News, Masala & Spice

Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, Principal Secretary, General Administration Department J&K, was presented the Gold Medal for honesty, integrity, and meritorious service by the Governor of the State Lt.Gen (Retd) S K Sinha. Khurshid Ganai (’74-’79 B.E Mechanical), who was the second rank holder in the IAS examination in 1982, has held various key positions in Jammu and Kashmir during his illustrious 25 year tenure.

Atul Bhatnagar has been appointed President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of IXIA, a leading global provider of IP Performance Test Systems. Mr. Bhatnagar has over two decades of experience in the communications and computing industry, recently having served as Vice President and General Manager of the Enterprise Data Networks Division of Nortel, and worked close to 15 years at Hewlett-Packard. He holds an MSEE from the University of New Mexico and a BSEE from BITS Pilani.

Namrata Raman, from BITS Pilani, is the proud winner of the Aditya Birla Group Scholarship for 2007. Namrata joined BITS Pilani in July 2007 after taking the online BITSAT examination, to pursue her first choice B.E. (Hons) Chemical Engineering. She wishes to excel in the field of Environmental Chemistry in the years to come.

Sharat Dhall has been appointed by Expedia as head of its yet to be launched India operations. Prior to joining Expedia, Sharat Dhall, BITS alum, was vice president, eCommerce at Indiatimes.com. Expedia.com is a US-based online travel portal which offers online booking services for vacation packages, flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises and in-destination activities.

Sadachandram Kolandaivel G, also known as GSK Velu, founder and MD of Trivitron, has been conferred the Rajiv Gandhi Shiromani Award 2007. Trivitron, one of the top ten medical technology brands in India, is a familiar healthcare name in the Indian market focused on providing healthcare technology solutions. GSK Velu is BITS alum who obtained his BPharm degree in 1988. He was also the recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year 2006 award.

Professor Krishna C. Saraswat of Stanford University has been awarded the Techno Visionary Lifetime Award by the Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA) and VLSI society of India (VSI).  Dr. Saraswat obtained both his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford after a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics from BITS, and is currently a Rickey / Nielsen Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford. His work includes outstanding research in nano-technology, 3D ICs technology, single wafer manufacturing for a micro-factory and thin film technology for VLSI inter-connects.

Baradwaj Rangan won the Best Film Critic award at the 53rd National Film Awards this year. Bharadwaj Rangan, a Chemical Engineer from BITS, is a freelance writer and critic whose work includes film reviews and other articles published in The New Sunday Express, The Economic Times – Madras Plus, Man’s World, Simplifly and Seminar.

Yogesh Agarwal, BE Civil Engineering from BITS, has been appointed as chairman of IDBI. Mr. Agarwal, previously managing director of State Bank of India, replaces V.P Shetty for this coveted job which has the rank of Secretary in the Central Government.