IIT Alumni Book Draft

B . Te c h 2 nd B a t c h IIT MADRAS ALUMNI BOOK
and brief life history of

2 n d B a t c h B . Te c h S t u d e n t s

IITM ALUMNI BOOK





FOREWORD

It is July 1960; IIT Madras is ready to welcome the 2nd
b a t c h i n i t s B . Te c h p r o g r a m m e .

Hostels and many Faculty buildings are under construction. A
young, excited group of 120 students with a gleam in their
eyes and loads of expectation and aspiration, join; the batch
expands in 1961 by 20 Direct Entrants and finally by another
26 from the 1st batch, who become a part of 2nd batch in
different years.

A few did not complete the course; and over 30 have gone to
t h e i r fi n a l a b o d e ; e v e r y o n e o f t h e m , h o w e v e r, i s fe a t u re d h e re
in this Photobook in an attempt to reminisce, re-live and
rejoice in the bonding, camaraderie and friendship of this
Group who lived on campus like one family for over 4
unfor gettable years; students from all parts of the countr y,
taught and mentored by brilliant Professors from leading
Universities of the world, including many from RWTH
Aachen Univ ersity of Ger many, responsible for laying a strong
foundation for the curriculum and culture at IITM.

Creating a Photobook of this nature over 55 years after
leaving the IIT campus was a Herculean task; Credit for being
able to commence this project must go to the hard work and
f o c u s o f K . N a r a y a n a n , p o p u l a r l y k n o w n a s ‘ G H O S T. S i n c e
1980, he made tireless efforts to collect contact information
o f e a ch b a t ch m e m b e r. A s a re s u l t , G h o s t bu i l t s i n gl e h a n d e d l y
a readily usable database for the entire batch.

Using this database as a springboard, the Photobook project
was launched in April 2020 in a modest way but with a
missionary zeal, by Chandrasekaran Subramanian, popularly
known as Chandru. His relentless follow-up with all the
80-odd members of the group, who are now contactable, has
contributed to make this Photobook project “successful”.
Besides participation / collaboration of the batch-mates in
this project reflecting the camaraderie of yesteryears, what is
noteworthy is the contribution of the families of the 'Departed
Souls' for helping to put together the pages for their deceased
h u s b a n d / fa t h e r.

The biggest hurdle was to get the photos of the individuals
during IIT days. The Archive department and Alumni
Association team of the Institute came on board and were
finally able to supply around 120 photos from the Application
For ms.

Chandru then reached out to several batch-mates across the
globe to give inputs individually and also formed a TEAM to
assist him in editing the profiles and finalising nitty-gritty
d e t a i l s. T h e A l m a M a t e r, I I T M A A , t h e H e r i t a g e C e n t re a n d
a Design agency in Chennai joined hands at all stages to
finally produce this volume.

Grateful thanks to each and every one!

INDEX 01
02
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING 04
Chandrasekaran K 06
Digambar Barde 08
M a n i R . V. S 10
Narayanan K 11
Sadasivan K 13
Veerara ghavan Subramanian 14
CIVIL ENGINEERING 16
Ganga Rao Hota 18
K. M. Kripanarayanan 20
Nandakumar R Dave 22
Jayant Pandya S. 23
Amal Krishna Biswas 24
Bhagaban Das 25
Bhawalkar S.M. 26
Chandan Kumar Das 27
Hari Bhau Baturao 29
Chander Kant Gupta 30
M E TA L L U R G Y 32
Chandrasekaran S 34
E S Bhagiradha Rao 36
O Prabhakar 38
Mahesh K
Meduri Krishanamurthy

Nageshwar Prasad Rama 39
Narayanan Kutti Menon M 40
Amitav Patnaik 41
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 43
Ananthu T S 44
Aravindakshan Nayar C M 46
Mani Chandy K 48
Pradeep Mallick 50
Syed Abdul Aleem 52
Carol Fairstone Syiemlieh 54
Mahimachandra Gangwar 55
Basheer Ahmed 56
Jang Bahadur Singh Katiyar 57
MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 59
Esmail Olia 60
Ramesh A Vaswani 62
R Prabhakaran 64
Siddhartha V 66
Basu John Vetteth 68
Sharma Jumman D 70
V Ratan Babu 71



CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

(awaiting photograph)

01

CHANDRASEKARAN K

1969 2022
1969 2022

02

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1.008/60

After graduation, KC worked for 4 years in various
chemical and paper industries in India, before migrating
to the USA in 1969 for higher studies. In 1971, he
g r a d u a t e d w i t h M . S . Pa p e r S c i e n c e , f r o m S y r a c u s e , N Y.

After post graduation, Chandrasekaran moved to Canada
and worked for 37 years in the Canadian Pulp & Paper
Industry before retiring in 2009. In the last assignment
a t E s p a n o l a O n t a r i o m i l l , h e w o r k e d a s Te c h n i c a l
Director for 29 years and was instrumental in the
introduction of new bleaching technology and advanced
environmental controls to make the mill the most advanced
in Canada. He also introduced ‘Kaizen’, the concept of
continuous improvement, giving decision making powers to
mill production workers.

In 1966, KC married Lalitha. They have a son working
for Accenture in the US as Associate Director and one
g ra n dd a u g h t e r.

Currently leading a retired life in Estero, Florida, USA.
Hobbies include playing tennis, teaching and playing
bridge, organic gardening, world traveling, and listening
to music.

03

DIGAMBAR BARDE

1965 2020
1970 1995

04

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1.020/60

Digamber was fond of Volle yball and re presented IIT at
inter-IIT meet and in Madras (Chennai league)

He started his career with Ashok Leyland, Chennai as
Mana gement Trainee and left in 1967 to Join Michigan
Te c h n o l o g i c a l U n i v e rs i t y, U S A t o d o M S i n C h e m i c a l
Engineering which also included work with NASA on
Apollo Project.

He then worked with Container Corp. Of America as a
p ro d u c t D e v e l o p m e n t E n g i n e e r, ( 1 0 / 6 9 t o 0 3 / 7 3 ) , H P D
I n c / Ve o l i a Te c h n o l o g y ( u p t o 0 4 / 8 9 ) a n d fi n a l l y w i t h
Eastern Pulp & Paper where he became CEO in ’98 and
r e t i r e d i n ’ 0 4 . J o i n e d T E M B E C I n c , C a n a d a a s S r. V. P
(Corporate Engineering and Business Development) and
retired in 09/08.

Returned to Virginia, USA and started Consultancy for
Pulp and Paper Industry and Gas Plant Brine recovery-
.Retired for GOOD in 2018 and

Currently enjoying time with family in Virginia. Loves to
visit India every year for a month or two.

05

M A N I R . V. S

1960 2017
1969 2019

06

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1.043/60

RVS Mani stood first in Chemical Engineering in the
Class of 1965. During IIT days, he was an avid player
of ping pong, cricket, ball badminton and was in love
with carrom board.

A f t e r g r a d u a t i n g f r o m I I T, h e c o m p l e t e d h i s M S ( C h E ) i n
1966 and started working in America. In 1973 he
switched his career to instrumentation and process
control. After working for several engineering and
manufacturing companies, he spent 24 years at Merck in
the engineering and plant maintenance groups and retired
in 2011.

H e m a r r i e d D r. S w a r n a M . D. i n 1 9 6 9 a n d h a s t w o
children, Sumathi and Ajay. Mani and Swar na cur rentl y
live in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Both of them are oc-
casionally “working from home”, His current interests
are HELP Foundation of which he was one of the found-
ing fathers, supporting 200 orphan and destitute children
through High school and 200 more through college in
various Indian Ashrams.

He studies Vedanta, Sanskrit and enjoys cooking, watch-
ing TV with famil y. He is an avid student and listener
of Carnatic Music.

07

NARAYANAN K.

1960 2017
1969 2019

08

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1.046/60

K.Narayanan known to IITM and his classmates as
“GHOST” worked in IOC, Guwahati Refinery (1965
– 68) . From 1968 to 2004 he was with Madras Refin-
eries Ltd (Chennai petroleum Corporation) from where
he retired as Director (Operations).
During his tenure at MRL he obtained a PGDiploma in
Petroleum and Petro Chemicals, at IPG, Ploiesti, Ro-
mania under UNESCO scheme; attended MDP at IIM,
Ahmedabad (PG Dip syllabus). He was the leader of
“Train the Trainers” g roup from Petroleum India Inter-
n a t i o n a l t o N N P C , N i g e r i a fo r o n e ye a r. A p a r t f ro m h i s
profession, Narayanan was very much involved with Sri
Guhananda Mandali, Freemasonr y, and IITM Alumni
Association being the main co-ordinator for 1965
batch.
Narayanan married Bhagirathy in 1975. They are
blessed with 2 daughters, Prathibha and Swetha, both
married and settled in USA and have one grandson and
three granddaughters.
Though born in and a resident of Chennai for over 7
decades, Ghost continues to cherish his association with
Assam - the State under whose re-allocated quota, he
got late admission to IITM and where he also got his
first job. Not surprisingl y, Ghost has named his house
as ‘Kamakhya’, the supreme deity of Assam.

09

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SADASIVAN K

Roll No: 1.087.60

1960

10

VEERARAGHAVAN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
SUBRAMANIAN

Roll No: 1.010/60

1959

11

12

CIVIL ENGINEERING

13

GANGA RAO HOTA

1960 2016
1969 2019

14

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1.024/60

In 1965 Hota migrated to the US and completed his MS
(‘67) and PhD in (‘69) from North Carolina Univ ersity,
Raleigh, USA.

In 1969, Hota joined West Virginia University as Asst
Professor and rose to the position of Maurice & JoAnn
Wadsworth Distinguished Professor in the De partment of
Civil and Environmental Engineering. Hota has super-
vised 300 M.S. and Ph.D. students, and has published
over 400 technical papers on a wide range of subjects,
and several books. Since 1988, Hota continues to direct
US-NSF sponsored the ‘Constructed Facilities Center’, a
C e n t e r o f E x c e l l e n c e d e s i g n a t e d by t h e U. S . C o n g re s s a n d
the ‘Center for Integration of Composites into Infrastruc-
t u re ’ a t W V U. H o t a re c e i v e d fo u r t e e n p a t e n t s a n d m a n y
awards, including the prestigious SAMPE’s Delmonte
award.

Hota has made pioneering contributions to advance the
state-of-the-art of FRP composite materials for infra-
structure systems for use in a wide spectrum of engineer-
ing systems including modular housing, high pressure gas
pipes, hydraulic structures, highways, and bridges.

Hota is still active with his academic and research work
a t W V U a n d l i v e s i n M o r g a n t o w n , W V, U S A w i t h h i s
wife, Rajeswari. Hotas have one son and a daughter and
four grandchildren.

15

K. M. KRIPANARAYANAN

1960 2010
2000 2022

16

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1.031/60

K r i p a s t o o d fi r s t i n C i v i l E n g i n e e r i n g a t I I T. B e s i d e s
Academics, his interests at IITM were debates, music
a n d C a m p a s t i m e s. A f t e r I I T, K r i p a w o r k e d i n I n d i a f o r
o n e y e a r a n d i n 1 9 6 6 , h e l e f t I n d i a o n a J. N. Ta t a
scholarship for higher studies. He joined the University
of Iowa, and completed his PhD in Civil Engineering
in 1970.

After his PhD, Kripa joined Portland Cement Associa-
tion, Illinois and worked there for 10 years as staff en-
g i n e e r. I n 1 9 8 0 , h e m o v e d t o P RO C O N ( a d i v i s i o n o f
UOP) as its Head of Structural Engineering Dept till
1990. From 1990-1996, he worked for Brown & Root
Braun, CA. In 1996, Kripa started his own consultan-
cy company in San Diego, CA and has been in business
s i n c e t h e n . D u r i n g h i s l o n g c a re e r, K r i p a h a s w r i t t e n
several technical papers and manuals.

M a r r i e d t o N i r m a l a , ( M BA ) ( re t i re d a s S r. V P o f
Union Bank, California), they have 4 children and 11
grandchildren. Kripa is still active in his professional
career with his own consultancy business in San Diego,
CA.

His current interests are walking, listening to music
and some physical exercise at the local gym.

17

NANDAKUMAR R DAVE

1965 2015
1968 2018

18

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1055/60

A t I I T, D a v e h a d e x c e l l e d i n fi n e a r t s, a c c o u n t a n c y &
building construction.

In 1967, he started his own enterprise as a consultant and
builder & constructed residential, commercial & community
buildings in Chennai. He is an approved valuer & engineer
for soundness of public buildings. After M A, in 2010, he
did his PhD (Sanskrit) from University of Madras.

As a member of Lions International, he founded Lions
Hearing Aid Bank & Lions Eye Bank Tr ust & became the
d i s t r i c t g o v e r n o r i n 1 9 9 1 - 9 2 . I n 1 9 9 9 , Ta m i l N a d u G o v t .
allotted him land in the govt. eye hospital for constructing
the ‘Lions Cornea Block’. His service activities & inter-
views were given publicity by newspapers & media. 25000
bl i n d p e o p l e h a v e b e e n g i v e n t h e g i f t o f s i g h t s o fa r. I n
1994 he was the Under Sheriff of Madras.He was awarded
the ‘Distinguished Alumnus Award’ by IITM in 1996. He
is the president of 2 centenar y schools, Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel Memorial Tr ust & Tr ustees of many or ganizations.
He was president of the Hindustan Chamber of Commerce
in 2014.

Married to Smt. Sugna in 1968, he has one doctor daughter
and two entrepreneurial sons & 5 grown up grand children.

19

JAYANT PANDYA S.

(1943-2020)

1960 2018
2018 2019

20

CIVIL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1.064/60

A f t e r B . Te c h . f r o m I I T M a d r a s, Pa n d y a w o r k e d f o r o n e
year at School of Architecture, Ahmedabad. In the next
2 years, he completed Post Graduate Diploma (MBA) by
1968.

He worked for 2 years in Humphreys & Glasgow (O)
Limited, and later for 2 years (1970-72) in Engineers
India Ltd, Delhi. Pandya then moved to the USA in
1972 to work with EPC Management firms. In later
years, he joined Deloitte from where he retired in 2009
as Director (Partner). After retirement, he continued to
travel frequently to India and was associated with
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun,
and, CEPT Univ ersity, Ahmedabad, where he was a
visiting faculty.

In 2002, Pandya passed away and is survived by his
family consisting of his wife Aruna, his elder son
Mehul, an orthopedic surgeon, his younger son, Nirav,
CEO (Design and Manufacture) of Electronic Systems
for the Defence industries.

21

CIVIL ENGINEERING AMAL KRISHNA
BISWAS

Roll No: 1.001.60

0000

22

BHAGABAN DAS CIVIL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1.010.60

0000

23

CIVIL ENGINEERING BHAWALKAR S.M.

Roll No: 1.014.60

1960

24

CHANDAN KUMAR DAS CIVIL ENGINEERING

Roll No: 1.016.50

1959

25

CIVIL ENGINEERING HARI BHAU BATURAO

Roll No: 1.025.60

1960

26

CHANDER KANT GUPTA CIVIL ENGINEERING

(1943-2020)

Roll No: 1.017.60

1959

27

28

METALLURGY

29

CHANDRASEKARAN S

1964 2020
1974 2022

30

METALLURGY

Roll No: 1.018/60

From 1965 to 1993, ‘Chandru’ worked for the Gov-
ernment of India - in DMRL, Hyderabad as a scien-
tist for 11 years, and later at MIDHANI, Hyderabad
as Manager / General Manager for 17years where he
was engaged in the manufacture of superalloys, tita-
nium, and special alloys. He completed his MBA from
Osmania University in 1984, while working at
Midhani.
His next assignment was as President of a German
JV company in Hyderabad for 3 years. Chandru then
m o v e d t o I n d o n e s i a a s Te c h n i c a l D i r e c t o r o f I n d o b a j a
during 1996-98 for setting up an alloy steel plant on
a green field site. Back in India for consultancy as-
signments for 3 years, he migrated to the USA in
2002 on H1b visa, to work for a forged and hardened
steel rolls manufacturer in Lima, OH, till 2017.
He married Jayanthi in 1974 and has a daughter
(Rekha) and son (Rajesh), both now well-settled in
the USA. Retired in 2018, Chandru now spends qual-
ity family time with his four grandchildren while in
the USA and connecting up with family and friends/-
school and college mates while in India.
A k e e n s p o r t s m a n , h e w a s a C h e s s c h a m p i o n a t I I T,
and played TT in inter-IIT meets and in inter facto-
ry tourneys till 1985.

31

E S BHAGIRADHA RAO

1960 2020
1977 2015

32

METALLURGY

Roll No: 1.011/60

Bhagiradha Rao joined Defence Metallurgical
Research Laborator y, Hyderabad as a scientist in
1965. After three decades of government service, he
re t i re d f ro m D M R L a s a n A s s o c i a t e D i re c t o r. H e w a s
the first in India to develop ‘Mechanical Alloying’
and also was the first to set up the unique ‘Hot
Isostatic Press (HIP)’ way back in 1978.

He also developed a complex HIP process for the first
time in India to produce a critical missile component
from alloy powders which got a Prize as the ‘Best
P / M Pa r t o f t h e Ye a r ( 1 9 9 0 ) ’ . Fo r h i s p i o n e e r i n g
research, he was awarded Ph.D.(Metallurgical
Engineering) from Indian Institute of Science,
Bengaluru in 1984.Post-retirement, he continues to
promote PMHIP technology for aerospace applica-
tions.

H i s w i fe, D r. S u l o ch a n a , i s re t i re d P r i n c i p a l o f a
degree college in Hyderabad, and his two daughters
are well-qualified, married and settled in USA. He
and his wife are now leading a fairly active life in a
senior citizens’ apartment complex in Hyderabad.

In his IIT days, his poem published in Campastimes
won First Prize.

33

O PRABHAKAR

1965 2020
1973 2022

34

METALLURGY

Roll No: 1.066.60

O. P r a b h a k a r o b t a i n e d h i s B . Te c h a n d P h . D i n M e t a l l u r g y
from IIT Madras, and M.E. in Mechanical Engineering
from IISc, Bangalore, and, trained in NonDestructive
Te s t i n g a t B u n d e s a n s t a l t f ü r M a t e r i a l P r u e f u n g , G e r m a -
ny. He taught at IIT Madras from 1965-1998, and was
Head of the Department of Metallurgical Engineering
during 92-95. He briefly worked at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute, USA during eighties. His primary areas of
research were nondestructive evaluation, metal casting
and friction materials. He was instrumental in starting
structured examinations in nondestructive testing within
India and brought ASNT Level III qualification to India,
useful to industries in India and abroad. He voluntarily
retired from IITM in 1998, and taught at the Nanyang
Te c h n o l o g i c a l U n i v e rs i t y, S i n g a p o r e f r o m 1 9 9 8 t o 2 0 0 4 .

He currently owns a company that provides industrial
consultancy services and educational solutions in the
areas of non-destr uctiv e e valuation and metallur g y.

Prof.Prabhakar received the well-known, Binani gold
medal (1985), ‘National Metallurgist’ award (1984),
‘NDT - man of the year’ award (1984), ‘MRSI Medal’
(1992), and Lifetime achievement award in NDT (2015).
His wife, Chitra, is a post g raduate in Sociolog y, and,
their daughter Shobha, a Ph.D. in Mathematics, and son,
Prasad, a doctorate in Biomedical engineering.

35

MAHESH K

(1943-2019)

1960 2015
1962 2062

36

METALLURGY

Roll No: 1.040/60

K. Mahesh passed away on 02-Feb-2019. He was
another unique individual whose interests were as
amazing as his talents.
A t I I T, M a h e s h w a s m o s t n o t e d f o r r i d i n g h i s s e l f - b u i l t
Go-Kart, his passion for photography and his
unassuming nature, in spite of perhaps being one of the
richest in the batch. After graduation in ‘65, Mahesh
went to Bridge Foundry in UK to study Aluminum Die
Casting. Upon retur n to India, he set up the same in
Sundaram Clayton in 1971. He successfully initiated
the Sundaram Brake Linings Plant (SBL) as a Joint
Venture with Abe x Corporation of USA in 1976 and
under his leadership built it into a world class
company. He was recognized at se v eral le v els by Rotar y
Clubs and receiv ed se v eral Awards for quality.Among
his professional achievements, winning Deming Award
was most note worthy. In 2020, SBL donated to endo w
‘K.Mahesh Institute Chair’ at IIT in memory of
Mahesh.
As an admirer of nature, he planted 20,000 trees in his
i n d u s t r i a l l o c a t i o n s. H e s t a r t e d a T. S . K . M e m o r i a l
Tr ust to assist ea ger students to pursue their dreams in
education.
Mahesh is survived by a loving wife and a lovely family
of two daughters, a son, two grandsons and two grand-
daughters.

37

METALLURGY MEDURI
KRISHANAMURTHY

Roll No: 1.036.60

0000

38

NAGESHWAR METALLURGY
PRASAD RAMA

Roll No: 1.054.60

0000

39

METALLURGY NARAYANAN KUTTI
MENON M

Roll No: 1.058.60

0000

40

AMITAV PATNAIK METALLURGY

(1943-XXXX)

Roll No: 1.002.60

0000

41

42