PanIIT in India
We are all proud to belong to the IIT system, whose contribution to technology and business leadership has received worldwide recognition.
PanIIT movement started in the US because in the US “IIT” has become a brand and the identity of individual IIT’s has no significance apart from the fact that numbers of alumni of individual IIT’s did not the required strength to form an independent chapter of their parent IIT Alumni Association. In these circumstances, everyone saw the advantages of alumni of all IIT’s coming together and create a tremendous synergy effect.
Looking at the success of PanIIT movement in the US, alumni of various IIT’s also felt that coming together of alumni of all IIT’s in India would also bring out benefits which no individual AA can generate. Many amongst us have always felt the need to “give back” – to India and to our alma mater. One of the raison d’être of this association would be to use this network, and the leverage that it can develop, to help each IITian in his endeavor to build India. Accordingly, PanIIT Alumni India came up to bring together alumni of all IIT’s and offer a platform to take up initiatives and projects in which IITians at large can participate and help in the nation building and similar other similar activities.
The 2004 event in Delhi - whose theme was “Empower India” - was the turning point for the movement, when it was decided that it should bring nation-building within its scope. It was decided that the PanIIT organization would take up the following tasks:
- Improve PanIIT branding and become an important lobbying forum: The branding exercise was to be achieved through regular interactions with the media by IITians. Another role was that of providing moral leadership and influencing public opinion. It also involved setting up networking/lobbying groups to influence investment panels/governments in the areas of administration (IAS), defence, NGO liaison and a US chamber lobby.
- Undertake `Empowering India' tasks: This involved setting up focus groups and writing position papers on matters of national importance, like globalization, future of computing, the automobile sector, defence, water, power, rural development, education etc.
- Interact with the IIT system to grow the IIT brand: Here, the tasks were to ensure that the IIT brand was not diluted due to political or extraneous factors, working on IIT-industry interaction to commercialise technologies, improving the research infrastructure at IITs etc.
- Setting up a PanIIT secretariat: To convert all these plans into action, a Global Secretariat was proposed to be set up. Its job was to ensure action and continuity, raise funds, coordinate worldwide etc.
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who gave an inspiring talk at the 2004 event, made some suggestions on involving IITians in developing rural areas and fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship in the hinterland of the country.
Some of the initiatives that resulted from the event were the PanIIT Future of Computing Initiative (PiFOCI), the Pan-IIT Foundation for Rural Transformation (PiFort), and a seminar on `Opportunities for India in the Knowledge Economy'.
After the formal creation of PanIIT Alumni India, it has been regularly conducting Global Alumni Meet mega events. PanIIT 2006 event, organized in December 2006 in Mumbai saw 5000+ alumni belonging to all IIT’s coming together to participate in sessions built on the theme “Inspire to Involve and Transform India”. Various initiatives that resulted from this meet are described under Initiatives Section of this site.
Next Global Alumni Meet is planned at Chennai in December 2008.
More details of PanIIT Alumni India are covered in the Section “Organisation”.
