This morning as India celebrates its 60th year of independence, I got an email from Dr Sudhir Jain, Dean, IIT Kanpur, addressed to all alumni. I happen to be one of them, I passed out in year 1989 in Mechanical Engineering. Seems longtime ago, but who can forget breaking the head over Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and the Theory of Machine Design …

I haven’t obtained a formal permission to publish excerpts from his letter here, but I hope he is not going to mind it anyway, there is nothing personal in here. In his letter he notifies us that in a survey taken by the reputed magazine India Today, IIT Kanpur has been once again ranked number one in India. I knew it! I have been there four years, and I know what it takes to get through those grueling four years…with due respect to the other IITs, I wonder if any other institute in India can even come close to us for many years to come! I asked Dr Dhande (IIT K director, BTW, a very confident person with an amazing sense of humor), the same question five years ago when I met him in 2002 at the very first global IIT conference held in Santa Clara, California. The answer was a reassuring yes- our academics was the best and is the best in the country! This year we had Pan IIT conference 2007 at the beautiful Santa Clara convention center, and in the IIT K breakout session we again grilled Dr Dhande and Dr Jain, apparently the spirit of excellence has not dimmed a bit! Here’s the excerpts from the letter…

“August 15, 2007

From: Sudhir K Jain, Dean Resource Planning and Generation, IIT Kanpur

To: All alumni of IITK

Dear IITK Alumnus / Alumna:

Independence Day Greetings from IITK. You may already be aware that IITK has once again been ranked number 1 engineering college in the country by the India Today survey. Our past and current students indeed make a substantial contribution towards IITK consistently receiving such a high ranking over the years.”

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This morning as India celebrates its 60th year of independence, I got an email from Dr Sudhir Jain, Dean, IIT Kanpur, addressed to all alumni. I happen to be one of them, I passed out in year 1989 in Mechanical Engineering. Seems longtime ago, but who can forget breaking the head over Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and the Theory of Machine Design …

I haven’t obtained a formal permission to publish excerpts from his letter here, but I hope he is not going to mind it anyway, there is nothing personal in here. In his letter he notifies us that in a survey taken by the reputed magazine India Today, IIT Kanpur has been once again ranked number one in India. I knew it! I have been there four years, and I know what it takes to get through those grueling four years…with due respect to the other IITs, I wonder if any other institute in India can even come close to us for many years to come! I asked Dr Dhande (IIT K director, BTW, a very confident person with an amazing sense of humor), the same question five years ago when I met him in 2002 at the very first global IIT conference held in Santa Clara, California. The answer was a reassuring yes- our academics was the best and is the best in the country! This year we had Pan IIT conference 2007 at the beautiful Santa Clara convention center, and in the IIT K breakout session we again grilled Dr Dhande and Dr Jain, apparently the spirit of excellence has not dimmed a bit! Here’s the excerpts from the letter…

“August 15, 2007

From: Sudhir K Jain, Dean Resource Planning and Generation, IIT Kanpur

To: All alumni of IITK

Dear IITK Alumnus / Alumna:

Independence Day Greetings from IITK. You may already be aware that IITK has once again been ranked number 1 engineering college in the country by the India Today survey. Our past and current students indeed make a substantial contribution towards IITK consistently receiving such a high ranking over the years.”