Sri B. Suresh Kamath can be considered as a path breaker in establishing a new order of socially responsible business.
Currently Chairman and Managing Director of Laser Soft Infosystems Ltd. Chennai, Shri Kamath received his B.Tech. from the National Institute of Engineering Mysore with a Gold Medal in 1980, and completed his M.Tech. in 1982 from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. After a brief stint with TCS, he founded Laser Soft Inc. with a capital of Rs. 200/-. The company provided software solutions to Apollo Hospitals and the State Bank of India at a time when software was not familiar to the healthcare and banking industries.
Sri Kamath has positioned Laser Soft as a leading software solutions provider to the banking industry with a market share of 25% of the Indian market. Laser Soft has 23 banking software products and counts amongst its clients ABN Amro Bank, American Express Bank and HSBC for their foreign exchange and trading operations. These banks, along with Corporation and Andhra Bank route more than Rs. 6000 crores worth of transactions per day using software developed by Laser Soft. His vision and dedication as a guiding force within the organisation is reflected in the attrition rate of the company being below 2% as against industry standards of 20%.
Sri Kamath has introduced a revolutionary change in business practices in that 60% of the vacancies in his company are reserved for the challenged sections of society such as physically disabled persons, destitute women and widows. He has established a free programming training institute in West Mambalam to train physically handicapped and poor youngsters. Sri Kamath is a rare individual who has succeeded in a technologically competitive business while continuing to remain steadfast to a high standard of social responsibility and commitment.
IIT-Madras is happy to bestow the Distinguished Alumnus Award on Shri. B. Suresh Kamath.
Covered in awards and honours for his distinguished work over the last 35 years, Prof. V. Srinivasan has blazed a glorious trail to his present position of Professor in Marketing and Management Science at Stanford University.
On graduating in 1966 from IIT Madras, Prof. Srinivasan gave evidence of achievements to come after receiving a distinction in Mechanical Engineering and being honoured with the President of India Gold Medal. He was subsequently at the top of his class, when he received his M.S. and Ph. D. from the Carnegie Mellon University during which period he was also awarded the GSIA (Graduate School of Industrial Administration) Fellowship.
No stranger to awards, Prof. Srinivasan’s prowess in the classroom was reinforced when he received the Best teacher award twice in 1972 and 1973. In fact six doctoral advisees of his have won best dissertation-based paper awards.
A respected authority in his field, Prof. Srinivasan has published over 85 papers in various technical journals and has received commendations for these articles year after year by his peers in the US, including the American Marketing Association Churchill Award for Lifetime Achievement in Marketing Research in 1998.
It is with great honour that IIT Madras adds its commendation to Prof. Srinivasan’s for his excellent work in his field and his ongoing effort to share his knowledge with future aspirants.
Sri S. Srinivasan is a rare combination of technologist, entrepreneur and academic whose work has enriched contemporary society.
Having obtained his B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1964, Sri Srinivasan subsequently received his M.S. degree in Computer Science from IIT Madras in 1979 and is currently Chairman and Managing Director of SRA Systems Limited in Chennai.
Sri Srinivasan has had a wide-ranging career, both in industry and academia. He worked with IBM in India, U.S. and the U.K. He implemented the Treasury Accounting System and the Crime Information System for the Tamil Nadu Government and was also involved with the installation of the first mainframe IBM computer at IIT Madras.
Sri Srinivasan worked as System Manager of the computing facility at IIT Madras. He was also part of developing the Institute’s Internal Information Systems. He served on the faculty of IIT Madras in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering teaching Database Systems, MIS and Operating Systems.
Establishing the SRA Systems in 1986, Sri Srinivasan played a significant part in the growth of the company into a 500 member, Rs. 100 crore Software Export Unit. He was a also key player in developing and marketing the software product ODYSSEY. He has actively worked to expand the market in frontier technology areas of embedded software, mobile computing and machine-to-machine communication and is responsible for bringing Carnegie Mellon University software courses into India.
IIT-Madras is happy to bestow the Distinguished Alumnus Award on Shri. S. Srinivasan.
Shri Pradeep Mallick received his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Madras in 1965. He then went on to receive his diploma in Business Management in the UK and later became a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in London.
A man whose people skills are legendary, Shri Mallick (aptly known as Shri Right during his IIT days) strongly believes in core values for individuals and for corporations.
His vision, rich experience, dynamic leadership and desire to scale greater heights in everything he does are qualities which have taken him straight to the top, earning him the Chairmanship of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Western Region in the year 2000-01 and the Presidentship of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce Industry (BCCI).
Through the years, Shri Mallick has held various challenging positions giving him a vast experience in dealing with delegates from cultural backgrounds, the world over. He is equally at home with industry leaders, demanding customers and even little children, reinforcing his basic belief that quality leadership always puts the people first.
A firm believer in the innate strengths and capabilities of people, Shri Mallick has been champion in nurturing people-centric policies in Wartsila India Ltd., of which he is currently the Managing Director. Openness, transparency and teamwork are the key elements of the work culture fostered by him. As a true facilitator, Shri Mallick believes in providing space and independence to his colleagues, and is constantly encouraging them to take up new challenges.
Shri Pradeep Mallick’s career is an excellent model showcasing what expert leadership and single-minded dedication to an ideal can accomplish in today’s world.
Sri Prakash Damodaran’s talent lies in combining technology and public policy particularly with respect to the newly emerging fields of IT where inputs in both areas are required.
Sri Damodaran obtained his B.Tech. degree in Aerospace Engineering in 1974 from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. He obtained his postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1976 for which he received the Institute’s Honor Roll for academic excellence and the Dunlop scholarship.
His first job was at Binny Limited in Chennai. Sri Damodaran later joined the IAS and served in various positions in the Tripura cadre from 1979 to 1988. He then served the Government of India as Commissioner, Central Vigilance Commission, during which period he set up commission’s first computerized information system. He then studied at Harvard University in the U.S. where he obtained his Master’s in Public Administration and received the Edward S. Mason and U.N. fellowships.
From 1996 Sri Damodaran has been with the Government of Tamil Nadu as Secretary to the Government and was responsible for the creation of the new Department of Information Technology. He formulated and implemented the State’s first IT Policy and its Optical Fiber cables policy. He has also served as a member of the expert group on Citizen-IT interface of the National Task Force on IT of the Government of India. His work in IT department has placed Tamilnadu and India in the forefront.
IIT-Madras is happy to bestow the Distinguished Alumnus Award on Shri. Prakash Damodaran.