Find the list of the notable alumni of BITS Pilani here which features people like Prithviraj Chavan and Baba Kalyani. Find links for BITS Alumni Community.
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BITS Pilani notable alumni have the distinction of being graduates of one of the country's leading institutes of higher education. BITS Pilani focuses on higher education and research in engineering and science. Moreover, it focuses students on equipping them with technical knowledge and gives its students hands-on experience in startups and entrepreneurship. This article briefs about the BITS Pilani alumni to showcase the people who have risen to fame after studying from such a reputed college.
BITS Pilani Notable Alumni List
BITS Pilani is an all-India institute of technical education. The main aim of the institute is to advance knowledge and excel students in science and technology. Many notable alumni have graduated from this institute, and the details of famous, notable alumni of BITS Pilani are provided below.
Prithviraj Chavan
Prithviraj Chavan is a renowned politician of India and served as the 17th chief minister of Maharashtra. He is also an alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley, in mechanical engineering. He also worked in aircraft instrumentation for anti-submarine warfare in the United States before returning to India. He was also a Minister of State, Ministries of the Science of and Technology, and Minister of State in charge of the Department of Atomic Energy. Prithviraj Chavan is known for his clean and non-controversial image and the perception that he did not have any political support.
He played a major role with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to convince the Minister for Environment and Forests in the clearance for establishing another airport in Mumbai, i.e., Navi Mumbai International Airport. Before joining hands in politics, he was also an entrepreneur after returning from the US.
Profession: Politician
Baba Kalyani
Baba Neelkanth Kalyani was born on 7 January 1949, is a Pune-based industrialist. He completed BE (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from the renowned BITS Pilani and subsequently earned his MSc from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA. Today, he is the Chairman & Managing Director of Bharat Forge Limited (BFL), a USD 3 billion Kalyani Group flagship company. Kalyani group companies have collaboration with global MNCs. His strong entrepreneurial mind joined with the penchant for equipping the best technology, has elevated the company to a 'category leader' in the worldwide industrial landscape. Therefore, Bharat Forge Limited is now widely known as the No.1 forgiving company globally.
He also served as the chairman of Pratham Pune Education, a charity foundation that gives education to underprivileged children. Kalyani is awarded the Padma Bhushan award for his contribution to trade and industry.
Profession: Chairman & MD, Bharat Forge Ltd.
SP Kothari
SP Kothari is presently the renowned Gordon Y Billard Professor of Accounting and Finance at the Sloan School of Management. Before this, he also served as a worldwide head of equity research for Barclays Global Investors (BGI) and was responsible for research and supporting BGI's active equity strategies. The vigorously managed BGI had over $100 billion of assets, and the research team consisted of approximately 50 PhDs. Previously he was the head of the Department of Economics, Finance, and Accounting at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Kothari's work was honored by the American Accounting Association for his contribution to the Accounting Literature Award. He was also an editor of the Journal Accounting and Economics, a renowned academic research journal in accounting. Kothari was also awarded an honorary doctorate, Doctor Honoris Causa, from the University of Technology, Sydney. In addition, he is the recipient of a 2020 Padma Shri Award, one of India's highest civilian honors.
Profession: Professor of Accounting and Finance
Sabeer Bhatia
Sabeer Bhatia is an Indian-American businessman who is the founder of the webmail company Hotmail.com. He is one of the great thinkers and visionaries of our generations. He has been successful in his companies and makes opportunities for others to be successful. He worked for Apple Computer and Firepower Systems Inc. He established Hotmail on 4 July 1996 with his colleague Jack Smith on the occasion of American Independence. During his tenure as President and CEO, he led Hotmail until its acquisition by Microsoft in 1998 for approximately $400 million.
After working with Microsoft for a year after the accession of Hotmail, he started a free messaging service called JaxtrSMS. He invested in various collaboration software such as ccZen and another e-commerce technology provider E-junkie.
Profession: Entrepreneur
Vivek Paul
Vivek Paul is an American businessman and is currently an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University. Paul also serves on the Boards of Taylor Farms and Freedom House. He started his entrepreneurship career at PepsiCo, where his outstanding talent in the business domain was immediately recognized. In 1994, Paul became the CEO of Wipro GE Medical Systems. It is a joint venture which began as a sales and service arm and became India's largest exporter of high-value electronic goods. In one of the books about Jack Welch, Vivek Paul was considered among the top 5 All-Star CEOs from GE.
After becoming the Vice Chairman of Wipro and CEO of its outsourcing unit, he has been attributed for creating Wipro into a multibillion-dollar company. According to several magazines, he was also acknowledged as among the top six managers in the world.
Profession: Businessman.
SK Roongta
Sushil Kumar Roongta is the former chairman of the Steel Authority of India (SAIL). He pursued BE (Electrical) from BITS Pilani and is a gold medalist in Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from IIFT, Delhi. SK Roongta received several awards, such as the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises for its excellence and outstanding contribution in Public Sector Management and the IIM-JRD Tata Award for brilliance in Corporate leadership in Metallurgical industries.
He is widely known as the principal expert in metal, power, and public sector turnarounds. Mr. Roongta also served as the chairman of the Panel Of Experts on reforms constituted by the planning commission and is widely renowned as the 'Roongta Committee.' The committee's report is generally taken as a benchmark for public sector reforms in today's times.
Profession: Businessperson.
Anu Hasan
Anu Hasan is a renowned Indian Tamil actress and TV anchor, though deviated from conventional actress, but has engraved her niche. She gave several impressive performances in various roles in several movies. She was the anchor of the celebrity talk show "Koffee with Anu," which entrenched her as one of the most successful hosts in the industry and made her a household name in Tamil Nadu. She also did work as a dubbing artist and offered her voice to many non-Tamil speaking actresses. She is widely regarded as a multi-talented actor who can work in various roles in the film industry.
She also writes a monthly column for magazines. In addition, she wrote a book which is named 'Sunny Side Up' which is a Self Help English book.
Profession: Actress and TV Anchor.
Other Prominent Alumni of BITS Pilani
Other than notable alumni of BITS Pilani, some prominent alumni have made significant contributions to their operations. Some of them are as follows.
| Prominent Alumni of BITS Pilani | Profession |
| Krishna Saraswat | Electrical Engineer |
| Sanjay Mehrotra | Businessperson |
| Milind Tambe | Computer Scientist |
| Rakesh Kapoor | Entrepreneur |
| Rajiv Bapna | Businessperson |
| B. Sandhya | Children’s Book Author |
| Goverdhan Mehta | Chemist |
| Dilip D’Souza | Author, Journalist |
| Padmini Chettur | Choreographer |
| Shashi Warrier | Writer |
Official Alumni Community of BITS Pilani
BITS Pilani has numerous graduates all across India and the world. These graduates have achieved unbelievable success in their lives and have remained in touch with each other and their alma mater. This strong community of BITS Pilani alumni is a parallel to their official alumni community. The links to access the same are given below.
| Particulars | Links |
| BITS Pilani Official Alumni Community | Click Here |
| BITS Pilani Alumni Association | Click Here |
| BITS Pilani Distinguished Alumni | Click Here |
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