GAABESU activities report during the period January – April 2024

This is the 3rd  report after the new GAABESU Executive Committee (EC9) took over in late-August 2023. The 1st & the 2nd  reports were issued  in Sep-2023 & Jan-24 respectively.

After the grand accomplishment  of our Alumni Day celebration on 23rd December ’23, our flagship program “Scholarship/ AFE / Research Award” program  was also conducted successfully on 23rd March 2024. A detailed report on this program  has already been circulated to all the Members besides posting  on our website.

• 119th EC meeting was held on 20th April 2024 in hybrid mode.

• Special General Meeting

As per the statutory requirements of the Registrar of Societies, any revision done to MoA has to be submitted within one month of the approval of the Annual Report. Our revised MoA was already had its approval in the AGM of 2022 & 2023 but as the Registrar of Societies accorded approval to our Annual Report on 19th March 2024, though submitted by us in July 2023. In view of their statutory requirement of submitting Revised MoA within one month from the approval date of the Annual Report, it was necessitated to accord fresh approval of the Revised MoA.

In view of the above, a Special General Meeting (SGM) was called on 11th April 2024 by issuing formal notice of three weeks in advance  abiding by the requirements of MoA. However, later  11th April 2024 was  declared as a public holiday due to Eid festival, the meeting was conducted  “Online”. The only agenda of this SGM was to accord approval once again to the MoA (revised version), presently in force.

• Prof. P. K Ray Memorial Lecture at Civil department of IIEST

On 23rd Feb '24 afternoon, the 4th  Prof. Dr. Pradip Ray Memorial Lecture was organized by GAABESU jointly with the Civil Engineering Department.  The venue was the Seminar Hall of the Civil Department.  The speaker was Amitabha Ghosal (CE 1957) and the  topic was “Engineers for Sustainability – Case Studies on Bridges''   

The topic being on Bridges and their sustainability and people from all sections being very familiar with use of such structures,  the presentation was enjoyed and appreciated by all. In a way, the lecture was very well attended and few students even had to stand at the back for a shortage of seats.

 Many classmates (1965 batch) of Prof. Dr. Ray attended the lecture. Alumnus  (also members of GAABESU), like Dr. Arun Deb, Syama P. Datta, Amitabha Datta, Malay Niyogi, Santanu Karmakar, etc. also attended. One classmate of Prof. Dr. Ray, Mr. Pradipta Mukherjee spoke about Dr. Ray of their  College days. The entire program was a grand success.  

Program started with the welcome speech by the President of GAABESU and thereafter Acting Director IIEST and HoD Civil addressed the august gathering. At the end, Secretary-GAABESU gave the Vote of Thanks.

• GAABESU Scholarship, Alumni Fellowship for Excellence and Research Award programme

For Scholarship/AFE/Research award ceremony report in our website, please refer to the below link:

https://www.gaabesu.in/blog/a-report-scholarship-research-alumni-fellowship-for-excellence-awards-distribution-ceremony-2024/

Some of the students, who did not attend with no prior intimation, have applied to GAABESU for reconsideration. Some of the students directly approached the Donors/EC Members. Anjan Ghosh (as SSC Chairman) & Secretary met all the students on 20th April and discussed the matter in detail. The students were asked to consider the feelings of Donor alumni, for their non-serious attitude. Students have agreed to submit unconditional apology to GAABESU Office only. These will be reviewed and possibly the due money would be released to respective recipients shortly.

The matter of reconsideration of scholarship/AFE award process was also taken up in the EC meeting. We have already received various comments from many members regarding upgradation and possible automation of the process, as well as bringing in new volunteers and new ideas to carry forward the good work done for the last 25 years. The automation part will have to  be looked after during upgrading and modernization  of our  website. It was decided that the Scholarship/AFE Award process document shall be taken up for review by a specially formed  committee, consisting of Debal Banerjee from Canada as Convener and Anjan Ghosh & Prosenjit Chakraborty as members. This committee will compile all the comments received so far, request all members to provide further comments and then upgrade the process document, keeping in mind possible automation feasibility, in consultation with IT experts involved. All the Donors as well as students shall also be approached for comments. Members present in the last EC meeting dated 20th April 2024, gave their opinion, including smooth transition well before next year’s award program, successful operation for last 24 years, enormous contributions of Rajdeep Datta, Anjan Ghosh & SSC team, in running the program with continuing support  from Swapan Saha in USA & others, etc. GAABESU EC has decided to move forward with the requirement of upgradation of process, bringing in new volunteers, new ideas & automation.

• A new proposal to EE department of IIEST

GAABESU Secretary took an initiative by proposing to start a yearly Invitational Memorial lecture series at IIEST-Shibpur, i.e. our own BECollege Electrical engineering department, in the memories of our great Teachers Dr. Sankar Sen, Prof. P.N. Banerjee (pnb), Dr.P.K.Nandi, Prof. Sakti Sekhar Basu (ssb), Prof. Srikumar Mallik (skm). This will generally be similar to Prof. P. K. Roy Memorial lecture at IIEST Civil Dept, where alumni raised funds, donated to GAABESU and GAABESU organizes the program jointly with the department. The matter was discussed with a few senior professors of EE Deptand all welcomed the idea. The target would be to raise a fund for the app. Rs. 5.0 Lakhs and the interest would cover all expenses.

This matter was then placed to GAABESU EC and HoD, EE Department of IIEST. After due consideration, the proposal was accepted by the Department. Further, the Department also has constituted a committee of faculty members, who would take the matter further forward. After this, there was a common meeting held online on 15th April 2024 with GAABESU President & Secretary, few members, as well as HoD & EE Department Committee Members were present. It was proposed and agreed that instead of naming the lecture series after a few names, the series be called “Legends & Legacies”, be held twice-a-year (Jan/Aug) and each can be in memory of one ex-professor. The process would continue further.

• Alumni Link magazine (e-issue)

Alumni Link magazine is now being published regularly. One hard copy magazine during Alumni Day, and remaining publications in e-version soft copy. We have already published 3 issues, one in Puja, one in Alumni Day, and the latest one in Bengali Nababarsha (https://www.gaabesu.in/blog/alumni-link-nabobosho-edition-1431/  . The next issue is scheduled to be published in July.

We are trying to improve the publication further and following four major areas shall be taken-up

Readership & reach survey

feedback from the readers.

Possible advertisement collection based upon readership

Collaboration with similar magazines, specifically “Sahityika”, the fore-runner magazine of IIEST community.

• Paramesh Ranjan Dhar debate competition: 2024

Late Paramesh Ranjan Dhar was an illustrious alumnus (1957 Civil). He was a very good debater. After his demise, his friends made an endowment for a yearly debate competition among students of IIEST, Shibpur. Three best debaters, decided by the judges, are awarded. GAABESU has been organising this debate as desired by the friends of Late Paramesh Ranjan Dhar. 

GAABESU organized the 4th Debate Competition among the present students of IIEST on 28th February 2024 at 5.30 pm at the Conference Hall of Mechanical Department at IIEST Campus.  Many dignitaries, the family & friends of Paramesh R Dhar were present on the programme. Mr. Syama Prasad Datta said about Mr. Paramesh Ranjan Dhar, Dr. Arun Deb, batchmate  of Mr. Dhar said about the background of this competition. There were 34 student participants and the quality of discussion was very good.  Judges were Prof. Gautam Bhattacharya, Prof. Mallika Ghosh Sarbadhikary and Shri Partha Sarathi Majumdar (1982 CE). The topic of the debate was "Social media has improved human communication". prizes. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd position holder’s prizes was distributed during the Scholarship distribution ceremony.

• Emergency Fund

GAABESU had a very good working Emergency Fund, active till 2019. Actually, the activities towards formation of GAABESU started with the Emergency Fund drive, way back in 1999. However, it was observed that the number of donors were dwindling drastically and mostly the same people used to donate. Because the fund was open to all BEC related persons with no restrictions and no guidelines, it was difficult to refuse assistance to anyone and by this route, some people tried to misuse the claimed money, totally disregarding donations from people’s hard-earned money. It was also observed that appeals circulated within applicant’s own or surrounding batches yield much better results. Hence, GAABESU officially stopped operation of the Emergency Fund in 2019. However, some money was left in the fund. During the Corona Pandemic, some more similar donations got accrued in the same fund. Though the fund got officially closed, during the last few years, GAABESU EC has paid some assistance to some very needy students/alumni from this remaining money.

About a month ago, we received a proposal from the USA for a lumpsum donation to restart this Emergency Fund operations once again. It was discussed within EC members and was  agreed, in principle. However, the fund is yet to come.

Recently, we have received a request for Emergency Fund medical assistance for Debanjan Ghata of 2020 batch, who is suffering from Leukaemia. As per appeal from his friends & colleagues (all alumni), approximate cost of treatment is Rs.25-30Lakhs. Apparently, his company will pay upto Rs.10lakhs. GAABESU EC decided to help Debanjan and already released Rs.1Lakh to his father’s account.

•  Upgrade for New Website

The journey started when Sushanta Sinha (1988 ETC) was assigned the task of upgradation of GAABESU website in Sep-2023. At the initial stages itself, it was understood that the existing website cannot be improved because of software limitations, but a new one has to be created, with proper data migration. He, along with Saumitra Sinha (1981 Met) started collaborating with earlier developers, including Subrata Ghosh (1984 CE) in the USA. It was decided that a professional agency will be hired, preferably one, run by an alumni of our Institute. They have reviewed activities of various such companies and short-listed one. They visited SB Creation Office and discussed the primary requirement around January 2nd week this year and subsequently initial payment of Rs. 25,000/- payment was released. 

It was followed by a couple of sessions with all our in-house domain-experts to internally discuss the requirements in detail, to understand the fundamental structure of the existing website and future needs. Bench-marking was done with some of the Global Institute's sites. Saumitra Sinha also handed over the existing/would-be (proposed) database structure as inputs. 

With all the information in hand, there were 3 rounds of discussions with the designers and developers and suggested the overall framework. There were few other requirements from existing students and a few alumni seniors.

The designers also came down to our GAABESU Office on 23rd March during the event of our Annual Scholarship Day, to have a first-hand feeling of the activities we do and was also introduced to GAABESU Staff & Office-bearers for further contact (if any, specially for quick clarification of existing process).

Last week, the first-draft was discussed and initial feedback was given (and clarified some doubts they had) and they are currently working on the same. We will continue to have multiple iterations of the development cycle till we finalize the first draft for demonstration, expected to happen sometime towards end-of May.

Meantime, from our side, we need to provide contents, most of them can be picked-up from the existing site, but few more we have to get from GAABESU office or other sources.

Membership, Profile Updates, Scholarships and Event Management are the few most complex ones that need a lot of inter-activeness and our primary focus is to design the best way to suit future requirements. We are planning to make it more database oriented so that users can search it to get the intended results. Currently it is document based and does not have intelligent search.

• New membership from January 2024 till date (April 2024)

10 new members were added during the above period. After the new EC took over in end-Aug 2023, the new membership number is 130+.

• Seminar Update:

From GAABESU-USA, a new initiative was started in July 2023, titled “IIEST Alumni Networking Project”, with a new team of volunteers. They have also arranged following webinars during this period.

1.    From Shibpur to Moon: The Inspiration Journey of IIEST Alumni on Chandrayaan-3
Date: 30th September 2023   YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/9ljgv-uR61I?

Synopsis: Kick-off of IIEST Alumni Networking Project with a webinar celebration IIEST alumni contribution in the successful Chandrayaan-3 project.

2.    Sharing an amazing journey from Muchipara to MIT
Date: December 2, 2023   YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/VYPgh7Q9CNw

Synopsis: This session was aimed at inspiring current IIEST students intending to pursue post-graduate studies in India and abroad, with a focus on female graduates in STEM disciplines. Dr. Arijit Banerjee, 2005 EE, recounts his fascinating journey from Shibpur to MIT and then to UIUC as a faculty member. Shreya Sharma, 2018 AE (@ MIT), Shubheccha Paul, 2021ME (@ Stanford) and Rajyasri Roy, 2022 CE (@ Berkeley) share their experiences at their respective universities.

The session was hosted by Mr. Abhishek Das (2006 EE).

3.    The Roadmap to Success: Navigating Your Early Career Journey
Date: 5th November 2023 YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/j1CRSVpBQ8U

Synopsis: This interactive session was tailored for current students and recent graduates of IIEST Shibpur, but we welcomed everyone to join us and contribute to the discussion via chat with our key speaker Mr. Amit Das (1988 EE), Director HR & CHRO at Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. (The Times Group).  Mr. Das shared invaluable insights about early career paths, challenges, and opportunities.

The session was hosted by Mr. Sanjay Basu (1995 CE).

4.    Understanding Different Leadership Styles: Adapting Styles in Various Situations
Date : January 28 2024  YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/qY52u9z0IHM

Synopsis: Moderated by an industry leader himself, four (4) acclaimed panelists, who have scaled career heights in their respective fields, discuss predominant leadership styles in the industry.

Panelists:
Mr. Sukanto Roy, 77 ETC, Mumbai, ex-CEO/COO GTL, https://lnkd.in/g7M9uD54
Mr. Ashish Basu, 83 CE, San Francisco, EVP, Interra Systems, https://lnkd.in/gQZY6xxt
Mr. Sanjoy Maity, 87 CST, Atlanta, CEO, AMI, https://lnkd.in/guWz8zbT
Dr. Sujoy Sinha Roy, 2007 ETC, Austria, Assistant Professor, Graz University of Technology, https://lnkd.in/gNWTgHrM
Moderator:
Mr. Suman Chandra, 98EE, NJ, Senior Principal Engineer, NFCU, https://lnkd.in/ghq4ewwk

5.    Data Science - Future and How to Prepare
Date:  February 10 2024   YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/-OeNWj95vq8

Synopsis: For those still navigating the student life or considering a leap into Data Science, this discussion is a goldmine of wisdom. Our panelists share their journeys into the otherwise obscure world of Data Science and AI/ML.

Panelists:
Dr. Samit Chaudhuri, 87 ETC, San Francisco, AWS, https://lnkd.in/g8nbPm3b
Mr. Chiranjib Bhandari, 92 ME, Bangalore, Co-founder & CTO at Avanseus, https://lnkd.in/gvrKPRr5
Dr. Ritendra Datta, 04 IT, ex-Meta, ex-Google, Databricks, San Francisco, https://lnkd.in/g8pGvJ9A
Moderator:
Mr. Hasan Sheikh, 02 CST, Seattle, Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft, https://lnkd.in/ghg__dtM

6.    Building a Foundation: Essential Skills and Knowledge for Aspiring Technical Consultants
Date: February 24 2024    YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/live/kYVF3tv8LfY

Synopsis: Nuances of Technical Consulting. Our panelists elaborate on the skills, training, knowledge and other attributes necessary to succeed as Technical Consultant.

Panelists:

Mr. Amitabha Datta, 74CE, GAABESU President, ex-STUP, Kolkata, https://lnkd.in/gb-nKpEz
Mr. Surajit Pramanick, 89 MIN, SAP Consulting, San Francisco, https://lnkd.in/gyfsugNi
Dr. Sandeep Chatterjee, 98ME, Supply Chain, IBM, Hyderabad, https://lnkd.in/gARS8F4G

Moderator - Mr. Shreayan Nandy, 12MET, Kolkata, Senior Manager, Accenture, https://lnkd.in/gz7-bVM3

7.    From campus to companies - IIEST Shibpur Alumni Entrepreneurship New Stories
Date : April 13, 2024  YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/f_gosdnG4iU?si=vfi7D-zxI2bJFt_O

Synopsis: It’s an amazing lineup featuring three outstanding entrepreneurs from Kolkata, Bangalore, and even Seattle, USA! They shared their insights, experiences, and valuable lessons learned along the way and also responded to live questions from the 2nd year and 3rd year IIEST Shibpur students.

Panelists: 

Subrata Biswas (2011 IT), Seattle

Abhrokanti Saha (2015 CE), Kolkata 

Arup Dash (1998 ETC), Bangalore

Moderator - Sanjay Basu (1995 CE), San Francisco 

These recorded sessions are also available at the GAABESU YouTube channel and LinkedIn.

Please Subscribe to:

1.    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIpY5BFBNAdQ7s-9n_y9KCSvcHWKTY0AN
to view the recordings of these webinar sessions.

2.    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GAABESUOfficial to receive notifications for any such recording if you miss a live session.

Please Join - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2529987/ to receive invitations to similar future live events and/or connect with alumni.

The Alumni Networking Initiative has formed Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to cater to specific career guidance needs of the current students and recent pass-outs. We will have new events in Semiconductors and Entrepreneurships in the coming months.

• Audit & Accounts

Our annual audit for the just concluded Financial Year (2023-24) has already started. This year, the whole accounts & balance sheet was compiled by our office staff Sri Sourav Kayal, with back-up & guidance from our Treasurer Sri Malay Niyogi and Working President Sri Arabinda Roy.

While on the subject, this is for information of All Members that we have few Income Tax issues pending from FY2016-17 & 2017-18, which we are struggling to resolve. The problems were initiated because of wrong filing & late filing by thethen auditors. For one year, exemptions available for our whole donation income (already spent for assigned purposes) have been withdrawn, because of late return filing. With our new Auditor joining in 2019-20, we have appealed and initially it was accepted by the IT department. However, two years later, they intimated that their earlier acceptance was wrong and were withdrawn. We have appealed to the authorities, but it resulted in nothing, only the interest amount got increased. Now, we are going ahead with moving to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.

We also have a long-pending issue with PAN Card. The number issued to us actually belongs to the “Trust” category and not “Association”. The name in PAN Card is also shortened, as initially, available character space in PAN software was less. We tried to resolve this issue with NSDL, but had to retract because any such change would have huge repercussions in many areas, including all our bank accounts (also FCRA account).

• Obituary: February - April 2024: 

It is sad to mention here that during the period 1st February 2024 to 24th April 2024, we lost our following beloved Alumni:

Names                                     Batch     Dept.     Date of death

Sanjoy Mukherjee                  1986       CE         01-Jan-24

Durgadas Chowdhury           1967       CE         03-Jan-24

Ramprasad Mukhopadhyay 1976       CE         17-Jan-24

Kaushik Chatterjee                1991       CE         24-Jan-24

Sisir Kumar Neogi                 1956       CE         26-Jan-24

Sisir Das                                 1967       CE         15-Feb-24

Suman Nihar                          2010       ME       06-Feb-24

Kripa Sindhu Rakshit            1951       CE        31-Mar-24

Prabir Kumar Sengupta        1952       EE        18-Apr-24

GAABESU joins hands with the bereaved families in their prayers to grant the departed souls to rest in peace, and pray to God, the Almighty, to give strength and courage to bear with their irreparable losses.