October 2004: Pavan Kumar Hanumolu (’93 Eco EEE) has been selected as a recipient of a 2004-05 Intel Foundation PhD Fellowship Award. Intel Fellows, leaders of Intel research and technology, personally recommend the candidates for this award. He can be reached on pavankumarhv@yahoo.com

Pavan is one of the 35 people to receive this award that is given out each year by Intel to students they deem "The Best of the Best" from select US universities. The $42,000 award covers one year of full tuition, required fees, and a twelve-month stipend. The fellowship award includes the assignment of an Intel mentor, who will be available to offer Hanumolu support and advice.

October 2004: Kumar Rajaram (’86 Math EEE) was awarded tenureship at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Kumar received his MA and PhD in Operations Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His current research interests include industrial process management, retail operations management, and  operations management in the theme parks & entertainment industry.

October 2004: Prof PN. Chowdhury (former head of the MMS Dept.) and Professor of Economics and management at BITS died this month of a heart attack following complications of diabetes at his home in Salt Lake City, Kolkata. Prof. Chowdhury retired from BITS a few years ago. He had been the Director of a government-sponsored organization prior to BITS and had been an active consultant to the government sector (especially for promoting processed-leather exports from India) since his retirement. His son Prasun is a BITSian from the '84 batch. BITSians may email their condolences to Prasun at praschow@hotmail.com.

October 2004: Sanjay Chawla (MMS) has joined SBI Capital Markets Limited (SBI Caps) as Vice-President and Group Head, Research.  Prior to this appointment, he was a senior analyst at Motilal Oswal Securities and brings with him over 15 years experience in tracking diverse sectors like pharmaceuticals, automobiles, FMCG, oil and gas, petrochemicals, among others. A management graduate from BITS, Pilani, he was ranked in AsiaMoney's brokers poll and in the overall best analyst category for the pharmaceutical sector.

September 3, 2004: Reena Aggarwal (’79 MMS) has been appointed the interim Dean at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business (MSB). Reena, who has an MMS from BITS and a PhD. from Univ of Maryland, has worked as a professor at the MSB since 1986 and currently teaches corporate finance and investment banking, will serve as dean for the 2004-05 school year, while the search for a permanent MSB dean continues.  Dr Aggarwal specializes in international stock markets and initial public offerings. As a Fulbright Scholar, she visited Brazil and Chile to research their stock markets and privatization plans. She was a Visiting Research Scholar at the International Monetary Fund in 2003, and also has worked on major consulting projects sponsored by the IMF.

September 2004: Pratap G. Pawar (’67 BE) was profiled recently in the media.  He is the Managing Director and Managing Editor of Sakal Papers Ltd. and Chairman Of Ajay Metachem group of Industries. He is also Director of various companies in India and overseas including Finolex Cables Ltd., Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd, Lucknow and Pan Gulf Group Ltd., UK Baramati Grapes Ltd., etc. Pratap Pawar's Sakal Group owns a Marathi daily and weekly which has a readership of an astounding 4.5 million readers across all corners of Maharashtra and Goa. He is also former President of The Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture and was the president of The Indian Newspaper Society for the year 2001-2002. He is also a senate member of the University of Pune. His brother is the three time Maharashtra CM, Sharad Pawar.

September 2004: RVS Ramakrishna (’78 Chemical), Managing Director of ITW Signode Ltd. was named the Manager of the Year by the Hyderabad Management Association.   ITW Signode is a subsidiary of Illinois Tool Works - a $10 billion, Fortune 500 company. In India, the company is the leading industrial packaging solutions provider with a product offering that includes strapping, wrapping, protective packaging, etc.

September 2004: Shyam Vai (’91) released his CD titled "Chicago" on June 5th in Chicago. "Chicago" is a Tamil album of contemporary melodies. The CD, launched on his private label, has quickly become a big hit among BITSian and Tamil audiences worldwide. The number 'Beethoven Issai' has already achieved cult status. Familiar to most BITSians as Studsu, Shyam was the Best Keyboardist during Roctaves for three years in succession!

August 2004: Ashok Luhadia (’68 Pharm) was presented with the award, "Businessman of the Year" in New Delhi. Ashok did both his undergraduate and graduate studies in Pharmacy from BITS. He has been an entrepreneur ever since he came to the US in the early 80's.

August 2004:  A. Arumugam (’88 Chemistry EEE) was appointed as Associate Director at Merlion India. Arumugan did his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.  He is one of two people in the team based in Mumbai. The firm has a US$ 100 mn fund, which is owned 50:50 between Standard Chartered Private Equity (SCPE) and Temasek Holdings of Singapore, a $500 million private equity firm.  Merlion is a high-profile private equity firm investing in India, across sectors, in strategic minority and buyout deals, in unlisted and listed companies. The firm invests US$20 million or more in any single deal. Merlion has invested in Aurobindo Pharma.

July 2004:  G Ravindra Kumar (’77 Phy Mech)  (Munna) has been awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for 2003. Ravi did his Physics & Mech from BITS and went on to IIT Kanpur for a PhD and then joined TIFR. The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar (SSB) Prizes are awarded annually by the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) to outstanding Indian research workers in seven disciplines of science and technology.  The SSB Prizes are awarded to scientists for their outstanding scientific contributions made primarily in India during last 5 years preceding the year of the award. The Advisory Committees selected 13 scientists for the Award. Ravi was one of two scientists awarded in the Physical Sciences category. Ravi’s email is GRK@tifr.res.in Tel in Mumbai is +91 22 2280 4545.

July 1, 2004: Suraj Srinivasan (’86 Math EEE) became the first ever BITSian to graduate with a PhD from the Harvard Business School (HBS). Suraj was appointed as an Associate Professor in Accounting at U Chicago Graduate School of Business.   Suraj has an MBA from IIM Calcutta. He was the BITS Student Union President in his third year.

 June 2004: Raj Kumar (’91 Engineering Technology) was part of the succes3sful Indian Navy Expedition that scaled Mt. Everest. Raj, the first sailor to complete a BS in Engineering Technology from BITS Pilani, is a Technical sailor from the submarine arm (INS Shankul). He was part of the 14-member team that successfully put a submariner, Commander Satyabrata Dam on the summit of Mt. Everest from the more difficult North Face. The team, which did not use supplementary oxygen - the first Indian team to do so, also is the world's first all-navy team to reach the summit. Raj hails from Uttar Pradesh (U.P.). He did his basic mountaineering from NIM, Uttarkashi and advance program from DMAS, Manali. He is the first submariner to qualify as a Sky Diver. He has taken part in all the Naval expeditions and climbed Sujtilla, Kamet and Saser Kangri IV. He enjoys collecting information on the diverse cultures of India. An ardent sportsman, he has represented Southern Naval Command in boxing, athletics and cross-country.

June 2004: Anu Hasan (’88 Phy MMS) has won the Tamil Nadu State Award for the Best Character Artiste in 2002 for the movie "Run".

June 2004: Paddy Sinha (’89 Computer Science) left ICICI Ventures and joined as an Associate Director at Temasek, looking at investments across diverse industries in India.  Temasek Holdings of Singapore is a $50 billion investing powerhouse in Singapore with investments in airlines, banking, real estate, ports, power, media and hotels. Listed companies in the Temasek group represent over 20% of Singapore’s market cap. In India, Temasek has made significant investments in Matrix Labs and ICICI Bank, and is considered the “big 3 in India alongside Warburg Pincus and ChrysCap. 

May 2004: Abani Patra (’87 Mech) and his team have developed a screw pump that can be used in a device to decontaminate and purify juices, water and other liquids. Abani Patra is currently an Associate Professor at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at SUNY Buffalo. Abani wrapped up a MS in Mechanical Engineering at University of Missouri-Rolla in 1990 and then a PhD. in Computational & Applied Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin. Patra is also credited with doing some trail-blazing work on engineering analysis and modeling of the shaken-baby syndrome, which causes over 1,400 infant deaths in the US every year. By developing advanced computational techniques for modeling of injuries caused by shaken baby syndrome, Patra's team is contributing to the development of better diagnoses of the syndrome that may one day lead to improved treatment for survivors. About half of the survivors experience significant lifelong problems, including blindness, eye damage, seizures, developmental delays and paralysis.

April 3, 2004: Baba Kalyani (BE Mech) led his company Bharat Forge (BFL) to become the second largest forging company in the world. Baba Kalyani has an MS degree from MIT and he is the Chairman and Managing Director of Pune-based BFL, the flagship company of the Rs 3,000-crore Kalyani group. On April 3, 2004, Bharat Forge signed a MoU with BITS-Pilani for a synergistic relationship in Human Resource Development. BITS will conduct a program at BFL which will primarily enable BITS to offer a degree course equivalent to BE to Kalyani Group employees.

Babasaheb Kalyani has set a goal of making BFL the world's largest forging company by 2008. According to him the MoU with BITS Pilani would help equip BFL with the necessary human resources to achieve this ambitious goal. ■