Tuesday, November 1, 2011

IITians: The 7 Secrets Behind IITians' Global Success

(By- Dr. Dilip Vaidya, Published in The Hitavada "FUTURE"
Author is a top-notcher with CPI 10 on a 10 point scale at M.Tech (structures) from IIT Kanpur, a Gold Medalist of Nagpur University, and a Ph.D from VNIT. He had been invited to deliver expert lectures in conferences at IIT Kanpur. He was invited and had presented research paper at ‘World Conference on Engineering Education for Advancing Technology’ held at Sydney, Australia. He is also recipient of ‘Best Research Paper Award’ for another paper at National Convention of Indian Society for Technical Education. His research work has been incorporated in Text-Book written by Dean (R &D) of IIT Kanpur. He also has been reviewer of text books for prestigious publishers. He was team member of structural engineering group for Kakrapar Atomic Power Plant and has designed campus of two engineering colleges and many community structures. He has vast experience of conceptualizing, prototyping, maintaining and updating a system for mentoring young minds to take challenges of JEE, apart from their direct training. The Author is Alumni IIT Kanpur. He is Hon. Dean (Academics) at ICAD-SL, premier training institute for IIT-JEE aspirants)





Rajat Gupta: Former Managing Director of McKinsey & Co
Arun Sarin: Chief Executive of Vodafone Group PLC
Victor Menezes: Senior Vice Chairman of Citigroup Inc.
Kanwal Rekhi: Venture Capitalist and Founder of Excelan Inc.
Rono Dutta: Chief Executive of Air Sahara
Rakesh Gangwal: Former Chief Executive of US Airways
Vinod Khosla: Partner in Kleiner Perkins Caulfield


Guess what do these stalwarts have in common? They are all products of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology which is gradually becoming a synonym for skill, talent, knowledge and expertise. The IITs are churning out top-notch engineers with a regularity that thrills corporations around the world.


These government-sponsored institutes are considered the best in India, and their alumni can be found in the top executive positions in companies across the globe.


According to the recent estimates, 25,000 IIT graduates are currently employed in the US, out of which, some of them have also turned entrepreneurs, who have seen their net worth grow almost overnight to mind boggling millions or even billions of dollars.


Such is the success record of the IITians worldwide. Each year the six IITs have more names making to the who's who list in the US business community than any other Indian institution, and most American universities as well. Ashutosh Roy, Gunjan Sinha, Suhas S Patil, Arjun Malhotra, Vinod Gupta are some of the IITians who have hit it big as entrepreneurs abroad. However, many more can be added to the unending list.

Global Acceptance
"Brand IIT is, by now, so well established that in the future too, the IIT graduates will continue to be successful," says Nandan Nilekani, CEO, Infosys , while speaking to The Wall Street Journal. Nilekani graduated from IIT Bombay in 1978.


Cisco Systems Inc. , in San Jose, Calif., says it has already hired more than 1,000 IITians over the years and it plans to increase the number as per convenience. According to the director of a major US research firm, the IITs are one of its most important sources of research talent, both in the US and Asia.

What makes them what they are
"IITians", the name itself evokes some prototypes. They have the required skill, experience, imagination and enthusiasm to make it to the top. "Being from an IIT background has contributed to a great extent", says Rahul Pandey, an IIT Roorkee product, who is currently employed with HPCL.

The training at IIT is very vigorous, and so is the selection process. "The JEE is the toughest undergraduate entrance exam of its kind in the world, and it acts as a guillotine at the IITs' entrance," says Sandipan Deb, author of "The IITians" while speaking to The Wall Street Journal . Finally, the experience of staying on campus is also crucial in building interpersonal skills and in providing students with leadership qualities.

IIT degree is a ticket to being a part of the high profile tech brigade which has already made a mark on the world tech map.

R. Gopalakrishnan, executive director of Tata Sons, a diversified group of companies in India, and an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, who has studied the "IIT brand," told the Wall Street Journal that, even engineers from other Indian universities now do their master's degrees at the IITs. The result: more IIT-trained engineers.

Educational Standards
Most IITs are consistently ranked above other engineering colleges in India in engineering education surveys, with regard to quality of faculty, teaching standards, research facilities and campus placements. In international surveys, the IITs fail to achieve top rankings. The Times Higher Education Supplement (2006) ranked the IITs the 57th best overall universities in their World University Rankings and gave IITs the 33rd position globally for science. The IITs were ranked third-best worldwide for technology, after MIT and University of California, Berkeley


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