From Parag Agrawal To K Sivan, Meet 11 Alumni Of IIT-Bombay Who Made India Proud!

For many students, entry into the hallowed walls of IIT is a dream in itself. Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) is a prestigious institution and major world companies and organisations line up to hire its students. No doubt that there had been a lot of students who went on to become successful in their chosen fields and made India proud.

But for some, it is just the first step to creating unthinkable success stories. From top-notch CEOs to famous scientists, from young entrepreneurs to quirky entertainers, successful IIT alumni have inspired many generations of students.

Here are some of the famous IIT-Bombay graduates' success stories who are ruling the world and making us proud!

1. Twitter CEO - Parag Agrawal

Breitbart.com

Twitter's new CEO Parag Agrawal studied at IIT-Bombay after which he attended Stanford University to get a PhD in Computer Science. In 2011, he joined Twitter as a distinguished software engineer, moving up the ladder quickly to take over CTO duties in 2017.

Before joining Twitter, Agrawal held leadership positions at Microsoft Research and Yahoo! Research.

According to former CEO Jack Dorsey, after a rigorous selection process, Twitter's board of directors appointed Agrawal "unanimously." In a letter shared publicly on Twitter, Dorsey claimed that Agrawal had been played a key role in "every critical decision" that helped turn Twitter around.

2. ISRO Chairman - Kailasavadivoo Sivan

BCCL

Dr. K. Sivan graduated from Madras Institute of Technology in Aeronautical engineering in 1980. Dr Sivan took his ME in Aerospace engineering from IISc, Bangalore in 1982. Subsequently, he completed his PhD in Aerospace engineering from IIT, Bombay in 2006. He is currently the Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thiruvananthapuram.

Dr. Sivan is a famous scientist from Tamil Nadu who headed Chandrayaan 2 Mission. He has also contributed significantly in PSLV, GSLV and GSLV Mk-Ill vehicle design.

During his career at ISR0, he has held many responsibilities like Project Director, Re-usable Launch Vehicle - Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD); Project Director, Geosynchronous launch vehicle project (GSLV); and Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC). He has more than 30 years of experience in the systems engineering of the space transportation systems of leading diverse project teams for large and complex projects, of technology development and infrastructure set-up for ISRO's launch vehicle programs.

3. Non-Executive Chairman, Infosys - Nandan Nilekani

Nandan Nilekani: Top 10 most generous people in India | EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2021

Nandan Nilekani, an entrepreneur and bureaucrat, is one of the most famous alumni of IIT-Bombay. He pursued a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the institute.

Nandan Nilekani is one of the founders of Infosys, which was established in 1981. He is currently the Non-Executive Chairman of the leading IT firm. He also served as the Chairman of the UIDAI, the Aadhaar-issuing authority, between 2009-13.

4. Ola Cabs, Co-founder - Bhavish Aggarwal

OLA founder Bhavish Aggarwal | ET

Bhavish Aggarwal is an Indian entrepreneur and co-founder of Ola Cabs. Aggarwal was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018. Bhavish Aggarwal graduated from IIT Bombay in Computer Science and Engineering in 2008.

Bhavish began his career with Microsoft, where he worked for two years, filed two patents, and published three papers in international journals. In January 2011, he co-founded Ola Cabs with Ankit Bhati in Bengaluru.

5. Chief Executive Officer of Infosys - Salil Parekh

Salil Parekh | ET

Salil Parekh is currently a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Infosys since January 2, 2018. Salil Parekh completed his bachelor's in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay). Parekh started his career with Capgemini as a board member of management in the year 2000 and then moved on to Ernst & Young's consultancy division before working in Infosys.

6. Former Defence Minister of India - Manohar Parrikar

Manohar Parrikar | Twitter

Four-time Goa Cheif Minister and former Defense Minister, Manohar Parrikar, was also an alumnus of IIT-Bombay. He graduated in Metallurgical Engineering from the institute in 1978.

Notably, the BJP leader was the first-ever IIT alumnus to become an MLA of a state and to also serve as a Chief Minister. He passed away in March this year at 63 after battling a prolonged illness.

7. Professor at University of Illinois - Sarita Adve

Sarita Adve | ACM.org

Sarita Adve is a renowned IIT-Bombay alumna who got her BTech in electrical engineering from the institute in 1987.

Sarita Adve is best known for her significant contributions to the fields of memory consistency models for multiprocessors, memory system performance, hardware reliability, and power management among others.

Sarita Adve is a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US.

8. Member of Rajya Sabha - Jairam Ramesh

Jairam Ramesh | BCCL

Jairam Ramesh is an economist by profession and active politician representing Indian National Congress. He is a Member of Parliament representing Karnataka state.

Ramesh was born on April 9, 1954, in Chikmagalur, Karnataka, and completed his B. Tech in Mechanical engineering stream from IIT Bombay.

In the year 2011, Jairam Ramesh was appointed as Rural Development Minister and Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation (2011-2014). He assumed the office as MP for Karnataka on 1st July 2016. He is one of the founding members of the Indian school of business, Hyderabad. Currently, Jairam Ramesh provides strategic policy and advice on environmentally sound technologies for developing nations to a UN agency.

9. Co-founder & President of Springboard - Parul Gupta

Parul Gupta | YouTube

Co-founder and president of Springboard Parul Gupta is graduated from IIT-Bombay in Electrical Engineering. She worked as an Executive Board of IIT Bombay Alumni Association. She founded a platform that encourages learning and provides an alternative to the education system.

10. Professor of Economics - Viral Acharya

Viral Acharya | TOI

Viral V. Acharya is an Indian economist who was appointed as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

Prof. Acharya completed his Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 1995 and PhD in Finance from NYU-Stern in 2001. He has also received the Distinguished Alumnus Award 2018 during the Foundation Day Celebrations at IIT Bombay on March 10, 2018.

Acharya also served as a member of the advisory council of the RBI Academy and was a member of the Academic Council of the National Institute of Securities Markets, Securities and Exchange Board of India since 2014.

11. Designer - Udaya Kumar

Udaya Kumar | Facebook

Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam is an Indian academic and designer noted for his design of the Indian rupee sign. Udaya Kumar is an assistant professor at IIT Guwahati. D. Udaya Kumar pursued his doctoral studies at IDC, IIT Bombay (2010).

Not only the Indian rupee sign, Udaya has also designed a Tamil font named "Parashakti" as a mini project at Industrial Design Centre, IDC, under the guidance of Prof. G. V. Sreekumar. During his MDes project, he wrote and designed a book on Tamil typography, which is the first attempt at bringing a topic like the typography to a Tamil audience. In this book, Kumar also created new Tamil terminology for many typographic terms where English words were used.

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