Alumnus Awards

Mr. K. Ravi Kumar received his M. Tech (Electrical Engineering) degree, from IIT Madras in 1972, and also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Administration.

Mr. Ravi Kumar is currently the Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, a USD 5 billion company that ranks among the leading companies of the world engaged in the field of Power Plant Equipment. As CMD, he is responsible for maximizing market-share and establishing BHEL as a total solution provider in Power Sector. He has handled variety of assignments during his long career spanning 36 years. His fields of expertise are Design & Engineering, Construction & Project Management of Thermal, Hydro, Nuclear, Gas based Power Plants and Marketing of Power Projects.

Mr. Ravi Kumar has the unique distinction of having booked USD 25 billion orders for BHEL. His vision is to transform BHEL into a world class engineering enterprise. Towards this, he has been pursuing a growth strategy based on the twin planks of building both capacity and capability, and this has resulted in an increase in BHEL’s manufacturing capacity from 10,000 MW to 20,000 MW per annum. He also introduced new technologies in the field of coal and gas based power plants for the first time in the country, such as Supercritical thermal sets of 660 MW and above rating, Advance class Gas Turbines, Large size CFBC Boilers and Large size Nuclear sets. BHEL has the distinction of having installed over 1,00,000 MW of Power Plant Equipment worldwide.

Mr. Ravi Kumar has also forged number of strategic tie-ups for BHEL with leading Indian utilities and others like NTPC, TNEB, NPCIL, MMTC, HEC to leverage equipment sales and develop alternate sources for equipment needed for the country. He has been guiding BHEL’s technology strategy to maintain the technology edge in the marketplace with a judicious mix of internal development of technologies with selective external co-operation. He has focused on meeting customer expectations and has strengthened the BHEL’s image as a total solution provider.

Mr. Ravi Kumar has presented a number of papers in the fields of Electronics and Energy in National and International Seminars.

In recognition of his professional accomplishments, leadership qualities and outstanding contributions to Indian Industry, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer on him this award.

Mr. M G Parameswaran (popularly known as “Ambi”) received his B. Tech (Chemical Engineering) degree from IIT Madras in 1977 and PGDBM (MBA) from IIM Calcutta in 1979.

Mr. Ambi Parameswaran is presently the CEO and Executive Director of DraftFCB Ulka Advertising Private Ltd, Mumbai, India?s fourth largest marketing communication firm. In his marketing and sales career, he has worked with companies like Rediffusion DY&R, Boots Company India and UDI Yellow Pages. During his twenty year stint with Ulka Advertising, he has played a key role in the turnaround of the agency and has set up and built several new divisions such as Nebula Films, Direct/Digital, HealthCare and Cogito Brand Consulting. Mr. Ambi Parameswaran helped build major Indian Brand in diverse categories such as automotive, healthcare, entertainment, consumer goods, IT services etc.

Mr. Ambi Parameswaran has been consistently ranked among the 20 most influential advertising professionals and as one of the 50 most influential people in Indian marketing and media. He has also been a core faculty in Strategic Brand Management at IIMC during the last six years for PGP and PGP Executive MBA students, and a guest lecturer at several management schools. He has also conducted training programs and branding workshops for leading companies in India and the region; he is a regular speaker at industry seminars organized by Indian Society of Advertisers, CII, FICCI, ASCI and Bombay/ Madras Management Associations.

Mr. Parameswaran has written more than 100 articles, three books, including one award winner, on branding, advertising and consumer research, and is a recipient of honor from Indira Group of Institutions for his Lifetime Contributions to the Advertising Industry. He was named to the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 2007. He is an active member of the PanIIT Alumni organization for over six years.

In recognition of his professional accomplishments and outstanding leadership qualities and contributions to the advertising industry, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer on him this award.

Mr. P. Venugopalan received his B. Tech (Mechanical Engineering) degree in 1971 and Masters Degree (Mechanical Engineering) in 1979 from IIT, Madras.

Mr. Venugopalan is currently Outstanding Scientist and Director, Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. As Director, he is responsible for the development of a number of guided missile systems, viz., Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGDMP), Astra Air to Air Missile, Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) and BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile.

He joined DRDL in 1972 and has served DRDO in various capacities. His areas of work include development of propulsion systems, missile system design and system engineering. He has been a leading scientist In development of liquid propulsion systems for DRDO's missile programmes and is one of the few in the country with great deal of experience in missile systems development. He was the chief designer of liquid propulsion systems for Prithvi and Agni missiles. Subsequently, as Director of Advanced Technology, he conceptualised the propulsion systems for Hyperplane, a single stage to orbit launch vehicle. He Initiated the development of scramjet propulsion systems in DRDL, a key technology for hypersonic ?ight vehicles.

With his expertise in propulsion systems and missile system engineering, he was made Project Director of BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile System project, a joint development programme with Russia. I-le successfully completed the project and the system has been inducted into Indian Navy and Indian Army. Currently, he is steering the joint development programme of LRSAM by India and Israel.

Mr. Venugopalan has received a number of awards, including DRDO Scientist of the Year Award In 2002, National Aeronautical Prize from Aeronautical Society of India in 2002 and DRDO Best Performance Award in 2005. He is a member of professional engineering societies such as Combustion Institute (India), Aeronautical Society of India, High Energy Materials Society of India and Society for Aerospace Quality & Reliability.

In recognition of his outstanding professional accomplishments and contributions to Indigenous guided missile programmes for India's defence, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer on him this award.

Dr. J. Narayana Das is currently the Director of Naval Materials Research Laboratory, Ambarnath (DRDO). He received his B.Tech (1971), M.S. (1987) and Ph.D (1993) degrees in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras.

During his nearly 36 years of R&D career in DRDO, in various capacities, Dr. Narayana Das has made outstanding contributions in Materials Science and Technology, adding great value to strategic self-reliance and industrial progress. At the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory, in the early 1980s, he initiated R & D in the specialized area of passive acoustic materials and studied acoustic wave propagation through fiber composites. He has been instrumental in development of patented special rubber compounds for application in SONAR sensor technologies. In recognition of his significant contributions, DRDO conferred on him the “Scientist of the Year” Award in 1998. His work in the field of Magneto-rheological fluids and Magneto-resistive fluids have earned two US patents.

As Director, NMRL, he has been playing the lead role in conceptualization, development and productionisation of materials of crucial importance to Naval technology. Example of the many self-reliance initiatives he has led are Welding technology for Ship Building Steels and Industrialisation of “Fuel Cell” technology in the Country. NMRL is poised to launch 33 KW Fuel Cell based Power Plant in 2008. DRDO has promoted him to the select grade of “Outstanding Scientist” in 2007. Under his stewardship, the NMRL has won the Titanium Trophy of DRDO in 2005.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of Materials Science & Technology and his search for self-reliance in strategic defence technologies, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer on him this award.

Dr. Venkatachalam Anantharam is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also presently an Adjunct Professor at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Prior to joining UC Berkeley in 1994, he was on the faculty of Cornell University for eight years. He has been a visiting faculty member / researcher at a number of universities and research institutions in USA, Europe, and India.

Dr. Anantharam is a highly regarded scholar in the areas of communications, communication networks, stochastic control, distributed control, queueing networks, information theory, game theory, and applied probability. He has published extensively in the premier journals in his areas. He has served as an Associate Editor and Guest co-editor for a number of prestigious journals. Some of his work has found early applications too, as is evident by the consultancy he offers to premier technology development agencies.

Dr. Anantharam has received numerous awards in recognition of this work. Two of his papers won him Best Paper awards – one in the IEEE Communications Society publications, and other in the IEEE Information Theory Society. He has been a distinguished invited speaker at a number of prestigious conferences. He was elected fellow of the IEEE in 1998. He was awarded the President of India Gold Medal for best academic record at IIT Madras in 1980.

Dr. Anantharam received his B.Tech (Electrical Engineering) degree from IIT Madras in 1980, and M.S. (Electrical Engg.), M.A. (Mathematics), C.Phil (Mathematics) and PhD (Electrical Engg.) degrees from University of California, Berkeley.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer on him this award.

Mr. Bhaskar Bhat is currently the Managing Director of Titan Industries Limited. He received his B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1976 and PGDBM from IIM Ahmedabad in 1978.

Mr. Bhat started his career as a management trainee at Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. (P) Ltd. in 1978. After spending five years at Godrej, he joined the Tata Watch Project initiated by Tata Press Limited. Since 1983 he has been associated with the Tata Watch project which later became Titan Watches Limited and is now Titan Industries Limited. At Titan, he has handled Sales and Marketing, Human Resources, International Business and general managerial assignments.

Mr. Bhat has played a key role in transforming the watch and jewellery industry in India. He has built two successful “most admired” Indian brands – Titan in watches and Tanishq in jewellery. He pioneered the concept of franchising and retailing in this Industry and achieved a turnaround performance of the Company during 2003-04. Titan Industries Limited has grown to become the largest watch manufacturer in India and the sixth largest in the world. Under his leadership, the Company has enlarged its portfolio. The Company now has four main business units: watches, jewellery, eyewear and precision engineered components.

Ever since his days as a student at IIT Madras, Mr. Bhat has been a people’s person and good communicator of ideas. He received the Trade Post Man of the Year in 2003 from Trade Post, a Watch Industry Journal.

In recognition of Mr. Bhaskar Bhat’s outstanding professional accomplishments and contributions to the Indian industry, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to present him this award.

Mr. Girish Reddy is a founder and Managing Partner of Prisma Capital Partners, a US$ 4 billion asset management company providing fund of hedge fund services to institutional investors. Driven by superior performance, the firm has grown rapidly and is already ranked 37th among hedge fund of funds globally by assets.

Mr. Reddy obtained his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1977 and Masters in Engineering and MBA from Cornell University in 1980.

Prior to starting up Prisma Capital Partners, Mr. Reddy joined Goldman Sachs in Europe in 1990 and worked with the firm for 12 years, becoming a Partner and co-head of Equity Derivatives. Starting with a single-product business, he successfully built six business units within equity derivatives, making it one of the most profitable products within the company. In recognition of this success, the firm made him a Partner – regarded by many as the most coveted position on Wall Street. He played an important role in the development of the derivatives market in Europe, serving on various committees advising the exchanges on the design and launch of electronically traded contracts.

Before joining Goldman Sachs, Mr. Reddy was instrumental in developing and promoting commercial applications of cutting-edge derivatives strategies as Chief Investment Officer for LOR Associates and as Senior Vice-President for Travelers Investment Management Company for a period of 10 years. Mr. Reddy has published various research papers and is a frequent speaker at industry forums on the use of derivatives in traditional asset management.

Outside the world of finance, Mr. Reddy has actively promoted education and academic excellence through his foundation. He was an early sponsor and currently executive board member of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. In addition he serves on the boards of Cornell University Council and IIT Madras Research Park. He is actively involved in sponsoring a secondary school for underprivileged children and supports various women’s educational institutions.

In recognition of his outstanding professional accomplishments and contributions to the field of finance, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to present him this award.

Mr. Vijay Kumar Magapu is presently whole-time Director & Member of the Board of Larsen & Toubro Limited since 2004. He is also the Chief Executive of Larsen & Toubro Infotech Limited, in addition to leading the Engineering Services Business and heading the function of the CIO of L&T. He received his B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) degree from IIT Madras in 1966 and MSc (Mechanical Sciences) degree from University of Calgary, Canada in 1972.

Mr. Magapu joined L&T as a Graduate Engineer Trainee in 1966 and moved on to assume various positions of responsibility. In 1985, he set up Hazira Works and oversaw the development and expansion of this heavy engineering complex, which today is considered as the jewel in the crown of Larsen & Toubro Limited. He was later designated the Executive Vice President responsible for the Company’s Power Project Business before being appointed Chief Executive of the IT subsidiary of the L&T in 2000.

Under Mr. Magapu’s leadership, L&T Infotech adopted an aggressive business development drive that resulted in key strategic alliances and establishment of multiple Offshore Development Centers for global clients. The Engineering Services Business that he leads has introduced various pioneering services to global manufacturing industry for remote product design, production facilities design and plant sustenance services, and other unique technical BPO services.

In his capacity as L&T’s Chief Information Officer since 2000, Mr. Magapu oversees implementation of IT strategies across the Company for continuously improving business results through alignment of IT to business.

In recognition of Mr. Magapu’s outstanding professional accomplishments and leadership roles played in Indian manufacturing and IT industry, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to present him this award.

Prof. Atul Chokshi is currently Professor of Materials Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Prior to joining IISc in 1994, he was on the faculty of University of California, San Diego for five years. He has held visiting faculty positions in more than six Universities in USA, Europe and Japan. He received his B.Tech degree in Metallurgy from IIT Madras in 1980 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Southern California, USA.

Dr. Chokshi is one of the pioneers of the new branch of materials science, viz., mechanical behaviour of nanomaterials. He has made significant contributions in the area of superplasticity and has contributed significantly to the understanding of deformation mechanisms that bring about this phenomenon. He has made in-depth studies on the effect of temperature, grain size and microstructure on the superplastic deformation, creep, and diffusion in ceramics, ceramic composites and magnesium alloys.

Dr. Chokshi has published over 130 papers in highly cited international journals. He is ranked among the top 100 most cited materials scientists in the world.

Dr. Chokshi has received many honours and awards. He is a fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Sciences, India. He is the recipient of J D Birla Award (2006) and Metallurgist of the Year Award (2001) from the Indian Institute of Metals, S. S. BhatnagarAward (2003), MRSI Medal (2000) and Swarnajayanthi Presidential Young Scientist Award (1998).

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of materials engineering, IIT Madras and its alumni are proud to confer on him this award.