A BITSian from the batch of 1965, Gulu Mirchandani is the Managing Director of MIRC Electronics and is the Promoter at Onida Saka Limited. He launched brand Onida in 1983, one of the most popular consumer electronics and consumer durables manufacturers in India. Mr. Mirchandani has held the post of the President of Consumer Electronics and TV Manufacturers Association (CETMA) for two consecutive years in 1992 and 1994. He has also served as Chairman of the Bombay Chapter of the World Presidents’ Organisation (WPO). Apart from his role in MIRC electronics, he serves as an Independent Non Executive Director of Shoppers Stop Limited. He also serves as Director of Fractal Analytics Ltd. Since January 30, 2007, he has been Independent Non Executive Director of VIP Industries Ltd and has been a Director of BP Ergo Limited since March 23, 2007. He has been Non-Executive & Independent Director of KEC International Ltd. since January 12, 2006.

Sam Pitroda, head of National Innovation Council (NIC), widely considered the father of India’s communication revolution has consented to be a keynote speaker of BGM 2010.

His tenure in government service has been distinguished by sweeping innovations to India’s information and communication technology (ICT) policies. Pitroda’s work in the 1980’s with the Telecom commission heralded the PCO system in India, thus making cheap telephone access to the country’s millions without a phone connection a reality. This move made the eventual transition to affordable mobile connections smoother and changed the face of communication in Indian villages. As Chairman of India’s Knowledge Commission between the years, 2005-08, he has proposed measures for educational reform including the increase of public universities from 350 to 1,500 by 2015.  

In his current role in the NIC, he advises the PMO on policy matters related to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and has mapped out a strategy for promoting innovation in India. In addition to his contributions to the telecom revolution, he has been a keen advocate in the use of technology for the upliftment of the masses through its applications in areas as diverse as literacy, dairy, water, immunization and oilseeds. 

A telecom engineer and an entrepreneur, he has several patents and a wireless payment start-up (C-SAM) to his credit. The Padma Bhushan award in 2009 heads the long list of awards and honours conferred on Pitroda. 

With a personage such as Pitroda, a passionate believer in the potential of technology in societal transformation, speaking at the BGM, its theme, “Transforming Society, Enterprises & Academics through Innovation” has received an apt tribute.

Mukesh Chatter, CEO & Co-founder, NeoSaej, the company that runs the reverse-auction based consumer finance website MoneyAisle.com has been confirmed as a speaker at BGM 2010.

After graduating from BITS Pilani, Mukesh completed his graduation in hardware systems from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

 His experience in entrepreneurship is vast and he has three successful start-ups to his credit. In 1997, he founded a router based business Nexabit, which was acquired by Lucent Technologies for $900M in 1999. In 2000, he founded Axiowave networks, another start-up in the telecom space.

Since 2006, he has been working on moneyaisle.com, a revolutionary reverse-auction model that lets banks bid for loans enabling the borrower to get credit at best rates. Moneyaisle grew quickly, attracting over $100M of deposits in high yielding savings accounts within a few months of its launch.

Mukesh Chatter brings with him more than 20 years’ experience in the architecture, design and development of state-of-the-art networking equipment and supercomputers and has several patents in these areas. His technical expertise combined with his entrepreneurial achievements will make his Jan 8 session at BGM a much-anticipated one.

Today’s Speaker Spotlight is one of the BITS Pilani’s proud alum, Mr.Baba Kalyani. Mr. Kalyani is the Chairman of the Kalyani Group, a 2.4 Billion USD conglomerate whose flagship company is Bharat Forge, the world’s second-largest forgings manufacturer. Ranked by Forbes as one of the 50 richest Indians and under 500 richest people all over the world, he was awarded “CEO of the Year” by Business Standard in 2004 and “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst & Young in 2005. In February 2006, The Jagatik Marathi Chamber Of Commerce and Industry honored him with their “Global Entrepreneur of the Year” Award. With a business experience of more than 27 years, Mr. Kalyani has set the group on its growth path and is credited with the extraordinary vision for its entry into the fast emerging infrastructure development arena in India.

In 1994, Baba founded Pratham Pune Education Foundation, an NGO that provides primary education for underprivileged children. Mr.Kalyani pursued B.E in Mechanical Engineering at BITS Pilani from 1966-71 and then pursued Masters at MIT. He also holds an Honorary Doctorate from Symbiosis International University. We are excited to have Mr.Kalyani as a Patron and for his presence at the BITSAA Global Meet, Delhi 2011.

BGM is proud to present one of the esteemed speakers, Mr. Satish Gupta. Mr. Satish is the Co-founder and CEO of SenSen Networks. He is well known for his remarkable amount of entrepreneurial experience and industry networks. Prior to this, he had co-founded Cradle Technologies, a company that received over $70 million in venture funds.

He also worked as Corporate Vice President of Strategic Planning for Cirrus Logic, prior to which, Satish was Vice President of Marketing and Advanced Development at Media Vision, a PC multi-media pioneer.

Prior to Media Vision he worked at IBM for 23 years. He held several technical, general management and corporate staff positions during his 23 year career at IBM, which included assignments in most of the IBM business lines and a 3 year assignment in Japan.

Satish served as a board member of RightWorks, InterTrust Technologies, Novitaz and UMEVOICE. He was also an advisor to the CEO of LogicVision. He was an adjunct faculty at BITS Pilani and University of Technology, Sydney; and was on the Advisory Council at Stanford University, Department of Management Science and Engineering.

Satish holds M.S. Management Science from Stanford University (’76), M.S. Electrical Engineering from MIT (’68) and Electrical Engineering from BITS Pilani. He is presently the charter member of the influential Entrepreneur’s Network called The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE), Silicon Valley Chapter.

It gives immense pleasure to have such an experienced personality among us, and BGM Team is thankful for his leadership in driving the Global Meet.

The BGM Team is thrilled to present one of the many elite BITSians, Mr. Sabeer Bhatia as a speaker in the BITSAA Global Meet, Delhi 2011.  Sabeer Bhatia is one of the poster boys for the Indian success story at Silicon Valley. Known as the man who Cofounded Hotmail, he is famous for his negotiation skills with which he managed to break a deal of selling Hotmail to Microsoft for 400mn USD in 1997.

Sabeer Bhatia started his undergrad education at BITS Pilani, and after a couple of years he qualified for a transfer scholarship to California Institute of Technology. After graduating from CalTech, he did his MS. (Electrical) from Stanford (’89). After dropping out from Phd, his career started with a small stint at Apple and then worked for a startup company called FirePower Systems Inc. where he spent two years. He later quit to Cofound Hotmail along with Jack Smith.

After Hotmail, Sabeer founded Arzoo.com. His other entrepreneurial ventures include Blogeverywhere.com, Live-Documents.com and Sabsebolo.com. He presently is the Co-founder and Chairman at Sabse Technologies. His future plans include the development of a new city in India called Nanocity with an aim to replicate the vibrancy and eco-system of innovation found in the Silicon Valley.

Its an honor to have Mr. Bhatia as one of the speakers at BGM.  Mr. Bhatia is equally excited and said that he is more than happy to participate and be a part of the BITSAA Global Meet.

Welcome to the all new series of ‘Speaker Spotlight’, here on the BGM Blog. You will be introduced to the most eminent personalities and leaders from varied fields who will be the distinguished speakers at the BGM event in January.

To start off the series we have Mr. Rajesh Hukku. A EEE Graduate from the ’74 batch, he is currently the Chief Strategy Officer of Financial Services at Oracle Corp.  He previously served as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Financial Services Global Business Unit at Oracle Corp.  Chairman of the erstwhile i-Flex.

As the CEO (appointed in 1992), he was the architect of  the success story of i-Flex solutions [now known as Oracle's Financial Services Global Business Unit (FSGBU)], from a player primarily in the emerging markets, to India’s first global software product company and the leading IT solutions provider to the financial services industry in the world today.

Mr. Hukku is recognized as a visionary entrepreneur and has spoken at the World Economic Forum Summit, the Asia-Pacific Leadership Summit, Harvard Business School and various prestigious banking forums, including the World Congress of Bankers in Jamaica and the Latin American Business Convention. He has been the recipient of the Government of India’s most prestigious IT award – ‘The Dewang Mehta award for Innovation in IT’ in 2003.

We look forward for an incredible discussion with Mr. Rajesh Hukku and get to know him more through valuable interactions at the BGM.