The PanIIT Alumni movement, over the years, has developed and consolidated itself in many ways. It has fully functional chapters in India (PanIIT Alumni India), the US, the EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, and Singapore amongst others. It has organized a slew of global and regional events to permit alumni networking.
The Turning Point
The 2004 event in Delhi – whose theme was “Empower India” – was the turning point for the movement. It was decided that the PanIIT Alumni organization should bring nation-building within its scope and take up the
following tasks:
- Improve PanIIT Alumni branding and become an important lobbying forum. Undertake ‘Empowering India tasks.
- Interact with the IIT system to grow the IIT brand. Set up a PanIIT secretariat.
Some of the initiatives that resulted from the 2004 event:
Knowledge Initiative
- Creation of a Rs-50-crore-fund by the Ministry of Science and Technology to co-operatively work with PanIIT Alumni for developing technologies that benefit rural India.
Pi-Fort (Pan IIT Foundation For Rural Transformation)
- Setting up a ‘proof of concept’ for a marketing/ distribution network resulting in better yield for
farmers. - Portal for harvesting technologies.
- Knowledge base of existing initiatives by various IITians and IITian-led organizations.
Pi-Foci (Pan IIT Future of Computing Initiative)
- White paper on the appropriate technology stack (hardware, software, communication, applications) for developing countries.