V. Ramgopal Rao, Ph.D.
@ramgopal_rao
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Bhatnagar & Infosys Prize Laureate| Group Vice-Chancellor, BITS Pilani Campuses| Former Director, IIT Delhi (2016-21)| Fellow of IEEE,TWAS,INAE, INSA,IASc,NASI.
Pilani, India
Joined January 2010
BITS Pilani does it again. This time with an innovation in the #PhD programmes. The question we asked ourselves is, why should all PhD programmes in the country be to produce university #professors?. So we devised a new PhD Programme. A #PhD Programme for the #startup track,
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What China spends on just two of its universities Tsinghua and Peking is the entire higher education budget of India. You can check that from their webpages. I did it some time ago.
Just thought of doing a random comparison, of a top rated Chinese University (Tsinghua) and top rated Indian University (IISc). I am not picking on any institution, but trying to make a comparison. Generally, the top performing institutions are the best funded ones. At least
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A spectacular 1000 #Drone #show by IIT Delhi startup @BotLabDynamics during the #Republic Day Beating retreat. With this, India becomes the 4th country in the world to have indigenously developed such a technology. @iitdelhi @IndiaDST @Ashutos61
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BITS Pilani receives US $1 M for Semiconductor Research. Ranvir Trehan, 1961 batch alumnus donates to alma mater to establish a Centre of excellence (CoE) in Semiconductor research. Pilani, June 27, 2023: BITS Pilani announced today that it has received a donation of USD 1
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Students opting for only the CSE and allied disciplines. How do we change this? And what will happen if this trend becomes a norm. #engineeringeducation #engineers #education #CSE #India
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After 25 years of being a part of the #IIT system in various capacities both at @iitbombay and @iitdelhi, it's time to move on and take up new responsibilities. I will be joining as the Group Vice Chancellor for the #BITS institutions in Pilani, Hyderabad, Goa, Dubai and Mumbai.
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After 6 years as Director, IIT Delhi, I am handing over charge tomorrow to Prof. Rangan Banerjee. Today, @BotLabDynamics (#startup @iitdelhi which performed at the #Republic Day Beating Retreat ceremony) putup a surprise show on IIT Delhi playground. Touched by their gesture. 🙏
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Faculty salaries in private universities is an issue that needs to be addressed in India. Vast campuses, fancy buildings and TV commercials don't make a great #university. It's the #FACULTY. Most of them aren't even paying 7th pay commision salaries, which is astrocious.
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India's R&D expenditure as % of GDP is the lowest even among the BRICS countries. India has 252 scientists per million population, while it's 1585 for China. My take on addressing these pressing problems, if we want to become a knowledge economy. @narendramodi @PMOIndia @IndiaDST
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I have always believed that privately funded institutions in India such as the Birla Institute of Technology and Science. (BITS) Pilani can go beyond the public funded higher educational institutions by leveraging on their flexibility in terms of admission, appointment, promotion
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IIT Delhi handed over 105 more cylinders today to local administration for oxygen use in #Covid care facilities. These cylinders have been taken out of our laboratories. 🙏#CovidHelp #iitdelhi @EduMinOfIndia @iitdelhi
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@HatePatroller @iitdelhi We will be investigating this further and take action. I can't believe some one can be do insensitive in this hour of grief.
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No. of attempts for JEE Advanced & JEE Mains. Please read my views.
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Saw the news today on Australia restricting visas to international students. Australia, Canada, UK, & USA tightening foreign student policies signal a shift. Time for India to focus inward: strengthen institutions, retain talent & attract global students. Let’s turn challenges
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This IIT Delhi research team has been working day and night, while the nation is in a semi lock down mode. They have made a breakthrough for detection of COVID-19. This low cost "probe-free detection assay" is developed by KSBS in IIT Delhi. @iitdelhi.
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I am told more and more institutions are beginning to do this in the country. Brought to my notice by a concerned Jadavpur University faculty member and some good students who are looking for faculty positions in India. To disregard merit and shortlist candidates just based on
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Heard from faculty in many premier institutions in India that the number of candidates applying for PhD positions this year has come down by half to one-third. What could be the reasons? Could it be because of increased offers from abroad to offset for Chinese students?.
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India has mostly been following the US initiatives in #research with a time lag of 5-10 years. Examples are our misisions on Nano, Space, Defense, AI, Quantum etc. With this approach, we will always remain a follower and will perennially be dependent on the west for technologies.
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@elonmusk @patrickc @ashleevance @paraga All of them had a free education in India at the cost of Indian tax payers money. Time American philanthropy extends to supporting Indian higher education. @iitdelhi @EndowmentF #iits.
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An inspiring story of Anvesh, son of a construction worker from Narsaipally village in Telangana, who made it to IIT Madras in his first attempt. He wants to become an #IIT #Professor one day. I studied in a nearby villlage until my 12 th standard in Telugu medium. #education
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Thank you Hon'ble PM @narendramodi. This 1000 Drone show is put up by @iitdelhi #startup @BotLabDynamics with funding support from @iitdelhi and TDB, @IndiaDST. An entirely Indian technology developed at #IITDelhi. #MadeInIndia.
One of the memorable aspects of the Beating Retreat Ceremony-2022 was the usage of drones. Have a look at this.
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Staying relevant in the post-ChatGPT era. A few suggestions for students. #creativity #innovation #ChatGPT #education
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I wrote this article on invitation from Times of India. It appeared today in the Sunday Times. I also offer solutions to address this trend. #Engineering #computerscience #innovation @toi
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5 bridge collapses in succession in Bihar and collapse of Delhi Airport terminal-1 roof. All in a matter of a few days. Sign of things to come if 90% of all our top talent goes for coding and CSE. Country needs a proactive action plan. An article I wrote about this issue in
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Taken over 3 years ago. All IIT, IISER and IISc Directors. What is wrong with this photograph?. Hint: Without it changing, India can never be a superpower. #LeadershipMatters
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An internal email I sent at @iitdelhi on World University Rankings and performance of our institutions in WURs is making rounds in the media. Here is the full email text for those who wish to know the full story. Govt is working closely with the institutions through IoE.
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Sharing a post by Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director IIT Bombay. It is about a JEE Adv qualified student missing his IIT Bombay seat because of pressing a wrong button. He has stated what we all discuss privately. Judge for yourselves. 🤔
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Me and my family recovered from #covid. 🙏 IIT Delhi has handed over many cylinders to local administration for oxygen use. Will be giving more tomorrow. Efforts are also on for building an oxygen generator prototype. Coordinating with our alumni for generating further help.
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What makes IITs tick? How can we create more IIT like institutions? My take on the reasons for the success of IITs. @iitdelhi @iitbombay @iitmadras @IITKgp @IITKanpur @IITGuwahati @iitroorkee #iit #AjadiKaAmritMahotsav @paniit_usa @paniitindia @AlumniPaniit
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IIT Delhi to launch a Rs. 50 rapid and accurate diagnostic kit for Covid 19. After the RT PCR kit at Rs. 399 in July '20, and over 8 million high quality PPE kits from @iitdelhi technology, we are now disrupting the rapid diagnostic market for covid. @EduMinOfIndia @narendramodi
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Thank you Hon'ble @narendramodi jee for encouraging these youngsters. @PixxelSpace is a young #BITSian company. "Pixxel was founded by AwaisAhmed and Kshitij Khandelwal in 2019 while studying at BITS Pilani. In 2023, the company was named one of TIME's 100 best Inventions in.
India's first private satellite constellation by @PixxelSpace showcases the exceptional talent of India's youth and highlights the expanding capabilities of our private sector in the space industry.
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The New York Times (@nytimes) 44 years ago on BITS Pilani. The (@MIT) Massachusetts Institute of Technology collaboration in the beginning set the stage for what was to come. @bitspilaniindia @BITSAA
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A clarification on BITS Pilani Dean to our alumni seeking help for Placements. An email from @bitspilaniindia Dean (Alumni) seeking help from alumni for placements is being blown out of proportions. It should be a very normal thing for institutions such as BITS and IITs to
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Scary times ahead with Indian institutions' growing obsession over publications, metrics, and rankings. Unless the @EduMinOfIndia and the @ugc_india step in to arrest this rot, a handful of individuals and institutions will end up tarnishing India’s global image.
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My article in the The Times Of India today (July 9, 2023). Four things NRF needs to do to fix India's research ecosystem?. Please read and comment. Link for the article is in the comments section. #nrf #research #highereducation @timesofindia #innovation
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Did you know? Every 4th student at IIT Delhi today is a woman. Every 3rd PhD student at IIT Delhi is a woman. Every 6th student in the B Tech programs is a woman. Leaders will emerge out of these women. Future is not bleak for India after all. We are on the right path. #WomensDay
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IIT Delhi's #COVID19 related efforts have resulted in 13 patents, 4 Technology transfers and 19 licensing deals with industries/startups so far. Technologies range from the world's most affordable RT PCR kit to Rapid Antigen kits and PPEs. @iitdelhi @narendramodi @EduMinOfIndia
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I had earlier flagged about the issue of Engineering aspirants choosing Computer Science & IT related branches over other core engineering disciplines. In this part-2 of the post, let me highlight the solutions for the same. #education #planning #research #innovation #startup
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IIT Delhi Reduces its Carbon Footprint by More than 50%. IIT Delhi achieved another milestone today by becoming the first institution in India to reduce its carbon footprint by more than 50%!. #ParisAgreement #sustainability @iitdelhi @EduMinOfIndia @DrRPNishank @narendramodi
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Congratulations to all the #CAT2021 exam toppers seeking admission into MBA Programmes. IITs are beginning to make their presence felt in #management education. @DMSIITD @iitdelhi
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My 50th PhD student Sivaneswaran Sankar has graduated today. Among the 50, 25% were women. 35% have taken up faculty jobs while 60% are in #semiconductor industries all over the world. 40% are working abroad while 60% are settled in India. Two are deep-tech startup founders. #EE
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In this hour of crisis, IIT Delhi stands in solidarity with our students and alumni from Afghanistan. We are doing every thing possible to get the students return to the campus. Let's give them hope. @iitdelhi @iitdaa #AfghanWomen #Afghanistan #iitdelhi
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A career advice for #Engineering students in India. How to choose a branch? What are the opportunities in non-CSE branches? What's the importance of pursuing higher #education? What's #innovation? What's the role of Government in strengthening innovation? Need for patents etc.
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No, not at all. This is incorrect. With the ONOS, we are democratizing the access. Nothing is being taken away. If institutions need more journals, they can always subscribe to them. That option is always available. I requested the Govt to include all the IoE institutions (ones.
During my time at IIT Bombay, whenever we had to write a paper or just needed some help with our coursework, we had access to world class resources and journals. All at our fingertips. With the coming “One Nation One Subscription” scheme, this could perhaps change. (1/5).
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Not sure whether the virus can survive at 40 degree C in Delhi. But I tell you, after wearing the mask throughout the summer, we are all going to look like a version of Hanumans 😂🌞 later. A billion Hanumans and 40 deg C should surely put COVID behind us. Let's all wear a mask.
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Good news from IIT Delhi. ICMR today approved the Probe-free COVID-19 detection assay developed at IIT Delhi. This is expected to bring down the cost of detection to below Rs.300 in the country. Press release:.@iitdelhi @narendramodi @DrRPNishank @iitdaa
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Alumnus Mr. Anant Yardi contributes USD 10 Million to IIT Delhi. Contribution to enable IITD create state-of-the art laboratories and attract talented researchers to its newly established School of AI. @iitdelhi @EduMinOfIndia @dpradhanbjp @Yardi @PMOIndia @narendramodi #AI
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NEP proposes path breaking steps which will impact higher education in a significant way. Creation of NRF with involvement of all ministries will make our research impactful and visible to the society. 'Morrill moment' for India. @DrRPNishank @HRDMinistry
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IIT Delhi creates a new Dean position for Diversity and Inclusion.#DiversityandInclusion #iitdelhi @iitdelhi
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Leadership is not about doing what 1000 people want. 1000 people together can only want an incremental thing, nothing disruptive. The impact can only be incremental. True Leadership is about believing in some thing and convincing the 1000 people to join forces with you.
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I am seeing some very innovative and fancy #undergraduate engineering programmes offered by some new-age universities in India. My worry is, these students graduating with fancy discipline titles will neither be eligible for masters programmes in India (they can't take GATE in.
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Here is a real incident that happened on Aug 20, 2023 in #BITS Goa Campus on the Convocation day which has a connection to #ISRO. #Chandrayaan. From this year, we have started #young #alumni awards in BITS Pilani campuses. This year's award recipients Awais & Kshitij, both 2019.
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My today's article in the Times of India @timesofindia. Please 'read' and comment. I see an urgent need for a proper financial model that incentivizes expansion of our public funded higher educational institutions. The current way of funding these institutions is neither
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Airport experiences in the US and India. After 15 days of extensive #travel across the US, spanning 7 cities from the East to West coast, experiencing multiple carriers (United, Delta, and Southwest), it's evident that Indian airlines and airports have much to learn from US
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BITS Pilani campuses in #Pilani, #Hyderabad, #Dubai and #Goa are looking for recruitment of high quality #faculty. We are also recruiting faculty for our off-campus locations (Work-integrated learning programmes) in #Delhi-NCR, #Mumbai, #Chennai, #Pune #Hyderabad and #Bangalore.
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Times Higher Education rankings even find a place in our IoE gazette notification as aspirational. I protested at that time and was also instrumental in old 5 IITs boycotting them. I had invited IISc to join the IITs in the boycott. But they had other plans. We even had couple of.
IISc is ranked 50th in India for Research Quality. THE rankings are boycotted by old IITs. Time for IISc to boycott it too. These rankings make absolutely zero sense and is inciting universities to indulge in scientific fraud. #THERankings #THE2025 #BoycottTHE
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Attended the 90th birthday celebrations of Prof. C N R Rao, Bharat Ratna awardee and the most well known scientist from India. The person singing the happy birthday is Sir (Prof.) Anthony Kevin Cheetham FRS, a British materials scientist. The event happened in Bangalore today.
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Some alumni from IIT Delhi have made CovRelief ( which provides:.* live tracking of vacant hospital beds, oxygen availability etc. in cities. All the data for hospital bed tracking is taken from government websites. #CovidIndia.
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IIT Delhi #Alumnus Amit Sinha Gifts Rs. 10 Crore (USD 1.34 Million) to the #Endowment fund of the Institute. Thank you Amit & Deepali Sinha for your generous contribution. @iitdelhi @Zscaler @iitdaa @EduMinOfIndia @PMOIndia.@dpradhanbjp #IIT #iitdelhi
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Students, for all JEE Advanced related matters, please write directly to Chairman, JEE (Advanced) at jeechair@admin.iitd.ac.in. @iitdelhi #JEEAdvanced.
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IIT Delhi congratulates Dr. Anirudh Devgan, our alumnus, on being appointed President & CEO of @Cadence. @iitdelhi @iitdaa @EndowmentF
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Student-teacher relationships need not be any different even during the #corona times. An incident from the classroom @iitdelhi shared by Prof. Lakshmi Narayan, Dept of Mat Sci. & Engg. Happiness in life is made up of such simple gestures. Made my day. #BePositive #IITDelhi
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IIT Delhi launches a new website for IIT-Professor Assisted Learning (PAL) to help students of Class XI and Class XII prepare better for competitive examinations. Website for IIT-PAL is: @iitdelhi @EduMinOfIndia @SWAYAMMHRD #IITPAL
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A student asked me for my #definition of #success. That made me thinking. Here it is for me. Success, for me, is the absence of regrets. It means knowing that I've given my best effort and not feeling guilty about a lack of effort on my part. If I've truly committed myself and.
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Republic Day Beating Retreat to have show of nearly 1,000 drones by IIT-Delhi startup @BotLabDynamics .@iitdelhi #drones #RepublicDay2022.
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Neeraj Jha, my PhD student was the first non-mandarin PhD to be hired by TSMC in Taiwan in 2005. After seeing him, #TSMC hired 40 more next year from IIT and many later. Neeraj and many such are the #semiconductor #manufacturing capital we have all over the world. Read his story.
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This year there are a total of 16053 seats in 23 IITs for JEE Advanced candidates. @iitdelhi @EduMinOfIndia @DrRPNishank.
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Children's education has really turned into a business. If you are parent of a 10th standard passout student, not a single day passes without receiving a spam call from some coaching institute. Schools seem to be leaking information about their enrolled students to them.
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"Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars". India needs to launch a National Mission for winning a #NobelPrize in sciences in the next 20 yrs, out of work done here. Technology without deep-science is like stamp collection. They need to go hand-in-hand.
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President-elect Joe Biden had visited our lab at IIT Bombay in 2013 and my students showed him some of the prototypes under development at that time. He was very nice, cordial and showed a lot of interest in understanding the technologies we were working on. #JoeBiden
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The terrible #suicides in #Kota should be a wake up call for the nation. In today's (Sept 3, 2023) The Times of India @timesofIndia, I discuss the reasons for this situation, the broader issues plaguing the higher education system, and the ways to improve this situation.
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Everyone talking about chaos at @DelhiAirport. A picture I had taken last week. Operations Research is a research vertical in the Depts of Mech Engg, Mathematics and Management. Many IITs have excellent faculty in this area. They can help streamline. Please consult them.
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I will be operating out of the BITS #Pilani campus. Recognized as an IoE by the GoI, BITS has immense potential to scale newer heights. I seek all your good wishes, help and cooperation in achieving these goals. @bitspilaniindia @bitshyd @bitsgoa @BITSPilaniDubai @bitsom_edu.
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Met with Prof. CNR Rao, India's Bharat Ratna awardee today in @jncasr, one of India's finest institutions which Prof. Rao founded. Prof. Rao has honorary doctorates from 84 universities from around the world and has won all possible awards in his field except the Nobel Prize.
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For all students (studying hard 😃) out there 😂. Smile more and stay safe. Every thing will be fine eventually. #smilemorestaysafe
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After having served as a Council member of all the major Indian Science and Engineering academies, happy to be elected as a 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐞-𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 for the prestigious 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 (IASc) for 2025-2027. IASc was established by Sir C V
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Did you know the Research landscape of BITS Pilani Campuses? . - BITS Pilani faculty and students, from its various campuses, published over 2500 #research papers in 2022 having an average #impact factor 4.3. One-third of these papers are through #international collaborations.
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I was happy to receive the "Outstanding Higher Education Stalwart of the Year" award for 2024 from The Economic Times (@EconomicTimes) last night in Delhi. Of course, there is still so much to do. I returned from the US in 1998 to join IIT Bombay (@iitbombay) as a faculty
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IIT Delhi inaugurated the Mittal Sports complex yesterday which is built using a generous contribution from Saurabh Mittal & family. It is indeed a trend setter for many bigger things to come. @iitdelhi @EndowmentF @iitdaa
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Many JEE Adv qualified candidates are writing to me saying branch change will not be allowed for them. At @iitdelhi, over 100 students are allowed to change their branch every year, based on their 1st year performance. We are indeed trying to make this process even more flexible.
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There are at least a dozen projects related to COVID-19 at IIT Delhi which are progressing well. IIT Delhi is keen to put out these solutions in the public domain in a matter of days to weeks to months. @iitdelhi
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@HatePatroller @iitdelhi An update. This student has graduated this year. He is no longer on IIT roll list for us to take any action internally.
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What next for the IIT Delhi startup @BotLabDynamics, which created history with 1000drones at the #Republic Day Beating Retreat ceremony?. 7500 Drones on India's 75th Independence Day at Red Fort?. Watch @pallavabagla speak with founders @iitdelhi. Video:
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We need to protect IP before publishing. Patent-Publish-Flourish needs to be our mantra. Not happening enough. We corrected this @iitdelhi. In 2016, we filed 1 patent for every 50 papers. In 2020, we filed a total 153 patents, 1 patent for 17 papers, despite COVID.@EduMinOfIndia
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My article in The Times of India (@timesofindia) today (Sunday, 13/10/2024). Link for the article is in the comments section. "𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗼 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗡𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗹 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁". Please read and comment. #NobelPrize #Science
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