Special event marks 60th anniversary of IIT, Kanpur

Kanpur: IIT Kanpur, one of the first Indian Institutes of Technology and a globally acclaimed Institute of National Importance, successfully completed 60 years on Saturday. A special event was held to mark the completion of the institute's diamond jubilee where several distinguished alumni including Chief Economic Advisor Government of India Prof. Krishnamurthy Subramaniam, Union Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar were felicitated in the presence of Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'.

On the occasion the minister laid the foundation stone of Mehta Family Centre for Engineering in Medicine. An MoU for the same was signed between Dr Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur and Rahul Mehta, Founder Mehta Family Foundation. The research focus of the proposed centre would be on Regenerative Medicine, Molecular Medicine and Engineering, and Digital Medicine. The celebrations were attended by the present students as well as around hundred alumni from India and overseas.

Also present on the occasion were Prof. Sandeep Verma, Secretary, SERB, Government of India and Rahul Mehta, Founder, The Mehta Family Foundation. On the occasion, distinguished alumni were felicitated for academic excellence, professional excellence and entrepreneurship excellence. For Academic Excellence, the awardees are Prof. Shankar Subramanian, Chair and Professor of Bioengineering, University of California, San Diego (1982), Prof. Nitash P. Balsara Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Charles W. Tobias Professor in Electrochemistry, Berkeley College of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley (1982), Prof. Ajeet Rohatgi Regents' Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology (1971) and Prof. Rajesh Gopakumar Centre Director, ICTS-Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (1992).

Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, Prof. Krishnamurthy Subramanian (1994), Defence Secretary Dr. Ajay Kumar (1984) and Senior Vice President, Cloud and Cognitive Software, IBM, New York, Dr. Arvind Krishna (1985), Member Lokpal of India Mr. Dinesh Kumar Jain (1981/1983) and Co-founder and Chairman of Sagacito Technologies Mr. Ravindra Kumar Dhariwal (1975) were awarded for professional excellence while for Entrepreneurship Excellence awards were given to Mr. Ajeet Singh Co-founder and Executive Chairman, ThoughtSpot) (1997), Mr. Arun Seth Trustee, Nasscom Foundation, Chairman & Co-founder, Global Groupware Solutions and former Chairman of British Telecom (1973) and Mr. Pravin Bhagwat Founder & CTO Mojo Networks (1990).

Vikas Vaibhav (IPS), DIG, Eastern Range, Bhagalpur Bihar (2001) was awarded the Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial Award. Mr. Rakesh Sharma an Independent Financial consultant (1978), Dr. Ram B. Misra, Professor at the Montclair State University (1968) were awarded with the distinguished services award while the Young Alumnus Award went to Mr. Deepak Garg, (Founder and CEO, Rivigo (2003) and Dr. Manu Prakash, Associate Professor, Stanford University (2002). Institute Fellows Prof. Kripa Shankar, Prof Mohini Mullick, and Prof Madhira Madhav were also felicitated on the occasion.

Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' said, "At the outset, I would like to congratulate all those associated with IIT Kanpur, both past and present, students, faculty and other officials for leaving no stone unturned in striving hard in creating a world-class institution. I congratulate all the awardees for their outstanding contribution in their respective fields. Our aim is to ensure IIT Kanpur is amongst the best institutes in the world for which the ministry will provide full support. This is my first visit here and I will come back as the infrastructure and facilities here have caught my attention."

Professor Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur said, "We would like to thank all those who have been with us throughout this wonderful journey and strived hard in reaching the institute to great heights. Our alumni have made us proud with their achievements across various genres. We are also thankful for the government's support and look for their continuing encouragement in the future. At IIT Kanpur we have an exciting road ahead with some ambitious plans on the anvil-like the Mehta Family Foundation Centre for Engineering in Medicine, the Techno Park and the Defence Aerospace Park in association with the Uttar Pradesh."

Rahul Mehta of the Mehta Family Foundation said, "We are happy to be associated with IIT Kanpur who have been pioneers in science based curriculum in engineering with many firsts to its credit. This centre will give rise to a new field that will be the forefront of the way healthcare will be practice in the 21st century. Mehta Family Foundation's vision is to provide new opportunities for students in India in frontier fields to enable economic prosperity for everyone."