8 Famous People Who Dropped Out of IITs And Became Successful In Different Fields
IIT are prestigious educational institutions and major world companies and organisations that line up to hire their 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.
Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are prestigious educational institutions and major world companies and organisations line up to hire their 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.
However, there are a lot of IITans who did not prefer IIT even after cracking the entrance exam or dropped out during the course. Here are some of them:
1. Rahul Yadav
Rahul YadavRahul Yadav founder of Housing.com | Photo: Forbes
Every idea is not meant to be successful in the long run but what matters is your intention and focus. The story of the founder of Housing.com, Rahul Yadav speaks the same. Like most of the youngsters who belong to a middle-class family, Yadav too had a target to settle down with a decent college and then a good job. But life had different plans for Yadav and this is why even after joining IIT Bombay in the year 2007 he could not fit in there and dropped out of college in his final year.
2. Dr. M Damodaran
Dr. M Damodaran dropped out of IIT Madras in his second year to pursue a degree in economics. He later joined Delhi University to study law.
Dr. M Damodaran | excellenceenablers.com
Dr. Damodaran with his unorthodox choices served as the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India from 2005 to 2008. He held big jobs in his career as the chairman of IDBI bank, chairman of UTI (India¡¯s largest mutual fund). He was also an officer of Indian Administrative Services and served as the chairman of SEBI from 2005 to 2009.
Dr. Damodaran is a person to who everyone should look up to. When everyone opts to get into IITs for a better living and get big jobs, Dr Damodaran proved that by believing in yourself you can do better in life, achieve fame and get bigger jobs.
3. Azhar Iqubal
Azhar Iqubal, Anunay Arunav and Deepit Purkayastha are the masterminds and the founders of the app Inshorts. It is a Delhi-based company and a fantastic platform that provides fresh news within 60 words to get updated on the go. Well, isn¡¯t the concept amazing? And guess what? These three brilliant sources of intelligence had quit IIT to execute their bright idea.
Azhar Iqubal, Founder & CEO, Inshorts | Photo: Twitter
Never underestimate the power of a dropout as who knew these IIT dropouts would found a Rs 600 crore Inshorts App company.
4. Shashvat Nakrani
At 23, most of us are either finishing the last couple years of education doing post-graduation or are a few years into a new job.
Successful IIT Dropouts | Shashvat Nakrani | Photo:Twitter
Well, others who are made from a completely different mold make it to the richest individuals list by this young age. Case in point, Shashvat Nakrani.
IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2021 was released recently and the one person that grabbed our eyes was the co-founder of BharatPe, Shashvat Nakrani. He is named the 'youngest richest self-made' individual on the list. At 22, he was also the youngest co-founder in the Fintech space in India.
He is an IIT Delhi dropout who left college in 2018 to found the UPI payment service provider, BharatPe along with Ashneer Grover and Bhavik Koladiya.
5. Vinod Rai
Successful IIT Dropouts | Vinod Rai | Photo: Twitter
Vinod Rai was responsible for breaking 2G scam, Coalgate, Commonwealth Games games corruption cases. Vinod Rai cleared the IIT entrance exam but didn¡¯t join it instead he did his Masters in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University.
6. Narayan Murthy
Narayana Murthy is a well-known person for every teenager. Murthy cleared IIT entrance exam but didn¡¯t join due to financial problems as his father couldn't afford it. Instead, he joined the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore.
Successful IIT Dropouts | Narayan Murthy | Photo: AFP
Infosys founder Narayana Murthy is one of the pioneers in the Indian tech industry. He launched Infosys in 1981 together with six other individuals on a meagre Rs 10,000 which he borrowed from his wife Sudha Murthy. With no family business background, Murthy, a man from a middle-class family, made it big.
7. Prashant Bhushan
Prashant Bhushan is a well-known lawyer and a politician, who has over 500 PILs to his credit and was once fined one rupee for his tweets criticising Chief Justice of India SA Bobde.
Successful IIT Dropouts | Prashant Bhushan | Photo: AFP
Prashant Bhushan cleared the IIT entrance examination, joined IIT-Madras but after a semester he quit IIT and pursue a two-year BSc program with Philosophy, Economics, and Political Science. Prashant Bhushan went on to study at Princeton University but returned to India without completing it.
8. Mukesh Ambani
When a son expects an extravagant gift from his father, the father says ,"Son, I am not Ambani". Every father always compares himself with the richest man of India when it comes to satisfying extravagant demands of a superbike or a car from his adolescent son.
Successful IIT Dropouts | Mukesh Ambani | Photo: AFP
But do you really know that Mukesh Ambani dropped out of IIT to be with his friends at the Institute of Chemical Technology (Mumbai)? Today Mukesh Ambani is the Chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, India¡¯s biggest oil, a petrochemical company with operations in retail and telecom & the richest man of India.
The wealthiest person in India, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries occupies the Tenth slot in the world¡¯s richest persons¡¯ list. He has a net worth of $102 billion.
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Anuj Tiwari writes stories for SEO and is a Youtube wizard. An engineer turned social media champ, he keeps a track of all that goes around the world. His interest areas include historic events, political and social-sciences.