Global leaders come calling to Chennai for upcoming PanIIT 2008 Global Conference

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Chennai, August 26, 2008: PanIIT, an umbrella alumni organization of all seven IIT institutes, today announced the names of global leaders and sponsors who would be participating for the much awaited annual IIT Global Conference – PanIIT 2008. PanIIT also iterated details of their current nation building projects and the way forward.

The fifth consecutive annual global conference will be held on December 19th- 21st, 2008 in Chennai on the sylvan IIT Madras campus. This Global Conference will bring together IIT alumni comprising policy makers, leading academicians, thought leaders, industry captains and more from across the world to discuss and debate ideas, issues and find solutions to create a better India for tomorrow.

Global leaders for the 2008 Global Conference includes the founder of Mittal steel, L.N. Mittal, Carlos Ghosn, Co-Chairman, President and CEO, Nissan; Bob McDonald, COO, Procter & Gamble; Prof. C.K.Prahalad, Professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of business; the Honourable Finance Minister of India, Mr. P. Chidambaram and Stephen Cohen, a senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution. The pre-eminent luminaries from around the world will look hard at the future, explore the frontiers of new thought and technology, and identify the next big forces and trends that will sweep across the world.

“This year’s conference is all set to be the biggest in its history and we are extremely excited about the participating luminaries and we believe that coming together, we will make a global impact” said Mr. Santhanam, Chairman, PanIIT 2008 & Managing Director of Saint-Gobain Glass India, “We have planned a comprehensive itinerary that provides far-reaching coverage of many current trends presented by prominent leaders and academics, most of whom have a rich heritage with IIT”, he added.

McKinsey & Company will be the Knowledge Partner for the Pan IIT 2008 Global Conference and will be shaping the content of the program. Google, Tata Group and State Bank of India are the Gold Sponsors for the global conference. Google will sponsor one of the six tracks at the conference and also nominate their Chief Evangelist to be present. Google’s involvement with Pan IIT extends much beyond the Global Conference as they support PanIIT’s ongoing projects. The participation of the Tata group includes contribution of several of their group companies. The program committee is in the process of

arranging panel discussions, were CEOs and top executives of Tata Group companies will participate too.

PanIIT believes in repaying the society which has helped them reach great heights. They are currently pursuing five nation-building projects such as IITians for ITI, which provides technical/ vocational education by creating institutions; Indo-US collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE), which seeks to create an engineering faculty institute for fostering curriculum collaboration; Parikrma, which aims to transform lives of under-served children; Reach 4 India, which helps rural people to gain employment; and SEED (Stimulating Education & Enhancing Development), which provides e-learning to stimulate economic development.

PanIIT 2008 Global Alumni conference will deliver a diverse itinerary including tracks, sessions and panels on topics such as: Research & Technology, Entrepreneurship, Rural Transformation, Infrastructure, Innovation and Education.

This three-day conference will serve as a forum for over 3000 IITians from all over the world to re-establish old bonds, create new friendships, and network with fellow alumni, faculty, and their families. Registration for the conference is open at http://www.paniit2008.org

About PanIIT 2008:

PanIIT is a not-for-profit global association formed by like-minded IIT alumni in the year 2002 and registered in India, USA & UK. The raison d’etre is for each IITian to leverage the network in an endeavour to proactively contribute to nation-building, tap opportunities through networking and contribute to the alma mater. PanIIT global conference takes place in India and the US in alternate years (PanIIT 2006 was in Mumbai while PanIIT 2007 was in Santa Clara, U.S.A) and it has different chapters. PAN IIT is forging a strong link with the Ministry of Human Resources and is playing a vital role in formulations of Technical, Vocational and Research related policies of the Government. The association includes all former IIT students and former faculty members – from all seven IIT campuses, and any IIT’s that are established in future. For more information log on to www.paniit2008.org

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Mr. Chand Das,

Marketing & PR, PanIIT 2008 Twinkle Xavier,

(Chief Executive, ITC Limited 20:20 MEDIA, Chennai

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