1 Greater New York Chapter New Greater The Annual Reunion Magazine Of IIT Bombay Greater NY Chapter Alumni Alumni AssociationIIT Bombay Vol. 2017 REFLECTIONS Annual Reunion Sunday September 17th, 2017 Hyatt Regency, 2 Exchange Place, Jersey City, NJ 2 IITBAA GNY Chapter 3 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE September 17, 2017 Greater New York Chapter New Greater Greater New York Chapter New Greater Friends and Fellow Alumni, Welcome to the 2017 Annual Reunion of the IIT Bombay Alumni Association Greater New York Chapter. On behalf of your Executive Committee, I am honored to welcome you here today. The GNY Chapter is proud to keep this tradition of meeting annually for over twenty years now. We hear some new perspectives from our own alumni but also those from other IIT’s and other colleges who have rich experiences IIT Bombay Alumni AssociationIIT Bombay in areas of the business, education, research, and government. The 2017 Alumni AssociationIIT Bombay Commitment. An investment that benefits us all. program reflects the richness of such experiences. The GNY Chapter is one of the largest IIT Bombay Alumni Chapters – both We celebrate the good work of IIT Bombay, and support its commitment inside and outside India. It is also generous in supporting IIT Bombay. In addition to our individual donations, last year the GNY Chapter donated to future generations of scholars and leaders. $7,500 from its account to assist current IIT Bombay students with their ongoing education and/or research. Jason I. Feldman, CPWA®, CIMA® Dilshad T. Chowdhury The GNY Chapter is one of the most diverse with its membership including Senior Vice President -Wealth Mgmt Registered Client Service Associate from the first batch in 1962 to the most recent batch in 2017. Our meetings Advisory & Brokerage Services [email protected] are enhanced by this diversity. Additionally our events also benefit from Senior Portfolio Manager, Portfolio participation by alumni of other IIT’s as all our events are open to all. Management Program In April 2017, IITBAAGNY celebrated Pi Day. In spite of a major winter snow [email protected] storm over sixty of you showed by to meet and greet each others and answer some interesting pi day questions. Carlos M. Raimundo, CFP® The Feldman Group Wealth Strategy Associate UBS Financial Services, Inc. In June 2017, we held our Annual Family Picnic at Duke Island Park, [email protected] 1285 Avenue Of The Americas Bridgewater, NJ. The rain gods smiled on us that day as we had a beautiful 16th Floor blue-sky picnic day. Over 100 hundred of you showed up with your family New York, NY 10019-6031 and friends. The highlight was the participation of two graduates – Bonnie 888-804-8467 Dias and Sudhir Sharma from the first IITB class of 1962. They joined IITB before the JEEE! In November, we will have the Diwali Dhamaka – fun filled Advice you can trust evening of music and good food to close the year. At that event we will also starts with a conversation. recognize the winners of the 2017 Youth Achievement Awards, which is open to high school children of all IIT Alumni in the Greater New York area. This will be the third year of this GNY initiative. Our monthly “Chai-Pe-Charcha” continue to be a great success. They are informal, vocal, and opinionated – just like the student days. Thanks to you, we are one of the more vibrant IIT Bombay alumni chapters in US. In particular, I would like thank the volunteers and their spouses who so generously give their time to support this Chapter. Please volunteer, bring your ideas and help this Chapter grow. ubs.com/team/feldmangroup D. C. Agrawal President CPWA® is a service mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association, Inc. in the United States of America and worldwide. CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association, Inc. in the United States of America and worldwide. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards Inc. owns the certification marks B.Tech.(Hons) Mechanical Engg ’69; Hostel 4 CFP®, Certified Financial Planner™ and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the U.S., which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements. ©UBS 2013. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member SIPC. D-UBS-568EF42A 4 5 06 Ramblings on Self Improvement by Vignesh Rege 18 OFFICE Today’s Program BEARERS AND 2016 -Youth Award Essay by Parth Patel 21 VOLUNTEERS IIT Gandhinagar: An Oasis in India’s Higher Education Desert 26 07 Executive Committee Greater New York Chapter New Greater D. C. Agrawal ’69 - President York Chapter New Greater Speaker’s Bio Nivvedan S ‘14 - Vice President Anurag Chaturvedi ‘92 - Treasurer Tarana Gupta ‘09 - Trustee Sagar Shah ’08 - Trustee 10 Raj Singh ‘88 - Ex-Officio Student Exchange Experience Kicha Ganapathy ‘67 - Ex-Officio IIT Bombay Alumni AssociationIIT Bombay Advisory Committee Alumni AssociationIIT Bombay by Avni Patel Brijesh Agarwal ‘85 Shweta Bhandari ‘02 Sushil Bhatia ‘66 Vinay Karle ’96 12 Sreedhar Kona ‘97 Ruyintan (Ron) Mehta ‘70 Uday Nadkarni ‘78 Reflections on Smoking at IIT Jude Netto ‘66 Jignesh Patel ‘92 Bombay Kumar Shah ‘70 Suhani Shorewala ‘14 by Sagar Shah Gagan Singh ‘95 Spouses Committee Mala Ganapathy Jeanne Karle 14 Vrinda Master CONTENT Sonurita Parmar Reflections - 9/11 Mita Patel Sunaina Singh by DC Agrawal GNY-Point EDITOR’S NOTE Tarana Gupta - Designer As we said last year - at its core, this magazine is for us and by us, IIT Bombay Nivvedan S - Editor 17 alumni, and inside it you will find stories, analysis, opinions, advice, and Sagar Shah - Editor creative work that alumni wanted to share. In keeping with our view of what this magazine should be, this year the theme is reflections, where in our Seeing Safe Driving and Self- alumni reflect back on their life or topics of interest. We hope you find some Driving as Going Hand in Hand of it useful, and enjoy reading it, as much as we enjoyed putting it together. Don’t forget to write to us with any comments and feedback! By David Cullen Please send them to [email protected] or [email protected] Nivvedan, Sagar & Tarana *The content, opinions and views expressed in the articles are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of IITBAA-GNY or IITBHF. 6 Leadership Conference BIOGRAPHIES 7 September 17th, 2017 10:30 am 11:30 am “Safety First / Evolution of Experiences in the Big Data 1:30 pm Does Higher Education Take Autonomous Driving” Industry 10:00 am India Higher – Value added by Jassi is President, CEO and Founder of Registration - Coffee / Tea / Light Snacks Dr. Bharat Balasubramanian (Dr. IITs? Greater New York Chapter New Greater B) retired in 2012 as Vice President Axtria, a Big Data Analytics company York Chapter New Greater of Group Research and Advanced that provides cloud platforms and 10:20 am services to help companies make Atul Singh is the founder, chief Engineering responsible for Product executive officer and editor-in-chief Introduction Innovations and Process Technologies better data-driven decisions. Axtria has been recognized as one of the of Fair Observer. a crowdsourced DC Agrawal ‘69- President IITBAA – GNY Chapter after nearly 40 years as a research multimedia journal. and development engineer for the fastest growing technology company Mercedes-Benz brand in Stuttgart, in US and India. Prior to founding Axtria, Jassi was founder and CEO Singh teaches political economy at the 10:30 am Germany. He has been at the forefront University of California, Berkeley and of most of the major advances of marketRx, a life-science analytics “Safety First / Evolution of Autonomous Driving” company that was acquired by at the Indian Institute of Technology, that have occurred in automotive Gandhinagar where he also teaches IIT Bombay Alumni AssociationIIT Bombay Bharat Balasubramanian ’73 – Ex-VP, Group Research and Advanced Cognizant in 2007. Alumni AssociationIIT Bombay technology over the past 20 years. world history. Engineering-Daimler Benz. Executive Director, Center for Advanced After his retirement Dr. B joined the University of Alabama, College Jassi is member of Board of Ocular Vehicle Technologies - U of Alabama. Therapeutics [NASDAQ: OCUL], Singh has a diverse background. of Engineering as a professor He studied philosophy, politics in mechanical engineering and Board of Sikh Research Institute (SikhRi), and Board of Directors and economics at Oxford on the 11:30 am electrical & computer engineering Radhakrishnan Scholarship and did as also executive director of the of Panjab Digital Library (PDL). Experiences in the Big Data Industry Formerly, he was on Board of Trustees an MBA with a triple major in finance, cross-discipline Center for Advanced strategy and entrepreneurship at the Jaswinder “Jassi” Chadha ’90 IIT Delhi. President and CEO, Axtria Vehicle Technologies (CAVT). Dr. B’s of TIE Global, Vice President and Board of PAN IIT USA, Board of NJ Wharton School of the University Entrepreneur, Angel Investor, Ex-Board Member TIE Global mission is to prepare UA students of Pennsylvania. He graduated from for their careers in the automotive Young Presidents Organization (YPO). He is an active angel investor and Lucknow University and got his law industry in Alabama and the degree from BPP Law School, London. Southeast, and the University of participates on the board of director of several private companies. He is the He has worked as a corporate lawyer 12:15 pm Alabama and industry for future in London for Freshfields Bruckhaus automotive challenges. winner of E &Y “Entrepreneur of the Lunch / Networking Year” award, “Top Forty under Forty” Deringer. Dr. B is a 1973 Mechanical by NJBiz Magazine, and honored with Engineering graduate from IIT “Lifetime Achievement Award” by Atul Singh 1:30 pm Bombay.