Education is the most important single factor in achieving rapid economic development and technological progress and in creating

a social order founded on the values of freedom, social justice and equal opportunity.

LANGUAGES GROUP BITS PILANI HYDERABAD CAMPUS

REPORT ON BITS AS A BRAND

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 16th November, 2009

SUBMITTED TO JOY ANURADHA

SUBMITTED BY: Y.V.Mahesh Kumar Tushar Kaushik Vaideesh Parasar Aditya Sai Ankit Aggarwal

Table of Contents
Abstract.3 1. Introduction4 2. Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences.5 2.1 History of BITS 2.2 Inception. 3. BITS Capability to offer.6. 4. Practice school.8 5. BITSian life12 6. Reputation and Ranking.14 7. BITSAA.18 8. Conclusion.21 9. References.24

Abstract

This report sets out to establish Birla Institute of Technology and Science as a brand and analyses the factors leading to its success. BITS is considered as a premier institute of our country on par with the IITs. It has earned this reputation because of its principles and values it maintains, its students both in past and present,also talks about studentss expectations and the BITSs capacity to deliver as a professional institute.Also the academic flexibilities and the innovative Practice School program are unique to BITS. The institute has been rated as the best private engineering university in India by many leading magazines. This report also speaks about the illustrious alumini of BITS and their contribution which added to the existing brand value.Many of todays leading corporates had been initiated by BITSians. Brand enriches when visibility is higher and conspicuousness is more among the existing competition. BITS is on a positive image spiral with a good pitch. Thus it is jumping from one layer to another upwards in levels of branding in professional educational institutes in the world.

Introduction

Started as a patshala in 1901, BITS Pilani has an enduring legacy. BITS-Pilani, a deemed university since 1964, offers programmes in Engineering, Science, Pharmacy and Management. It has expanded to 4 campuses. It is consistently touted as one of the premier universities of the country, at par with institutes such as Indian Institute of Technology (IITs). Thus over the years BITS-Pilani has built a positive image for itself. By the activities of the college and the performance of the students ,BITS-Pilani has set a benchmark in the country as a professional institute. Hence in terms of todays corporate world, BITS-Pilani can be termed as a colossal brand to reckon with. What is a BRAND? Brand is contributed by the following two characters. 1) Visibility 2) Conspicuousness Visibility is the character by virtue of which the product is more keenly observed among the other products. Visibility primarily contributes to the brand. Conspicuousness is the character by virtue of which the product performs better than the ordinary product. Thus the more the conspicuousness the better is the brand name. Professional institutes- Students expectations 1) Comprehensiveness in academics and curriculum
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2) Promotion of intellectual self and engineering knowhow 3) Recognition and placements accreditation 4) Exclusivity and exposure

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY-Pilani

History of BITS

Inception
The institute was founded by Ghanshyam Das Birla in 1929 as an intermediate college. During World War II, the Government of India established a technical training center at Pilani to train technicians for defense services and industry. In 1946, it was converted into the Birla Engineering College with degree programmes in electrical and mechanical engineering. The college was set up with very limited infrastructure. Prof. V Lakshminarayan took charge of Vice Principal, Birla College of Engineering in 1946. Masters programme in Electronics began in 1955. In 1964, the Birla Colleges of Arts, Commerce, Engineering, Pharmacy and Science were merged to form the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) with Dr. G.D.Birla as the founder chairman. Prof. V Lakshminarayan played an important role in the integration of three colleges. In this period of inception (especiall y during 19641970), BITS Pilani received support from the Ford
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Foundation. This help was intended to make BITS an innovator in the field of technology and science. It also reflected the Foundation's mission to financially aid the cause of knowledge building and the development of organizations. The Ford Foundation also supported an alliance between BITS and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (During 1964-1970). The faculty members at MIT helped to reshape the curriculum at BITS. BITS Pilani became a Deemed University established vide Sec.3 of the UGC Act, 1956 under notification No. F.12-23/63.U2 of June 18, 1964.

BITS CAPABILITY TO OFFER

1) Academic Flexibilities 1.1) Time Table. The institute allows its students to prepare their own timetable according to their time availability. 1.2) Dual degree. BITS Pilani offers a lot of flexibility in the taking overload of courses and electives outside ones' study area. Dual degrees are very common for Group B programs and in some cases Group A & Group C programs also. There is also the option to Transfer from one program to another. 1.3) Admissions in both semesters. The structural flexibilities available in the institute make it possible to admit students in both semesters. The few admissions made in the second semester are essentially to meet depletion during the first semester and also to get the more outstanding students who could not apply previously. 1.4) Admission with marginal deficiency. As this flexibility goes, brilliant students whose prior preparation has been marginally deficient in terms of stated courses may also be admitted with the condition that they are required to do additional courses over and above those prescribed for a normal student. 1.5) Admission with Advanced Standing. When a candidate for any programme in the three tiers of education of institute comes with a preparation beyond the minimum requirement for admission in programme, the admission of such a candidate is handled under what is known as admission with advanced standing. 2) Scholarly lectures from eminent professors. 3) Practice School. Unique to BITS, this method of education links the university with the professional world, by bringing the reality of the world of
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4) 5) 6) 7)

8)

work into the educational process. The classroom is operated for a period of 71/2 months in a professional location where students, under a facultys guidance, are involved in applying knowledge acquired in classes in real life situations. Collaboration with reputed national and international firms. Research and Development. R & D center going to be set up in Hyderabad Campus. World class infrastructure and facilities that provide a congenial, cohesive and impressive academic atmosphere. Participation of students in various administrative and extracurricular activities for their all-round development which can be broadly summed up under BITSian life. Provides latest technological and best industrial exposure.

PRACTICE SCHOOL
This chapter of BITS life needs a bit of attention as it is more important than many things in molding the student life. The institute provides a practice school option for the first degree and higher degree program students. A student who exercises this option successfully receives a degree which carries a tag of practice school.
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THEME OF PS
The university education according to BITS must (i) (ii) (iii) Meet the rapid changing needs and challenges of the environment Help people become familiar with real life situations Bear an economic relevance to society

to prepare young men and women to act as leaders for the promotion of economic and industrial development of the country and to play a creative role in service to humanity. -Late Shri K.K.Birla

The PS option is available to all the students, making it radical educational reform with no parallel. During this session students will be evaluated by the faculty basing on how they present themselves and present the organization in reality. The wide range of organizations all over the country which support BITS for accomplishing this task are about 200 in number and are still increasing, including both private and government sectors.

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PS which is divided into 2 parts namely PS I and PS II has the PS I mainly concentrating on introducing the students to the technical world. PS I is common to all students while the other part is of discipline concerned. While PS I trains students how to identify the problems, PS II teaches them how to work collectively with other discipline people and solve the problems which are generally multidisciplinary in nature. The students who attend these sessions will be helping the organization in many ways and the organizations in turn will be giving them a stipend. This is a kind of symbiosis happening for a very long time and this is one most important feature which enriches the brand name of BITS. This cycle continues helping both the fields.

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BITSian LIFE
BITS-Pilani has been established as a brand mainly due to its students. The curriculum mainly aims at the all-round development of the student, bringing out the best in him/her. 1) Clubs and extracurricular activities. Life at BITS is enriched by a activities centred around departments, clubs and associations. Every BITSian is bound to find a place to further his/ her interests. Students get to do the things you like and are good at, and learn new things at the same time. Departments and Clubs are in charge of the festivals and the events and its among the best places to hone leadership and team management skills all while having fun There are academic centres to support Entrepreneurship and Software Development, clubs to work on students hobbies, departments and associations that work together to put up Indias best cultural and academic fests.

a. Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership CEL To inspire BITSians to play a prominent role in leading diverse entrepreneurial activities in the Country and make a significant contribution in global entrepreneurial innovation The idea for CEL was seeded by the BITSAA Centre for Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital (CEVC), with the vision of promoting the spirit of entrepreneurial thinking among the BITSian community. CEL is also one of the Founders of National Entrepreneurial Network. The flagship event of CEL is Conquest. In four years, Conquest has carved a niche among business challenges in the country and has received accolades from eminent people across the industry, thanks to its unique simulation rounds. Conquest
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has spawned promising young entrepreneurs all over the world. Entrepreneurship Week India is a week-long awareness campaign that celebrates the spirit of entrepreneurship is an opportunity being utilised by every enthusiastic BITSian to develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills. The activities included Nano, BITS Blogger's Challenge, BITS Debating Challenge, quizzing session and many other interesting events.

2) Fests: BITS Pilani has some of Indias most famous and exciting fests. OASIS, the cultural fest of the Pilani campus, is one of the most popular destinations in the festival season. Several famous bands and performer have made their presence felt here. Sponsorships run in lakhs and thousands of students throng the campus every year. WAVES, Goa Campus hosts this cultural festival which has already grown to be Goas biggest and best. More than 20 sponsors, 30 events and a power packed performance every evening- the waves are growing bigger every year. The departments and clubs at these campuses come together to organize and manage every single detail from scheduling and conducting the events to stage setting complete with lights and sounds. Possibly the only fests around that is completely student -run. APOGEE (first ISO 9001:2008 certified festival in India) is the technical fest at Pilani and attracts participants and sponsors from all around the world. The birthplace for many path breaking projects and ideas. QUARK- Annual technical extravaganza of the Goa Campus features premier colleges from all parts of the country. Popular corporate giants like Microsoft, Cypress, Thermax, NVIDIA, Bosch, Cognizant, Redhat and National Instruments sponsor major events like Paper presentations and Workshops. Events are also conducted by various disciplines to showcase the young talents in programming, model making and innovation in thought.
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 BOSM and SPREE- annual sport meets of Pilani and Goa campuses respectively.

REPUTATION AND RANKING

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An authoritative and long-term 'Ranking of Indian engineering and technological institutes for their research performance during 19992008' was recently published in the journal 'Current Science'. It analyzed publication data from the SCOPUS database during 1999-2008 to come up with the rankings. BITS Pilani has been ranked No. 4 in terms of mean citation rate (behind IISc Bangalore, IIT Kanpur and UICT Mumbai), No. 15 in terms of total number of papers published, No. 2 in share of papers resulting from international collaboration (behind IIT Kanpur), and No. 12 in terms of a complex performance index described in that journal article. BITS Pilani is also the best ranked private institute in India in all parameters. According to the Asiaweek magazine's rankings of Science & Technology schools in the Asia-Pacific region BITS Pilani, Pilani campus was on the top 20 in Asia and Top 5, in the year 2000 in terms of Student Selectivity. (UNESCO Science Report 2005(ISBN 92-3-103967-9) makes use of these rankings). Annual rankings of engineering colleges in India have been published by India Today magazine since 1997. BITS Pilani was consistently ranked in the Top 5(1997-2004). BITS opted out of the rankings in 2005-2008 because of a pending court case between BITS and India Today. But in 2009, the institute rejoined the rankings, and was ranked 7th in the list of top engineering colleges in India and it was also ranked as the best privately run engineering college in India. Asiaweek magazine and Financial Times ranked BITS Pilani's MBA program 30th best full-time MBA program in Asia and the 4th best Distance Learning MBA program in Asia in the year 2000. Business Today lists the university in its top 20 Wired Organisations of Asia. Government of India's National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) rated BITS as a five star Institution[45] for the period ending February 7, 2007. BITS has scored 82.55 out of 100, higher than comparable public universities (with a five star rating and a focus on science and technology) such as IIT Delhi(79.5),IIT Bombay(79.6),IIT Kanpur(81.2), Anna University (75.7), Bangalore University (77.05), Jadavpur University (77.35), Mumbai University (75.05), Pune University (78.55) and Roorkee University / IIT Roorkee (79.2).

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been accredited BITS Pilani has by NAAC with a CGPA of 3.71 out of 4 with an A grade for the period 1 April 2007 to 8 March 2009. This is the combined
IndiaToday (Since1998) Outlook (Since2005) Asiaweek (2000) Mint (Since2008) Dataquest T-Schools (Since2005) Electronics For You (Since2009)

grading of three campuses of BITS Pilani at Pilani, Dubai and Goa. The Washington Accord recognizes degrees from BITS Pilani and the IITs to be equivalent to the other institutions in the accord. Outlook - C fore survey has ranked the university's business program in the top 20 Business programs in India in 2005. Alliances with Universities (Exchange/Distance Learning/Research Collaboration) Outlook placed the university at the top in its rankings of 2008.

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1998 6

1999 6

2000 6

7th (India), 19th (Asia)

2001 4

2002 3

2003 5

2004 8

Top 10 (No individual rankings)

2005

Did not participate

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2006

Did not participate

2007

Did not participate

11

2008

Did not participate

Did not participate

2009 7

No Survey

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BITSAA

BITS Alumni Association (BITSAA) is a nodal agency for maintaining liaison with the alumni all over the world and involves them in the development of the Institute. BITSAA promotes and encourages the Alumni to exchange professional knowledge by undertaking and facilitating conferences, seminars, lectures amongst alumni, students, faculty and others. It also honours and felicitates distinguished Alumni. BITSAA lays the foundation for a stronger alumni relation even before the students graduate by involving them in various activities like bringing out yearbooks, organising reunions etc. A quarterly newsletter, The BITSian, is published regularly and mailed to all registered BITSAA members. BITSAA organises Silver and Golden jubilee reunions every year and promotes fraternity and belongingness amongst the BITS community The BITS Connect project for providing campus-wide networking, supporting needy students through scholarships, setting up of labs and centres for research and

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providing subject expertise through video conferencing under Project Embryo are standing examples of the Alumnis urge to contribute to their alma mater. BITSAA has chapters in almost every major city around with regular events, tournaments and meets all around the year BITSAA members moderate and guide forums like BITS2MSPHD and BITS2BSCHOOL providing current and ex BITSians with all the help they need In the past BITSAA has driven and implemented massive projects like BITSConnect and BITSunami giving back to their alma mater and society Recently BITSAA tied up with IPL Team Rajasthan Royals to officially support Pilanis home team making available team souvenirs, tickets and other perks to all BITSians BITSAA administers scholarships to current students and donation funds to BITSians in need The website, along with Sandpaper-BITSAAs quarterly magazine and the monthly newsletter, keeps the alumni around the world well informed about current and ex BITSians Ex-CEO Wipro- Vivek Paul, CMD Bharat Forge -Baba Kalyani, Hotmail Founder Sabeer Bhatia, Actress and TV Host Anu Hassan, Author Dilip Dsouza, Entrepreneur Sarath Babu, Central Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Dancer Padmini Chettur are few of our noted Alumni Placements in BITS-Pilani have had an impressive record over the years: The number of companies that interviewed at the Pilani Campus was 133 in 2008. The average salary was INR 4.5 lakhs p.a The number of companies which visited Goa Campus for its first ever placement season stood at 41. 653 offers were made for 404 students. The number of companies which visited Dubai Campus touched 30 in 2007. The average salary was 96000 Dhs (INR 11 lakhs) while the highest salary was 219600 Dhs (INR 35 lakhs) These numbers are constantly growing and the jobs on offer represent almost every dream industry.

BITS Pilani has a great brand value with universities both here and abroad. Also on offer is complete guidance from current students at these universities who were BITSians themselves.
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 463 admission offers for 140 students from 86 Universities across the globe! On an average each student received 3.31 admission offers Students are regularly admitted to Princeton, University of California Berkeley, Harvard, MIT and other top schools with full aid.

55 international MBA admits in 2007. 14 in ISB, 3 in Chicago, 5 in Cornell, 2 in Harvard, 2 in Kellogg, and many more.. 48 international MBA admits in 2008. 10 in ISB, 3 in MIT-Sloan, 2 in Cornell, 3 at Carnegie Mellon and counting.. Hordes of BITSians at every top b-school in India like IIMs, XLRI, SPJain and MICA. Needless to say BITSians are considered pedigree. The BITS2Bschool group, like BITS2MSPhD group for MS/PhD applicants, is a platform where the alumni helps the students with SOPs, application processes, getting contacts, GMAT and other essentials for the prestigious B-schools. Many of todays leading corporates have been founded or initiated by BITS alumni. Some of them are: Hotmail (Acquired by Microsoft) Crescendo Communications , Andiamo (both acquired by Cisco Systems) I-Flex Solutions Bharat Forge Mirc Electronics Informatica Redbus Intelligroup Sierra AtlantiC
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CONCLUSION

BITS Pilani deliversTake home for student community: 1. 2. 3. 4. They gain tremendous knowledge They become effective engineers and entrepreneurs Bring their mental facets and latent talents out into practice Sharpen their thinking, organizational, communicating and structural thinking. 5. Makes them task oriented. 6. The industries today seek professionals and not engineers alone. A professional is: Creative Innovative Inventing & has a Design & Development potential Most importantly, additional to being engineers, they become professionals.

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BITS is on an Image spiral

Mechanism of an upward spiral

We build a positive image. Positive image we do wellwe contribute productively People praise uswe are motivated to contribute more Add more value society praiseswe contribute more......

And the cycle continues... So the spiral goes the same for BITS as well... BITSdid wellappreciated by allencouraged by society & Alumni Built a positive imagecontributes more And so the Image spiral keeps growing with a good pitch. Travel is never ending for the brand BITS never looking back. Always looking forward to gain new heights and not to fall low. Striving for excellence and more excellence with a phenomenal effort. No longer just a successful institute...but an institute with class... Thus BITS is a brand to reckon with.

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NOT THE LAST WORDS.... Brand enriches when visibility is higher and conspicuousness is more among the existing competition. BITS is on a positive image spiral with a good pitch. Thus it is jumping from one layer to another upwards in levels of branding in professional educational institutes in the world.

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REFERENCES

1. BITS information bulletin 2. www.wikipedia.org 3. www.bits-pilani.ac.in 4. www.outlookindia.com 5. www.indiatoday.com

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