iNDICA NEWS BUREAU
The IIT Alumni Council has announced what it called institutional strengthening of the PanIIT Institute through the appointment of Life Fellows across all the key areas of applied science and engineering, starting with marketing technology or martech.
The IIT Alumni Council is the largest global body of alumni, students and academicians across all the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology and partnering institutes.
The PanIIT Institute is an independent and autonomous partner alumni organization engaged in the development of an end-to-end deep-tech research ecosystem in India.
“We have learnt from the IT and BPO services sector that branding is an integral and critical part of the country’s strategy to build a new sector like research,” Ravi Sharma, president and chief volunteer of the IIT Alumni Council, said in a statement.
“Given that the government has done most of the heavy lifting and investment in terms of setting up outstanding academic institutions like the IITs and deserving scientific institutions such as the CSIR laboratories, the most critical push needed now is in global branding, perception creation and image management,” he added.
“And it is for this reason that we are announcing the first four Life Fellowships in the research-oriented PanIIT Institute in the area of martech.”
Among the Life Fellows, Dr Udaya Dharmalingham has a PhD in design from IIT Bombay and has spent the last few years as a faculty member at IIT Guwahati. He is best known as the designer of the Indian rupee symbol.
“I am indeed honored to be associated with the design of the IIT Alumni Council logo,” Dharmalingham said in a statement.
Another PanIIT Institute Life Fellow, Sunil Khullar of IIT Bombay, is a visual communication expert who has evolved the overall unifying brand strategy for all the initiatives of the IIT alumni movement, including development of the IIT font.
“My involvement was at two levels – first was to develop the overall branding strategy which helps evolve a unified look for all the branding collateral across the IITs and IIT alumni bodies whilst letting them retain their legacy logos and emblems,” Khullar was quoted as saying.
“The second was to help evolve a font, called the IIT Sans font, which can be used to unify individual logos and emblems to create a cohesive-consistent identity not just from the parent IITs but individual entities like departments, alumni funds, etc.”
Another Life Fellow, Sanjiv Goyal, been actively associated with martech in Silicon Valley for over 15 years.
He has been an active angel investor in the domain and one of his investee companies has done pro bono work for the IIT alumni movement using digital marketing.
“I am humbled and honored with recognition and acceptance in the Life Fellowship of the PanIIT Institute,” said Goyal, who has worked with companies such as Kellogg, Heinz and Gallo Wines.
“In the new normal, our world has shrunk and more connected than ever. I want to impact a billion lives by harnessing the power of innovation and entrepreneurship,” added Goyal, an IIT Delhi alumnus of IIT Delhi.
Life Fellow Sunil Hali is an IIT Roorkey alumnus and chairperson of the New York chapter of the IIT Alumni Council, and founder of Radio Zindagi and the weekly Indian Eye.
“In my own unique way, I have tried to disrupt both print and conventional media like radio to bring in a solid integration of the legacy platforms with a highly personalized online platform,” Hali said.
