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IITAV Newsletter
April 2016                                                                                         Issue No. 14



Message from the IITAV President

Dear IITAV colleagues and friends,

This edition of our newsletter has reports of our professional and social events and activities during the past six months. Our special feature event with John McIntosh, National President of Engineers Australia, a site visit to IITAV member Rajesh Kataria's impressive GlassCo Australia, a networking event and two social events, Diwali and Holi, were held. It is pleasing to report that participation at IITAV events has shown a remarkable increase and we broke yet another record of attendance at our recent Holi event.

Our revised membership policy implemented in 2015 is seeing more of our members including Foundation members renewing their membership for multiple years. This bodes well for the sustainability and growth of IITAV. I specially request our members to actively encourage IIT alumni to become members of IITAV. Thank you!

On a personal note, I was privileged to be invited as a panel member at the inaugural Pravasi Bhartiya Divas 2016 hosted by the Consul General of India in Melbourne on 21st February. The invitation was also acknowledgement of the good work and activities of IITAV.

I take this opportunity to thank current and past Committee members and their families for your remarkable efforts during the year. The work done by the Committee members is critical to the activities of the association. In the past three years we have been averaging seven to eight events and other activities every year which have required a lot of voluntary effort and commitment.

It is AGM time again! IITAV’s 2016 AGM will be held on Saturday, 7th May 2016, 3-5.30 pm at Swinburne University’s Hawthorn campus. IITAV members and IIT alumni are sincerely invited to attend and participate in the discussions which will be of great help to the work of the 2016-17 Management Committee.

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    IITAV Management Committee 2015-16:
    Front row left to right: Rachana Kaudinya, Raj Rajakumar, Nikhil Kumar, Ravi Singh, Rakesh Saraf
    Back Row: Dilip Desai, Abaran Deep, Sridhar Karuppasami, Vipin Gaindhar.

Best wishes,

Raj Rajakumar

Dr. Raj Rajakumar
Mob: 0432 474 385
raj.rajakumar43@gmail.com

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Annual General Meeting 2016 


The 2016 Annual General Meeting for IITAV will be held on Saturday, 7th May 2016, from 3:00 to 5:30 pm at ATC-Room 205, Swinburne University, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia 3122.

All IIT Alumni are invited to attend. Please note that in the event of an election, voting rights are available only to active financial members of IITAV.

Please RSVP your intention to attend by sending a mail to mail@iitav.org.au. Light refreshments will be provided. The agenda for the AGM is as follows:

1.     Welcome, Apologies and Proxies.
2.     Approve minutes of 2015 AGM.
3.     President’s Annual Report 2015-16.
4.     Treasurer’s Annual Report 2015–16.
5.     Nominations and Elections for 2016–17 Management Committee.
6.     Welcome and hand-over to the 2016-17 Management Committee.
7.     Open discussion on way forward.

More details about the AGM can be found here.






Special Feature Event:
Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Effective Change Management” by John McIntosh, National President 2016 Engineers Australia
5th October 2015


IITAV’s special event in collaboration with Engineers Australia featured John McIntosh, National President 2016, Engineers Australia, who took the audience on an engaging and interactive journey highlighting how moods and emotions play a key role in encouraging entrepreneurship, innovation and change management. The session was attended by over 65 IITAV members and guests, with a significant attendance of our friends from Engineers Australia, Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Melbourne.

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Kicking off the evening, Prof Ajay Kapoor, Pro Vice Chancellor - International Research Engagement, Swinburne University, who had kindly arranged the excellent venue at the university’s Hawthorn campus, welcomed Special Guest Ms. Manika Jain (Consul General of India – Melbourne), John McIntosh, IITAV members and other guests. (Read More)

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  Visit to GlassCo Australia
12th December 2015


IITAV members and guests were privileged to visit GlassCo Australia on Saturday, 12th December 2015.  GlassCo Australia is owned by IIT Delhi graduate, Rajesh Kataria since 2003. The business model principally is B2B supplying glass products and services to window manufacturers, glaziers, builders, furniture and cabinet makers in addition to glass used in surface transport vehicles such as cars, buses, trams and trains. It predominantly sources float and laminated glass from offshore markets and subsequently processes, finishes and delivers this glass to the wholesale glass and glazing market sectors within Victoria. (More)

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@Elephant and WheelBarrow, 9th March 2016


This event was held at the popular Elephant and Wheel Barrow in the city. The attendees enjoyed the get together. The possibility of holding some of these informal networking events at suburban locations to facilitate attendance by improving ease of access was discussed. Thank you to Nikhil Kumar for organising the venue.







IITAV @ Inaugural Pravasi Bhartiya Divas,
Indian Consulate, Melbourne
21st February 2016


The Inaugural Pravasi Bhartiya Divas was held at the Consulate General of India. Ms Manika Jain, Consul General for India in Melbourne moderated the two hour session.

Ms Jain briefly mentioned that the Government of India (GOI)’s flagship project initiatives are (i) Smart Cities (ii) Renewable Energy (iii) Make in India (iv) Digital India (v) Skill India (vi) Diaspora contribution to India’s social and developmental efforts (vii) Transferring Knowledge and Encouraging Innovation (viii) Startup India (ix) Making India the preferred Destination for Holistic Healthcare (x) Accelerating Tourism in India (xi) Indian Diaspora Associations contribution to GOI flagship Initiatives.

Dr Raj Rajakumar, IITAV President, was invited as a panel member along with five other panelists including IIT alumnus, Dr. Ravi Bhatia.

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Each panel member was given two minutes to speak followed by a brief discussion. Ravi Bhatia reviewed the scope of the important Make in India flagship project. (Read More)





Two great Universities join forces in training smart Indian students in Australia, December 2015

Professor Saman Halgamuge,
The University of Melbourne


IIT Kanpur signed a Joint PhD agreement with University of Melbourne expanding the existing collaboration. The Director of IIT Kanpur Prof Indranil Manna signed the agreement with the Deputy Provost and Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof Susan Elliott. Pro Vice-chancellor Graduate and International Research Prof Dick Strugnell witnessed the agreement and Dean of Engineering Prof Iven Mareels, Dean of Science Prof Karen Day and many Professors of the University and IIT alumni including Dr Raj Rajakumar, President of IIT Alumni Victoria joined the historical occasion.  (Read More)

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Indian Institute of Science Director, Prof Anurag Kumar visited the University of Melbourne - January 2016


Director of Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Prof Anurag Kumar (an Alumnus of IIT Kanpur), Chairperson of International relations of IISc Professor Usha Vijayraghavan and Chairperson of Centre for Nano Science and Engineering Prof Rudra Prathap visited University of Melbourne to explore the collaboration opportunity between the two Universities. The Vice Chancellor of University of Melbourne Prof Glyn Davis hosted a lunch at the University for the delegation. The delegation also visited Walter Eliza Hall Institute and various Departments and gave research talks at the Departments of Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering.




 


Congratulations to DD Saxena on winning two awards:  IITAV congratulates our member, DD Saxena, Managing Director of ROBE, for being honoured with the prestigious Indian Australian Ambassador of the Year award in October 2015 ( Watch here ) and NRI of the Year 2016 award in the Entrepreneur category.

Click here for more IIT related news.



We welcome Atul Johari (BHU) and Abhay Sinha (IIT Delhi) to our family of IITAV members and take this opportunity to thank all members for their continued participation in and support of  IITAV activities.


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Swinburne Logo

Swinburne University of Technology is an Australian public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. Swinburne operates five campuses in two countries and has an enrolment of students across vocational, undergraduate  and postgraduate levels.

Swinburne houses advanced labs such as Design for Ageing, Smart Structure and Factory of Future labs. “Being a corporate member of IITAV, we benefit from collaborations and industry experts to create a new forum for engineering students,” Professor Ajay Kapoor, said.(More)


EnvisionIT


Established in 2002 in Melbourne, Envision IT develops software products for global markets. This includes Standalone, Cloud based SaaS, Enterprise, Line of Business and mobile applications.

 Envision IT products are known for their ease of use, high productivity, efficiency and reliability. Typically, our products offer an ROI under 3 months. (More)





We take this opportunity to thank everyone for their contributions. Special thanks to: Professor Saman Halgamuge for reports from the University of Melbourne; Nikhil Kumar for his report on the IITAV event held with Engineers Australia; Vipin Gaindhar for providing the bulk of the photographs; Dr Raj Rajakumar for writing, sourcing and editing content; and Sridhar Karuppasami for production.

To help us improve the newsletter, please send your feedback and contributions (news, views and memories) for the next issue to

 mail@iitav.org.au

Previous editions of the newsletter are available here.

Members are also requested to update their profiles at our website.


Thank you.

IITAV Management Committee





 



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Our Diwali celebration held on 1st November at the Spirit of India Receptions in Preston was remarkable in that we had nearly 110 attendees. It was a fun evening with plenty of lively entertainment and sumptuous food. Thank you to our resident star performers including Radheshyam Gupta, Raman Singh and our youngsters who entertained us with their songs and dances. Guest performers, Abhishek Sharma and Mudit Kamal entertained us with their jokes and songs.

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Raffle prizes were given and the singing and dancing continued well into the night. We were privileged to have our Corporate members, Swinburne University and EnvisionIT attend with their VIP guests. Thank you to Rakesh and Pallavi Saraf, Ravi and Sangeeta Singh and the team for putting together this fabulous event. (More Photos)

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IITAV families and guests celebrated Holi on 20th March this year with over 80 attendees, a new record for our annual Holi event.  In a departure from our past Holi celebrations, the event was held at the Waverley Bowling Club. The guests were welcomed with colour, snacks and thandai. We had plenty of entertainment and nice South Indian delicacies at the specially set up dosa counter.

The youngsters, Aditi, Ramona, Kokil, Pratyusha, Janani and Chaitanya entertained everyone with their singing and dancing. Other highlights included songs by Raman Singh and a special qawali performance by the team led by Radheyshyam Gupta and Rakesh Saraf. A spot of dancing to the dhol, preceded by an introductory workshop on Bollywood dancing expertly guided by Marshie Rajakumar added to the enjoyment.  (Read More/Photos)

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The weather was beautifully sunny and everyone enjoyed the networking out in the open adjacent to the immaculately manicured bowling greens.  Several attendees also had a go at bowling in the practice greens with coaching thanks to the Bowling club staff.

Dr Raj Rajakumar welcomed the attendees and Nikhil Kumar proposed the vote of thanks.

Our congratulations and thanks to Rakesh and Pallavi Saraf, Sangeetha and Ravi Singh and team including IITAV Management Committee families for putting together such a fabulous event which will be a hard act to follow in terms of venue, quality and entertainment!

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Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are the premier institutes of engineering education in India.
IITAV is the Alumni Association for IIT alumni in Victoria.