Pune, 1 February 2023
Army Institute of Technology, Pune celebrated its 29th Foundation Day on Wednesday, February 01, 2023. The institute also celebrated silver jubilee of passing out of first batch of engineers which graduated in the year 1998. Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, COAS, graced the special occasion as the Chief Guest.
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Brig Abhay Bhat, Director, AIT welcomed all the dignitaries, invitees and award winners. He presented a brief review about the achievements and progress of AIT made in the previous year. He highlighted the excellent placements of AIT students this year matching colleges like College of Engineering, Pune. He also highlighted the achievements of distinguished alumni and faculty. He mentioned that AIT is planning substantial horizontal and vertical growth in the next few years.
On this occasion, AIT conferred the prestigious Life Time Achievement Award to Padma Bhushan Babasaheb Kalyani, Founder and Chairman of Kalyani Group. Its flagship company Bharat Forge Ltd., the world’s largest forging company is a major contributor to the nation’s effort to become Atmanirbhar. It is a manufacturer as well as an exporter of defense equipment, which includes world’s most modern artillery gun system, indigenous Heavy Quick Reaction Fighting vehicles, Ammunition missiles and Air Defense Systems.
In his address, Padma Bhushan Babasaheb Kalyani expressed his admiration towards Indian Armed Forces and said that today Indian defense industries have transitioned from being importers to exporters of advanced weapon systems. He asserted that India as nation will lead on Global Platform by next decade because of 5 key strengths – Indian Economy, Structural Reforms done, Technology enabling manufacturing evolution, “India First” diplomacy and “Being Young” . He said that he is confident that India will be a 33 trillion economy by 2047.
During the event, Successful Young Alumni Entrepreneur Award was presented to Mr. Sameer Maini, alumnus from the first batch of AIT (Electronics and Telecommunication). He is the Founder and CEO of Collaborationroom.AI, Washington, a US based company.
Mr. Sameer Maini expressed his gratitude and further added that whatever he is today, is because of contribution of his Alma Mater in his personal and professional development. Finally he told the students to enjoy every moment of college life.
The ceremony continued with presenting the awards to the meritorious students, teaching and nonteaching staff at the hands of the chief guest Gen Manoj Pande, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, COAS. The Chief of Army Staff Best All Rounder amongst students Trophy was awarded to Akash Bhati of Information Technology. Rajshekhar trophy for best sports person was awarded to Bhavna Nimmagadda of Computer Engineering. The Rajput Regiment trophy for best Innovation was awarded to Abhinav Pratap Chauhan of Information Technology.
Amongst the faculty, Dr Sagar Rane was felicitated with Best Teacher as well as Best Research Award, Mrs Swati Salunkhe was awarded as Best Non-Teaching Technical Staff Award, while Mr Avinash Bhosale was given the Best Non-Teaching Staff Award.
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Chief Guest, Gen Manoj Pande, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, COAS, congratulated all the award winners and the first batch of AIT on completing 25 years of graduation. He expressed his satisfaction that AIT has evolved into an Institute of Excellence and is rated amongst top 200 engineering colleges. He further said that it is heartening to know that a large proportion of Alumni have taken the path of entrepreneurship and are running successful startups. He mentioned hat AI/Ml, IoT, 5G, Quantum Computing are few of the key technologies revolutionizing all sectors and have potential military applications to impact modern day warfare in a disruptive manner. He added that key projects under Innovation for Defense Excellence (iDEX) are being pursued to leverage competency of Startups, Individual innovators, MSMEs, R&D institutes and Academia. This constitutes our roadmap to shape the Indian Army into future ready, technologically driven, lethal and agile force. He concluded with a quote by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, “Dreams are not those which you see while sleeping, but are those which don’t let you sleep, before fulfilling them.
During the function, various scholarships sponsored by organizations such as TATA, ZS Associate, Persistent Foundation, Horizon Group, Badve Group, Hashmap, Udchalo Group, and New Indian Express, were distributed at the hands of respective company officials.
Vote of thanks was given by Chairman of AIT Management Committee, Maj Gen TS Bains of HQ Southern Command.
Present at the occasion were Maj Gen RK Raina, VSM, MD, AWES, many serving and retired officers, industry representatives, parents, alumni, students and employees of AIT.
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PIB Pune | M.Iyengar/D.Rane
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