IIT Roorkee to award its distinguished alumni. Which entrepreneur, govt official and CEO made the cut? Details inside

IIT Roorkee announced its Distinguished Alumnus Awards (DAA), Outstanding Service Awards (OSA) and Distinguished Young Alumnus Awards (DYAA) 2021. Every year, these awards are presented to IIT Roorkee alumni to recognise their outstanding contributions in their chosen careers. 

The OSA has been introduced for the first time this year to recognise alumni for their outstanding service to their alma mater.

Nominations for DAA, DYAA and OSA are invited from all over the world and this year 163 and 37 nominations were considered for DAA and DYAA respectively. Over the years, the students graduating from this institute have achieved excellence in the industry, business, government, academic and research institutions. They have also gone on to become successful entrepreneurs or have extended their service to society.

The DAA awardees for 2021
Research Excellence:
- Prof OP Malik (1962 ME Electrical Engineering), Professor Emeritus, University of Calgary, Canada
- Prof Rajeev Ahuja (1986 MSc Physics), Director, IIT Ropar and Professor, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

Excellence in Technology Innovation:
- Dr Dinesh Srivastava (1982 BE Metallurgical Engineering), Chairman and CEO, Nuclear Fuel Complex, Hyderabad
- Dr SSV Ramakumar (1984 MSc Chemistry), Director (R&D) and Board Member, Indian Oil Corporation

Excellence in Leadership in the Government or Public Sector:
Government Sector:
- Dr Shailendra Kumar Joshi (1981 BE Electronics and Communications Engineering), Retd Chief Secretary, Govt of Telangana

Public Sector:
- Dr Dinesh Kumar Likhi (1981 BE Metallurgical Engineering), Retd Chairman cum Managing Director, Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI)

Excellence in Leadership in the Private Sector:
- Saurabh Agrawal (1982 BE Chemical Engineering), Group CFO and Director, Tata Sons Private Limited
- Sumit Dhawan (1996 BE Computer Sciences Engineering), President VMware, Palo Alto, California, USA

The OSA awardees for 2021
Augmenting Resources for IITR
- Pitamber Shivnani (1986 BE Electrical Engineering), MD and CEO GE, T&D India Limited

Promoting Excellence in Academics and Research
- Dr Kiran Panesar (1989 BE Computer Science Engineering), Staff Software Engineer, Google lnc, CA, USA
- Pradeep Kumar Bhatnagar (1970 BE Electrical Engineering), President Technical at Reliance Jio

The DYAA awardees for 2021
- Dr Raju Kumar Gupta (2005 BTech Chemical Engineering), Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, llT Kanpur
- Ankit Garg (2010 BTech Chemical Engineering), CEO and Co-Founder, Wakefit
- Mukul Rustagi (2013 BTech Electronics and Communications Engineering), CEO & Co-Founder, Classplus

Addressing the media, Prof AK Chaturvedi, Director IIT Roorkee, said, “IIT Roorkee is fortunate to have a large number of alumni who have done exceedingly well in their chosen profession. Not surprisingly, these awards are quite competitive. This year we are happy to present awards to 14 of our alumni under various categories.” These awards shall be conferred on the Foundation Day of IIT Roorkee — 25th November, 2021.