‘BITS of Success’: Book on successful BITSian entrepreneurs

Alumni across 4 campuses, 5 decades and 20 countries to be present for the occasion

 

Hyderabad, January 3, 2014: The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India’s premier independent university, along with BITSAA, its global alumni association, today announced the commencement of the BITSAA Global Meet (BGM) 2014 in its Golden Jubilee year. Themed on celebrating innovation, achievement and leadership, BGM 2014 will witness a congregation of BITSians from across the globe to bring alive a mega reunion of all BITS Pilani’s student batches spread across four campuses, five decades and seven continents. BGM 2014 was inaugurated by Prof. Bijendra Nath Jain, Vice Chancellor, BITS Pilani, Prof. VS Rao, Director, BITS-Pilani Hyderabad campus, Dr. Ashok Agarwal, Chairman, BGM, Raju Reddy, Chairman, BITSAA International and Sanjay Kendry, CEO, BGM along with 1500+ BITSians and faculty members. Marking the completion of 50 years of BITS Pilani, the event saw the unveiling of ‘BITS of Success’, a special edition book highlighting the glorious journey of successful BITSians including creators of Bharat Forge, Onida, Hotmail (Microsoft), i-Flex (Oracle), RedBus, Insieme (Cisco), Sierra Atlantic (Hitachi), FoodKing, MapmyIndia, VarshaJal and the Buddh International Circuit among others.

 Inaugration BGM 1 Inaugration BGM 2

The three-day extravaganza will constitute thought provoking panel discussions, distinguished alumni award presentations, faculty felicitations for extraordinary service, recognition of select alumni as future business leaders as 30-under-30 achievers as well as several cultural events and batch reunions. Chartering the next phase of growth for BITS Pilani as well as BITSAA International, top CEOs and scholars along with fellow BITSians will share perspective on the themes of innovation, entrepreneurship, achievement and leadership including Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice-Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions; Harish Bhat, MD & CEO, Tata Global Beverages; Rajesh Hukku (Former chairman & CEO i-Flex); Raj Gollamundi, Director, Intel Capital; SP Kothari, Dy Dean, MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts, USA; A Arumugam, Board Member, CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad; Samay Kohli, CEO, Grey Orange Robotics and Phanindra Sharma, Founder & CEO, RedBus among others.

Commenting on 50 years of BITS Pilani and BGM 2014, Prof. BN Jain, Vice-Chancellor, BITS Pilani, said, “We are very happy to meet a large number of our alumni who have come from 20 countries to assemble at our Hyderabad campus for BITSAA Global Meet. We are indeed proud of our Alumni and they have made a mark in various fields from academic to entrepreneurship, from social sector to cinemas and from software to manufacturing. BGM 2014 comes at a time when the Institute celebrates its Golden Jubilee and is in the midst of several initiatives in order to become one of the top ranking research led universities in Asia. We invite the Alumni members to support us in our journey by sharing their expertise, time, energy or by sponsoring projects in our campuses.”

 

BGM 2014 is the second edition of BITS Pilani’s global alumni meet. The first edition in 2011 was hosted in Gurgaon and enjoyed stupendous success. BITSians from all continents had participated and shared their views on the theme of ‘Transforming Society, Enterprises and Academics through Innovation’. Inspired by the university’s ‘Vision 2020’ as per which BITS Pilani intends to be among the top research-led universities in Asia by 2020, BITSAA had set a goal of raising USD 1 million before the next BGM for faculty enrichment, student enrichment, infrastructure and community development. The resultant ‘Bridges to the Future’ fundraising campaign kick started in December 2011 and exceeded the expected targets before BGM 2014. It also helped fund BITSConnect 2.0 – a first-of-its-kind multi-campus education model powered by pioneering technology, 2 Faculty Chairs, 5 Student research grants, over 20 scholarship and awards as well as Atmanirbhara – the Pilani Resource center. BGM 2014 aspires to take the legacy forward and serve as a platform for discovering innovative solutions for complex societal problems with some of the best brains in the world.

 

Commenting on the expectations from BGM 2014, Dr. Ashok Agarwal, Chairman, BGM, said, “BITSians have always aspired to explore new ways to contribute to our alma mater. BGM 2014 serves as a manifestation of the combined efforts of the BITSian community to come together, create memorable moments as well as recognise top achievers who serve as role models for future leaders. We are extremely proud to have met our promise to raise one million dollars for BITS Pilani sponsored causes and are confident that the meet will serve as the genesis of better things to come for BITS Pilani as well as BITSAA International and will contribute in the university’s progress to become one of the top institutes in Asia.”

 

About Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani

BITS Pilani is a premier independent University in India with 4 campuses at Pilani (1964), Dubai (2000), Goa (2004) and Hyderabad (2008). BITS Pilani employs 700 full time faculty and has 11,000 on-campus & 19,000 off-campus students. BITS has been accredited by NAAC with the most coveted “A” grade in University accreditation. BITS Pilani has been a pioneer in the Indian higher education landscape with a world-class benchmarked curriculum and the largest industry-university network. The institute is one of the most selective in the world with a <1.5% admit rate. Intake is administered through an online exam, BITSAT. For more information, visit http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/.

 

About BITS Pilani Alumni Association (BITSAA)

BITSAA International is the global all-volunteer alumni association for BITS Pilani representing 50,000+ alumni in 90 countries. It engages in charitable and educational activities by creating endowments, granting scholarships, rewarding teaching and research, enhancing the personal & professional lives of its alumni and promoting the general development at all BITS Pilani campuses. In the past decade, some of its key projects have been to network the campuses (BITSConnect), enhance the quality of education (Embryo, OLAB), promote entrepreneurship (NVC, BITS Spark, BITS2Startup), promote rural education and employability (Atmanirbhara), support professional development of alumni & students (BITS2MSPHD, BITS2IAS, BITS2BSCHOOL). For more information, visit: www.bitsaa.org.