Yash Birla Group & Pan IIT Alumni India signs LoI

To jointly explore opportunities in Education, Healthcare & Renewable Energy

Yash Birla Group, the iconic business conglomerate, announced the signing of LOI with PanIIT Alumni India to jointly explore opportunities of association towards innovative projects of mass benefit especially in the field of education, healthcare and renewable energy. PanIIT Alumni is a 200,000 strong alumni body of Indian Institute of Technology with a worldwide presence. This LOI is first of its kind between the PanIIT Alumni body and a corporate house that aims to provide an avenue for joint partnerships on projects of mutual interests. Present at the conference were Mr. Yash Birla (Chairman, Yash Birla Group); Mr. Ashank Desai (Chairman, PanIIT India & Chairman, Mastek Ltd.); Mr. Srikrishna (CEO, Birla Edutech Ltd.); Ms. Rosemary Fernandes (Outreach Chair, PanIIT & CEO, Phoenix Rose LLC) and Mr. Ashok Kalbag (Secretary General, PanIIT India) along with other industry stalwarts.

The contribution of IITs to the growth and economy of the country has been widely acknowledged. A recent study highlighted that 62% of IIT-ians are in India and around 23% are in academics & research while 13% are entrepreneurs. The PanIIT Alumni body recently presented a vision document, “Panch Ratnas”, a five-point plan, to the Government of India and aims to promote educational reform in India by transforming India into a global hub for knowledge creation. Drawing inspiration from this document, the two entities have come together to establish an active Industry-Academia interface that will encourage and support entrepreneurs and researchers.

The Yash Birla Group has announced creation of an internal fund dedicated to projects initiated by the IIT alumni.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Yash Birla said “the need of the hour is for a matured relationship between industry and academia to complement each other and contribute to the growth of the nation”.

About Yash Birla Group

The Yash Birla Group is a conglomerate of over 20 diversified companies which run the gamut from established sectors like Auto & Engineering, Textiles & Chemicals and Power & Electricals to emerging sectors of today like Wellness & Lifestyle, Education & IT. Today the group has 8 listed entities in India. The group has identified sunrise industries like Education, Healthcare and Renewable Energy as focus areas for the future.

About PanIIT Alumni/b>

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are a group of engineering institutes of higher education declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India. PanIIT Alumni India is an umbrella alumni organization of all the IIT campuses. PanIIT Alumni after the 2006 event in Mumbai have launched several initiatives for nation building such as Indo-US Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE), IITians for ITIs, Reach for India, besides working on developing position papers on Higher Education, Research Ecosystem, Affirmative Action, etc.