IIT-Delhi plans to make campus waste-free, eco-friendly

The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
(IIT-D) has decided to roll out initiatives to
make the campus more environment-
friendly this academic session. The institute
plans to take measures in this direction by
addressing three major aspects — energy,
water conservation and minimising waste.
These “green initiatives” include setting up
of two solar power projects in the campus.
A 20 KW power system at the residence of
the director is underway and another 1
MW solar power system will be installed in
the academic area. IIT-Delhi dean
(infrastructure) Dr Ashok Gupta said this
would take care of 40 to 50 per cent
electricity requirement in the academic
areas.
Water harvesting is being taken up in a big
way to improve the drainage system and
groundwater. The institute will set up a
water harvesting unit along with a new
sewage treatment plant (STP) on campus as
part of the green initiatives. “We are
expecting that at least 70 per cent of the
water from the STP can be used for
horticulture purposes on campus,” Dr
Gupta said.
IIT-Delhi has converted toilets in the
academic area to a waterless system and
“looking at the success of these” in terms of
water conservation, it plans to convert
toilets in the hostels and residential area to
the same system.
The Ministry of Human Resource
Development has been emphasising that
need for “minimising the institute’s impact
on the environment and its carbon
footprint.” Each institute has been advised
to constitute a dedicated and independent
green office consisting of members
knowledgeable in environmental issues and
green technologies and practices, besides
student representatives. The purpose of the
green office would be to “track, monitor
and steer the institute towards green
practices”.
Gupta said although the measures are in
compliance with the MHRD guidelines, the
institute had already started working on
these measures. There are plans to
segregate organic waste from residences
and hostels on campus and convert it into
manure.

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IIT, Delhi, forms committee to coordinate with world ranking agencies

NEW DELHI: As part its efforts to position itself
among the top in the global ranking list, IIT, Delhi,
has set up a four-member body to coordinate with
ranking agencies and provide appropriate
information and data sought for.
The move comes in the backdrop of the HRD
Ministry setting up of an 18-member committee to
review existing arrangements, develop a strategy and
a framework for research evaluation to drive up
research activities, the lack of which is hampering
Indian institutions from featuring in the global
ranking list.
A group of IIT Delhi professors would be engaged in
a more focussed activity, understand the relevant
information sought by the ranking bodies and
provide inputs in proper format, IIT, Delhi, Director
R K Shevgaonkar told reporters here.
Coordination among the peers, the faculties and
alumni is the other objective of the group as
providing correct information is important for the
rankings, he said.
According to Times Higher Education's (THE) World
University Rankings list 2013-14, IIT, Delhi, along
with IIT, Kanpur, IIT, Kharagpur and IIT, Roorkee,
are clubbed in the group of institutions between
351-400.
The QS world university ranking puts IIT, Delhi, at
222. Concerns over absence of any of India's
institutes among the top has been flagged several
times by President Pranab Mukherjee who would be
attending IIT Delhi's 44th convocation function
tomorrow.
The institute, considered among the best in the
country, would be having a Centre of Policy Studies
to evolve policies for science and technology. It
would be set up under the Department of
Humanities.
It would also set up a Centre for Cyber Security in
collaboration with the University of Nebraska , an
MoU for which is expected to be signed early next
year.
"The Centre wanted that we should have research on
cyber security given that it is a big challenge in the
coming days for national security of the country,"
the IIT Director said.
Ministries of Home and HRD are supporting the IIT
in this endeavour.

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IIT-Delhi signs MOU with Bihar Bridge Corporation for traffic models

PATNA: IIT-Delhi today entered into an agreement
with the Bihar State Bridge Corporation for use of
high speed traffic models in Patna to decongest the
city's main roads of heavy vehicular density.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed
today between the Foundation for Innovation and
Technology Transfer (FITT) of IIT-Delhi and the Bihar
State Bridge Development Corporation (BSBDC) in
this regard, sources said.
As per the MOU, BSBDC can use Swap Based Traffic
Interchange (SBTI) and GSUI (Grade Separated U-
turn Interchange) models developed by IIT-Delhi,
which will be used here for the first time in the
country, BSBDC chairman Sanjeev Hans told
reporters.
The two models will be applied at three busy
intersections on Bailey Road within a distance of 1.7
km from the Lalit Bhawan to the Patna High Court.
Hans, accompanied by Anup Chawla, Professor of
Mechanical Engineering, IIT-Delhi, who represented
FITT, said the design models are apt for a city like
Patna where there is paucity of land.
The SBTI design, which will be applied at the
intersection near the busy Punaichak, will ensure
free right turn and not require deployment of any
traffic police.
Hans said the designs, a presentation of which was
given to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar , was found
efficient.
Chawla said innovative traffic designs will ensure
traffic signal free movement of vehicles along the
stretch which is presently choc-a-bloc, particularly
in the day time.
Hans said the foundation is going for a patent of the
models and in future if somebody wants to opt for
them, it has to approach the BSBDC.
According to a survey, the traffic density on this
stretch of Bailey Road, which houses important
government offices and where an international
museum is also coming, is presently 2000 passenger
car units.

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IIT-Delhi's sensors to check jumbo deaths

KOLKATA: Science could save elephants where
political will has failed. IIT-Delhi has designed heat-
and-motion sensors that can be fitted on railway
tracks to act as an early warning system on
movement of animals.
The device will be field-tested for the first time on
the 165-km tracks between North Bengal's Jalpaiguri
and Alipurduar, where 18 elephants have been run
over by trains this year alone. Last week, an express
train crushed six elephants at Jaldhaka, ramming one
of them through the rail bridge where the mangled
carcass hung for days as train and after train passed
over it. Fifty-two elephants have died in this
corridor since 2004.
An official of the ministry of environment and
forests confirmed receiving the proposal from IIT-
Delhi. "The institute was given the go-ahead in July
and there were plans to field-test the early-warning
device in Uttarakhand's Rajaji first. But keeping in
mind the rising jumbo deaths on North Bengal's
killer tracks, we might run the pilot test in the
Dooars forests ," the official told TOI.
The early warning system is being developed under
the leadership of professor Subrat Kar of IIT-Delhi.
It consists of a series of heat and motion sensing
devices that can be placed at different points of the
railway tracks. These can detect body heat or the
movement of animals that come too close to the
tracks and the information will be relayed from one
device to another in microseconds so that the
authorities can take evasive action to stop animal
deaths.
"More than 100 such devices, with heat and body
sensors and cameras, can be installed on a 4-km
stretch of the tracks. As soon as it detects the
presence of an animal, it records the message and
sends through the network of devices. The
information is transferred to the officials at the
nearest station or signal post in real time," said
Wildlife Trust of India's (WTI) Sandeep Tiwari, who
has held discussions with the IIT-Delhi team on
using the device at Rajaji National Park.
Anil Kumar Singh, head of WTI's conflict mitigation
department, believes the device needs to be tested
urgently, considering the rise in elephant deaths in
this corridor. He, however, cautions that it is not
foolproof. "The device can't be installed on the
entire stretch. So, the risk persists. The ideal move
should be to try and discourage elephants from
coming on the tracks," he suggested.
Most such accidents take place near curvatures,
where visibility is poor, he pointed out. "If some
vegetation can be removed, it will improve visibility
and also discourage elephants from moving into the
area. The possibility of fencing both sides of tracks
can also be explored," he said, adding that the
Indian government can take tips from the road
animal detection (RAD) system used in countries like
US and Switzerland to check animal deaths on the
roads.
Ministry officials are meeting their railway
counterparts in Delhi on Tuesday to discuss ways to
prevent elephant deaths . "Installing this device will
take some time. Till then we will push the railways
officials to restrict the speed limit to 25kmph
through such corridors," an official said.

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IIT-Delhi alumni creates first map of neural circuitry

LONDON: Women have sharper memory while
men coordinate things better.
An Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi alumni
has created the first ever map of neural
circuitry inside a human brain which has
confirmed that women's brains are designed
for social skills and memory while men's are
for perception and co-ordination.
However, there is one field in which women
beat men hollow - multitasking, finds the study
that looks at brain connectivity.
A new brain connectivity study from Penn
Medicine published on Monday has found
striking differences in the neural wiring of men
and women that's lending credence to some
commonly-held beliefs about their behaviour.
In one of the largest studies looking at the
"connectomes" of the sexes, Ragini Verma, an
associate professor in the department of
radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine
at the University of Pennsylvania found greater
neural connectivity from front to back and
within one hemisphere in males, suggesting
their brains are structured to facilitate
connectivity between perception and
coordinated action. In contrast, in females, the
wiring goes between the left and right
hemispheres, suggesting that they facilitate
communication between the analytical and
intuition. Ragini who completed her masters in
mathematics and computer applications
followed by a PhD in computer vision and
mathematics from IIT Delhi says "These maps
show us a stark difference — and
complementarity — in the architecture of the
human brain that helps provide a potential
neural basis as to why men excel at certain
tasks, and women at others".
According to Verma, on average, men are more
likely better at learning and performing a
single task at hand, like cycling or navigating
directions, whereas women have superior
memory and social cognition skills, making
them more equipped for multitasking and
creating solutions that work for a group. In
the study, the researchers found that females
displayed greater connectivity in the
supratentorial region, which contains the
cerebrum, the largest part of the brain,
between the left and right hemispheres. Males,
on the other hand, displayed greater
connectivity within each hemisphere.
By contrast, the opposite prevailed in the
cerebellum, the part of the brain that plays a
major role in motor control, where males
displayed greater inter-hemispheric
connectivity and females displayed greater
intra-hemispheric connectivity.
These connections likely give men an efficient
system for coordinated action, where the
cerebellum, which involves perception, and the
front of the brain, which involves action, are
bridged together, according to the authors.
The female connections likely facilitate
integration of the analytic and sequential
processing modes of the left hemisphere with
the spatial, intuitive information processing
modes of the right side.
The authors observed only a few gender
differences in the connectivity in children
younger than 13 years, but the differences
were more pronounced in adolescents aged 14
to 17 years and young adults older than 17.
Past studies have shown sex differences in the
brain, but the neural wiring connecting regions
across the whole brain that have been tied to
such cognitive skills has never been fully
shown in a large population.
In the study, Verma and colleagues
investigated the gender-specific differences in
brain connectivity during the course of
development in 949 individuals (521 females
and 428 males) aged 8 to 22 years using
diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
DTI is water-based imaging technique that can
trace and highlight the fibre pathways
connecting the different regions of the brain,
laying the foundation for a structural
connectome or network of the whole brain.

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Gautam Biswas takes over as IIT-Guwahati director.

New director of iit g .

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India's Mangalyaan satellite lifts off successfully

In its its first-ever launch outside the Earth's sphere of influence in
its 44-year-long history, India's premier space agency, ISRO, today
launched the Mangalyaan satellite successfully as PSLV-C25 lifts off
from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, about 100 from
Chennai.
India's first mission to Mars started at 2.38 pm on Tuesday.
The 44.4-metre tall trusted workhorse of the Indian Space Research
Organization (ISRO) stood on its launchpad as its tanks were filled
with fuel that will power the rocket over its four stages into space
to insert the spacecraft into an Earth orbit. Final destination: Mars,
the Red Planet, 400 million km and 300 days' journey away.
The actual launch operations will
only involve about 43 minutes of
rocket flight. But it is still set to
be the longest initial flight for any
launch in ISRO's history.
"If the rocket has to function and
the vehicle is able to put the
satellite into an orbit of 23,500
km-by-250 km, that is sufficient.
There is a band 675 km plus or
minus this number. Anywhere
within that if it is put, it is a
success," ISRO chairman K
Radhakrishnan said of the
expectations for the initial flight
— the first step in the long
journey to Mars.
If all goes well on Tuesday, the next major test for the mission will
come on November 30, when the spacecraft is scheduled to begin
its journey to Mars: The trans Martian injection. And then again in
September 2014, when it will inject the Mars orbiter into the Mars
orbit.
The launch will involve 23 minutes of flight when the rocket will be
visible to ISRO through its own ground station at Biak near
Indonesia. The subsequent operations, during which the rocket will
disengage the spacecraft and place it in a Earth orbit, will be
tracked by special ship-borne terminals: Nalanda and Yamuna in the
South Pacific Ocean.
The specific operations that the ship-borne terminals will monitor
are the ignition of the fourth stage of the rocket at 33 minutes, and
the separation of the satellite from the rocket at around 43
minutes. After the initial 23 minutes, the rocket will coast for about
10 minutes before the fourth stage ignition takes place.
"Up to 23 minutes of flight we can have visibility. Beyond that we
don't have visibility. These ship terminals are placed in two
positions in such way that the ignition of the fourth stage is seen
and the separation of the satellite is seen. Immediately after the
separation of the satellite we also have the deployment of the solar
panel, which happens automatically based on the command stored
in the spacecraft," the ISRO chairman said.
"It is a leap forward. It is a turning point for the country if we are
able to accomplish this. Any progress we make in this is new
learning. Any progress we make from then onwards is a learning for
us," he said.
DESTINATION MARS
A 299-day journey of 400 mn km at a cost of Rs 450 cr
LIFT-OFF: TODAY
PSLV-C25 lifts off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at
2.38 pm. In 42-min first phase of the flight, Mangalyaan will be put
into a 248 km-by-23,000 km elliptical Earth Parking Orbit.
DEPARTURE: NOV 30
Leaves Earth in a direction tangential to Earth's orbit around the
Sun. Encounters Mars tangentially to its orbit around the Sun.
Trans-Martian injection of December 1 is most crucial part of
mission, says ISRO.
MARS ORBIT INSERTION: SEP 21, 2014
Spacecraft reaches Mars's sphere of influence in hyperbolic
trajectory; expected to be captured into planned orbit when it
reaches Mars Periapsis. Nine earlier Mars missions have failed at
this stage.
Only 21 of the 51 attempted Mars missions have been successful.
Attempts by Japan in 1999 and China in 2011 failed.

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IIT Delhi Alumni Award Outstanding Contribution to National Development for the year 2012-13.

IIT Delhi Alumni Award for
Outstanding Contribution to
National Development 2012-2013
Dear Alumni,
We are pleased to inform that the IIT Delhi
Alumni Association has decided to confer upon
the IIT Delhi Alumni Award for Outstanding
Contribution to National Development 2012-13
as follows:
Mr. Ajay Kumar, 75, BT, EL
Mr. Shashank Tripathi, 86,BT,ME
A brief profile of the awardees is enclosed for
your information. IIT Delhi Alumni Association
shall be conferring these awards at the Annual
General Body Meeting on 27 th April 2013 at
Seminar Hall, IIT Delhi.
Regards,
Pravin Purang
Secretary
IIT Delhi Alumni Association
-------------------------------------------------
Mr. Ajay Kumar received his B.Tech. and
M.Tech. degrees in Electrical Engineering from
IIT, Delhi in 1975 and 1977 respectively. He
has been a full time ‘development
professional’, working with NGO’s,
governments, companies, professionals,
academics and academia for the last 35 years.
His focus has been on rural development /
technology, renewable energy, e-governance,
agriculture / livelihood of small and marginal
farmers, strengthening NGOs and motivating
young professionals to work in the
development sector.
For his contemporaries and youngsters, he is a
role model who has taken the unconventional
route, the ‘road less travelled’. Even here he
has mostly worked as a free-lancer, preferring
the un-structured path rather than the
“alternate” structures that most development
professionals opt for.  He is admired by many
in the NGO sector, by bureaucrats, IIT-ians,
professionals, especially young professionals,
friends and, last but not least, the beneficiaries
in villages and other places where he has
worked.
As a development professional he has taken a
multi-dimensional approach, and has worked
on/ with a large number of aspects of
“development”, from personal growth to team
working to social organization, models of
development, NGOs, volunteering, motivation
of young professionals, thought process of
Gandhi and other development thinkers,
manpower mobilization, fund raising,
networking with individuals and institutions,
policy formulation in government, and more.
The foundation for this multi-dimensional
approach evolved through interaction within a
group of friends and associates, namely Mr.
Anand Kumar, Dr. NN Mehrotra, Dr. Vibha
Gupta, Mr. Vinoo Kaley and Ajay. This group
took up several unconventional and innovative
initiatives in the decade of 1980’s which
helped Ajay to understand development from a
multi-dimensional perspective. The group itself
had the good fortune to learn from national
level policy planners, as well as thinkers and
practitioners of rural development.
Ajay had his first major brush with rural
development activities while heading the NSS
unit at IIT Delhi. His interaction with top
scientists and policy planners at that stage was
crucial in building in him the confidence to go
ahead and make the development sector a
career choice. The Centre for Rural
Development and Appropriate Technology
(RDAT) at IIT New Delhi was a product of such
interactions. Later on he worked for four years
in villages in and around Wardha, in
Maharashtra, in an institution setup by
Gandhiji to work on Science & Technology
issues. Here he had extensive exposure to
Gandhiji thoughts, Gandhian institutions, and
followers of Gandhi. He then shifted to
Gujarat, where he spent almost two decades. In
early 2000 he shifted to Madhya Pradesh. He
currently lives & works in Bhopal. His wife, Dr
Upma Diwan is a full time social worker who
has lived and worked with Aadivaasis for more
than 30 years in Madhya Pradesh.
He spent most of the decade of the eighties in
motivating young professionals to choose to
work in the development sector, and also
helped setup an institution, along with a few
other pioneers from industry, government and
the NGO sector in Gujarat, on the theme of
‘Science & Technology Missionaries’.
He was a member of the team that
conceptualised and implemented the first
‘Rural Technology’ project initiated by the
Department of Science and Technology
(Government of India) in 1979 at Wardha, and
was head of the team that setup the first solar
energy village in India (Gujarat) in 1984.
He was also active in relief and rehabilitation
work after the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984,
drought relief in Gujarat in 1987-88 and in
relief and rehabilitation in the aftermath of the
Gujarat earthquake in 2001, in the company of
his friend and colleague, Anand Kumar.
Between 1999 and 2003 , as a small deviation
from his main focus, he spent 4 years working
in the software industry in Delhi, Bangalore,
the USA and in Singapore as a specialist in
software engineering tools and processes
(Rational Rose & Rational Unified Process).
Since 1995 Ajay has been actively involved in a
large number of e-governance projects that
are specially relevant to the poor, to
agriculture and to livelihood issues. These
include the computerisation of the Gujarat
High Court & the Gujarat District Courts,
AGRISNET, a project about ICT based services
to farmers through the Department of
Agriculture (MP), an e-PDS project linking
Ration Cards to the UID/ Adhaar card under
the Department of Food & Civil Supplies (MP),
an NREGA project of Maharashtra Government,
etc. He has also been a member of the
committee on e-governance setup by the Prime
Minister.
Over the last decade or so Ajay Kumar has
been working with farmers’ organizations and
the Madhya Pradesh Department of Agriculture
& Mandi Boards. He also worked as an advisor
to a corporate house on CSR activities in the
field of agriculture and rural development for
several years. He was also a member of a
committee setup by the Planning Commission
on “ICT and Agriculture” for the 12 th Five Year
Plan.
As he was not a regular earner Ajay Kumar was
initially supported, financially, by his mother,
and later by his wife. Equally important has
been the contributions, from time to time, of
friends from IIT, IIM, the software industry,
NRIs and other friends from business and
industry. Many of these friends in Delhi,
Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh
opened up their houses for him – for days,
months and even years. This experience has
sustained and increased his optimism about
the possibility of good in society.
One of his major interest areas is –
strengthening the civil society sector and NGOs
by networking, creating new networks, getting
professional inputs into the sector, devising
mechanisms to enroll quality manpower into
the sector and involving the civil society in
policy formulation in partnership with
government. He is concerned about the
marginalization of smaller NGOs and is keen to
increase their contribution and participation in
the development process
He has been and continues to advise many
NGOs in Gujarat, Maharashtra, MP and Delhi
besides interacting with policy planners on
issues of development. He makes himself
available for e-governance projects in MP and
around.
He loves to keep in touch with the ground
reality by living in villages and interacting with
different types of beneficiaries specially the
poor in the rural, tribal and remote areas. His
wife has enriched this experience by her close
link with people in remote tribal areas.
Many elders have guided him in this journey
and he wishes to acknowledge their
compassion and contribution.
---------------------------------------------------
Mr. Shashank Tripathi received his Bachelor
of Technology Degree in Mechanical
Engineering from IIT, Delhi in 1986. Mr.
Tripathi is currently the Partner and Head of
Strategy - PwC India and is leading the Strategy
Consulting practice of PwC India.
He is the Chairman of Yagriti Seva Sansthan, an
NGO that is working for the development of
the villages in Eastern UP, and also supports
young entrepreneurs.This NGO has been
relentlessly working towards rural upliftment,
and supporting young entrepreneurs who want
to contribute towards building a better society
Some of his major accomplishments include:
Author of - India: A journey through a healing
civilization. This book captured the 1997 Yatra,
which was published in August 2007 on the
60th Anniversary of India's independence by
Harper Collins India.
He is also Founder and Creator of Jagriti Yatra,
which has now become a phenomena in the
country to promote youth enterprise for the
development of middle India. This initiative
has done 6 journeys till now across the
country, taking 400-450 carefully selected and
motivated youth across the country in a
dedicated train for 8000-9000 km, to meet
role models like Elango, Anna Hazare, Arvind
Eye Care etc, learn from it, and provides a
solid basis for these youngsters to start their
own social enterprise. This initiative is widely
covered by media and supported by companies
like Tata, Google, Dell, Etc. Mr. Tripathi is very
passionate about national development and has
been working hard to give the necessary
exposure and platforms to young
entrepreneurs to learn from role models and
start their social ventures

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Padma Shri Award bestowed upon Mr. Avinash Chander, IIT Delhi, Batch of 1972

Mr. Avinash Chander, IIT Delhi Alumnus, Batch
of 1972, with a B.Tech in Electrical
Engineering has been awarded the prestigious
Padma Shri Award by the Government of India
on Republic Day this year.

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IITs ranked No.3 among tech varsities

LONDON: The IITs may have slid down the
rankings of the world's best universities, but
when compared with their peer institutions
they have held their own or even improved
their position.
A week after the Times Higher Education
Supplement (THES) ranked the IITs at No. 57
among universities, it has ranked them No. 3
among the world's technology universities —
the same position as in 2005 — and at No. 33
in the list of science universities, which is
three notches up from last year's No. 36.

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Noida hospital design gets IIT approval

NOIDA: IIT-Delhi has approved the design
for the proposed district hospital building
in Sector 39, Noida. The project report for
the building had been sent to IIT after a
private consultant prepared it for Noida
Authority.
IIT's approval has cleared the decks for
necessary documentation related to
tendering process for the construction
work. "All paperwork is expected to be
completed by September end. After this,
tenders will be floated for construction of
the building," said an Authority official.
Authority officials said it will take at least
two years to complete construction.
The estimated cost to be incurred by the
Authority has been pegged at Rs 425 crore.
The hospital will have 200 beds and be
equipped with a state-of-the-art trauma
centre. The Noida Authority board had
approved the plan to upgrade the district
hospital in January.
The hospital will have a double basement
for parking vehicles. Officials said the
hospital premises will have housing
quarters for the staff on emergency duty.
Earlier this year, Noida Authority had
decided against shifting the now defunct
Sector 39 district hospital to the Ambedkar
hospital in Sector 30. It had, instead,
announced that it will be upgraded it into
a multi-speciality utility.

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Hoobastank band mesmerised the crowd at IIT Delhi annual fest

The first day of the IIT Delhi annual fest was
as grand as was promised, with people
trying to enter even after the main
performance had ended.
The amphitheatre was jam-packed with
students climbing trees and scaling the
boundary walls because, like they said
here, 'This was an experience you couldn't
afford to miss'. The crowd kept chanting
for the band Hoobastank during the earlier
performances also, but when asked about
their favourite Hoobastank song, other
than The Reason, everyone was clueless. A
quiz that the emcees conducted during set-
up also had to be stopped midway because,
well, no one had the answers!
But none of this had any effect on the
energy of the crowd when the band finally
came on stage. What caught our eye were
the big shaadi wale fans that were
especially added to the stage right before
Douglas Robb, Chris Hesse, Dan Estrin and
Jesse Charland from Hoobastank started
performing.
The band had everyone in the crowd
screaming along, even without much
'lyrics knowledge'. DSLRs and fancy phone
cameras were out all through the
performance, and the crowd recorded their
bit and clicked themselves with Hoobastank
performing in the background. In fact, the
band members too, who were all superbly
impressed with the IIT crowd, made the
students raise their hands and pose for
their own pictures, which they uploaded
on their official Twitter page with the
caption, "Say hello to our new friends from
IIT in New Delhi!"

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Arvind Kejriwal addresses IIT Delhi students

NEW DELHI: Aam Aadmi Party convener
Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday addressed
students at IIT Delhi, emphasizing the role
of youth in rebuilding India through
corruption-free politics.
Sources said that after the meet, 425 IIT
students reportedly joined the party as
volunteers. AAP has given a ticket for the
Malviya Nagar assembly seat, under which
IIT Delhi campus falls, to IIT student
Somnath Bharti.
"Kejriwal has given them the responsibility
to campaign actively for AAP and help win
the assembly seat. Somnath Bharti, who is
a well known lawyer, has also served as
the president of Delhi IIT alumni
association," said a release by AAP.

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IIT-BHU students protest against new ordinance

VARANASI: The career of more than 100
students of B Tech third IIIrd and IVth
years of Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT), Banaras Hindu University (BHU) is at
stake as an ordinance which was passed in
November 2012 but not circulated prevents
them from appearing in the back paper
exams in the following semester
examination, thereby delaying their degree
by one to two years.
Upset over the decision, around 150
students of different departments of IIT-
BHU staged a sit-in stir at the director's
office in the institute's premises on
Saturday.
As per the new ordinance, it does not
permit the students to appear for the back
paper along with the current semester
examination. Instead, the students have to
appear for the backlog next year. The
students have alleged that the new
ordinance passed by the IIT-BHU in
November 2012 was not circulated to them
and that it will delay their degree by a
couple of years thereby affecting their
careers.
According to them, the new ordinance was
passed after the conversion of Institute of
Technology (IT-BHU) into IIT-BHU. On the
other hand, the third and fourth year
students were admitted in the institute
prior to this.
Notably, students who are in the final year
of the course with at least one back paper
are the worst hit as they will not be able to
sit for the job placement sessions which is
likely to get started from year end.
According to the students, the new
ordinance also forces them to appear for
only two supplementary papers at a time,
thereby students who have three to four
supplementary papers cannot complete
their course in the current or next
academic session.
Students have also alleged that when they
became aware of the new rule recently,
they wrote to authorities asking them to
roll back the decision for this semester on
the grounds that the students were
admitted prior to conversion of IT BHU into
IIT. However, there was no proper
communication from the authorities' side.
The students have demanded that they
should be allowed to appear for the back
paper in the forthcoming semester
examination which will get started from
November 22 onwards.
Despite several efforts, director, IIT-BHU,
Dr Rajeev Sanghal could not be contacted
to give a comment on the matter. It is not
the first time that IIT-BHU students have
protested against the new ordinance due to
lack of information. Prior to this, in April,
students of MTech, protested against a new
rule that directs the students to leave the
course midway for securing less than six
CGPA (cumulative grade point average) in
the first semester examination. During that
time also students alleged that the
authorities did not made them aware of the
new rule.

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Convert Indian School of Mines to IIT: Rajya Sabha member

NEW DELHI: A demand to convert the
Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad into an
Indian Institute of Technology was raised
in the Rajya Sabha by a JMM member.
Raising the issue during the zero hour,
Sanjiv Kumar said around 1,500 students
of Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad are
agitating in front of Jantar Mantar and an
equal number are doing so at ISM,
Dhanbad demanding the 86-year-old
institute be converted into an IIT.
He said though Jharkhand assembly had
passed a resolution in 2011 requesting the
Centre for the conversion of Indian School
of Mines into IIT, Dhanbad, nothing has
happened yet. He said ISM, Dhanbad was
established in 1926 as a specialized
institute dealing in earth sciences and is
now a full-fledged engineering college with
17 departments.
Raising another issue, Ali Anwar Ansari of
JD (U) demanded the early setting up of a
campus of Aligarh Muslim University at
Kishanganj in Bihar and release of funds
for the same by the central government.
Ansari said the funds are not being released
despite top Congress leaders making poll
promises during Bihar assembly elections.
He said though Bihar government has
handed over 224 acres of land for the
setting up of the campus, theCentre is not
releasing funds for the same, resulting in
delay in the establishment of the campus.

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IIT students ask government to provide them girlfriends

Kharagpur. Male students of IITscollege?” Ritesh argued, “I have found out about the college fees of many ‘normal universities in India and they are ridiculously low.
Then why are we being targeted even though we have to go through various hardships as compared to a non-engineering graduate?”
Not just the male students, even the female students of IITs agree that they should be compensated for spending four prime years of
their life in an environment that is anything but ‘normal.
The girl students too want a boyfriend who can appreciate the color of their salwar-kameez without thinking about the HTML code of
that color. have asked the government to keep a girlfriend ready for each of them once they graduate out of
the prestigious technological institutes. This was done after government decided to recover money from IIT students that was spent
by the government on their education. Students say that if the government wants to recover the cost incurred, they wanted to
recover the life lost.
“If they invest money for these four years, we invest our lives,” Ritesh Raj, a third year student at IIT Kharagpur said, “We have to
satisfy ourselves with Facebook girls even as our non-IITian school friends hang around with real girls in the real world. There are
not enough girls out here where the government has kept us captive for full four years!”
“If the government wants to recover money, we want to recover our golden years!” he added.
Earlier this month, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal had announced that IITs had agreed upon a proposal that made it incumbent upon the
general category IIT graduates to pay back the money that the government incurs on their education as soon as they find a job after
passing out. Students belonging to the reserved categories were kept out of this rule.
“We have no problems if they give a girlfriend each to the reserved category students too,” Ritesh claimed, “But those, who are being
asked to pay money, must get a girlfriend. This is the easiest way to compensate us for the life that we lose in these four years.”
Ritesh said that ideally the students should be compensated for various things such as living away from their family, eating mess
food, getting exposed to weirdoes, and becoming internet trolls � the commonly acknowledged negative effects of spending four
years in an engineering college � but the students have asked for something that was “workable”.
“Can the government claim that those students who study in non-engineering colleges pay up the full cost incurred by the....

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IITs go extra mile to draw top-class faculty; offer start-up grants of Rs 1 cr E

MUMBAI|KOLKATA: Last month, when IIT Kanpur
opened its overseas office in New York - the first of
its kind across any IIT- fund-raising was one of the
drivers behind the move. The other was faculty
hiring.
Nearly 60% of the institute's faculty comes from
North America, and the NYC office will be involved
in reaching out to such potential candidates,
encouraging them to apply and help address their
concerns.
It shows just how seriously the Indian Institutes of
Technology (IITs) are taking their hiring efforts.
From start-up grants that can go up to Rs 1 crore,
incentive schemes funded by donor money, special
young faculty awards and job scouting for spouses
to setting up faculty search committees and fast-
tracking the hiring process, the premier engineering
institutes are going all out to get the best and the
brightest on their rolls.
According to recent data, over 40% of the teaching
slots in the older IITs are lying vacant. Recruitments
have not kept pace with the huge expansion in the
number of seats because of the 27% OBC quota
implementation. The teacher-student ratio at most of
the older IITs averages 1:15, as compared to the
ideal 1:10 ratio.
However, reaching the optimal faculty numbers will
take between five and 10 years. Right now, quality is
critical to the IITs at Mumbai, Kanpur, Roorkee,
Delhi, Kharagpur, Chennai and Hyderabad. In the
meantime, they are tapping global networks, beefing
up infrastructure and focusing more on research to
attract and maintain a steady flow of good faculty.
In the past 10 months, IIT Kanpur has offered two to
three top-notch candidates start-up grants of as
much as Rs 1 crore, up from the usual Rs 25 lakh.
During this time, it has made offers to 50
candidates, of whom some 30 have joined. "We have
to think of ways to circumvent the fact that we have
pay scale constraints," says Indranil Manna,
director, IIT Kanpur.
IITs are focusing on research prospects, which
academics often give more importance to than
compensation. IIT Roorkee, for instance, has
invested Rs 185 crore in research infrastructure in
the past two years to attract potential candidates. An
initial research grant of Rs 10 lakh is given to every
individual who joins, says IIT-R director Pradipta
Banerji. In the past few months, three faculty
members have submitted proposals worth Rs 3.5
crore, which they will get.
IIT Kharagpur is toeing a similar line. The institute
has increased the faculty start-up grant from Rs 5
lakh to Rs 28 lakh, which is now given within a
month compared with six to 12 months earlier. "We
are also giving total grants of Rs 14 crore for special
research that is competitive and collaborative. If we
see a huge interest in this, we will increase the
overall quantum of grants next year," says PP
Chakarabarti, director, IIT Kharagpur.
IIT Roorkee has created a global network of
researchers and foreign faculty members to give
leads on bright candidates willing to relocate and
work in India.
It has also formalised a network of faculty search
committees and fast-tracked the hiring process to
close it within a month, one-sixth the time it took
earlier. At IIT Delhi, faculty members routinely reach
out to potential hires while conducting overseas
seminars or conferences. Candidates are regularly
interviewed over Skype.
"Our Young Fellow Incentive Scheme, funded by
donor money, gives up to 50 fellows per year, an
additional Rs 1.2 lakh over and above their salary.
It's for candidates who do outstanding research or
bring something unique to the department," says
IIT-D director RK Shevgaonkar. IIT Bombay too has a
young faculty award to all assistant professors for
the first four years. The institute has steamlined and
decentralised the hiring process and departments are
quite active in faculty search, says director Devang
Khakhar.
At IIT Madras, director Bhaskar Ramamurthi says
they making it possible for new faculty members to
access a Rs 1 lakh grant for professional
development much earlier than they did before.
"These faculty need to attend international
conferences and be heard in their peer group. We
are trying to facilitate that," says Ramamurthi.
Institutes are also addressing housing concerns. IITs
like the ones at Chennai and Kanpur are focusing on
better housing on campus, growing vertically where
land is at a premium. They are also trying to create
opportunities for spouses both within the institute
as well as finding them jobs nearby. While some are
inducting spouses with PhDs as scientists, others are
placing them in administrative roles, automation
cells, hostels, computer centres and even schools.

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IIT Delhi to develop low-cost healthcare

NEW DELHI: India's premier medical
college and hospital, All India Institute of
Medical Sciences, got a new director on
Friday with the appointment of Dr MC
Misra. Till now, Misra was the head of the
institute's trauma centre.
Dr Misra (61) is known as a leading surgeon
and is also credited with developing the
AIIMS Trauma centre into a model of care
for emergency services in the country.
Speaking to TOI soon after taking over as
the AIIMS director, Misra said, "My aim
will be to make AIIMS more patient-
friendly. Computerization of patient
records, capacity building to ease
admissions and reducing the waiting time
for surgeries and procedures will be the
priority."
The new director also plans to enter into
partnerships with engineering institutes like
IIT Delhi to develop low-cost healthcare
devices. "We already have a 'Stanford India
Bio-design' project going on in which three
top universities of the world-Stanford, IIT
and AIIMS-are collaborating to develop low-
cost stents. In the future, we will have more
such partnerships," he added.
Dr Misra joined AIIMS in the 1980's and
became the head of the surgery department
13 years later in 1993. He took over as the
AIIMS Trauma centre chief in 2006. At
least 10 prominent doctors, from AIIMS as
well as overseas, were in line for the
director's post but Misra was always a
frontrunner. The former director of AIIMS ,
Dr R C Deka, retired on September 30.
Misra's name was forwarded to the PMO
last month by the institute body of AIIMS
that is headed by union health minister
Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Four other candidates in the fray, who were
shortlisted by the search-cum-selection
committee, were Dr Y K Gupta who heads
the pharmacology department, Dr V K Paul
who heads the paediatrics department, Dr
Balram Airon who heads cardio-thoracic
and vascular surgery, and Dr S K Acharya
who heads the gastroenterology department.

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Rendezvous, IIT Delhi

http://www.rendezvous-iitd.com/
Rendezvous is the annual cultural festival of IIT
Delhi; an amalgamation of art, activities and
attractions.

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Hoobastank @ Rendezvous'13, IIT Delhi

'The Reason' sensation, HOOBASTANK, is
returning back to India, giving you another
'reason' to attend Rendezvous this year.
Continuing the legacy of international
headliners @ IITD, from Malefice in '09,
Textures in '10 to Cypher16 last year, and
Hoobastank is cherry on pie this year. The Band
best-known for songs such as "The Reason",
"Crawling in the Dark" and "If I were you" and
their 2012 album, 'Fight or Flight', plays at
Rendezvous'13 to promote their discography,
and obviously to make nerdy geeks and junta to
head bang all through the night.
The Core team for Rendezvous had been
working for almost a year now, spending
sleepless nights to give world reasons to attend
the Cultural Extravaganza and all that
pinpointed to this and Hoobastank was the
perfect reason to not miss Rendezvous at any
cost.
Hoobastank performs in the Open Air Theatre,
IITD whichhas a capacity of over 10,000, this October
18th.
Get your RDV number, Register yourself here.
Coming up, more reasons to attend
Rendezvous'13!!
Watch Hoobastank's composition: The Reason

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DRDO's hiring drive takes a hit due budget cuts

BANGALORE: Hiring of about 350 scientists and
engineers by state-run Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO) has been delayed
by the austerity measures of the Union finance
ministry, a senior official said.
"Though the (350) posts have been cleared by the
prime minister's office (PMO), recruitment has been
put on hold due to a cut in budgetary allocation for
us this fiscal year (2013-14 ) by the finance
ministry," DRDO recruitment and assessment centre
chairman DN Reddy said on the sidelines of a
conference here.
Admitting that the research body has a shortage of
400 scientists and engineers, Reddy said fresh hiring
may not take place till the general election, which
will be held next year. "We got clearance from the
PMO but not from the finance ministry due to
austerity drive. We hope to get the ministry's
approval after the elections.
This is the first time we are affected by the austerity
drive," Reddy said at the two-day National
Conference on Condition Monitoring, organised by
DRDO's Bangalore-based Gas Turbine Research
Establishment (GTRE) and the Condition Monitoring
Society of India (CMSI). Union Finance Minister P
Chidambaram had recently directed all Central
ministries to prune their plan expenditure for fiscal
year 2014 to ensure that the budgeted fiscal deficit
does not cross the targeted 4.8% of the GDP. About
70-90 senior scientists retire every year from the
organisation's R&D centres.
"The freeze on hiring will delay current and new
projects in missile technology, aerospace ,
electronics warfare like radars, armaments and
protective and life-supporting equipment for the
armed forces," said Reddy. DRDO visits 18 institutes,
including 16 IITs, IISc in Bangalore and Defence
Institute of Advance Technology in Pune, for campus
hiring of about 100 students in December every
year.

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President's address Leadership Conclave Session A & B

Friends,

It is a great privilege for me to speak before this august gathering of achievers. You belong to a section of the population which has had the privilege of having studied and/or taught
at the IITs, a good fortune which less than 0.1% of our population has secured.

The five Indian Institutes of Technology set up in the 50s and 60s at Kharagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur and Delhi created a brand which has been recognized worldwide.  These Institutes initially focused on their under graduate programme.  The selection process for the students gradually became tougher and tougher, thereby increasing the quality of the graduates who were able to compete and excel with the brightest in the world. During the last 7 years this process has to some extent been diluted, which appears to have affected the quality of the intake. We will discuss more of this in the 2^nd session, which is specially focused on JEE.

The Leadership Conclave started 3 years ago under the leadership of our Past President Ravi Kapoor has become an important event where the jewels of the IIT system are present. For us it has been a learning experience and the format of the programme is still evolving. I am thankful to our Past President Shashi Munjal for having taken up the onerous task of organising the event this year.

The purpose of this programme is that the achievers of IIT Delhi come together to deliberate on important issues.  We are fortunate that some of the achievers, the movers and shakers from other IITs, like Hari Padmanabhan, Chairman PanIIT have been with us in these Conclaves. Today we are happy that a number of faculty members of IIT Delhi are also with us. Although our new Director, Prof. R.S. Shevgaonkar who is also the Chairman of our Association is keenly interested in the topics before us, he could not join us owing to bereavement in his family, for which he has to be in Mumbai today.

One of the great things done by Mahatma Gandhi was to emphasize self reliance and swadeshi. Perhaps it was his philosophy which influenced Sarkar and Nehru to set up institutions which will make India self reliant; IITs are one such institution. However, I am quite sure that at that time Nehru may not have perceived that the graduates of these institutions will make far reaching contributions in all walks of life not only in India but around the world.

The widespread and worldwide acclaim received by the graduates from IIT encouraged the Govt. of India to open IIT Guwahati and later on even the very old Thomson Engineering College, Roorkee was added to the IIT family. In fact my father is a Civil Engineer from Roorkee. When I joined IIT Delhi, the then Vice Chancellor, who was well known to us, complained to my father for not sending me there. While there has been a hue and cry about brain drain, the fact is that over 80% of the alumni from the IITs are in India. It is a matter of serious concern that while the Indian economic order could not take full advantage of these alumni, Europe, USA and other countries dramatically strengthened their economies by utilizing less than 20% of us who went abroad. This is one of the things which the Government needs to address urgently.

However, now 8 more IITs have been opened in quick succession to ride piggy back on the name and fame the IITs have earned.  This phenomenon of adding new colleges to an established brand has not been done in the case of other leading institutes like Harward and Stanford and is a matter of concern to all of us. We should not allow this to repeat.

The First Conclave focused on “Enhancing Relevance of IIT Delhi Alumni Community for our Society”. The Second Conclave was on “Governing India – The Right Way”. Based on the very valuable learnings received from these Conclaves, the format of this Conclave has been radically changed to make it more productive. In this Conclave, the focus is on your thinking; we need to understand which topic, about IIT is close to your heart. We can also take up 1 or 2 topics beyond what has been contemplated if you consider it really important. We need your views from the bottom of your heart. Each table where you are seated constitutes a group. From your valuable deliberations, at the end of this Conclave, we hope to have white papers prepared by your group on each of the topics discussed. These we intend to present to the Senates of IITs and to the Central Government. With the participation of the faculty, we hope to have in place a mechanism, where the alumni and faculty who are committed to the cause can pursue the decisions taken today to their logical conclusion.

The IIT system which is so dear to all of us is facing many challenges.  This year the discussion is focused on what needs to be done to take IITs to new heights. We need to set out what is it that needs to be done to maintain the brand.

I am happy to inform you that the PanIIT(India) has acquired a federal structure and today the alumni associations of the 7 older IITs are its members. The first executive of PanIIT(India) based on the new constitution has been constituted from 1^st April this year. This federal body has taken upon itself the responsibility to not only take care of promoting the IIT fraternity and brand but also to take initiatives which will affect the weaker sections of society and make the impact of IITs relevant at the grass root level. 

The Alumni Associations of various IITs have an important role not only to create a platform where alumni can interact, share their memories, upgrade their skills and learn from the very many benefits of networking, but also to ensure that their alma mater continues to be ranked amongst the top few in the world.  It is for this that the Association and PanIIT needs all your support to continuously strengthen them and also ensure that their voice is heard where it matters. For successful people like you, arranging sponsorships/ donations of a few lacs/year should be no big deal but the resources would go a long way to empower the Association and enable it to work to keep your flag flying high.

Seeing through the eye of Nehru, the level of these Institutes was not to be stagnant but they had to continue to represent India’s future in the making. The implication is that the level of these Institutes needs to be continuously upgraded so that they reach a position of eminence not only in producing Nobel Laureates but having a sizable number of Nobel Prize winners as their faculty. For this the Government may have to fund each IIT to the tune of 5000 Cr per annum for a few years. They can start with the first 5 IITs and at an appropriate time extend it to others.

The British taught our leaders to divide and rule. I hope that we will reach a consensus on all the issues and take them forward, remaining united till we succeed.

Before I close, I request you to kindly give your full and undivided attention to the success of this Conclave, in the spirit of giving back to an institution which has moulded us and helped us all to be successful.

Thank You

SESSION - B (JEE)

During the last few months you would have read and heard about the changes being proposed by the Government in the selection of students to the under-graduate programme.  This became a matter of serious concern as the whole process was being changed without consulting the stake holders who have worked hard to build the IIT brand.  The faculty of the IITs who had toiled since inception over the last 40 years and the students, who are the present alumni, had been completely ignored and the policies were being dictated by those who had not traveled the path.  Fortunately, because of efforts by the stakeholders this is being reviewed.

Instead of increasing the standard of the first five IITs which faced major challenges to reach their premier position, it appears that changes are being made which will actually drastically reduce the standards which these institutes should be attempting to reach after 50 years of existence. How much do those who are making the changes understand about the system?

In the IIT system, there is the IIT council, consisting of members of BOG and Directors along with other persons from other departments and the Ministry. Under the council is the BOG of each IIT to which the senate reports. I take this opportunity to bring to your attention the IIT Act, 1961. In defining the role of the Senate it says and I quote:

“Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Statutes and the Ordinances, the Senate of an Institute shall have the control and general regulation, and be responsible for the maintenance, of standards of instruction, education and examination in the Institute and shall exercise such other powers and perform such other duties as may be conferred or imposed upon it by the Statutes.”

If Senates have to maintain standards but not the quality of input, it is like asking them to win the war with their hands tied behind their backs.

Regarding the Board of Governors, it says:

“Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Board of any Institute shall be responsible for the general superintendence, direction and control of the affairs of the Institute and shall exercise all the powers of the Institute not otherwise provided for by this Act, the Statutes and the Ordinances, and shall have the power to review the acts of the Senate.”

Like the President of India has to act on the advice of the Council of Ministers, the BOG are bound by the advice of the Senate unless there is any major infirmity in it. This clearly means the Senates of various IITs, esp. the older ones, have to take a call on this issue and if the various senates reach unanimity there is little the BOG or the Council will be able to do. The PanIIT has therefore an important role to play towards getting the Senates to develop a unanimous recommendation. If divided, we will certainly fail.

The latest news item suggests that out of the 15 IITs, only the faculty of Delhi, Kanpur and Mumbai are against the proposed changes.  I would like to say that, if this is true then I submit that out of the 15 IITs only the first 5 and Guwahati have an in-depth experience and exposure to the benefits of the tough selection process. The views of the new IITs would then have to be disregarded or they can do what they like after they delink the name IIT from their Institute.  I fail to understand how anyone can question the logic garbage in garbage out. Can the quality of a output from a process be independent of the quality of input?

Till now the brand IIT has been built mainly on the success of the undergrad programme, which largely owes its success to the tough selection mechanism.  Once we start producing Nobel Laureates, the IITs will be able to claim their eminence based on the post grad programmes. Since 2005, when the JEE system was abruptly changed to objective type testing, faculty members agree that there has been a qualitative degradation in quality of intake. We need to analyze why the system was changed and what needs to be done to undo the damage.

It is in this backdrop that we have to put our minds together to help the IIT system to improve and not deteriorate as has happened with political tinkering to once famous Universities, who have gone into oblivion. 

Today any institute of national importance should test the all round capability of a student and also be sure that the testing is genuine and there are no malpractices. As far as possible, the testing must be a part of the routine school examination. However, the diversity of Boards, their examination/grading processes, competence of teachers and quality of invigilation has created a deep distrust of the reliability of their testing process and the competence of their produce. Rather than trying to fix the JEE, this is the area where the Govt. should focus; let there be a common board to test all students in Class XII.

The proposal to normalize the Board exams using statistical methods is dangerous unless the correlation with other independent objective and essay type tests is established and the hypothesis properly validated and bench-marked. Even then the question of year-to-year changes in marking patterns and complexities of testing will tend to disturb the actual situation.

The failure to have a uniform test at school level has necessitated independent testing mechanisms. However, today competence in solving objective type papers in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics should not be enough for an engineering aspirant to enter into an institute of national importance.  Some weight age should be given to performance in science talent, sports, music, dramatics, painting, etc. to test the right brain of the student which is so necessary for designing and aesthetics. There is also a need to test other capabilities like general knowledge.

The real challenge is that presently the IIT faculty is unable to administer the proper test to more than 80,000 students to select about 10,000 students. We have to devise a proper testing system whereby we are able to get the top 80,000 students in the country. It has been established that objective type testing is not the best method. Other suitable inputs should be coupled with it to test the all round capabilities. I request you to put your minds together to address this issue and come up with a solution in the best interest of the IITs.

In my opinion, a practical approach is to have an objective type test conducted by an organization like CBSE in the months of May and October for Science students, eligibility for which should be a decent performance in Class X. If practical, the result of this test should incorporate a weightage of about 10% for outstanding performance in science, performing arts, sports, etc.

Based on the result of the objective type test, the first 80,000 students should be eligible to appear for JEE to be conducted by IITs in early May. This would be essay type questions as in the past. In addition to Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, the General Knowledge on subjects considered necessary by IIT should also be tested. There is widespread acceptability of this type of JEE amongst the faculty.

Normally results of Board exams for class XII are available by early June. Students, amongst the top 15% of the Board, be eligible for entrance to IITs. This will ensure that out of the top 80,000 students, only those who have performed well in the Boards and the objective test will get selected through the JEE. The test timings suggested will allow students to prepare and not be overloaded. Moreover, from the merit list of 80,000 students who appear for JEE, other premier engineering colleges in India will be able to select good students.

For institutes of national importance there should be no quota. Quota students find it extremely tough to compete in such institutions and get de-motivated. They should be helped to perform well at the school level and objective tests and should be placed as equals in institutes where they can perform well and remain motivated.

I request you to put your minds together to address these issues and come up with a solution in the best interest of the IITs.

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Nominations for IITDAA Executive Committee 2012-13

Dear Alumni,

The following nominations have been received for election to the EC to be held on 28^th Apr.`12.

There are seven regular vacancies for a three year term and two vacancies for a one year term.  The first seven candidates obtaining the highest number of votes will be eligible for regular vacancies.

The nominations are listed as per the year of graduation.

Regards,

H.R. Vaish

Returning Officer 

IIT Delhi Alumni Association
Nalanda House, IIT Delhi,Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110 016
Tel: 2686 8523/2659 7178/2659 6953 Fax: 2651 4177 

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IIT Delhi passout Prince Dhawan bags third positionin UPSC exam in his first attempt

As soon as you enter the room, you know. It is quite obvious. Half the room is taken up by piles of books and a desk, and the other half is divided between a bed and a mountain of The Hindu newspaper. The room belongs to a winner, somebody who does not think of losing or of plan B. It is 22-year-old Prince Dhawan, who aced this year's UPSC examinations, coming third among 2,43,003 candidates.

“I never had a second plan because if you do then that makes you comfortable with failure,” says Prince matter-of-factly. He has never let failure happen to him, ever. “I was a topper all my life, I topped the Central Board of Secondary Education, I got a gold medal in IIT for being an all-rounder.”

Prince from Chandigarh has made this city his home for several years now, IIT-Delhi being the place where he first thought he might actually make a good IAS officer. “When I was in third year, I first started thinking about it.”

The electrical engineer was finally able to act on his goals after graduation. “I got a house, I made a plan and I stuck to it religiously.”

Two of his best friends were his study companions. Combined studies more often than not turn into a party of sorts, but not for this serious trio. “We had, you know, certain rules,” he says.

Suddenly visible is a poster occupying centre stage on the blank wall in front of the bed. “Code of conduct in study hall,” it proclaims, before listing the holy commandments these young men have lived by for the past one year.

“Less talk, more study, no teasing remarks on each other's study habits and daily schedules, no use of laptop in study hall without headphones, no use of laptop during dinner,” are just a few of the commandments. The last one reads: “Maintain silence and peace of mind.”

“The only thing marring my complete happiness is that these friends have not made it through this year, we were together since school, then we went to IIT and then we started this also together.”

So what really clicked for Prince? “The personality test was the toughest. It is not something that can be learnt from a textbook, it is based on who you are and how you present yourself.”

So how did Prince manage?

“Well, reading newspapers like The Hindu everyday. I did not read it, I studied it thoroughly. I made notes and hated to miss even one page. The exams these days want people to come up with their own opinions, the news reports informed me and let me form my own opinions”

Keywords: UPSC exam results, civil services exam results, Prince Dhawan

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IITs revolt on joint engineering test, will take Union HRD ministry to court

NEW DELHI: Opinion is growing against the Union human resource development (HRD) ministry's decision to introduce a common engineering test for central engineering institutions including IITs, NITs and IIITs with the IIT alumni on Friday deciding to move court against it.

Faculty members from IIT Kanpur are also planning to boycott the institute's convocation ceremony on Saturday as a mark of protest. While efforts have been made by the faculty federations to seek an appointment with the PM to explain their opposition to the common exam, the HRD ministry is seeking to engage the faculty members.

In a meeting on Friday of alumni members and faculty members, it was decided to file PILs against the common exam proposal within a week. "The IIT alumni will file PILs in various high courts within a week. The members felt that efforts should be done to get a hearing at the earliest and demand that the common test be postponed to 2014," said Somnath Bharti, IIT Delhi alumni association president.

Sources in IIT Kanpur said there was a sense of dissatisfaction that the HRD ministry had not heeded the faculty's concerns before announcing the decision.

Therefore, there is a plan to boycott the convocation ceremony on Saturday. A senior faculty member from IIT Kanpur said, "Although all faculty members are upset with the decision, some will attend the convocation because it's an important occasion for the students."

All India IIT Faculty Federation secretary A K Mittal said, "People across IITs are concerned and agitated at the ministry's decision. We have written to the PM opposing the decision and will seek time from him."

The main points of contention between the faculty members and the ministry include the weightage given to class XII board exams for shortlisting candidates and the lack of complete control over the IIT exam. There are 15 IITs with about 10,000 seats in the country. At the root of the debate is the elite status of these tech institutes, and clubbing them with IIITs and NITs is seen as pulling down the centres of excellence to the level of ordinariness.

HRD ministry sources said that efforts were being to ensure that the matter does not go to the courts. A senior official said, "The ministry has over a period of two years held lengthy consultations and tried to accommodate all the concerns raised by the various stakeholders."

Ministry sources said that the IITs are geared for conducting exams for 5-6 lakh students but the numbers would increase to 20 lakh with the common test. "We have even said that IITs will be able to direct the agency that conducts the test," the source said, pointing out that the concerns being raised had been dealt with through several rounds of discussions.

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Ford buys software startup Livio

Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it acquired the startup company Livio in a bid to accelerate its efforts to help drivers safely access content on their smartphone while on the road.

Livio, which is based in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale, Michigan, develops software that lets drivers connect to their smartphones through their car radios or dashboard infotainment systems. It was founded five years ago by Jake Sigal, a former employee of parts supplier Delphi Corp.

Ford paid less than $10 million for the 11-person startup, said Paul Mascarenas, Ford's chief technical officer. Though owned by Ford, Livio will keep supplying its current customers, including General Motors Co.

Livio is Ford's first technology acquisition in 13 years. Mascarenas said Livio complements Ford's efforts to allow drivers to safely access phone apps like Pandora, Major League Baseball and Spotify from their cars. Ford's AppLink system, which lets drivers access their apps through voice recognition, will be inside an estimated 7 million vehicles by 2015, Mascarenas said.

Mascarenas said he and Sigal began talking about an acquisition earlier this year.

Sigal said joining Ford will help his company's efforts to promote a single standard for in-vehicle connectivity. Car companies are now using a variety of systems, which makes it harder for app developers to bring apps to market quickly. Ford has also promoted the development of a single standard.

"This helps us accelerate the industry standard, which is desperately needed," Sigal said. "It's a lot easier pushing a standard when you're not just a startup in metro Detroit."

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IIT-Kanpur opens office in New York.

With an aim to hunt for qualified and capable
faculty abroad, IIT-Kanpur  has set up an office
in New York  with alumnus Sanjeev
Khosla designated as the overseas brand
ambassador of the institute.
The office will also try to amass funds through
the alumni based there, IIT-Kanpur Director
Indranil Manna said.
The office will help in connecting foreign
faculty with IIT-K. More than a dozen teachers
teaching in foreign institutions have expressed
an interest in associating with IIT-K, Manna
said.
Also, ex-IITians posted at good positions in
various American cities are willing to help IIT-
K. They are also collecting funds to do the
same, he said.
They are also in talks with international level
technical educational institutes and universities
about research and other issues. A system to
invite the students and faculty of foreign
institutes to IIT-K is also being formulated, he
added.
Sanjeev Khosla has been associated with many
educational institutions. His tenure is for three
years, having commenced on September 1,
2013. He will act as a link between IIT-K, the
alumni of the institute who are living abroad
and foreign educational institutions, Manna
said.
The office on 62, William Street is on lease for
five years, he said.
In the backdrop of IITs failing to make it to the
top 200 in the QS rankings of the world's
leading universities, IIT-Kanpur Director
Indranil Manna had yesterday alleged
corruption in the ranking process of various
such agencies and said it was more of a
"money game".
Manna alleged that the ranking process by
such agencies was based on the paying
capabilities of the institutions.
"The standard of teaching, research and job
placement are not the criteria for the ranking,
instead it is based on the paying capabilities of
the institutions. An amount of one lakh and
fifty thousand dollars needs to be paid to get a
good ranking in such lists," he claimed.
"These global rankings are more of a business
rather than based on academic performance of
institutions," he said.
Manna said a five-member committee of IIT
directors has been constituted, of which he is
part of, to look into the issue and understand
the methodology of the ranking agencies.
The report by this committee will be submitted
to the IIT council, he said.
On IIT-Kanpur ranking at 295 in the 'QS World
University Rankings', Manna said the institute
was placed on the position based on old
information provided on the its website.
"The ranking should have been after a team
would have come to IIT-Kanpur and seen how
the institute works. There have been so many
students of IIT-Kanpur who have achieved so
much on the world stage," he said.
The list released on September 10 was
dominated with US universities, with MIT
grabbing the top slot and Harvard at No 2,
pushing Britain's Cambridge University  to No
3.
The 11 Indian institutions which featured in
the list included IIT Delhi at 222, IIT Bombay
at 233, IIT Kanpur at 295, IIT Madras at 313
and IIT Kharagpur at 346.

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81-year-old IIT professor gives up water to save Ganga river

Pradesh: Environmental engineer and
former IIT professor GD Agarwal, continuing
his fast unto death to save the Ganga river for
the 102nd day on Sunday, has now given up
water too, a close aide said.
Agarwal, 81, has been on fast in the Matr
Sadan Ashram of Haridwar in Uttarakhand. He
has been demanding that the government take
steps to save the Ganga river and its ecology,
and ensure that the flow of the river water is
uninterrupted.
"He is a noted scientist and has been fasting
so many days for saving the Ganga. It is so
shameful that the government has not even
bothered to reply to his letters," said Acharya
Jitender, a close aide of the environmentalist.
Jitender said Agarwal on September 19 wrote
to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Justice of
India P Sathasivam in this regard, but has not
yet heard from any of them.
Three members of the National Ganga River
Basin Authority - Rajendra Singh, Ravi Chopra
and Rashid Siddiqui - quit from the authority
Saturday over this and other issues.
Last year, Agarwal had called off his indefinite
fast following an assurance from the prime
minister that he would look into the matter.
A retired professor at the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) - Kanpur, Agarwal is unhappy
over the unsatisfactory and ineffective
functioning of the National Ganga River Basin
Authority (NGRBA), a central government-
constituted agency for cleaning the Ganga.
Besides, Agarwal has opposed the ongoing
construction of dams, barrages and tunnels on
the Ganga, which he says would totally
destroy the natural flow and quality of the
river water.
Agarwal was a founder-member and secretary
of the Central Pollution Control Board, the
country's premier anti-pollution authority,
and helped put together environmental
legislation in India. This is the fourth
indefinite period fast he has undertaken in the
last four years.

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Gautam Biswas takes over as IIT-Guwahati director.

Former professor of Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur Gautam Biswas  took
charge as the new director of IIT-Guwahati
by replacing Gautam Baruah.
Biswas, before joining IIT-Guwahati, was
the director of Central Mechanical
Engineering Research Institute (CMERI),
Durgapur.
Speaking to the press after assuming charge
here, Biswas said, "Our institute has the
potential to be the number one IIT in the
country and I will put in all efforts by
taking into confidence the faculty members
and the students to achieve this goal." He
noted that IITs need better student care
system for research scholars. Emphasizing
the need to focus on better research
infrastructure, Biswas said, "The PhD
programs should train them in such a way
that they develop a mindset of world
leaders in their respective fields. An
expansion of industrial problem-based
research is essential. In a renewed drive
towards industrial impact, successful and
timely execution of small and medium size
industrial problems should be attempted."
He said a synergy between teaching and
research is needed. "Postgraduate and PhD-
level courses may be given strong research
orientation and the method of evaluation
should be shifted from formal examination
to finding out solution of open ended
problems," Biswas added.According to
Biswas, IIT-Guwahati must initiate special
drives with industries and national
laboratories for interdisciplinary research
in roads and infrastructure, electric power
from gas, oil refineries and modern
manufacturing including fabrionics.

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Ravi Kumar IIT-M Alumnus , appointed Dean of Nanyang Business School, Singapore

Kumar, an alumnus of the Indian Institute
of Technology -Madras (IIT-M), has been
appointed dean of the Nanyang Business
School (NBS) in Singapore's Nanyang
Technological University (NTU), it was
announced Tuesday.
In a press release issued by the university,
Kumar, 61, has been described as "an
academic heavyweight with a good blend of
east-west experience".
Ravi Kumar comes to Singapore from the
University of South California's (USC) Marshall
Business School, where he served in several
key positions, including that of vice dean for
international programmes and vice dean for
graduate programmes.
He also served as dean of the College of
Business at the Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology while taking a two-year
leave of absence from the USC, a stint that saw
the Korean college break into the top 100 of
the Financial Times global MBA rankings.

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Chandrashekhar IIT-B Alumnus, appointed President of NASSCOM

Chandrasekhar, who has also headed the
department of information technology and put
in place the national e-governance programme,
will be Nasscom’s fourth president. Previous
presidents to head Nasscom were Dewang
Mehta and Kiran Karnik.

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Speranza IIT Delhi

Speranza IIT Delhi with Ravish Kumar on NDTV.

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