Outreach

Bangalore

July 26, 2008

July 26th saw the PanIIT Outreach bandwagon reach Bangalore. It was a joint initiative between the PanIIT 2008 Organising Committee, Bangalore chapters of the various IIT Alumni Associations.

Over 120 IIT alumni from various IITs attended the Outreach Program at the Hotel Royal Orchid Central, eager to catch up with each other as well as know more about PanIIT. It was the day after the serial blasts in the city, but that did not deter the alumni and their guests from converging for the event.

Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan (MD & CEO, Infosys Technologies Ltd) was the Chief Guest for the occasion. Mr. B. Santhanam, PanIIT 2008 Event Chairman and MD of St. Gobain joined Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan in a press briefing about the role of PanIIT 2008 in nation building and how it serves to bring various IIT alumni together for a common, larger goal.

The event kicked off with Mr. Nirmal Bhardwaj of IIT Kgp playing the role of the emcee and giving a brief background on how the PanIIT movement has evolved since 2003.

Mr. Ashok Kalbag of IITB then provided an update on how PanIIT is trying to work with various stakeholders towards nation building. Specific projects like IITians for ITI, Reach4India and the likes were outlined.

Mr. B. Santhanam provided details of the exciting 3 days of panel discussions, networking, entertainment and family events that have been planned during PanIIT 2008. This was followed by presentations on Reach4India by Mr. Kalyan of IITM and on Village Knowledge Center (VKC) by Mr. Srikant Rao of IITB.

The audience responded back very enthusiastically, armed with questions and subsequent detailed discussions of how they could get involved in PanIIT projects. Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan delivered the closing note and goaded the alumni present to support PanIIT 2008 in all ways possible.