Meet Mr. Anil Kshirsagar!

As you enter the world of alumni empowerment at IIT Bombay, the visionary efforts of Mr. Kshirsagar are visible for all to see. Kshirsagar. A pivotal figure in the creation of the IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation (IITBHF), Mr. Kshirsagar’s story is one of passion, dedication, and transformative leadership. Hear him in his own words as he unveils the genesis of IITBHF and explores the profound impact it has had on fostering a vibrant and connected global alumni community for IIT Bombay.

Over to Mr. Kshirsagar.

“The title of this new vertical in the newsletter brings back so many memories! The afternoon “tiffin” of chai and samosa was a big relief for us. It meant that the day’s classroom and lab sessions were over and we could connect with our hostel mates and discuss various topics like sports, music, drama, etc. These sessions allowed us to grow as young adults. The other time we used to munch on samosas and sip on chai was during the department seminars. Either a PG or a professor would present a new topic which may or may not have been related to our coursework but they exposed us to new ideas, concepts, and challenges.

I have so many warm memories of my time at IITB. The hostel craziness during exams is probably is worth mentioning. Amid a final exam, one guy would start a water fight for absolutely no reason and the entire hostel would indulge in the fight for fun! We would go down to the Mess for a midnight chai the night before finals, wander into the lounge, and play carrom. A few hours later – at 4 or 5 am – we would be exhausted and wanted to take a short nap before going to the exam at 8 am. Remember, we would NOT study during the semester and depend on last-minute cramming!

We were also so fortunate to have had many talented mentors. In my case, Prof Sukhatme was a guiding light in ME along with my guide Prof. Jagdish. In CS, Prof Isaac and Prof Dhamdhere inspired me towards a career in IT. Although several others didn’t teach me directly, their stories inspired me to take on bigger challenges. I was a very shy individual when I entered IITB; one of the goals I had was to learn how to make new friends – which I did by volunteering for hostel activities. Running for elections was a great experience and becoming the GS of my H5 gave me tremendous exposure not only to the challenges of running an operation but dealing with people across the campus.

Mr. Kshirsagar with Mr. Nandan Nilekani and others at the KRESIT opening

Before I get into how the Heritage Foundation came to be, I want to take you back in time. Do you remember R K Laxman’s cartoons?  His “Common Man” was always present inconspicuously and never really contributed to the happenings around him. I think that summarizes my story.  I just happened to be present when many amazing things happened to form our strong alumni association because of the other talented and passionate volunteers.

It all started with the one common thing that binds most IIT alumni. And that is our gratitude towards the Institute that helped us grow into adults. All of us want to give back to IITB and the students in some way – either financially or otherwise.

Given my strong connection to my mentors at IITB, I was fortunate to have maintained my connection with Prof. Sukhatme after leaving IIT in 1975. I had the privilege to host him and his family in Detroit one weekend in the summer of 1983. That was when I asked him how alumni could help the Institute and he assured me that he would reach out to me when he found something I could help with. In 1985 he contacted me and asked for my help in contacting as many US-based alumni as I could for a survey. Between an advertisement I placed nationwide in newspapers, followed by a phone campaign – we got a few hundred respondents. By the time I moved to the Bay Area in 1990, I was thrilled to see that my classmates like Raj Mashruwala (Mashru), Subhash Tantry, with others like Sandeep Pandya, Raj Shah, etc. already had a social networking program for fellow Bay Area IITB alumni by organizing annual picnics and Diwali parties.

In 1992 Prof. Sukhatme wrote to me requesting that I host Prof. Kudchadkar, then Deputy Director of IIT Bombay, who explained how the Indian government had frozen funding for the Institute. Other professors like Deepak Phatak stressed the need for alumni to get involved with raising funds for the Institute. It was during my batch’s 20th reunion in Cape Cod in 1995 that I took the lead with the help of Subhash Tantry, Mashru, Bharat Desai, and others to launch an IIT Bombay alumni charitable foundation in the US and filed the paperwork for the same.

That was how the IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation (IITBHF) came to be.

We founded HF with two goals in mind: to help IITB become a world-class Institute and help alumni in their professional endeavours. I was honoured to lead it for the first few years. I was also lucky to have a highly talented and dedicated Executive Committee (EC) from a spectrum of batches – Deepak Sabnis 1972, and Dushyant Pandya 1987, Pari Choksi & Raj Mashruwala 1975 who brought in DA engagement, Ram Kelkar 1980 who architected & managed the entire web-based services and later led HF, Mahesh Krishnamurthy 1985 who led the formation of FAN with other FAN leaders, Sandeep Pandya 1986  who managed our finances & legal issues, and later led HF.  Ram and Sandeep worked the longest and hardest to ensure the fledgling organization succeeds.

Over the years, many other distinguished alumni helped out as well – from Kanwal Rekhi, Shailesh Mehta, Romesh Wadhwani, Girish Gaitonde, and Yogen Dalal to Victor Menezes, Nandan Nilekani (who both co-chaired HF), and Bharat Desai, Rakesh Mathur to name just a few.

Subsequently, many fresh graduates joined us and they’re now senior leaders of HF including Vinay Karle, Beerud Seth, Kashyap Deorah, Ursheet Parikh, Sreedhar Reddy Kona, etc.

Several academic leaders in the US are equally passionate about sharing their experiences with IIT Bombay and bringing world-class practices that will benefit faculty and students. Pramod Khargonekar, Vinayak Dravid, Nitish Thakore, Pratim Biswas, Arun Majumdar, Uday Karmarkar, Uday Apte, and Gaurav Sukhatme are just a few of the dozens of US faculty leaders who have contributed over the years.

The US chapters had very strong leaders as well.  New York (Noorali Sonawala, Jude Netto, Uday Nadkarni), DC (Suresh & Sudhakar Shenoy), San Francisco (Aman Walia, Shankar Narayan, Balaji Srinivasan, Amit Khandelwal).  HF already has a dozen US Chapters and the young enthusiastic Board members led by Vinaya Kapoor are on their way to start four more chapters very soon!

Our sister organization in India IITBAA is also very strong – thanks to many leaders who have built it with a strong participatory foundation and have reciprocal representation with our Board. We collaborate very effectively on many things such as common web infrastructure, on-campus projects, reunions, fundraising campaigns, etc.  HF couldn’t have carried out many things without their help. I have worked with and benefitted from many members of AA and I would like to give a shout-out to Shridhar Shukla, Bakul Desai, Dhananjay Saheba, Ajit Ranade, Deepak Patil, & Deepak Seth. All of them have continued to be active over the past few decades working with alumni and IIT Bombay.

Many batches have done their part in contributing to IITB; I am most familiar with my batch (apologies to other batches) which has several passionate leaders who have been actively contributing to IITB for many decades: IITB AA leadership (Kirat Patel, Narayan Sudarshan, etc), Entrepreneurship (Bharat Desai, Raj Jaswa, etc), Innovation/Tinkerership (Hemant Kanakia, Bakul Shah, Jayant Kolghade, Shekhar Inamdar, etc).

I would mention that we have had inspirational Chairmen over the years – Victor Menezes, Nandan Nilekani, Bharat Desai, Raj Mashruwala and Parag Saxena. Similarly, we have had dynamic Presidents like Ram Kelkar, Sandeep Pandya, Ron Mehta, DC Agrawal and Vinay Karle along with several chapter & HF leaders (that I haven’t mentioned) have left their own mark, making the alumni association stronger than what they found.

But what you need to understand is that the alumni movement is like a river.  Many streams come together over time from different locations and form a strong river.  Each stream has a right to feel that it is a founder of the river – and only then we will see a strong river current with enthusiasm.  The founding team of HF succeeded but before that many groups and individuals started similar efforts in their cities and have every right to feel that THEY started the movement.  The HF founding team only offered a platform for growth with various programs like the annual roadshow, fundraising campaigns, reunion support, networking events, FAN and DA meetings, etc.

Also, a key factor to understand is that contributing to IITB comes not just in the form of money but also time. With that in mind, I want to give a shout-out and celebrate hundreds of volunteers all over the globe who have donated their time to make alumni events and IITB’s goals successful. We had the privilege of being educated at a premier institute like IIT Bombay and were taught by talented, smart, and passionate peers and motivating teachers. It’s only by giving back in some way that we can ensure that others will also have the same or better opportunity. It’s critical that we support IITB’s goal of building a new generation of leaders.

We realized early in our evolution as an alumni association that if we were to expand our outreach to alumni of other IITs, it would help our base.  After all, we all went through the same process to become IIT alums and can share our life experiences. That’s how PanIIT came about. In the smaller US cities, PanIIT provides critical mass for networking.  In large cities, it provides significant mass to attract global leaders and a larger platform for networking.

I must say that volunteering benefitted me more than what IITB got from me. Because of HF and PanIIT, I learned so much from others (and am still learning from younger alums now). HF activities helped me professionally – my company’s name became popular and opened doors for me in many places. Italian TV interviewed HF officers and it was shown by TIBCO for many large enterprise deals. The prestigious American News show, 60 Minutes, interviewed prominent IIT alumni and the show reached all over the world, making IITs and their alumni famous.

IITB has a long-term plan and it will continuously evolve in response to the changing world. My goal as a philanthropist is to contribute ideas to and support the Institute’s plan. Donors sometimes can be aligned so tightly to one idea that they fail to see value in supporting a more relevant one. My suggestion to them would be to share their ideas with IITB but be open to the administration’s constraints and abilities.

The value proposition for alumni has always been the same – the more IITB is recognized as one of the top leaders in the world, the better its brand becomes. Hence I would urge alumni to not only contribute financially but also get engaged in supporting research collaborations, faculty/student exchange, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation on campus, etc. There are already many programs on campus but everyone can add their value and make it stronger.

Mr. Kshirsagar with Prof. Subhasis Chaudhari (Director, IIT Bombay), Prof. Ravi Gudi (Dean ACR), Mr. Ravishankar Gedela (CEO DRF), Mr. Parag Agrawal (former CEO, Twitter), and others

I am delighted that IITB today is under the dynamic leadership of Director Chaudhuri, Deputy Directors, and various Deans, and is the strongest it has ever been. They (and especially Prof. Ravi Gudi since we see him the most) work very hard to enable faculty and students to achieve higher goals. I am confident that IIT Bombay, the rising star, will be on par with the top 10 universities in every aspect very soon. But to make that happen, all of us need to do our part.”

IIT Bombay is profoundly grateful to Mr. Anil Kshirsagar, whose visionary leadership has been the cornerstone of the IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation (IITBHF). His unwavering commitment to fostering a global network of engaged alumni has left an indelible mark on the Institute’s legacy. Every time IIT Bombay celebrates the collaborative spirit that defines its alumni community, the Institute recognizes Mr. Kshirsagar’s instrumental role in harmoniously combining shared experiences and resilience. His dedication echoes in the enduring success of IITBHF, ensuring that the bonds forged during his journey at IIT Bombay continue to flourish across time and borders.

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