Mr. Krishna Vavilala, has worked tirelessly towards spreading Indian culture in the United States since he first came here. He has also been active on the political front. In 1996, he introduced a motion in the Texas State Democratic Party Convention urging for US support to India over China. Mr. Vavilala has also published numerous letters in the national mainstream press such as the Houston Chronicle on a wide variety of subjects ranging from Indo-American relations to Taliban’s tagging of Hindus in Afghanistan.
Personal
What motivated you to jump into community service and politics? I guess, my motivation is to obtain personal satisfaction of seeing some good happen to the community around you. Although I had interfaced with politicians, I myself have never been a politician or entered any political arena. To me politics without principles are a big no no.
Tell us something about your early days in community service. Actually, my early days in community service began in New York as the President of the Telugu Literary and Cultural Association of New York, a non-profit organization that raised money for the Cyclone victims of Andhra Pradesh, India. Since then, my community involvement continued from New York to Houston, Texas.
You love Indian culture. What is your advice to youngsters in India to adopt and promote India’s culture and heritage? Be proud of your ancient heritage which is more than 5000 years old that has survived the onslaught of various foreign invaders. Whereas several other ancient civilizations have died out, Indian civilization and culture are still alive today. My advice to youngsters is to stay engaged with older generations in order to ensure passage of Indian culture to next generations.
What do you think is your biggest achievement in life? My biggest achievement in life so far is the installation of Mahatma Gandhi statue in Herman Park, Houston, in 2004 since it was the first of its kind in Texas. It was very gratifying for me to see my idea transformed into reality with tremendous support from the Houston community.
It has been 36 long years in the US. Any plans of returning back home? I have been visiting India at least once every two years. My family has settled in America, so there is no question of returning to India on a permanent basis.
If you were given three wishes what would they be? First wish will be for improvement of the living standards of the poor people in India. Second wish will be for total eradication of corruption in India. I took part in the recent NRI support to Anna Hazare’s campaign against corruption. Third and most important wish will be for total elimination of caste system in India which has been a hindrance for India’s National Integration.
Personal Favorites
Book
Mahatma Gandhi’s Auto-biography: "The Story of My Experiments with Truth”
Food
Indian, Vegetarian
Movie
Any movie with a social message
TV Series
I do not watch TV serials, a waste of time
Actor/Actress
Amitabh Bachhan (Bollywood) and John Wayne (Hollywood)
Sports
Basket ball and Tennis
Holidays
Diwali and Christmas
BITSian Favorites
Bunking
I do not know what this means.
Event
BITS College Anniversary day
Hangout
At Shiv Ganga and Madan and Gupta shops (in my days) in Connaught place,Pilani
Professor
Late Principal Dr. Lakshmi Narayan who was a look alike to the late Bollywood villain star K.N.Singh but was extremely kind hearted to students especially in the exam time
Food
Masala Dosa and Samosas
Spoken like a true BITSian
Unforgettable experience. Punishment of 3 rounds double up around the college building for not wearing the right (Gray) uniform.
One thing that you will always miss about BITS. Peacocks dancing in front of my room in Shankar Bhavan.
Define BITSian years in one word. Discipline (in my days).
Where do you see BITS after 10 years? In Tier-one along with IITs and MIT.
Message to BITSians on campuses. Work hard and play right.
Message to all BITSians. Commitment is the key word. Everything else is an excuse.
Rakesh Verma, is the Managing Director of Mapmyindia - Acknowledged by NASSCOM as a showcase company for IT Innovation in India in 2004. It is 700 people strong and has provided enterprise solutions to over 500 leading corporate and government organizations.
In the early '90's when Rakesh and his wife Rashmi left well established careers in the US in IBM and GE respectively to build a business in India that contributed to the country's growth, everyone around him called them crazy and unrealistic. But Rakesh knew the potential of digital maps in India the minute he saw them.
He was elected the World's GPS Businessman for the year 2007 for his tireless efforts to drive the Indian navigation industry. For the last 6 years, they have worked to influence consumers' lives everyday as Companies in India have started adopting online navigation in a big way. Despite the success, Rakesh remains firmly grounded with a lookout for new ideas that fuel his drive as an entrepreneur. His ability to convert each obstacle into a bigger opportunity to excel remains his greatest strength. Professional
Take us through your entrepreneurial journey? After being 20 years in a corporate career, surviving 10 bosses, I became rebellious. Creativity was bubbling in me. So, I started a company in the US. Went on to start another $1.7B startup. Then, came to India and co-founded MapmyIndia with my wife.
What, according to you, is the most important business ethic? For any business to survive, it has to be innovative. So, innovation is both an ethic and need.
What is the one thing that you believe every entrepreneur must have? Humility. You must stay on ground and see what you can sell today and have vision for the future.
An entrepreneur according to you is a ______ Risk Seeker!
Personal Favorites
Food
Thai
Movie
Light Bollywood movies
TV
Times Now
Actor/Actress
Amitabh Bachchan
Sports
Cricket
Holiday
Goa
BITSian Favorites
Hangout Place
C'not
Club/Department
Private club… Gang of guys hanging out at C’not
Hostel
Shankar
Redi
Gandhi (there used to be a redi in front of Gandhi back then)
Food
Aadhi Chai and Chips
BITSian Slang
Things we said at BITS cannot be said in public ;)
Spoken like a true BITSian
One thing that you will always miss about BITS. The soothing calmness at Shiv Ganga
How would you like to see BITS in the year 2020. Your ideal vision. BITS to be an IVY league college
For BITSians on campus: Not to leave campus without doing this one thing! Get involved in a lot of activities and try to visit go to other universities on transfers
Your association with and thoughts about BITSAA. BITSAA is doing a great job like BGM. It's a great initiative. Similar initiatives, at a smaller scale, should also be taken at a chapter level.
Message to all BITSians: Value the BITSian brand image and work hard to make it bigger and better.
Posted By Goonjan Mall,
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Updated: Thursday, April 07, 2011
Dr. B.P. Agarwal ('60 Electrical)
Founder and President, Sustainable Innovations
Ever asked anyone what Water scarcity means to them? Our "Bitsian in the Limelight”, Dr. B.P Agrawal has an interesting measure of water scarcity when it comes to Rajasthan.
"What is the measure of water scarcity?” asks Dr. Agrawal, and then answers the question himself: "The number of bachelors in the village.” When water is scarce, women have to walk long distances to collect it; as a result, families from other villages are reluctant to marry their daughters into such communities. But thanks to Dr Agrawal, things are changing for some communities at least.
Dr.B.P Agrawal is the energy and brain behind ‘Aakash Ganga” (Rain water harvesting project in Rajasthan, a state which receives a bare 45 days of rainfall every year!) This work earned him the highest award of the ceremony, a $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability, 2010.
Dr. BP Agrawal graduated from BITS, Pilani in December 1964 and received his M E in Control Systems in 1968. He dreams for BITS to be an eternal fountain of inventors and innovations, solving India’s myriad problems. Well he has truly proven this himself and made the entire BITS family proud over his achievement.
Aqsa from the BITSAA Communications team caught up with Dr.B.P Agrawal at Pilani. Check out the video to see what this luminary has to share with us!
Mr.Girija Pande is the Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Asia Pacific. He is also the Chairman of TCS' wholly owned subsidiary in China–Tata Information Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd and the VC of TCS JV with the Chinese Government (NDRC) and Microsoft. He is also a Steering committee member of Singapore Government’s (IE) - Network India Group as well as is the Chairman of India Business Forum set up by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He has served as member of many high level policy planning committees of the RBI, Indian Institute of Banking and All India Chambers of Commerce such as ASSOCHAM and Bombay Chamber.
Personal How do you find it,
personally, moving from a multinational banking background to heading a large
territory like APAC for an Indian IT company?
I have been fascinated with Asia since the eighties when I first went to Seoul, Korea with the Bank. Thereafter I moved to other cities in Asia. So when I had a chance of starting TCS' Asia Pacific business which is headquartered in Singapore I was delighted to take on the challenge. Today we have over 7,500 staff in 13 countries of APAC in 20 nationalities-including over 1000 software engineers in 5 centres in China.
What is your mantra to
business that has made you the "Leading
CEO with a strong HR focus"?
Whether in a global Bank or a global IT Cos which TCS is today-people are our major asset. Once you realise that priority, then HR focus becomes natural. I always believe that if you look after & treat your people well and with respect, they will look after your customers & business well!
How is it like working in Singapore? Any plans to shift base to India?
I have been in Singapore since the last 10 years & have enjoyed living & working here. It is a country from which we in India can learn a lot from. The city is globally very well connected, is the hub for APAC business & works like a clock. Increasingly Indian business is using Singapore for their growth into APAC. We have over 3000 Indian Cos stationed here as well as over 5000 MNC's which have made Singapore their APAC office of choice. To me Singapore is to India as Hong Kong is to China-both international cities which allow our companies to grow externally.
You get up in the morning.
All charged up to go to work. What keeps you motivated?
I suppose old fashioned 'work ethic' & the need to go out each day & make a difference, learn something new etc keeps me going.
If you had a time machine, what would you do?
I would love to go back in time and probably would do more outside work-develop interesting hobbies, probably spend more time with the family or travel to more exotic destinations.
What keeps you
engaged in your spare time?
I have a strong reading habit -especially business reading & non fictional reading. I have taken to golf over years & am currently learning Mandarin & the Piano in my spare time-struggling though.
What is the craziest thing that you have done?
Not many thankfully. I do recall an incident in BITS in the mid sixties when we were in the 1st year in Vyas Bhavan. There was a short student Union led strike where some students broke into the dining room mess & came out with big pot of gulab jamuns.I remember playing cricket that night with the whole wing joining in bowling gulab jamuns!
Personal Favorites
Book
Just finished reading 'The Party' by Ron Mcgregor
Food
largely vegetarian-Indian &Mediterranean cuisine
Movie
Enjoyed 'Avatar' recently
TV Series
Friends
Actor/Actress
Amitabh Bachan / Aishwarya Rai
Sports
Golf, Bridge
Holiday
Just returned from an exotic holiday in Israel
BITSian Favorites
Hangout Place
Canteen behind library (IC)
Club/Department
Mechanical
Hostel
Vishwakarma Bhavan
Redi
-
C'not Restaurant
Volga (when we felt rich!)
Food
Sunday special lunch in student mess
BITSian Slang
A: *A: @!A:
Spoken like a true BITSian
Your BITSian experience in one word. Remarkable
One thing that you will always miss about BITS. Close friends
Something you learnt at BITS that has always helped you. Abstract & creative thinking from MIT professors who taught us then.
How would you like to see BITS in the year 2020. Your ideal vision.
Embrace globalisation actively. Should emulate the best global schools & be connected with various global Institutions to imbibe the best the world has to offer & to create curious & innovative student body-who would be a feather in the Institutes cap. In the new world creativity & innovation is what will differentiate everyone.
For BITSians on campus: Not to leave campus without doing this one thing!
Riding a three wheel rickety tempo to see a movie at Chirawa!
Message to BITSians on campuses: Work hard & play hard & enjoy every moment of your stay at BITS. Remember grades will be forgotten the minute you get your first job. Thereafter your inter personal & creative skills will drive success. This is the time to build a strong foundation of character on which later a strong 'house' of life can be built.
Message to all BITSians: To alumni I would just say that giving back to ones alma mater is a sacred duty of all of us. We have all benefitted by the quality education we were fortunate to receive. Hopefully BITSAA can facilitate that.
Yashveer Singh is a co-founder of National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF) which has a single minded mission of promoting social entrepreneurship in universities across India and bring about concrete social changes in the society. Born and brought up in rural Rajasthan, Yahsveer Singh graduated with MSc. (Hons) Economics from BITS, Pilani. He has earlier worked with Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, a non-profit organisation focused on improving governance in India, through a combination of political advocacy, research, grass-roots mobilisation, and civic training. Prior to Janaagraha, he led a rural entrepreneurship initiative to develop appropriate marketing strategies and income-generation projects for rural communities.
Personal
Tell us a little about
your organisation ‘NSEF’ . National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF) is a not for profit
organization that promotes social entrepreneurship among the students
of
major universities across India by inspiring, educating and supporting
the next
generation of
social entrepreneurs and by creating environments
where they can succeed. NSEF through its
tailor made programs will firstly create awareness about social
entrepreneurship then equip young people
with the talent needed to innovate and build organizations and finally
support
these ventures to ensure that they become successful models for
tomorrow. With
this objective, NSEF establishes centres in these institutions which
act as a hub
for conducting world class workshops, skill-building activities,
competitions,
Idea Café Sessions. Further, these centers provide
innovative training and internships in
development sector and most importantly provide support through
mentorship and
incubation facilities for budding social entrepreneurs.
What is the one thing
that you believe every entrepreneur must have? Perseverance towards one’s
Initiative.
Nirmaan, Janagraha &
now NSEF, what is your motivation behind your endeavours?
I belong to a very
small and remote village
of Rajasthan, right from
my childhood I have seen and experienced myriad social problems. So, there was
always a strong urge and zeal to help all those less fortunate and
underprivileged. I worked with social organizations like Nirmaan and than later
Janaagraha to contribute my bit to bring social change, but slowly realized
that there are so many social problems and the most effective way to solve
these is to motivate more and more talented young people to join this sector
and use their skills to accelerate the process of social change in a
sustainable manner.
Social Entrepreneurship’ - Where do you see it in the
next ten years?
The concept of creating social value with sustainability
has been highly appreciated. There is a huge untapped market for approaches
that address the needs of the BoP. Social Entrepreneurship has already become a
buzz word; the number of businesses, with an enhanced sense of social
obligation and purpose are growing day by day. Young generation is looking at
this as an opportunity. I believe, It’s not just a choice but
way ahead to reduce inequity from the society. The next 10 years could witness
a Social Entrepreneurship Revolution.
What has been the most
satisfying experience in your life?
Yet to achieve !
What keeps you engaged
in your spare time?
Spending time with friends, Reading Books
What is exciting you most in 2010 (either personally
or professionally)?
Meeting lot of Social Entrepreneurs.
If you had a time
machine, what would you do?
May be, would meet some of the greatest leaders
of the past.
Personal Favorites
Book
The World without Poverty, How to change the world
Food
Indian
Movie
Inception
TV Series
Prison Break, Friends
Actor/Actress
Aamir Khan
Sports
Cricket, Basketball
Holiday
Goa
BITSian Favorites
Hangout Place
ANC, C’NOT, SKY
Club/Department
Student’s Union
Hostel
Shankar Bhawan, Ashok Bhawan
Redi
Nagar
C'not Restaurant
Blue Moon, Sharma
Food
Indian
BITSian Slang
Most of them
Spoken like a true BITSian
Your BITSian experience in one word.
Incredible!Life-changing
One thing that you will always miss about BITS. Night outs with friends
Something you learnt at BITS that has always helped you.
The habit of sharing, motivating & encouraging.
How would you like to see BITS in the year 2020. Your ideal vision.
To be the "first choice university” of student
and faculty aspirants in India, and to be one of the leading universities in
the world known for its excellence in teaching, research, innovation and
quality of education.
For BITSians on campus: Not to leave campus without doing this one thing!
Learn team work through various activities,
clubs and departments. Make lots of friends !
Message to BITSians on campuses:
BITSian Campus life provides tremendous
opportunities and flexibilities to learn. Students should utilize this time to
the best of their abilities by involving themselves into clubs/departments or
other activities to develop their leadership and team skills, in addition to
academic excellence. They should also identify their passion and set their
goals for life.
Message to all BITSians: One of the famous quotes "Act as
if what you do makes a difference. It does”
Sudip Duttais the Managing Director and CEO of Aporv (www.aporv.com).
Prior to this, Sudip was Director, Sales at Persistent
Systems, leading sales initiatives and managing Fortune 100 clients in
USA, China and Taiwan. Sudip has 10+ years of combined experience in the
management of technology based efforts and sales. He has worked in
different roles including sales and optimizing the sales tracking
process in a multi-billion dollar organization.
He has exposure in International market including USA, China,
Taiwan & India for ten years at Middle and Senior Management
levels. Sudip has worked with Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, Sierra
Atlantic and Persistent Systems. He is also the Founder and President of
BITS.aid, the volunteering arm of his alma mater BITS, Pilani India.
Sudip has also presented on various topics including Social
Entrepreneurship & Sales at IIM, Lucknow and BITS, Pilani. He has an
Engineering Degree from BITS Pilani, India and certification from
INSEAD, Fontainebleau. Personal
You
were on the peak of your corporate career as the Sales Director. Suddenly, how
did entrepreneurship happen with ‘Aporv’?
A
decade of corporate job and then into entrepreneurship, but one must realize
that entrepreneurship doesn’t happen suddenly. Sometimes you think about for a
few months, sometimes a few years. You fret if the idea is feasible, discuss
with friends and think about the pit falls.
Aporv which means ‘unique’ in Sanskrit
germinated from our own need, to find authentic Indian Handicrafts. I had been
thinking about this idea for the close to a year and looking at the opportunity
and the Social Impact decided to take the plunge. To think of it, the second
largest occupation in India is handicrafts and we don’t have a decent platform
for the artisans to show their creativity. Our mantra of "Correct choices are
made” - The artisan's choice to sell the
product at a fair value and the appreciator’s choice to make an educated buy that
resulted in the birth of Aporv, bringing
12 differentiators to the market.
I had
to take the decision to leave a day job and start Aporv and give it the shape I
had thought of. Luckily my family and friends helped in taking the right
decision. Being in the corporate world for a decade, one of the hardest parts
was leaving the ‘luxuries’ of a day job. With a start up you have to do
everything - from changing the printer cartridge to signing partnerships,
delivering your service/ product to taking the deal-making decisions. The satisfaction
is that you are creating something that has not been done and doing something
that people may try to emulate later.
What,
according to you, is the most important business ethic? ?
Honesty.
Being honest helps in the long run.
What is
the one thing that you believe every entrepreneur must have?
Belief in the idea.
How did
BITS.aid happen?
BITS.aid started from a need. I was looking to volunteer for a social cause and
put my spare time to better use. I searched for projects but nothing
interesting came up. That’s when I realized that there are few BITSians who are
involved in projects and are need of volunteers. That gave me the idea to
create a platform for BITSians where projects requirements and volunteer
mapping can be done. BITS.aid went on to become the first online
college-volunteer platform. Being an online model it was easy to get BITSians to
collaborate and it became a model running into its 5th year. At one
time we had 130+ volunteers volunteering for 10+ projects.
Volunteering
is a difficult job, most of us don’t realize that. It doesn’t pay you anything,
there are expectations from you, and you have to give up your free time. We
wanted BITSians to realize their potential and also believe that helping a
social cause and volunteering ones time help grow your horizon. Many of the
volunteers with BITS.aid have joined some of the best global BSchools.
What
has been the most satisfying experience in your life?
I guess it’s too early for me to answer this. Maybe 60, would be the right time
to get to this.
What
keeps you engaged in your spare time?
Love to hear some good music, also like to catch up on
a few good reads when I find time.
If you
had a time machine, what would you do? This
question took the most time to answer. Maybe go back in time and get the right
answer faster.
What
is the craziest thing that you have done? Jumping from 13,000 feet. Realized the best way to
overcome acrophobia would be this.
Personal Favorites
Book
Blue Ocean Strategy, Good to Great, Da Vinci Code
Food
Meat (any meat)
Movie
Shawshank Redemption
TV Series
Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond
Actor/Actress
Amir Khan, Naseeruddin Shah
Sports
Soccer, table tennis
Holiday
Europe
BITSian Favorites
Hangout Place
SKY,
ANC, C’Not, Dabba (not sure if it still exists)
Club/Department
ArtnDee
Hostel
Ram
Redi
Nagar
C'not
Restaurant
Forgot the name, one that used to serve Blue Moon
shakes. Still don’t know why it was called blue moon, maybe because we could
afford it once in a blue moon.
Food
Was there a choice?
BITSian Slang
Mostly all
Spoken like a true BITSian
Your
BITSian experience in one word.
Best-days-of-my-life (I know this is not one
word, but couldn’t describe it better)
One
thing that you will always miss about BITS.
Night-outs before the exams and doing everything else
other than study
Something
you learnt at BITS that has always helped you.
Competition is good. It helps you get better.
How
would you like to see BITS in the year 2020. Your ideal vision.
Among the top 5 in schools in the world.
For
BITSians on campus: Not to leave campus without doing this one thing!
One word – Friends. Make as many friends as you can
during your 4-5 years at BITS. They will be your life long connections
Your
association with and thoughts about BITSAA. I have been involved with BITSAA since 2003, and
have been amazed at how it has grown over the last few years. What excites me
is the passion everyone in the team has. Amazing teamwork.
Message
to BITSians on campuses:
Use your time wisely, involve yourself in
extra-curricular activities. Dream, dream big. If you are looking to become an
entrepreneur start in college, with the resources available at BITS it’s become
a lot easier.
Message
to all BITSians: We should meet soon. Always a pleasure meeting
BITSians.
Shashikant Khandelwal,Co-Founder & Chief
Technical Officer at TheFind Inc, a startup in shopping search with
more than 20 million visitors per month. At TheFind, Shashikant has
been involved in venture funding, product innovation (4 patents granted,
4 pending), and building a scalable search engine. He recruited a team
to solve hard problems in information extraction using machine learning
& has played a crucial role in traffic growth and revenue
optimization.
He also co-founded BITSEmbryo along
with his 1997 batch BITSians classmates, and led the team from idea
inception to building an Embryo Club on campus to run this project. Since inception, Embryo has conducted about 100 lectures via
video-conferencing,
some of them simultaneously across Pilani, Goa and Dubai campuses with
an attendance of over 500 students. Shashikant will guide the
implementation
of similar program at OCTAVE Business School.
Prior to TheFind, Shashikant worked
at INSEAD France for a year. Shashikant is 2nd merit in BE (Hons)
Computers
Science from BITS Pilani and has an MS in Computer Science from Stanford
University. He was 2nd rank holder in HSC and 3rd rank holder in SSC
from Nagpur Board. Personal
Co-Founder and now the CTO of ‘TheFind’. What next? Next is making TheFind the greatest shopping company in history. I’ll figure out what to do after TheFind when I come to it.
How did entrepreneurship happen? Getting a job in a big company and working for other people is not something that comes naturally to me, especially when I know I can do something better. Entrepreneurship happened because (a) I was actively looking for it all along, (b) I went to the right place in the world for Computer Science folks to become entrepreneurs – Stanford (c) lady luck hooked me with the right people.
You get up in the morning. All charged up to go to work. What keeps you motivated? The simple fact that I’m building the best company in the world (in the domain of shopping). I get to innovate, which I love to do. Besides, I get to work with a bunch of smart people, a number of whom are BITSians.
How did ‘BITS Embryo’ happen? BITSEmbryo is basically a result of a small group of BITSian friends itching to do something together, and also to give back to BITS Pilani. At some point of time around 2004, a group of us were actively brainstorming on ways in which we can contribute to BITS Pilani. One of the common themes that emerged from the discussion was: How the make the students on campus more aware of what’s going on in the real world. This would help them in making career decisions very early on in life.
E.g. I work in the general area of web search / machine learning. This is undoubtedly the hottest field in CS these days. There was no such course in BITS during my time, so I did not know anything about this area. My Stanford SOP actually said "I want to work in Computer Networks” because that was the only useful elective available in BITS. Luckily I came to Stanford, got introduced to web search, and now I’ve cofounded a company doing search. However, in my CS batch, I’m the only person (maybe 1 more) working in web search. In contrast, in the same batch from IIT Powaii, there are at least 10 people I personally know who are in the area of web search, many with PhDs, working in google / yahoo / microsoft / startups. That is because they took relevant courses during their BTech, and then applied for PhDs in the same field in US universities.
This example translates to many fields.
We believe that getting knowledge
early on in life regarding cutting edge
technologies can have a fundamental effect in shaping the careers of
students. We want to make sure that current BITSian students get the
full opportunity to realise their potential in their areas of interest.
That is the reason why we started BITSEmbryo.
We pursued some ideas, and the BITSEmbryo idea of connecting BITS Alumni to students/faculty on campus via video conferencing became the most successful. Since then, we’ve done more than 100 lectures.
What keeps you engaged in your spare time? What spare time? Haa haa.
If you had a time machine, what would you do? Not sure how to answer this. I think about the future, not the past. However, I do love history, so I’d probably go back in time and see how various historical events took place.
What is the craziest thing that you have done? Not sure. But here’s a funny story: When I opened my first stock trading account, I bought Apple stock for $40 and sold it for $42 a few days later, and felt extremely proud of myself on making some money in stock. Have you seen what it’s trading at now!
Personal Favorites
Book
Tale of Two Cities
Food
Whatever mom cooks, whatever I cook (!)
Movie
Many - both Hindi & English
TV Series
'Friends'
Actor/Actress
Amitabh/Rekha and all of Amol Palekar, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil etc.etc.
Sports
Not into sports
Holiday
Europe (Paris, Barcelona)
BITSian Favorites
Hangout Place
Everywhere except classroom
Club/Department
HPC
Hostel
Shankar Bhawan, Ashok Bhawan
Redi
Not a redi kind of guy; Shankar redi whenever I did go
C'not Restaurant
Sharma's
Food
Munna Pavitra Bhojanalaya
BITSian Slang
All of them! (I've always had many BITSians around me!)
Spoken like a true BITSian
Your BITSian experience in one word. Life-changing
One thing that you will always miss about BITS. Endless night-out sessions with friends
Something you learnt at BITS that has always helped you. How to win and continue to keep on winning under limited time and resources .
How would you like to see BITS in the year 2020. Your ideal vision. An institute imparting the best education (including post-graduate level), comparable to US Ivy League schools.
For BITSians on campus: Not to leave campus without doing this one thing! (a) Making lots of friends; (b) working in some club / department.
Your association with and thoughts about BITSAA. I’ve been involved with BITSAA for quite some time. Amongst all the Indian alumni organizations I’ve seen, it’s probably the best one. Kudos to everybody who has made is so successful.
Message to BITSians on campuses: Along with having a lot of fun during the 4 years, make sure you develop a plan for your career. Most successful people in the world start off early. Remember Tendulkar in international cricket at 16 or Bill Gates as CEO of Microsoft at 25. Find out what you’re passionate about, and learn as much as you can about those things. Use both on-campus resources (teachers, colleagues) and off-campus resources (alumni who give Embryo lectures) to discover and develop your interests.
Message to all BITSians: Pursue your dreams. If you don’t change the world, who will?
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COO, 2012-14
CEO, 2012-14
RSS
Mr. Krishna Vavilala, has worked tirelessly towards spreading Indian culture in the United States since he first came here. He has also been active on the political front. In 1996, he introduced a motion in the Texas State Democratic Party Convention urging for US support to India over China. Mr. Vavilala has also published numerous letters in the national mainstream press such as the Houston Chronicle on a wide variety of subjects ranging from Indo-American relations to Taliban’s tagging of Hindus in Afghanistan. 
Rakesh Verma
Yashveer Singh is a co-founder of National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF) which has a single minded mission of promoting social entrepreneurship in universities across India and bring about concrete social changes in the society. Born and brought up in rural Rajasthan, Yahsveer Singh graduated with MSc. (Hons) Economics from BITS, Pilani. He has earlier worked with Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, a non-profit organisation focused on improving governance in India, through a combination of political advocacy, research, grass-roots mobilisation, and civic training. Prior to Janaagraha, he led a rural entrepreneurship initiative to develop appropriate marketing strategies and income-generation projects for rural communities. 
Sudip Dutta
Shashikant Khandelwal