Category: Alumni in News

Mr. Ashok Kalbag started his career with Godrej & Boyce in the year 1974 in the Design & Development department. He joined Klaas Equipment, Nashik in 1981. After a 4 year stint with the company he went on to join Mechelonic Engineers, Mumbai from where he retired in 2008 as General Manager (Ops). He was involved in design & manufacture of resistance welding systems including India’s first Rail Flash-Butt Welding Machine.nnMr. Kalbag has got recognition from Higher Education Forum for his NGO activities. He used to actively participate in aero-modelling, flying, sailing, trekking, sky diving, etc. in the past but currently he indulges himself in contributing to changing the narrative of formal education in the country during his free time. Sharing an anecdote from his stay at IIT Bombay as a student he says, “ Despite 5 years in IIT hostel (2) I never picked up the habbit of smoking or alcohol consumption by choice. However, was penalised for drunken behaviour on the last day send off party in hostel (one of only two teetotallers in the whole party – both fined!)”.nnMotivation towards contribution to IITB:nnEmotional connect with alma-mater and the desire to see IIT Bombay as a premier institute of the world.

Mr. Abhay Sawant is the Chief Executive Officer of Busy Dolphin in Texas, USA.  He did his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1988 and MS in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota. He has worked in the telecom industry for over 14 years in engineering department and has played various managerial roles. Subsequently, Mr. Sawant started his own business and currently runs a digital marketing company.nnWhile sharing his memories about IIT Bombay he says, “It was during my stay at IIT Bombay as a student,  that I developed love for photography. The hostel dark room provided opportunity to manually print the black and white pictures- some of which I still have. I also feel that IIT hostel life gave all of us our lifelong friends.”nnMotivation towards contribution to IITB:nnAs a beneficiary of world class education IIT Bombay, it was my honor to help build the branding of IIT and IITB, in particular,   It gives me great satisfaction to see IIT alumni network and benefit from each other’s experience and explore new opportunities.

Ms. Anuradha Narasimhan is a marketing professional with about 25 years of experience in creating and nurturing brands in diverse categories like fast moving consumer goods, lifestyle and telecom. Through her career, she has led marketing and innovation for marquee brands in India – including India’s favourite food brand Britannia and the leading lifestyle brand Titan. As the CMO of Britannia Industries, India’s oldest food company, she helped build health credentials for the organization. Prior to Britannia, she worked with the Unilever Group, Hutchison Telecom and the Tata group.nnShe prides herself on having mentored marketing professionals and more importantly women leaders. She has won advertising and marketing awards for work on Hutch and Britannia’s health brand Nutrichoice and been featured as a leading marketing professional and woman leader in India. After graduating from I IT Bombay as a civil engineer, Ms. Narasimhan acquired a degree in business administration from IIM Bangalore. She is now enrolled in a doctoral programme from Singapore Management University to fulfil her dream of teaching the next generation of marketing professionals.nnShe is married to her IIM-batchmate, Ashish Dikshit who is the CEO for Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, part of the Aditya Birla group. They have a 19 year old son Adi who is pursuing an undergraduate education in Computer Science at University of California, Los Angeles. She is happiest travelling, being connected to and hanging out with friends, and volunteering for causes.nnThe Class of 1990 is delighted to support ongoing initiatives like the Retired Faculty Wellness Fund, Young Faculty Award and Student Scholarships. The batch is equally keen to contribute to new initiatives like the IDEAS Program for supporting Entrepreneurship and the Clean Green Campus Program to ensure that IITB is the benchmark for Indian campuses. Ms. Narasimhan continues to lead the batch efforts in deployment of the legacy projects. She has volunteered to work on a couple of institute projects, viz Branding Initiatives for SINE (Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) as well as CEP (Continued Education Programmes) to help transform them into the next level.nnMotivation towards contribution to IITB:nnThe Silver Jubilee Reunion, for me, was a Home Coming journey. As a friend puts it, IITB was our playground where we learned to become adults. It had been 25 years since we stepped out of our comfort zone to find our fortunes in the world. I had lost touch with friends and maybe even who I was. It was definitely the moment to reconnect and the time to give back. All these years, I had benefited from not just the IITB tag but from the person I had become at IIT. Giving back was about Guru Dakshina and More!

Mr. Suneet Chitale runs a consulting company Sprye Solutions since 2005, which helps us and European services companies set up and run development centres in India. These are set up as subsidiaries or virtual subsidiaries of the overseas company. As of today, about 15 companies have been set up mainly for venture capital funded start-up product software companies out of the Bay Area.nnAfter his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Ill Bombay in 1984, Mr. Chitale was in the manufacturing space for about 16 years setting up & running factories in consumer durables, automotive electrical and electrical machines.nnMotivation towards contribution to IITB: nnI enjoy meeting alumni & this was a good way of doing so, which motivates him to volunteer/ contribute to the alumni activities of the Institute.

Mr. Raj Nair is the Chairman of four companies – Avalon Consulting, AGR Knowledge Services, Ugam Solutions and Germinait Solutions. Today, these companies have been awarded and recognised by various institutions, associations and rating firms like Gartner, Forrester, Nasscom, vault, iSpirit, etc. Mr. Nair has won merit scholarship awards at IIM Ahmedabad.nnAfter graduating from IIT Bombay in Metallurgical Engineering in the year 1971, Mr. Nair completed his postgraduate diploma in Business Administration from IIM Ahmedabad and LLB (Gen) from the University of Bombay. He has plenty of memories to share from his student days at I IT Bombay, starting with a monitor lizard (some say it was an iguana) in his hostel wing in the first week to receiving the degree with a broken wrist from Minister C. Subramaniam in the convocation hall. The protective ‘space suit’ that was made available to him to conduct experiments with radio-active materials for his Home Paper and the brilliance of many of the faculty members are his fond memories.nnMotivation towards contribution to IITB:nnThe realization that IITB made me what I am. One of the many things IITB gave me is the ability to think and question, indeed a rare gift. It is payback time from the moment one leaves the campus.

Mr. Pradip Nadkarni is the Founder of Paradigm Inc., a management consulting company that specializes in International Business, Strategic Planning and Supply Chain Management (SCM). Mr. Nadkarni’s first assignment was with TELCO (now Tata Motors) and later Bharat Forge, wherein he set up the international division and developed key strategies for exports and globalisation of the company.nnIn the consulting arena, he worked on various consulting assignments with reputed Indian groups like Mahindra & Mahindra and ISMT. He spearheaded an assignment for the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) on a pilot project supported by UNID0 and Government of India. Mr. Nadkarni has worked on many international assignments covering various facets of Supply Chain Management for British, German, Swedish and American corporations like Cummins and De Laval.nnHe was a member of Cll’s prestigious Globalization Committee during 1990 – 92 and a member of Cll’s National Committee for Exports for over 10 years. He has also been a member of many senior-level Indian trade delegations for International visits. He is also a member on the Board of Directors of Kalyani Forge Ltd and Johnson Controls Automotive Ltd.nnMr. Nadkarni received his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1970 and did his Masters from the State University of New York, Stonybrook, USA. Subsequently, he obtained a DBM and MMS both from Pune University. Recalling his undergraduate days at IITB, he said, “Scoring the winning goal in the inter-hostel football tournament against H7 was better than a goal scored in the semi-finals while representing IITB in the Inter-University tournament in Indore. I once was thrown out of Prof. Magal’s class in Nuclear Engineering when I was caught talking to (Boru) Mondkar. Prof. Magal asked me a couple of questions, which I answered correctly. He then asked me whether I could quantify the extent of my understanding of this complex subject and I responded with 87.65%. His response was understandable.”nnMotivation towards contribution to IITB :nnDeep gratitude to IITB for the gift of a world class engineering education I received between 1965 and 1970.

Mr. Dinkar Natraj (fondly called as Nat) is currently the co-founder, President of Acalvio Technologies, a security startup based in Silicon Valley. He is also an Assistant Scout Master in Troop 494 Cupertino. Mr. Natraj and his wife Aruna are active in Silicon Valley, Chinmaya Mission and Sankara Eye Foundation.nnMotivation towards contribution to IITB:nn”IIT B gave me world class education, I have made life long friends, had an amazing time in the campus, opened my perspectives – gave me weltanschauung (a world view), what more could you ask for from your alma mater? The debt of gratitude is on my shoulder and I look to give back to IIT B in my own modest fashion at every available opportunity” shares Mr. Natraj.

Mr. Avinash Sankholkar is a Managing Partner at Latence Consulting, the Director on the board of Maharashtra Enviro Power Ltd. in Nagpur, a company that deals with the treatment of hazardous effluents and solid waste through cutting edge technologies. Mr. Sankholkar is the former Vice President of L&T lnfotech. After retirement from L&T, he set up Latence Consulting that focuses on unlocking hidden potential of enterprise IT systems in project businesses.nnOut of a career span of 42 years, he has spent 40 years with L&T Group. The first 25 years were engaged in core chemical engineering of turnkey chemical plants and systems projects in various roles, starting with Process Engineer and ending with General Manger (Projects). The subsequent 15 years focused on Information Technology and Enterprise Systems Deployments and leveraging them to the maximum in L&T’s project business.nnSubsequently as VP (IT and System Integration Business) of L&T lnfotech, he pioneered and steered the company’s entry into turnkey IT systems projects.nnMr. Sankholkar also led the enhancement of internal IT systems to ensure a high efficiency of operations with the best level of security. Earlier, he was responsible for fast-track growth of the new Infrastructure Management Services business.nnFor innovative application of the SAP ERP in the Project Engineering and Construction business, Mr. Sankholkar has won the SAP ACE award. He was also awarded the Intelligent Enterprise Award for the deployment of Project manpower productivity software in L&T E&C Projects. He has also received the Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE ) in the E&C Project space.nnMr. Sankholkar is a Director (Hon. Treasurer) on the board of IIT Bombay Alumni Association (IITBAA). He acted like an IITB ambassador in L&T. He was the go-to-person for IITB faculty and students to get in plant vacation training in L&T, factory visits and sponsorship from L&T for IITB conferences and seminars. He was also involved in setting up a L&T Build India scholarship programme and closer cooperation in research projects. Mr. Sankholkar was on a CII Western Region task force, led by Mr. Naushad Forbes and Prof. Ashok Mishra, as L&T nominee, to increase overall industry interaction with IITB in research and operational excellence initiatives. This resulted in a spurt of industry interactions with IITB in multiple roles.nnAs Hon. Secretary for IITBAA Mumbai Chapter, he was instrumental in reactivation of Chapter activities, with successful organization of a new series of exciting lectures by accomplished alumni, under the banner of SPARK. subsequently, as Director on IITBAA Board, he was in the core group that designed and executed a mega event called IITBAA Global Business Forum. He focused on the financial execution within the budgets to generate a significant surplus. Currently, he is serving as the Treasurer of IITBAA and working on a new initiative to better investment of IITBAA funds to improve yield while controlling direct expenses.nnHe adds further, “During my final year in IITB in 73-74, I recall the opportunity to meet a shy and quiet fresher, especially since he was from my home town in Goa. Thanks to the IITB magical foundation, over five years on the campus, that person transformed into a daring and dynamic Raksha Mantri of India, our very own Manohar Parrikar.”nnEven after a student goes out of IITB, people say you can’t take IITB out of him. The five year bonding with the IITB community from 1969 to 7 4 was very strong. What helped was that L&T Powai campus was next to the IIT campus. The proximity gave additional energy to the bond.

Mr. Saket Gadia is the Vice President of Ad Products and Operations at Alphonso Inc (A TV Data Company). After completing BTech from IIT Bombay in Metallurgical Engineering and Material Science, he completed Master of Science from State University of New York, Stony Brook in Materials Science and Engineering.nnHe has 15 years of proffesional experience in High Tech Product Management, Marketing and Business Operations and Management Consulting. He started his career in Silicon Valley at Cypress Semiconductor in Strategic Marketing and went on to become the Product and Business Unit Manager at Atmel Corporation, managing an automative product line. He was one of the early Product Managers at NVIDIA Auomotive team before moving to Corporate Development and Strategy at Applied Materials. Mr. Gadia seeded a profitable and growing Advertisment Data products and operations solutions for leading TV Data Company Alphonso Inc in Silicon Valley, California, USA. Mr. Gadia has been volunteering for IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation for more than 10 years. He is President of the largest alumni chapter, insituting and running several large events and initiatives in San Francisco (SF) Bay Area – including IIT Bombay Hackathon, Virtual Reality 101, Fresher’s welcome, annual Inter-IIT cultural competition, Diwali Dhamaka and picnic. He has hosted IIT Bombay’s Directory, Dean and other faculty for various SF Bay area engagements. He cherishes beautiful memories of the time spent at IIT Bombay. He got married to his classmate and got a life partner together with degree at IIT Bombay. He was founding team member of Insight (IIT Bombay student newspaper) during his first year at IIT Bombay campus in 1998.nnI’m inspired by a firm belief in ‘Pay it Forward’ model to acknowledge what I have had the privilege to receive from IIT Bombay and its alumni. The time spent at this campus was one of the best memories of my life to cherish. It has been my privilege to relive those memories by being part of alumni service.

Mr. Milind Mhaiskar is an IAS Officer of 1992 batch and is currently serving as Chief Executive Officer and Vice President of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). He is also handling the responsibility of Chairman, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB). As an IAS Officer, Mr. Mhaiskar has worked in various capacities in senior state government positions. He worked in remoter areas of districts Amravati, Wardha and Sangli in Maharashtra for rural development, sanitation, water supply, law and order, urban administration etc. Later on, he handled the responsibility of key infrastructure projects like Link road, Metro, Monorail in Mumbai.nnAs secretary of Medical Education Department, Mr. Mhaiskar made important contributions to improve Medical education in the state, Maharashtra being the prime state in this field. He has also handled the responsibility of disaster management. He was also assigned the rare and prestigious chance to work as the Principal Secretary to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr. Devendra Fadnavis. Mr. Mhaiskar remembers beautiful days spent at IIT Bombay. He recollects fond memories of all-night cack sessions, hikes on weekends, delicious mess food, mountaineering expeditions and unending assignments in the Chemistry Department. His hobbies include mountaineering, playing bridge and reading literature.nnIIT is a great institute. I have great affection towards my alma mater.