Entry into the revered IIT walls is in and of itself a goal for many students. Major international businesses and organisations wait in line to hire IIT students since it is a respected college. There were certainly many students who went on to excel in their chosen vocations and bring honour to India.
However, for some people, it’s simply the beginning of unbelievable success tales. Successful IIT graduates have influenced numerous generations of students, including top CEOs, well-known scientists, young businesspeople, and eccentric performers.
Here are a few of the well-known success stories of IIT-Bombay grads who are slaying the globe and making us proud!
1. Twitter CEO – Parag Agrawal
Parag Agrawal, the new CEO of Twitter, attended IIT-Bombay before enrolling at Stanford University to earn a PhD in computer science. He joined Twitter in 2011 as a renowned software developer, quickly climbing the corporate ladder to become CTO in 2017.
Agrawal held executive positions at Microsoft Research and Yahoo! Research prior to joining Twitter.
Agrawal was chosen by Twitter’s board of directors “unanimously” following a thorough hiring process, according to outgoing CEO Jack Dorsey. In a letter that was made available to the public on Twitter, Dorsey asserted that Agrawal was instrumental in “every essential decision” that saved Twitter.
2. ISRO Chairman – Kailasavadivoo Sivan
In 1980, Dr K. Sivan received his degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology. In 1982, Dr Sivan graduated with a ME in aerospace engineering from IISc, Bangalore. He then finished his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from IIT, Bombay in 2006 after that. The Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thiruvananthapuram is currently under his direction.
A well-known scientist from Tamil Nadu named Dr Sivan oversaw the Chandrayaan 2 Mission. He made a substantial contribution to the design of the PSLV, GSLV, and GSLV Mk-Ill vehicles as well.
He has held a variety of positions throughout his time at ISR0, including Project Director for the Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle Project (GSLV), Director for the Liquid Propulsion Systems Center, and Project Director for the Reusable Launch Vehicle – Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) (LPSC). He has more than 30 years of experience in technology development, infrastructure setup for ISRO’s launch vehicle programmes, leading varied project teams for big and complex projects, and systems engineering of space transportation systems.
3. Non-Executive Chairman, Infosys – Nandan Nilekani
One of IIT-most Bombay’s most well-known graduates is the businessman and bureaucrat Nandan Nilekani. He went to college to get his bachelor’s in electrical engineering.
Infosys was founded in 1981, and one of the founders was Nandan Nilekani. He presently serves as the non-executive chairman of the top IT company. Between 2009 and 2013, he also served as the UIDAI’s chairman, which is responsible for providing Aadhaar cards.
4. Ola Cabs, Co-founder – Bhavish Aggarwal
Co-founding partner of Ola Cabs and an entrepreneur from India is Bhavish Aggarwal. Aggarwal was listed among Time magazine’s 2018 list of the 100 Most Influential People. In 2008, Bhavish Aggarwal earned his degree in computer science and engineering from IIT Bombay.
Bhavish started his career with Microsoft, where he spent two years while also submitting two patent applications and writing three papers for international journals. He and Ankit Bhati co-founded Ola Cabs in Bengaluru in January 2011.
5. Chief Executive Officer of Infosys – Salil Parekh
Since January 2, 2018, Salil Parekh has served as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Infosys. Salil Parekh graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering (IIT Bombay). In the year 2000, Parekh began his career with Capgemini as a board member of management. He later transferred to the consultant division of Ernst & Young before working for Infosys.
6. Former Defence Minister of India – Manohar Parrikar
Manohar Parrikar, a former defence minister and four-time chief minister of Goa, graduated from IIT-Bombay as well. In 1978, he received his degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the university.
Notably, the BJP leader was the first IIT alumnus to hold both the office of Chief Minister and that of MLA in the same state. After a protracted illness, he passed away in March of this year at the age of 63.
7. Professor at University of Illinois – Sarita Adve
Famous IIT-Bombay alumnus Sarita Adve graduated from the university with a BTech in electrical engineering in 1987.
Sarita Adve is well known for her important contributions to a variety of domains, including power management, memory consistency models for multiprocessors, memory system performance, and hardware reliability.
In the United States, Sarita Adve teaches computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
8. Member of Rajya Sabha – Jairam Ramesh
Jairam Ramesh is an active politician who works for the Indian National Congress and is a professional economist. He represents the state of Karnataka as a member of parliament.
Ramesh was born in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, on April 9, 1954, and received his B. Tech. from IIT Bombay in the mechanical engineering department.
Jairam Ramesh was named minister of drinking water and sanitation and minister of rural development in the year 2011. (2011-2014). On July 1st, 2016, he began serving as the Karnataka representative. He was a founder member of the Hyderabad Indian School of Business. Jairam Ramesh is currently a strategic policy advisor to a UN organisation on environmentally sound technologies for developing countries.
9. Co-founder & President of Springboard – Parul Gupta
President and co-founder of Springboard IIT-Bombay where Parul Gupta received her electrical engineering degree. She served on the IIT Bombay Alumni Association’s Executive Board. She established a platform that promotes education and offers an alternative to the current system.
10. Professor of Economics – Viral Acharya
Indian economist Viral V. Acharya was chosen to serve as the Reserve Bank of India’s deputy governor.
The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay awarded Prof. Acharya a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering in 1995, and NYU-Stern awarded him a PhD in Finance in 2001. On March 10, 2018, he also got the Distinguished Alumnus Award 2018 during IIT Bombay’s Foundation Day celebrations.
Since 2014, Acharya has also been a member of the Academic Council of the National Institute of Securities Markets, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, and the RBI Academy’s advisory council.
11. Designer – Udaya Kumar
An Indian professor and designer are known for creating the symbol for the rupee, Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam. IIT Guwahati’s assistant professor is Udaya Kumar. At IDC, IIT Bombay, D. Udaya Kumar pursued his PhD studies (2010).
In addition to creating the symbol for the Indian rupee, Udaya also created the Tamil font “Parashakti” as part of a mini-project at the Industrial Design Center, IDC, under the direction of Prof. G. V. Sreekumar He wrote and created a book on Tamil typography for his MDes project, the first effort to introduce the subject to a Tamil audience. In this book, Kumar also developed new Tamil terms for numerous typographical terms that were previously only referenced by English words.
