<p>The Institute conferred ‘Prof. S. C. Sahasrabudhe Lifetime Achievement Award 2021' on Prof. Krithi Ramamritham, ‘Prof. S. C. Bhattacharya Award for Excellence in Research in Pure Sciences’ for 2020 on Prof. R. Sunoj, Prof. H. H. Mathur Award for Excellence in Research in Applied Sciences’ for 2020 on Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharya, 10 Distinguished Alumnus Awards and 5 Young Alumni Achiever Awards.</p><p>The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay celebrated its 62^nd Foundation Day on March 10, 2021 by honouring the contributions of its faculty members as well as alumni who have left their mark in their chosen fields of profession. The Institute also felicitated the philanthrophy of a few alumni under the ‘Donor Appreciation’ program.</p><p>This year, due to the ongoing pandemic, only the awardees, their family members, Institute functionaries and invited dignitaries were invited to attend the ceremony in person. The event was webcast live on social media channels for others.</p><p>The Foundation Day ceremony started with a welcome address by the Director of IIT Bombay Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri. In his welcome address, Prof. Chaudhuri highlighted the key milestones achieved by the Institute in the past 62 years. Prof. Chaudhuri said, “The seed sown in 1958 has now developed into a wonderful institution catering to the needs of the society through high-quality of education and research, entrepreneurship and frugal innovations. On this Foundation day, the Institute rededicates itself towards achieving excellence in its spheres of activities".</p><p>The Chief Guest of the function Mr. Rajesh Gopinathan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), in his address said, "Our company and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has been connected since few decades through its alumni network. I hope that we will hold on to the partnership and look into the future, where the alumni will form the touch point of our relation. At the Institute level, we are aligned for research and development, academic purposes. We look forward to working together in a larger technological ecosystem”.</p><p>Speaking about the developing industrial sector, he added, "For the future opportunities, we need to think about integrated capabilities and encourage students to explore and give them choices in various sectors/ fields. Besides quality and innovation being the minimum requirements in the industry, now-a-days extreme importance is given to speed and scale in market. We also need to think about retraining, reskilling and other challenges”.</p><p>The Institute honoured its select alumni for their achievements in diverse fields ranging from academics, research and entrepreneurship. The 'Prof. S.C. Bhattacharya Award for Excellence in Research in Pure Sciences' was conferred on Prof. R. Sunoj, Department of Chemistry. The 'Prof. H.H. Mathur Award for Excellence in Research in Applied Sciences’ was conferred on Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharya, Department of Computer Science and Engineering.</p><p>The 'Prof. S. C. Sahasrabudhe Lifetime Achievement Award 2021' was conferred on Prof. Krithi Ramamritham, Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, who recently superannuated.</p><p>The Institute recognized select alumni of IIT Bombay, who have excelled in their field of work and made the Institute proud with the Distinguished Alumnus Awards (DAA). The awardees this year include:</p><ul><li>Mr. Sunil Shenoy&nbsp;</li><li>Mr. Subramanian Sarma</li><li>Mr. Pandurang Nayak&nbsp;</li><li>Mr. Harrick Vin</li><li>Mr. Ramesh Mangaleshwaran&nbsp;</li><li>Mr. Sharad Sanghi</li><li>Dr. Kavita Bala&nbsp;</li><li>Dr. Vikram Despande</li><li>Dr. Govindasamy Mugesh&nbsp;</li><li>Dr. Devavrat Shah</li></ul><p>The Young Alumni Achiever Awards (YAAA) are for alumni who have made outstanding achievements in their chosen field of work and are below 40 years of age. These awards were instituted in the year 2011. The awardees for this year’s Young Alumni Achiever Awards 2021 include:</p><ul><li>Dr. Zubin Jacob</li><li>Mr. Akhil Gupta</li><li>Mr. Gaurav Porwal</li><li>Mr. Mohit Soni</li><li>Dr. Yashodhan Kanoria</li></ul><p>Besides the distribution of the Institute awards, the alumni who contributed to their alma mater were felicitated in the ‘Donor Appreciation Ceremony’ during the event. Mr. Sharad Saraf, Chairman and Managing Director of Technocraft Group and Mr. Sudarshan Saraf, Co-Chairman and Managing Director of Technocraft Group were felicitated for their generous contribution of Rs 15 Cr to build a ‘Technocraft Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence’ (TCA2I) with IIT Bombay. The donors believe that the future of technology is with the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it is necessary to expose students to AI through a dedicated AI Center. IIT Bombay expressed gratitude to Alumni of Hostel-5, who responded to the fund-raising drive spearheaded by Alumni Association of IIT Bombay for Hostel-5 renovation. They contributed Rs 5 Cr for the renovation of the Hostel 5. The Institute thanked all the alumni in USA who contributed during the year and through the GO-IIT Bombay annual campaign spearheaded by IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation in USA to give back to the Institute. This year IIT Bombay alumni in USA have contributed to $3.6 m to the Institute.</p><p>This year, IIT Bombay has initiated an annual fund-raising drive, ‘Cherish IIT Bombay’ for the donors all over India and the world. The Institute has been raising funds for various causes for the benefit of students and faculty members of the Institute.</p><p>The campaign that stands out this year is the IT hardware campaign. As IIT Bombay moved to online classes in response to the pandemic, many of our students couldn’t access the online classes as they couldn’t afford the investment in IT hardware at their respective homes. We reached out to alumni for funding over 800 laptops and data connections. We got a phenomenal response for this and requirement getting funded in a few weeks.</p><p>IIT Bombay thanks all the donors for showing affection and making generous contributions to various campaigns that are conducted by the Institute.</p><p>&nbsp;</p>