Date:25/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/25/stories/2008112555280500.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Alumni hold the IIT flag aloft

Special Correspondent

They are associated with $450 billion
of incremental economic
value creation

CHENNAI: Alumni of seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), when measured across industry, government, entrepreneurial activity and scientific/technological innovations, have been associated with more than $450 billion of incremental economic value creation, according to an alumni impact study.

The alumni have also been involved in the creation of more than 20 million jobs. Overall, IIT alumni in senior positions in industry and government across the world now have an annual budgetary responsibility for more than $885 billion.

The survey, commissioned by PanIIT (an umbrella organisation of seven IITs) and Indian Brand Equity Fund two months ago, covered more than 4,500 alumni. Around two lakh students graduated from the Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Roorkee and Guwahati campuses since 1954 (The University of Roorkee was declared IIT-Roorkee in September 2001).

Of those who graduated prior to 2001, four out of 10 have been playing top leadership roles in corporations, educational institutions, research laboratories, non-governmental organisations, governmental agencies and politics, besides heading their own companies.

Fifty-four per cent of the top 500 Indian companies currently have at least one IIT alumnus on their Board of Directors. One in five alumni work in research and education. Half of the alumni in research and education are based in India.

One in 10 alumni are now engaged in social transformation, working in NGOs, government administration or politics. One in 10 have started their own companies, with more than 40 per cent being serial entrepreneurs. Two-thirds of the companies founded are in India.

B. Santhanam, chairman, PanIIT-2008, said the size of the sample was very high.

Rajan Srikanth, who belonged to the 1983 batch of IIT-Madras and PanIIT coordinator for the survey, said the sample was representative.

Pari Natarajan, co-founder and chief executive officer of Zinnov, the management consultancy firm that executed the survey, said that of those alumni who were in the top leadership roles, seven out of 10 were based in India, with two out of 10 being returnees. Mr. Santhanam said the details of the findings would be made public at the annual IIT alumni conference to be held here from December 19 to 21.