IIT Delhi announces winners of the Alumni Awards 2019

The awards will be conferred to the winners during the 50th Convocation Ceremony of IIT Delhi on November 2, 2019, in which Mr. K. Sivan, the Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be the Chief Guest.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi on Wednesday announced the winners of the prestigious - Distinguished Alumni Awards and Distinguished Alumni Service Awards - for the year 2019. 

In a press statement, the institute informed that the Distinguished Alumni Awards 2019 will be presented to three alumni of the institute - Prof. Srinivasan Keshav, Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo for his outstanding contributions in Teaching & Research; Dr. Mohit Aron, Founder and CEO of Cohesity for outstanding contributions made in Entrepreneurship and Mr. Binny Bansal, Co-Founder, Flipkart for outstanding contributions made in Entrepreneurship.

The Distinguished Alumni Service Award 2019 will be conferred to two personalities -  Mr. Arun Duggal, Chairman of ICRA Ltd., Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited and International Asset Reconstruction Company for significant efforts and contributions made towards the development and progress of the institute and  Mr. Amarjit Singh Bakshi, Founder and CMD of the Bakshi Group. Mr. Bakshi is a Delhi based business conglomerate and a first-generation entrepreneur for significant efforts and contributions made towards the development and progress of the institute.

While congratulating the awardees, Prof V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi said, "IIT Delhi has over 50,000 alumni right now and many of them have done exceedingly well in their chosen professions and brought glory to the institute and the country. This year’s Distinguished Alumni awardees are also in a way representing the rich tradition of entrepreneurship that exists among IIT Delhi alumni. Over 50% of the Indian or Indian origin Unicorn founders are graduates of IIT Delhi. The Institute celebrates the achievements of its alumni by giving these awards.”

Prof Sanjeev Sanghi, Dean, Alumni Affairs & International Programmes, said, “The institute is proud of its alumni and deeply appreciates their contributions towards academics, research, corporate development and entrepreneurship. Conferment of Distinguished Alumni and Distinguished Alumni Service Awards is an acknowledgement on the institute’s part of the significant contributions made by its alumni in nation-building.”  

Distinguished Alumni Award 2019

Prof. Srinivasan Keshav: Professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo, Prof. Srinivasan Keshav is known for his cutting-edge research in the areas of computer networking and energy informatics. He currently focuses on research in blockchains for transactive energy. He received his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Delhi in 1986 and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1991. He was awarded the Director's Gold Medal for his undergraduate work at IIT Delhi and his doctoral work at UC Berkeley was recognized by the David Sakrison Prize for excellence.

He is an ACM and IEEE Fellow; his research work is cited more than 16000 times and has a h-index of 54. He also holds 73 patents issued worldwide. He is co-director of the Information Systems and Science for Energy (ISS4E) Laboratory at the University of Waterloo since 2010.

Dr. Mohit Aron: Founder and CEO of Cohesity, Dr. Mohit Aron is an entrepreneur & businessman and commonly referred as the "Father of Hyper-Converged Infrastructure". He earned his PhD from Rice University in Computer Science in 2000 and received his B.Tech. degree in Computer Science from IIT Delhi in 1995.

Dr. Aron has more than 15 years of experience in building scalable, high-performance distribution systems. He built his career with various start-ups, Zambeel Inc., Google and Aster Data Systems. He co-founded Nutanix in 2009 and founded Cohesity Inc. in 2013. Both of the companies are unicorn startup companies.

Nutanix had a market value of US$ 2 billion in September 2016 before it went for the IPO. While, Cohesity has reached a valuation of over US$ 1 Billion in 2018, achieving the Unicorn feet in just 5 years. Since 2017, Dr. Aron is also a board member and advisor at Memsql Inc.

Mr. Binny Bansal: Indian billionaire and Internet entrepreneur, Mr. Binny Bansal was co-founder of the Indian online retail giant, Flipkart. He did his B. Tech in Computer Science & Engineering from IIT Delhi in 2005.  

He served Flipkart as Chief Operating Officer till January 2016 and then was promoted to the position of Chief Executive Officer.

The company is a former Unicorn Startup with a valuation of US$ 22 Billion in August 2018 at the time of acquisition by Walmart. After exiting from Flipkart in November 2018, he became a prolific angel investor and now mentors with over thirty investments in the startup ecosystem. He recently co-founded another technology company named, xto10x Technologies, to achieve the vision of helping startups.

Distinguished Alumni Service Award 2019

Mr. Arun Duggal: A US national and resident of India, Mr. Arun Duggal is currently Chairman of ICRA Ltd., Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited and International Asset Reconstruction Company. He also serves on Board of Directors of ITC Limited, Info Edge and Jubilant Pharma Limited. Mr. Duggal previously held and currently holds positions of Director (Independent) and Chairman of various firms as well, naming a few American Chamber of Commerce India, Citibank Korea, Transparency International India, Petronet LNG Ltd., Zuari Group Companies, Adani Ports & SEZ, ReNew Power Ltd. and many more. A Mechanical Engineering B. Tech. graduate of 1967 batch from IIT Delhi, Mr. Duggal had a 26 years long career in the banking domain with Bank of America. He helped in setting up Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA) at IIT Delhi in 2018; the centre aims to develop technological solutions and advocate policies to reduce the air pollution in India.

Mr. Amarjit Singh Bakshi: Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of the Bakshi Group, Mr. Amarjit Singh Bakshi is a Delhi based business conglomerate and a first-generation entrepreneur. The group operates in infrastructure, hospitality, defence, real estate and automotive industries. Mr. Bakshi is a Civil Engineering B.Tech graduate of 1967 batch from IIT Delhi. He came from a humble background and made himself a renowned industrialist in North India. He has served as the CMD of the Continental Engines India since 1990 and Central Park In since 2001. Continental Engines India specializes in Cylinder Heads low-pressure technology and exports 85% of their products to Europe and the USA while catering to companies such as Opel, BMW, Mercedes and Peugeot. Central Park In is a brand known for its ultra-luxury residential spaces in the National Capital Region, that have luxury residential and 5-star hospitality projects with an area more than 5.5 million sq. ft. under its belt. He is also A recipient of numerous awards and honours over the years, Mr Bakshi was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award for "Outstanding Contribution to National Development" by IIT Delhi Alumni Association.

(With inputs from IIT Delhi)