1. Cover by: Mrs. Radha Harish, IITK E-magazine of the Alumni
of IIT Kanpur Issue 5: January 2015
2. Expand Your Universe Connect with VOICES Been There Done
That Share Your Creativity and Experience with Alumni and IITK
Everything printable (except politics) is welcome. If you can talk
about it, you can also write it for sure. Happenings in halls of
residences, mess, lectures, tutorials, play grounds, cultural clubs
and festivals, interaction with faculty, issues in senate, outings
in Kanpur, vacation, journeys, exams and quizzes, creative
explosions, eccentrics vs. genius, and current happenings on the
campus, the list is endless, and so must be our collective
memories. The E-magazine is in English and Hindi. Please send your
original writings, poems, photos, drawings, etc. to:
[email protected] ; [email protected] Due credit will be
given for each piece to its author. If the matter was published
elsewhere previously, the writer should mention it along with a
statement that there is no copyright issue if it is published in
the AA e-magazine. Sole responsibility for ensuring originality and
correctness of information remains with the author. Submissions
should be in plain text or an easily editable format. Photographs
and sketches should be submitted in the jpg/jpeg format limited to
200 KB. The previous issues of VOICES can be read at
http://www.iitkalumni.org/DisplayEMagazine.aspx Voices is grateful
to all its contributors for making one more issue possible,
especially batch of 1967-72. Editor - Arun Srivastava (BT/EE/67XXX)
January 2015.
3. Contents
Editorial.........................................................................................................................................................4
New Year - Arun
Srivastava.........................................................................................................................5
Conversation Bharat Ratna Prof. CNR Rao with S
Kanavi.............................................................................6
PARIVESH 1972 - Courtesy: Uday Chitranshi
..............................................................................................11
True Grit - Umesh
Jindal............................................................................................................................12
Buddhist Temples Inspired CreativityIn Japanese Arts
..............................................................................16
Dr. Ramesh Gehani Tons of Poetry on a
Street............................................................................................................................19
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......................................................................................................................22
The Eye, the Angle, and the Moment: Photgraphs by Rakesh Bhasin
..........................................................23
Treatment of Hazardous Waste - Dr. Udai Pratap
Singh.............................................................................27
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..............................................................................................................................32
Walrus and I - Arun Srivastava
...................................................................................................................33
Vikas Choudhary - theporter.in - Logistics with app
.................................................................................34
Shubham Deva - passionconnect.in Career counselling
.........................................................................37
4. Editorial Save Your Pumpkins They may bring deliverance
Traction of honesty is limited. Everyone knows how and why.
Everyone wants to remove the impediments. Even then the same types
of people keep winning everywhere. Everyone is responsible for this
situation yet it matters so little? Inequality is not going to
reduce with the same business continued. Who is the killer? The
greatest mystery is not so great, perhaps. It lies behind the
management of reason? No. One step behind. It lies in the
management of premises by obfuscation, management of evidence,
management of machinery that delivers justice, and management of
law ultimately. Who makes the law? The beneficiaries of course.
Public is insulated in the process. That is how modern parliaments
work, or work against the public if you like by facilitating tax
avoidance legally. Why is it so? Why is it so that sleaze wins when
a majority wants it eliminated? It is because the majority does not
exist. It does not contribute in thinking. It cannot see beyond its
nose. Albert Camus said it in the last century and it holds, We get
into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking.
Just you wait. Your pumpkins will turn into chariots and you will
be invited to the ball. Until then you have time to decide whether
to eat it or save it for that evening. Let the music play! - Arun
Srivastava (BT/EE/67XXX) January 2015
5. New Year Arun Srivastava (BT/EE/67XXX) [email protected]
Let it not fool us again Its not happy To have planes in Bottom of
the sea Innocent killed in Wars of titans Someone raped in Darkness
of humanity Crooks getting rich in Robbing the poor and state Left
out living in Wishes and prayer Continued Living falsehood in ages
Without or with A redeemer in know Shining in tears Answers dont
matter When anger sears Act before praying To get things done It
takes too long After painful deaths Only by ritual or song A bit of
feeling A bit of sharing A bit of time pass A bit of caring A bit
more To just keep going Thats all. My New-Year wish: A machine to
expose economic crimes. Arun Srivastava (BT/EE/67XXX)
[email protected]
6. Conversation Bharat Ratna Prof. CNR Rao Shivanand Kanavi 15
November 2014 Chintamani Nagesa Ramachandra Rao is among the most
prolific scientists in the world with over 1700 research
publications and having guided over 150 PhDs. He has been a pioneer
in several areas of material science and is now doing cutting edge
work and setting new trends in nanoscience. After having done
outstanding work in spectroscopy, High Temperature Super
Conductivity, Colossal magneto-resistance, graphenes, inorganic
nano tubes and so on. The octogenarian continues to
enthusiastically sally forth in photosynthesis and producing
Hydrogen through novel routes. He has been the chairman of
Scientific Advisory Committee to Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and
later Dr Manmohan Singh and been responsible for a number of
science initiatives of those regimes. Shivanand Kanavi conversed
with him in the verdant campus of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for
Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore, about his science and his
experiences as science advisor to Prime Ministers. (Excerpts of
this appeared in Prajavani, Business India and Rediff.com) What or
who inspired you to go for science? I was excited by science even
when I was very young. I met Prof. CV Raman while in school. I
talked to him and visited his laboratory in 1944- 45, almost 70
years ago. I was already in high school at that time since I
started school very young. When I finished my BSc I wanted to go
for research. The idea of research papers published with peoples
names on them, fascinated me. I had never seen such a thing. I
asked many teachers about research problems but they were not doing
anything exciting in the undergraduate college. They were not
encouraging either and said you are just a BSc student. That is why
I went to BHU. What about your parents? They allowed me to do
whatever I wanted to do. They never interfered with my plans for
studies. There was no pressure to do IAS, engineering etc. unlike
today. My father was in the education dept and he trusted my
choices. When I said I want to go to BHU and not study in Bangalore
he said fine. Why did you choose BHU? BHU had MSc with part course
work and part research thesis. Bombay University had MSc by
7. research only. I thought I needed to do some course work
along with research. At BHU, I read the book by Linus Pauling,
Nature of the Chemical Bond where he had talked about electronic
structure of molecules. It made me really excited about chemistry.
Why did you choose Chemistry and not Physics? I was much better in
Physics than in Chemistry as an undergraduate. I had 75% average in
theory, which was difficult in those days. Especially I liked
Physical Chemistry. When I went to US I chose Chemical Physics with
Physics as minor and Physical Chemistry as major. Pauling had
replied to me that he was not working on molecular structure
anymore but one of his students at Purdue was doing it. So I
decided to go to Purdue. I got teaching assistantships from MIT and
Columbia but I did not understand what TA meant. There was no one
to guide me. In 1954 there were very few Indians in the US. I
thought what I needed was research assistantship or fellowship.
Purdue gave me a research assistantship. However, it turned out
that I had to work in the laboratory of a professor who was an
organic chemist. The work had nothing to do with my PhD thesis. He
was a good person and wanted me to do some spectroscopy and
kinetics based on his compounds. This made me learn a lot of
spectroscopy and kinetics. I published several papers with him. Did
you do any experimental work there? Yes of course. I am an
experimentalist. I have built a very good lab here now. Today we
need not go to MIT or Harvard. It was not always like that. I did
my PhD on electron diffraction in gases. I also did some X ray
crystallography and all kinds of spectroscopy. It was a very busy
period of three years. I published around 20-22 papers by the time
I had my PhD. About ten of these were in electron diffraction and
about 8 were in spectroscopy. My PhD advisor was a nice man. He
knew that I was publishing with other Professors as well, but he
did not mind it. I published with 5-6 other professors. Whenever I
heard a problem posed in my class or seminar, I would find out if
it had been solved earlier. I would do some work on it and publish
it after showing it to the persons concerned. I was helping other
students of my advisor since he was busy with administration. If
you see the third edition of Paulings Nature of the Chemical Bond,
you will see two of the structures solved by me cited there. I went
to Berkley for my Post- Doctoral work and had a wonderful time. I
was getting several offers as an Assistant Professor in the US, but
I thought if I accepted a faculty offer there, then I may not come
back. In India I got offers from a CSIR laboratory, Indian
Institute of Science and Punjab University. Why did you choose to
come back to India? Oh, I belonged to a nationalist family. I used
to wear a Khadar cap till my BSc. Even when I was 12-13, I had
participated in the independence movement. I decided to come back
also to make my parents happy. I joined IISc and worked there for 4
years. Six students got PhDs working with me. How many PhDs have
you produced so far? Around 140-150. When I was 26, I wrote my
first book on Ultra Violet and Visible Spectroscopy, which has been
translated into 5 or 6 languages. Then, another book of mine on
Infrared Spectroscopy came out when I had just joined IIT Kanpur.
It was all about how to use spectroscopy in Chemistry. I became a
Professor in IIT Kanpur when I was not yet 30. That is when Prof. C
V Raman wrote to me and asked me to be a member of the science
academy of which he was president. IISc did not have any
spectrometers and he had allowed me to do some experiments in his
laboratory. All the great names of Indian science, including people
like Meghnad Saha and S N Bose, stopped doing research at a
relatively young age. Two persons who worked in science till the
end were Jagdish Chandra Bose and C V Raman. I admire such people
more than those who do one great thing and stop. IIT Kanpur was
wonderful. We perhaps had the best chemistry department in India.
In 1976, I left
8. IITK. I almost left India at that time. The level at which I
was doing research in Kanpur was not satisfying. There were one or
two spectrometers which had to be shared by many people. I had done
a lot of research at Oxford using (electron microscopy) and other
sophisticated instruments in 1973-1974. I then decided to build a
facility second to none in India. At that time Satish Dhawan, who
was Director of IISc told me why do you want to leave India, come
back to IISc and build a new Chemistry department from scratch. I
accepted and I built a new solid state and structural chemistry and
material research laboratory at IISc. I was able to build
reasonable facilities. I got my first electron microscope then.
Eventually, I had the chance to build this centre, which has
excellent facilities. How did Jawaharlal Nehru Center for Advanced
Scientific Research (JNCASR) come into being? A Nehru centenary
committee with R Venkataraman at the head had been set up. Some of
us suggested that we should have a small centre in Nehrus name
which would do interdisciplinary research. I was then chairman of
Science Advisory Council to Rajiv Gandhi at that time. One day, I
got a call that this idea had been accepted. People wanted to take
it to Pune or UP. I suggested Bangalore. Today, it is one of the
best in the India especially after the International Centre for
Material Science came up. I had to wait a long time in my life for
good facilities for research. Young people cannot complain now that
there is no facility in India which is world class in Material
Science. How did you raise funds? We have raised money from various
sources besides the modest sum that we get from the central
government. For example a Shaikh from the Emirates gave Rs 15
crores as a grant to do whatever we want to do in science!
Unfortunately no Indian industrialist has given like that. In the
evolution of your scientific interests you have mentioned
spectroscopy Even now I use a lot of spectroscopy but now I am
working mainly on the chemistry of advanced materials. I realized
long ago that one could not compete with the rest of the world in
high resolution spectroscopy etc. So, I chose a subject which would
be of global quality but new, and hence, the chemistry of solids.
It was a lonely road. Now, of course, I am called the grandfather
of the subject. I have worked on various types of research problems
in this area. For a lay person how would you explain what is solid
state and materials chemistry as opposed to solid state physics? We
make novel materials with interesting properties, like Graphene for
example which is a one atom thick sheet of carbon atoms. Molybdenum
sulphide nanosheets have now become a bigger attraction than
graphene. I have just written a frontier article on it. Why are
they interesting? They have novel electronic and magnetic
properties. The topic is spreading like wild fire. I had been to
Japan recently to deliver a lecture on this. How did you get
interested in transition metal oxides? Oh that was long back
because there are so many interesting things happening in the oxide
area because of the d-electrons. I have written many papers and
books on oxides. I still work on oxides. Was High Temperature Super
Conductivity (HTSC) a byproduct of this? I had already worked on
2-dimensional oxides. Some people had laughed at me at that time.
In fact one referee of an American journal wrote, why is Prof Rao
so obsessed with 2-dimensional oxides. Lo and behold, it was a
2-dimentional copper oxide that showed high temperature
superconductivity later! I worked on such oxides in IIT Kanpur and
later at IISc Bangalore. I have also worked on multiferroic oxides,
which combine ferroelectric and ferromagnetic properties. Colossal
magnetoresistance was found in one of the manganese oxides that I
had
9. worked long ago. I had done considerable work on these
oxides. I also work on sulphides. I got into research on fullerenes
in 1990. In 1991, within 2 months of the discovery of carbon
nanotubes, I had set up a lab here to study them. They can be
metallic or semiconducting. Last year I took a US patent on the
separation of semiconducting and metallic carbon nanotubes.
Graphene and nanotubes have many applications in electronics and
other areas. I also work on inorganic nanotubes (e.g. of Boron
Nitride, Molybdenum Sulphide). Nanosheets have become a big area. I
also work on nanowires and nanoparticles. Do they exhibit different
physics? Size alone is enough to lead to different properties. For
example, we made a major discovery 8 years ago here that all
nanoparticles are ferromagnetic, no matter of which material!
Nanoparticles of even zinc oxide and aluminum oxide with no d
electrons exhibit ferromagnetism. I have heard that recently you
got interested in photosynthesis. Yes, I have a few young students
doing wonderful work here on splitting water and to produce
hydrogen by artificial photosynthesis. This is the best way to make
hydrogen. Can you explain it in simple terms? Plants take water in
the air and then using photosystem-2 (where light is absorbed
exciting an electron and creating a hole) decompose water to oxygen
and photons. Eventually, in photosystem-1 the protons get reduced.
Plants do not produce hydrogen but sugars. In our lab, we use the
same mechanism to produce hydrogen and we are able to produce quite
a lot of it at highly competitive rates, compared to what is going
on globally in this field. We use ordinary sunlight (or a 100 W
lamp) for this purpose. I use semiconductor nanostructures or
nanosheets of simple inorganic materials for splitting water. For
example in one experiment, we have used MoS2 nanosheets. Unlike
electrolysis we do not use any electrical energy. I heard that
recently funds have been cut for research at various institutions.
This is not true. What happened last year was that all expenditure
was cut by 10% by the previous government. In a small institute
like ours, they cut 10 cr in a total budget of 50 cr! Approved
funding was cut suddenly and we had already ordered equipment etc.
I hope it will be rectified this year by the new government. I keep
telling the authorities that for a small institution like this
which is producing good work; they should not cut funding even if
they cannot increase it. What has been your experience as chairman
of PMs scientific advisory council? I have had good experience. I
am not a politician and I cannot give speeches about things, but a
lot of good things have been done in science by the previous
governments. Five IISERs(Indian Institute of Science Education and
Research) were started. Similarly, how do you think the Fast
Breeder Reactor is going on line, or new rockets are going up with
the cryogenic engine? We even got a Rs 5000 crore grant for
building a Peta Flop supercomputer. Elections muddied the scene
somewhat. Nobody wanted to hear anything positive. Look at Pune
ISER. It is the best among the lot and with excellent undergraduate
science education. Have you met the new Prime Minister? I have met
Mr. Modi, our new PM, for half an hour. It was a nice meeting. He
asked me to give a note on science and education in the country. I
prepared it and sent it to him. I got a nice note from him thanking
me. I expect great things to happen under our new PM, Mr. Modi. I
have never wanted to work in the government and become a Secretary
to Government or a Rajya Sabha MP. I was offered a Rajya Sabha seat
two or three times and I declined. Way back in 1975 when I was in
IIT Kanpur, Mrs. Indira Gandhi offered to make me a secretary. When
I said No she was surprised. I felt that I was too young to be a
secretary to Government. I want to do good science, and not become
an official.
10. How was it with VP Singh, P V NarasimhaRao or Vajpayee?
There was no SAC to PM under Mr. Narasimha Rao. Under Dr. Manmohan
Singh, we could do a few important things. I used to meet him once
in 6-8 weeks. He often said, Prof Rao you assume that you have my
approval and carry on. He was shy and decent. He is a real
gentleman. I expect great things to happen under our new PM, Mr.
Modi. What are your scientific interests now? Artificial
photosynthesis and physics and chemistry based on inorganic
nanosheets are two areas. The nanosheets exhibit surprising
properties. Then, there are some other new areas that I am working
on. Science keeps me going at 80. I feel young. Shivanand Kanavi
(Msc Phy 1974) Mob: +91 98202 25869 Email: [email protected];
[email protected]; Blog: www.reflections-shivanand.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @shivanandkanavi From his Blog:
http://www.reflections-shivanand.blogspot.in/2014/11/conversation-bharat-ratna-prof-cnr-rao.html
12. Real Life True Grit Umesh Jindal (BT/EE/67XXX)
[email protected] It was a muggy monsoon night in Delhi in July, 1975.
I and my wife Aruna (age 21 at the time) and the rest of our family
had come to Palam airport in New Delhi to see off my younger
brother, Dr. Rakesh Jindal, who was on his way to join the
residency program at Beekman Downtown Hospital in New York.
Accompanying him was his friend and class mate, Dr. Naveen Gupta.
Few years later, we were once again at Palam Airport to see off
Arunas youngest brother, Anil Gupta, who was proceeding to USA to
pursue higher studies after graduating from IIT, Delhi. We had no
idea at the time about the role they would play in our lives nine
years later at City of Hope, a cancer research hospital in USA. In
the summer of 1984 as I was in a meeting with my management team at
the office, Aruna called from home. She had noticed an enlarged
lymph node on the side of her neck while applying face cream a few
days ago and had the good sense to go see her doctor. She told me
that her doctor's office had called her to come right away to
repeat her blood tests as they were extremely abnormal. "Don't
worry; the lab probably messed up on my test" she said on the
phone. Visit to California and diagnosis at City of Hope In the
next four days things had moved very fast and our lives had taken
an abrupt turn to put it mildly. Doctors had confirmed the
diagnosis of an incurable cancer for Aruna after biopsy of the
lymph node. I left my job at a moment's notice with no idea when I
would be back. Aruna (30 then), our younger son Mudit, 4, and I
were on our way to Porterville, California to be with our brother
Rakesh and his wife Manisha to seek Aruna's treatment at City of
Hope, California; thanks to the referral from Dr. Naveen Gupta, who
was now a practicing Hematologist and Oncologist in Upland,
California. Our elder son, Prateek, 8, who was attending school in
New Delhi, stayed back with my youngest brother Atulesh Jindal and
his wife, Priti.
13. The thought of losing my companion and mother of two young
sons was just not acceptable, and it was even more devastating to
imagine what was going through Aruna's mind about us. It was a time
of utter despair and helplessness for all of us. Still she kept a
brave front with a big smile to cheer up every one. A bone marrow
test at City of Hope confirmed that Aruna had Acute Lymphoblastic
Leukemia (ALL) of T cells, an extremely aggressive leukemia with a
very short remission period, with an extremely high chance of
recurrence. Dr. Fahey at the City of Hope told us that her only
chance of a long term survival was to have an experimental
treatment with some promise, called Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT).
BMT could only be performed when a patient achieved remission and
ONLY if one of her siblings was a compatible donor with an HLA
match. Chance that a siblings HLA would match a patient is 25%. We
were devastated to hear this prognosis! This quashed whatever faint
hope we had that doctors in India might have misdiagnosed her
cancer. The reality of a grave danger to Arunas life started to
sink in for the first time that day as we drove back from the City
of Hope to Porterville. The success rate for Leukemia in adults
with BMT treatment was 33% in 1984, we were told. Graft Versus Host
Disease (GVHD), Cytomegalovirus (CMV) causing death in immune
suppressed patients, and long term effects of Total Body Radiation
were some of the factors affecting the success rate. The City of
Hope was one of the few cancer research hospitals in the world who
had a reputable BMT program and donations/grants (thanks to donors
like you) to undertake this expensive treatment for eligible and
willing patients. Aruna very bravely decided to take this chance
even if the odds were against her to fight the disease. My brother
Rakesh and my sister-in-law, Manisha were our first and the
strongest pillar of support in USA. Arunas brother, Anil, who was
doing PhD at University of Berkeley, took time off from his studies
to be with us and was the other big pillar of support. Dr. Naveen
Gupta was our third pillar of support. The doctors, nurses,
technicians, and support staff at City of Hope were extremely
supportive during the entire treatment. Our faith in God further
strengthened as only He could have known about Arunas forthcoming
illness in advance and had started to lay out all these pillars of
support for us years ahead of the diagnosis of leukemia. Treatment,
remission and then, the scare Arunas treatment went well and she
was in remission after a few rounds of Chemotherapy. With God's
grace, Anil turned out to be a total match for her bone marrow.
This good news really uplifted her spirits and we all hoped that
she would become a successful long term survivor after getting the
BMT. But eight weeks later and before she was scheduled to
undertake her BMT treatment, she ended up in the hospital with a
terrible infection which couldnt be controlled by a battery of
antibiotics that were given to her. She couldn't breathe on her own
and had to be shifted to ICU and intubated. Dr. John Fahey and the
entire team of doctors at City of Hope kept on trying different
medicines including various antibiotics, anti-fungal medicines and
contemplating an open lung biopsy as a last resort to save her
life, if required. It was a life and death moment. After 4 days on
the respirator in ICU, an anti-fungal medicine worked; she started
to turn around and left the hospital a week later. Bone Marrow
Transplant (BMT) February 12, 1985, was a new Date of Birth for
her, as we call it now. She was admitted to the City of Hope, 3rd
floor, BMT wing one week in advance for a massive doze of
Chemotherapy to
14. wipe out diseased Bone Marrow completely. This was followed
by a Total Body Radiation to kill any traces of cancer in her body.
On the new Date of Birth she was given infusion of new bone marrow
extracted from Anil, who had happily agreed to give the most
valuable gift to his sister, the gift of life. Arunas parents flew
over from India to be with us during this most difficult phase of
her life. The first 100 days post- transplant were extremely
crucial and we were required to admit her in the City of Hope
within 30 minutes if she ever developed fever so that life-saving
medicines could be started immediately to control any infection
right away. We had rented a town house in the city of Duarte very
close to City of Hope to meet this eventuality during the course of
this treatment. My parents, specially my mom, performed a long
prayer to ward off death, called "Maha Mrityunjay Yagna" in India
to pray for Aruna's life. It was amazing to see how the whole
family had come together for us at this critical juncture of our
lives. The treatment was extremely harsh on her body. Her white
blood cell count was negligible after a massive dose of Chemo and
total body radiation, and she had no ability left to fight any more
infection. The new marrow would take anywhere from 10 to 15 days to
be effective and start making white blood cells, we were told. She
was put in an isolation ward to protect her from infections. The
protective lining in her esophagus and stomach had completely
eroded and it was all raw inside. She was in a lot of pain and all
that she could eat was a frozen popsicle. Ice had a numbing effect
on the scars of her stomach. We would visit City of Hope every
morning for the next 40 days hoping that she would be fine but not
sure what awaited us there. It was an emotionally tiring time for
Arunas parents, Anil, and I. Her grit made us persevere against all
odds because one thing I was always sure of, no matter how much
pain she were in, she would always greet us with her signature big
smile. As the new marrow took hold, she improved and was able to
take some liquid food. Once her calorie intake from food exceeded
1500 calories in about 40 days post-transplant, she was able to
leave the hospital and come back home to our townhouse in Duarte.
While Aruna was still in isolation, we got a letter from INS
denying our request for an extension of our non-immigrant Visa
beyond the initial 6 months that was granted to us when we had
entered USA at Log Angeles International Airport. INS had ordered
us to leave USA within 3 days or face deportation proceedings. I
was dumb founded to read this letter and was completely at loss.
How could we ever think of leaving USA while she was in isolation
at the City of Hope? We had to continue somehow, I thought, but had
no idea how. We found our fourth pillar of support in Ms. Barr at
the social services department in the City of Hope. Thanks to her
help, we received our I-94 forms within two weeks duly stamped with
a 6 month extension. City of Hope not only provides treatment, they
help patients with their social, emotional, and other support
needs, and help them lead a normal life afterwards. Post BMT, and
not yet over 100 days passed and it appeared that Aruna was
recovering well. But she needed red blood cell transfusion every 3
weeks. While it was not uncommon for patients to receive these
transfusions during the first few months after BMT, almost all BMT
patients could stop needing such transfusions in 3 to 6 months. We
had to drop our plans of returning to India after her successful
BMT treatment due to this unforeseen and rare complication.
Moreover, repeated blood transfusions were causing an iron overload
and increased ferritin level in her blood which could adversely
affect her vital organs. She had to undergo Iron Chelation Therapy
to reduce the ferritin level by administering a drug called
Desferal overnight on a daily basis using a pump attached to her
body with a needle in her stomach area. Doctors at City of Hope
told that they did not know why she was the only known BMT patient
who needed transfusions years after BMT, and could not tell us when
it would be stopped. Since there is no known reason for such a
problem perhaps this may go away on its
15. own one day, they said. They were right. Sure enough this
problem did go away suddenly 6 years after BMT. Long term survivor
Thanks to City of Hope, Aruna is now a long term BMT survivor for
almost 30 years. Both of our sons, Prateek and Mudit are married.
Prateek is a physician at an Urgent Care in the Riverside area.
Mudit is a Manager with global services at IBM. We are a proud
grand parent of an 11 year granddaughter, Sneha and a 10-year old
grandson, Nikhil. When she was first diagnosed with cancer in 1984
in India, doctors had given her just a few months to live. In the
medical literature at that time, the long term survival rate for
BMT patients was considered to be about five years. Seeing the
children get married and enjoying life with grandkids seemed
impossible and unthinkable to us then. No words can describe our
gratitude to the City of Hope and its entire team. Our special
thanks to our entire family and everyone for their support during
the most difficult time of our lives. I am sharing a photograph of
Aruna and I from a family vacation this summer with our sons,
daughter-in-laws, and the grand children, a beautiful moment that
we could just pray for in 1984 City Of Hope A Global Leader in
Fight Against Cancer This research required over 100 million
dollars in the late 70s and early 80s. The need for funds at City
of Hope today is much larger. Their leading-edge research and
discoveries have saved millions of lives around the world since
1913. Because fighting cancer and finding a cure is close to our
hearts, I hope youll stand with us and help support their work
today! All the funds we raise will go directly to the City of Hope
so that they can continue their amazing work in research, treatment
and education. And you can trust theyll spend the money wisely
they've been awarded the highest rating of 4 stars by Charity
Navigator, Americas premier charity watchdog group. Please visit:
https://ourhope.cityofhope.org/fundraise?fcid=352100 Umesh and
Aruna at far right.
16. Culture Buddhist Temples Inspired Creativity In Japanese
Arts Dr. Ramesh Gehani (BT/Chem/67XXX) [email protected] Around
1400 years ago, a dwindling nation of nomadic fisherman, confined
to a string of islands in the Far East, evolved and became
civilized by importing the Buddhist philosophy and arts from South
Korea. These mind-expanding Buddhist values and larger-than-life
philosophies were innovated in Northern India 2,500 years ago. The
Japanese rulers layered these inspiring creative and meta-physical
Buddhist practices harmoniously on top of their native nature-based
Shinto way of life. In the 21st century, once again Japan is
stagnating with no growth over the past 20 years. Whereas there
have been no massive layoffs, the employees salaries and job
opportunities have been declining in Japan. Whereas Japanese grew
their economy to be #2 in the world, the nation of Japan has been
often perceived as a nation of fast-followers rather than creative
innovators. Companies such as Toyota, Honda, National, Hitachi, and
Toshiba are some examples of fast followers. Sony and Kyocera are
some exceptions. Many other nations of the world can learn from how
Japan will re-ignite its vigor and economic growth. Nature-Based
Shinto Japanese arts such as Ikebana flower arrangements, tea
ceremony, and No and Kabuki theater, are all inspired by Buddhism
and are famous for their serene and solemn aesthetics. But, the
nation of Japan is dotted with earth-quake prone active volcanoes
surrounded by a tsunami churning sea. Since Japanese have been
humbled many times by fury of the Mother Nature, their arts and
culture are governed by Nature. On a recent return visit to Japan
in the summer of 2014, I was once again reminded of the typhoons
and active volcanoes such as the ever-present awe-inspiring Mount
Fuji in main Honshu Island, Mount Aso and Sakurajima in the
Southern island of Kyushu, and the recent tsunami-nuclear reactor
disaster in Fukushima north of Tokyo.
17. Japans native Shinto way of life worships and draws
creative inspiration from all forms of nature. Japanese see a kami
or a god-spirit in anything awe-inspiring. This includes rocks and
mountains, forests and rivers, and flora and fauna. At Japans
National Museum in Ueno, Tokyo, I saw some of the early ceramic and
intricate pottery artworks of Jomon and Yoyoi periods (200 BC
200AD) depicting people and animals such as monkeys and snakes.
Japanese have expanded the god- spirit Kami in inanimate things as
well as in living beings as believed by Buddhists, Hindus, and
Jains. Deep Roots of Japanese Arts in Indian Buddhism On my recent
trip, documents at temples and museums showed me that Japans
creative arts are deeply rooted in the import and adoption of
Buddhism from South Korea in 6th century by Prince Shotoku Taishi
(574-622). From this early period, Japanese have been layering
their culture by harmoniously weaving layers of new ideas on their
prior native ideas. For 14 centuries Buddhist temples have been the
capsulated museums for Japanese people. These showcased graceful
sculptures, vast monasteries, and exquisite calligraphy. The
Buddhist temple complex of Horyuji (between Osaka and Nara, built
in 607) houses the awe-inspiring gold-plated bronze statues of
Shakyamuni Gautam Buddha (who lived in India in 5th century BC) as
a kami god-spirit that can alleviate the sufferings of mankind
(such as illness, ageing, untimely death), or a failed crop. In the
nearby ancient capital of Nara, a great docent and a university
professor vividly described to me Todai-ji temple, the oldest and
largest wooden structure in the world (160 foot high x 190 foot
wide). Built in 709 AD, it houses a 50 foot high gold-plated bronze
statue of Vairocana Buddha with 50 key characteristics that only a
docent can know and show. Mindful Creativity for Growth Kyoto, the
city spared by the American bombers during the World War II, is the
cultural heart-center of creativity and innovation in Japan. I was
returning to Kyoto 30 years after I had worked nearby at the
Pioneering R&D Center for Toray, helping invent and innovate
many polymer products. It was exhilarating to revisit Kyotos Zen
Rock gardens, Ocha-no-yu tea ceremony, and Geisha quarters. Again,
docents explained to me how most of the Japanese arts are rooted in
Buddhist Zen mindfulness. Japanese gardens replicate the vastness
of nature into tight compact spaces. Stagnation, Creativity and
Re-Growth It was, however, sad for me to note recently how many
Japanese enterprises have stagnated for the past 25 years, since
1989. The salaries of many of my Japanese friends and colleagues in
Toray Industries and Mitsui Group have declined. This has been
primarily attributed to the inability of the Japanese to innovate
products and processes, or create new industries (Think Apple) to
increase their productivity and prosperity.
18. Much of this stagnation in Japan can be attributed to their
conformance and lack of creative initiative and risk- taking. In a
series of lectures I gave in July-August, 2014 at Japans National
Universities such as Tokyo Institute of Technology, Chiba
University, Kanazawa Institute of Technology, and GLOBIS
University, I learned from many young students their challenges for
not becoming more innovative. They murmured that they primarily
tend to do what they are told to do by their superiors. Whereas
many Japanese leaders are highly educated and hard-working, change
in Japan takes place very slowly. Many creative new ways often get
squashed. There is a historical reason for this. During the Meiji
Revolution in 1868, in order to catch up with the West, and during
the subsequent rise of militaristic nationalism to help Japans
Imperialistic expansion, many Japanese leaders promoted Confucian
conformism and discouraged Buddhist openness. This helped Japan to
produce legions of disciplined hard-working human machines with
high productivity. But this conformance came at the expense of
curbing creativity and innovativeness. For many centuries, the
Buddhist temples in Japan inspired common people to develop their
islands into a major economy of the world. Their art museums today
can similarly play a pivotal role in boosting the creativity of
their adult visitors, and increase their capabilities to innovate
and grow. Lessons in Innovation for India Many of similar lessons
can be applied to the emerging economies such as India, China,
South Korea, and others. Cost-cutting and low wages can generate
competitive advantage for Indian enterprises only for a short
period of time. While the wage gap is big, and the going is good,
the Indian enterprises must also nurture and grow their dynamic
capabilities for indigenous innovation. Werent we taught 40 years
ago that this was the primary purpose for creating the Original
Five IITs? I sincerely hope that the strategic administrators and
professors at IITK and other IITs never lose track of that original
vision: To be the world-class Innovative Institutes of Technology.
Ramesh has spent 7 years in Japan on a Government Fellowship,
earning a Doctorate in Engineering degree, and researching on High
Performance Polymer and Composite Materials. Currently he is
excited about researching Creativity and Innovation in Japanese
Arts and Culture.
19. Art Meets Life Tons of Poetry on a Street Arun Srivastava
(BT/EE/67XXX) [email protected] Walking my grandson in a
stroller on a side walk of Addison Street in Berkeley, California,
last October I noticed a plaque embedded at the curb which looked
like some message in jagged lines. Intrigued by this I stepped
closer to find that it was a piece of poetry! Since I was pushing
the stroller I had to keep my gaze on ground occasionally otherwise
it could not have been noticed, perhaps. A little further on there
was another and another And it was on the entire side walk of the
street. This was unique. I photographed a few. After reaching home
I looked up the net for more information on it and found it on
Berkeley website. The City of Berkeley Public Art Program in
Cooperation with the Civic Arts Commission, Robert Hass (Poet
Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997), and the Berkeley
Community had installed it in 2003. More info:
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=25564 Media:
Cast-iron plates with porcelain enamel text on 120 individual
plates. Location: The sidewalk on Addison Street between Shattuck
Avenue and Milvia Street For Power Point Video of Poetry Panels
Installation in the Downtown Arts District visit:
http://berkeley.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=557 Press
Releases: Addison St. Press Release - President's Award Berkeley
Installs Three Tons of Poetry in the Downtown Arts District
(October 20, 2003)
23. The Eye, the Angle, and the Moment Rakesh Bhasin
(BT/CE/1982) [email protected] Rakesh went on to do M Tech
(Structures) from IIT Delhi and M Phil (Pub Ad) Punjab Univ. He is
working as a Senior Executive under Ministry of Defence and is
presently posted at Chief Engineer (Air Force) Shillong Zone. He is
a keen nature photographer who believes that photography is
governed by three things the eye, the angle and the moment. Apart
from his eye catching photographs he has authored three books. His
two volumes of English translation of Selected Stories of Premchand
have been well acclaimed in literary circles. He has also made a
documentary on socio-economic condition
24. Pangi Valley, a remote picturesque valley in Chamba
district in Himachal Pradesh. The film was showcased in the
International Film Festival of short films at Chandigarh.
25. Environment Treatment of Hazardous Waste Preserving the
Environment Dr. Udai Pratap Singh (BT/CE/67XXX)
[email protected] Hazardous waste is the dark side of
technology. Left to itself it can cripple life on earth, but its
treatment with intelligence can save the environment from the ill
effects. The following excerpts taken from Udais November 2014
email to his batch show how waste management and remediation works
with a few examples from his outstanding career in the field. Dream
to nightmare in Love Canal Modern day work on hazardous waste sites
in the US evolved from the tragedy at Love Canal, a dream community
on the eastern edge of Niagara Falls, New York in the mid to late
1970s. Hooker Chemical Company used the canal (which was later
filled up to build the residential community) as an industrial
dump. This eventually resulted in 82 different compounds, 11 of
them carcinogens, percolating upward through the soil, their drum
containers rotting and leaching into the backyards and basement of
homes and a public school built on the banks of the canal. Birth
defects and cancer were abnormally very high in this neighborhood.
The public outrage over this site and several others being
discovered all over the US resulted in the enactment of CERCLA
legislation (also known as Superfund) in the US Congress in
December 1980. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had put a
very high priority on finding (listing) and cleaning up such sites,
as directed by this bill. CH2M HILL got a contract from EPA in 1981
to work with them in this field. There was a rumor going around
that working on such sites would cause deformities in the body and
could create green monsters out of humans. I was stupid or bold
enough to volunteer, and was picked up immediately for technical
work on Superfund projects. We were asked to fully characterize the
sites (find the magnitude and extent of contamination), assess the
actual risk to human health and environment, perform feasibility
studies to evaluate various remedies to the problem, and remediate
at these sites. Volleyball in Moon Suits We had to undergo one week
of rigorous health and safety training in simulated conditions
in
26. Denver before working at Superfund sites. It included
medical tests and screening for baseline medical conditions and we
were checked by a doctor at least annually later on. On one of
those days, we had to be clad in Level-A Personal Protection
Equipment (PPE), basically moon suits and play volleyball. Most of
us made it through about 15 minutes of the game; some passed out
earlier and had to be rescued. The health and safety training was
later condensed into 8 hours and given as a refresher annually. My
first project site was near Miami, Florida. I characterized sites
in south Florida contaminated by leaking half buried drums full of
different chemicals, solvents from industries, and one PCB
contaminated site from illegal disposal of transformers. I never
got to wear Level-A PPE in real work. However, I did work in Levels
B (supplied air for breathing), C, and D for some time before
moving to office as a manager to concentrate on improving
practices, quality control, and ensuring legal defensibility of the
collected data, as EPA was going to sue the potentially responsible
parties (PRPs) to recover the cost of our services and remediation.
Teamwork IIT education came in handy. I was working with a team of
hydro-geologists, chemists, toxicologists, and engineers. It also
made me regret the little effort I had made in my organic chemistry
course. I had retained only the basics and could pick up from
discussing with the chemists and toxicologists, as well as some
reading on the side. We were sampling for and directing analysis of
compounds that I could not even pronounce. Luckily CH2M HILL had
their own lab with qualified chemists; they came to my rescue. We
couldnt patent those methods (the patents belonged to EPA who was
paying for the work), but EPA let us publish papers in Journals. In
1983 my team expanded significantly, and I was soon working as a
leader with more people including chemical/process engineers,
geotechnical engineers, cost-estimators, construction personnel,
and community relations specialists. We figured out new and
effective ways of conducting remedial investigations and performing
evaluations of different alternatives/technologies to solve the
problem, in a lab, with mathematical and other modeling, and with
pilot tests in the field. There were no specified guidelines on
conducting such work, even action levels for most contaminants; and
we used the internal network of CH2M HILL to brainstorm ideas and
make recommendations/decisions on each project. EPA Region 4
(southeast USA) awarded me a letter of commendation in 1985 for
successfully remediating several Superfund sites in south Florida,
significantly reducing contamination to the Biscayne Aquifer, the
sole source of drinking water in south Florida. The vast array of
air stripping towers at their treatment plant near Miami did the
trick, for the most part. EPA used our work in south Florida as a
basis for formulating their policy to address large contaminated
groundwater basins in the country. Stringfellow Acid Pits Site,
Southern California In 1986 EPA Region 9 (western US) called us for
their highest priority site, Stringfellow, also called Love Canal
of the West. This site was getting bad publicity, especially during
a heated political campaign for electing the governor of
California. Activists had sued the State and federal government for
not doing enough to alleviate the health risks in adjoining town.
They thought that since the site was on impermeable bedrock
(granite), it was safe and secure to dispose of and store liquid
waste from all kinds of industrial facilities in California.
Unfortunately the bedrock was fractured, and some of the waste
found its way to groundwater underneath, spreading down gradient to
the residential area half a mile away and also into a creek next to
a public school. We had to close off wells of residents in this
area and put them on bottled water supplied by EPA. This was a long
term project (decades). We immediately got rid of the liquid wastes
and capped the source area (site) so no additional
27. liquids could reach groundwater. Fractured bedrock gave us
the opportunity to try new investigative techniques. We were among
the first in the country to use horizontal drilling at such sites.
Controlling down gradient migration was achieved through a network
of groundwater extraction wells and treatment of the extracted
water at plants designed and built for cleaning up the water to
appropriate regulatory levels. We had to help the labs find ways to
analyze chemicals at low detection levels, and also work with
toxicologists to figure out what level of health risk they posed
(drinking x liters of water contaminated with each chemical a day
for y number of years equates to one in a million risk of
contracting cancer; same with other ways of exposure such as
bathing in that water, etc.). Every few years we have detected new
and emerging chemicals at this site, the latest one being
perchlorate. It is a technical challenge which is still being
addressed. Stringfellow sharpened our non-technical skills, such as
how to deal with an outraged community, as we interacted with them
frequently. In addition, I got involved in court cases on this
site. At a deposition for a class action lawsuit a resident was
getting irritated with questions from an EPA attorney, which made
an interesting story. The attorney: Mr. Jones, you allege that you
got brain damage from contamination from the Stringfellow site. Is
that true? Mr. Jones: Yes Sir. It is absolutely true. The attorney
rolled his eyes in disbelief and said, Ok Mr. Jones, when did you
first find out that you have brain damage? An agitated Mr. Jones
retorted: You want to know when I found out I had brain damage? I
will tell you. I found out when my lawyer told me I had brain
damage, pointing at his lawyer sitting next to him. We could see
the reaction on his lawyers face, and the rest of us broke out
laughing while Mr. Jones couldnt figure out what the joke was. May
be he did have brain damage! In the late 1980s we wrote a detailed
remedial investigation/feasibility study guidance document for EPA,
and it is still used by the hazardous waste remediation industry
all over the US. Menace of DDT A DDT contaminated site in Los
Angeles area was a landmark project in the 1990s. Montrose Chemical
Co., the largest manufacturer of DDT in the world, had a large
plant there (the company folded after USA declared DDT illegal for
use). They had contaminated a large piece of the area, including
residential yards, attics in homes, sewers, and even a part of the
ocean waters in sediments settled at the bottom adjoining the
treatment plant that discharged the DDT through an ocean outfall as
the treatment plant was not designed to treat DDT before
discharging its effluent. Pets were dying and necropsy found traces
of DDT in their body. We sampled lawns of hundreds of homes, and
based on results, evacuated an entire neighborhood. We found chunks
of DDT in the soil. Topsoil was replaced in many lawns. We also had
to manage 100 or so residents by moving them into hotels and rented
homes until the end of the project.
28. So far we were addressing the containment and treatment of
dense non-aqueous phase liquids in groundwater under the former DDT
plant. However the malaise had gone much deeper into the ocean by
now. The DDT-contaminated sediment in the Consolidated Slip under
the ocean was being eaten by earthworms, the food for a fish called
white croaker, which is a delicacy in Vietnamese and Laotian
communities of southern California. On one hand we were doing
community relations in trying to convince them not to consume white
croaker (it didnt work, and the authorities had to prohibit its
sale); and on the other hand we were evaluating remediation
techniques such as dredging the sediment without spreading it
elsewhere, or doing a pilot cap of the sediments under the ocean
with the right slope stability so that the undercurrents would not
erode or wash away the cap. Remediation of this site is still going
on. We were one of the first to apply in situ bioremediation, and
soil vapor extraction techniques on several sites. These were
picked up by the remediation industry, and are routine now.
Negative pH at Iron Mountain Mine Since the mid-1990s to very
recently we had 50 to 70 concurrent projects under the EPA program
I was managing. Slickrock Creek Retention Reservoir project at the
Iron Mountain Mine site in northern California. This project won
the Grand Prize from the American Council of Engineering Companies
in 2006. We built dams and reservoirs to contain acid mine
drainage, and used in situ and ex-situ Spring Creek contaminated
sediments cleanup project at Iron Mountain Mine site won the Grand
Prize for Industrial Waste Management from the American Academy of
Environmental Engineers & Scientists in 2014. treatment
technologies that contained or cleaned up the sites (soil, soil
vapor, surface water, and groundwater). At the Iron Mountain Mine
site in northern California the water was labeled by the media
during the 1990s as worlds worst water with pH of minus 3. I did
not know that pH could be negative until a US Geological Survey
scientist working with us measured it and explained to us. It had
killed all the fish and living organism in the river for miles
downstream. Over the next couple of decades, we eliminated 98% of
the pollutants entering surface waters and fish including salmon
have come back now in the Sacramento River downstream of the site.
State of the Art Recently we remediated a site contaminated with
pesticides by heating up the soil below ground surface to about 80
feet in depth to above 100 degree Celsius. This mobilized the
contaminants caught up in the soil in groundwater and the rest as
vapors. We extracted the mobilized
29. contaminated soil vapor and groundwater, treated them above
ground and released them into the environment. More recently we
tackled contaminated vapor intrusion (from below ground) into
buildings. There is a new sustainable frontier commonly known as
green remediation. It requires use of energy efficient techniques
including alternative energy sources (solar, wind, etc.), reduced
greenhouse gas emissions, reused materials, and making sure that
the remedy is optimized to minimize ongoing operation and
maintenance costs. The most important part is to have these sites
restored to their usage after the cleanup. There have been 1,500 to
2,000 National Priorities List (Superfund) sites in USA since the
early 1980s up to now, and I have had the privilege of working on
250 to 300 of them. Only a small number of them have been fully
cleaned up (many have been cleaned up partially and immediate
threat to the residents has been eliminated). They should be
cleaned up in the next decade or so. Udai Pratap Singh: Sharing the
Knowledge and Recognition Distinguished Alumnus Award from IITK,
2009 Published 60 technical papers and edited five books Co-author
of book Hazardous Waste Site Remediation Management, published by
Water Environment Federation Numerous prestigious awards from
professional societies and peer groups, 1998-2014 Member of
Industry Advisory Board, University of Southern California,
2001-2007 President, American Society of Civil Engineers
Environmental & Water Resources Institute, 2009-2010 Advisory:
Water Caucus of the US Congress (several Congressman from the House
of Representatives interested in water issues) on formulating the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in 2009, commonly
known as the Stimulus Bill Retired at the end of 2014 as Vice
President of CH2M HILL after 41 years with the firm Currently, as a
leader of the 13 nation Asian Civil Engineering Coordinating
Council, Udai is facilitating the sharing of knowledge and
advancing the profession among the member societies in key civil
engineering areas.
31. Walrus and I Arun Srivastava (BT/EE/67XXX)
[email protected] Do you think? I asked. Yes. Said the walrus
and he took a pause. I think I am hungry, He continued, lazing in
snow covering one eye with a flipper shading it from the sun. What
do you think? He asked back without a movement fixing his gaze on
me, with the other eye open. I agree, said I, and made off without
waiting for another moment. What else was there to think, I
thought. Think when hungry, go waste when full. I was neither and
could not decide what to think. Why? He moaned from a distance,
reading my thoughts as if. Because I decide everything before I do,
I hollered. He closed both his eyes. He did not want to see me
again. My thoughts upset him, the straight thinker. Walrus is
content in his binary states: hungry and not hungry. We slither
through a maze of floating states, only to fall in another state.
***
32. What is The Porter all about? Thoughts behind launching it.
The Porter is a Mumbai based market-place for logistics, connecting
customers with commercial vehicles for quick and effortless goods
transportation. We are a tech enabled service provider focusing on
premium services like transparent pricing, tracking,
auto-notification alerts etc. at competitive prices. At present
there is a huge mismatch in the market between consumers and truck
drivers: drivers are not able to access the large demand around
them and at the same time consumers find it difficult to get a
reliable and efficient carrier. We at The Porter are trying to
organize logistics in India, which is highly fragmented,
inefficient and suffers from low capacity utilization, namely poor
loyal customer base and high idle time. What led you to venture
into logistics business? We were intrigued by the business model of
some taxi services which were aggregating existing supply and
matching it to demand in an efficient and effortless way using
technology. We did ground research on logistics in Mumbai and found
this huge gap of market inefficiency in the last mile delivery. We
did a preliminary research in Bangalore, Delhi, and inter-city
logistics (long haul). The results were similar. In which way The
Porter is a better proposition than the usual logistics players.
The Porter features: 1. Transparent Pricing with supporting legal
documentation Logistics With an app: ThePorter.in Vikas Choudhary
(BT/EE/Y8XXX) [email protected] Contact: 022 6538 2222
[email protected]
33. 2. Real time tracking and auto notification 3. All trip
logs (Km travelled, login and logoff times, route replays etc.) are
captured digitally with minimal manual intervention 4. Dedicated
call center support 5. A professional company rather than an
unorganized fleet owner 6. Hassle free experience Elaborate - how
this transporter works for merchants and logistics players. Other
merchants and companies would have 2-3 vendors who would be
responsible to cater to their vehicle needs. These vendors would
further sub-contract vehicle owners or vendors creating a problem
of multiple middlemen. As a result of which, end service user ends
up paying more and the end service provider ends up getting less.
We eliminate this multiple middlemen problem and connect end user
with an end service provider directly. Moreover, traditional
transporter captures trip logs (like km travelled, reporting and
closing time etc) manually whereas all these are captured digitally
on our platform, providing a transparent and accountable service to
our customers. Give some sense about infrastructure The Porter has
at present. Do you also use third party infrastructure? We are
aggregators of mini-trucks currently operating in Mumbai. We have
more than 20 Tata Aces and 5 Tata 407 on our platform. Most of our
vehicles are equipped with a smartphone installed with our in-house
developed mobile app. The app helps us by providing real time
tracking updates and assists us in scheduling the fleet in the best
possible manner based on parameters like distance, SLA, etc. We
accept orders through our call center and website. We are working
on our customer side mobile app and will launch it shortly. What is
the size of opportunity The Porter is eyeing at? Roadway logistics
is a $150 Billion USD industry in India, of which $30 billion is
the last mile delivery. If you look at its urban split, the market
size is estimated to be around $10-12 billion USD. How has been the
traction so far in terms of shipment serviced by The Porter on
monthly basis? We started with 2 Tata Aces in August and have grown
to more than 25 Tata Aces and 5 Tata 407 (higher variant) and
processing more than 15 orders on a daily basis. We started with an
institutional client in July, providing them with 2 dedicated
vehicles and did 82 transactions. We have launched our on-demand
service in August and the traction can be seen below: Is it just in
time or customers book in advance? We provide a minimum time
commitment of 45 minutes as of now. So customers can book vehicles
both just in time (45 minutes) or schedule a booking for later. We
are working hard to reduce the ETAs (targeting 15 minutes) by
increasing our depth in the city. To give you an idea of the
current order composition: 60% of our orders are on spot bookings,
remaining are booked in advance. In terms of customer segmentation,
SMEs Parameters August December Total Orders 149 349 Total Queries
160 553 No. of vehicles 8 23
34. generally have a tendency to book JIT whereas a retail
customer would generally go for a advance booking. What are current
problems in operation and expansion? Key operational and scaling
hurdles: 1.) Building a scalable demand aggregation solution.
Devising a playbook for supply side aggregation which can be
replicated in multiple cities. 2.) Reducing ETA to 15 minutes and
improve service reliability. This can be addressed by building a
sufficient depth in the city which is capital intensive hence
timely fund raising becomes essential. 3.) Frictionless transition
on supply side. Since it is a supply shift problem and since our
vehicles provide a better efficiency, a smooth transition remains a
priority. With the boom in organised retail which has increased
demand in the intra-city sector, we are hopeful that this would not
be a major concern. 4.) Minimising dry run and enhancing vendor
profitability. Better vendor-customer matchmaking algorithm and
getting a return trip on the current booking will reduce the dry
run drastically. 5.) Improving professionalism on both the supply
and demand side. Transition in driver attitude and behaviour. From
a chalta-hai attitude to a customer service first attitude.
Founders: Vikas Choudhary IIT Kanpur, 2012 Batch, previously worked
with Juniper Networks as an ASIC engineer and worked on network
architecture and simulations. Pranav Goel IIT Kharagpur, 2012
batch, previously worked in JP Morgan US Internet Equity team Uttam
Digga IIT Kharagpur, 2012 batch, previously worked in JP Morgan
CEEMEA Equity Strategy team
35. Entrepreneurship Passionconnect #LiveYourPassion Shubham
Deva (MSc Int/MTH/Y9XXX) [email protected]
www.passionconnect.in Phone: +918722600400 Only 8.6% of the working
population love what they are doing. Many students are confused
with an important question about the choice of career. We help them
decide. As the world becomes increasingly technological, the value
of skills and education will be determined by the effectiveness of
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). What
NEXT? Deciding what to do and discovery of ones natural inclination
is a very important step in ones Career. We have to work anyway so
why not take up a career that you would enjoy and give it your
best. Do what you love. There is one life to live. We help students
in finding the right career choice which matches their skills and
motivation. Passionconnect is for people who love what they do and
what they are passionate about. However, getting it right is not so
straight forward. Most of us end up seeking advice from others in
the family, get influenced by friends or take a neighbors advice.
Often confused and due to peer pressure we end up taking wrong
decisions and get into a field that is not suited to our
temperament. We provide help with a clear vision of the future. The
venture has been incubated by Basket Option, JGI Ventures. It is a
profitable business even though our tests cost just Rs 100 now as
against other tests in the market which run into thousands of
rupees. Also, the career counseling platform will be priced
similarly so that maximum number of students can derive its
benefit. In terms of results, we have already conducted 10000 tests
in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, a majority of which has been done
in rural areas. Our target market is Tier II and Tier III cities.
Everyone wants to work in the metros but we want to target the
other cities. We cover understanding of the true passion, options
of a zillion creative, COOL careers, how to earn a living from
doing what one loves and finally training by the experts of each
area.
36. Industry experts from 50+ different careers paths share
their thoughts and insights on how they made it BIG; how can you
succeed in the field of your choice and many more things. The
Founders of the movement collectively have more than 30+ years of
experience and have addressed more than 500,000 students and
touched many lives. Personality of each student is assessed and her
area of interest is mapped interests in entrepreneurship, joining
family business, applying for a job or going for higher studies all
are evaluated. Customized Passion Sharing platform to take it
further are classified and events are organized to that end;
specific interest groups for people interested in android,
robotics, graphic designing, dance, singing, music, acting, fitness
etc. are setup. If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go
far GO TOGETHER! We are building a platform where passion-driven
people will walk together solving their problems, fulfilling their
needs and living their passion. We are creating a circle of passion
through our unique events, knowledge filled forum and culturally
rich online academy. I jumped without a Parachute into
entrepreneurship to become a first generation entrepreneur. In my
family entrepreneurship is unheard of. The inspiration to jump came
from the Chairman of Jain Group of Institutions; Dr Chenraj Jain,
and further support was provided by Mr. Abdul Sait, Group CEO of
BasketOption. Mr. Karthik Kittu, ex KPMG, with rich experience in
this field is my partner. ==X==