Birla Institute Alumni Ring the NASDQ Opening Bell
One Million Dollar Check presented to BITS Pilani by BITSAA International in the Golden Jubilee celebrations held in Hyderabad. Copyright 2013, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
NEW YORK: BITSAA International, a global alumni association of Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS), Pilani, was invited by NASDQ, New York to ring the opening bell, a unique honor bestowed on any Indian educational institution, as a curtain raiser to it’s Golden Jubiliee celebrations held in Hyderabad.
Ringing the Bell on the Floor of NASDQ floor. Copyright 2013, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
“The NASDQ opening bell ceremony is a wonderful recognition of the growing impact that alumni of India’s top Universities and BITS Pilani in particular are having on America as the leading innovators and job creators of tomorrow.” said Raju Reddy, Chairman, BITSAA, Advisor to Chairman, Hitachi ITSC global business.
Distinguished BITS graduates (known as BITSians) who attended the ceremony were: Raju Reddy, Chairman of BITSAA International and Advisor to Hitachi ITSC global business, Prof. S.P. Kothari, Deputy Dean and the Gordon Y Billard, Professor of Management at MIT’s Sloan School ofManagement, Prem Jain, co-founder of Insieme Networks, Atul Bhatnagar, CEO of Cambium Networks, Preetish Nijhawan, co-founder of Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKAM), Viggy Mokkarala, Executive Vice President, Envestnet, Inc. (NYSE:ENV), Nasir Memon, Professor and Department Chairman, Computer Sciences and Engineering, NYU, Shashikant Khandelwal, cofounder and CTO of TheFind, and 40 other BITS alumni spanning the fields of health care,academia and finance,
BITS,Pilani which was founded 50 years ago in association with Ford Foundation and MIT by late G.D.Birla, a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi in India’s freedom struggle, has become a premiere private institute of Technology in India offering quality education with world-class curriculum and largest industry-university partnerships. It has the distinction of being the only Indian institution to operate an off shore campus in Dubai, in addition to its three campuses in India, at Pilani, Goa and Hyderabad.
The institute is one of the most selective in the world with less than 1.5% admission rate, administered through an online exam called BITSAT.
For further information, visit www.bits-pilani.ac.in.
About one fourth of the institute’s world wide alumni of 50,000 have come and settled in USA and several of them have established highly successful technology companies in Silicon Valley and many others became Senior Executives of multi-national companies in America. In recognition of their achievements, NASDQ has accorded BITSAA International the honor to ring the opening bell, a unique recognition rarely bestowed on an Indian alumni association.
During the Golden Jubililee celebrations of BITS Pilani, a one- Million Dollar check (see photo) was presented by BITSAA International to BITS Pilani. This money will support ongoing projects like: enhancing the quality of education (Embryo, OLAB), promoting entrepreneurship (NVC, BITS Spark, BITS2Startup), enhancing rural education and employability (Atmanirbhara), networking the campuses (BITSConnect, BITSConnect2.0) and supporting professional development of alumni and students (BITS2MSPHD,BITS2IAS, BITS2BSCHOOL, BITSAA Miles).
For further details on these projects, contact Kalyan Krishnamani, VP, Communications,kalyan@bitsaa.org, tel.+1 408 658 9276.
For further information about BITSAA International, Houston Chapter. call Mr. Krishna Vavilala,Tel. 713-795-5169.