The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous public institutes of higher education, located in India.On an average, an IIT degree helps one start at a 50% higher salary than a degree from a less pedigreed engineering college. Hence most of the parents want their children to be engineers from IIT’s.
In general the number of students appearing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for engineering has increased from 12 lakh to 14 lakh in the past five years. The IITs have a total of only 10,000 seats.
For many students, entry into the hallowed walls of IIT is a dream in itself. But for some, it is just the first step to creating unthinkable success stories. From top-notch CEOs to famous scientists, from young entrepreneurs to quirky entertainers, successful IIT alumni have inspired generations of students.
Across the Indian start-up sector, there’s a growing network of alumni from some of the best-known institutions in India. IITians have taken India by a storm in the past few years and managed to make a mark in almost every profession you can think of under the sun.
Here we are presenting some of the most successful stories of the successfull IITians.
Why don’t you spare just a few minutes to read this.?
1. Sundar Pichai
Sundar Pichai chased his starry-eyed technology dreams and is currently the CEO of Google. Responsible for the launch of the dominant Chrome web browser, he was previously the product head for Android, Chrome, Maps, and other popular Google products. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur in Metallurgical Engineering. Holding an M.S. from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he was also named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar. He is one of the most renowned and successful IIT alumni at the moment!
2. Narayana Murthy
The co-founder and ex-chairman of the mighty Infosys, Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, is famous across the globe. An M.Tech from IIT Kanpur, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Mysore. In the year 1981, he co-founded the MNC Infosys, which provides business technology, consulting, engineering, and outsourcing services all over the world. In 2013, he became the Additional Director and Executive Chairman of the same. Murthy has received the prestigious Padma Shri and Padma Vibushan awards. Time Magazine also described him as the Father of Indian IT.
3. Sachin Bansal
It took Sachin Bansal, 32, a mere six years to build Flipkart, the country’s best-known online retail brand. This IIT-Delhi alumnus co-founded the company with college friend Binny Bansal in a small flat in southeast Bangalore in 2007 with Rs. 4 lakh. Flipkart’s success has come not just from online retail, but also from its focus on building technology services at the back end.
4. Vinod Khosla
This American businessman has been listed as a billionaire by Forbes magazine. Khosla made his early fortune as one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, a company which created the Java programming language and Network File System (NFS). He then went on to form his venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures in 2004. He attended Mount St. Marys High School in Delhi and is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering).
5. Nikesh Arora
The Vice Chairman of SoftBank Corp. and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc. (SIMI), Nikesh Arora graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi, India, with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He also holds a degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University. Nikesh has worked for Deutsche Telekom, Putnam Investments and Fidelity Investments in the past.
6. Amit Singhal
Winner of the Outstanding Achievement in Science and Technology award at the Asian Awards 2011, Amit Singhal is an ex-student of IIT Roorkee. He is the Senior Vice President at Google Inc. He had rewritten Google in the year 2001 and had been honored as a “Google Fellow.” Singhal says that he was persuaded to join Google by his friend Krishna Bharat, who is a principal scientist at the web search giant. His last day at Google was February 26, 2016, and his next journey will involve philanthropy.
7. Chetan Bhagat
Chetan Bhagat is an Indian writer, known for his bestselling English-language novels about young urban middle-class Indians. He is an engineer from IIT Delhi and has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. His six bestsellers are Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT, One Night @ the Call Center, The Three Mistakes of My Life, 2 States – The Story Of My Marriage, Revolution 2020 and non-fiction What Young India Wants.
8. Nitin Gupta:
Nitin did Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and is popularly known as Rivaldo. He has been actively trying to get Stand up Comedy a respectable position in India and began Entertainment Engineers as one of the most important steps toward pioneering a humor renaissance.
Nitin has performed at various college festivals in the country including IITs, IIMs and alumni meets conducted by them. He also has proved his mettle in corporate events of many big companies and done a number of shows as well.
9. Ashish Lal:
A B.Tech degree holder from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Ashish is now a well-recognized figure in Bollywood Industry. He started his own production house and came up with ‘With Love, Delhi (2011),’ the first movie he scripted and acted in. He also co-founded RedMat Entertainment, a start-up production house, with Ashutosh Matela, one of his college friends. They are currently working on some feature film, short films, ad films and documentary projects.
10. Amol Parashar:
2007 pass-out with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi; Amol Parashar made his debut through Ranbir Kapoor-starrer blockbuster ‘Salesman of the Year’ and played a highly appreciated supporting-actor role! Also, he’s done a number of ad films for popular brands including McDonalds, Virgin Mobile, Mentos, MetLife and Cadbury. He also produced Formula 69, a thriller directed by Nitin Das, and acted in it as well.
It is a real fact that most of the startup companies were founded by IITians.
Follow @timepasspopcorn
