Welcome Speech by Rahul Singhi, Director, Poornima Foundation at Poornima Annual Alumni Meet: Delhi Chapter on Sunday, January 21, 2018

Good Afternoon & a very happy new year! Let me begin by saying it is wonderful to once again see so many Poornima alumni with us this year. On behalf of the faculty, staff and students - WELCOME BACK! And a special welcome to the batches celebrating its first alumni meet.

I am deeply honoured to be a part of the annual alumni celebrations. Every alumnus here today represents Poornima's past and is the foundation of our future. Poornima's core values and its purpose as an organisation of excellence are most clearly defined by your achievements and your contributions to your organisations and your societies.

Poornima Alumni Association was established in the year 2006 with the objective to bring together all alumni as a family. The culture of alumni meet started in the year 2006 at Jaipur, since then 4 alumni meet at Bangalore, 1 alumni meet at Mumbai, 8 alumni meets at Jaipur have been conducted with remarkable participation. This is the first Poornima alumni meet for Delhi NCR.

As I sat down to prepare my notes for today, I reminisced on the past 24 months at Poornima and realised that a great deal has transpired since our last alumni meet in December 2015.

Just to mention a few of our recent achievements & activities:

• Poornima College of Engineering (PCE) got NBA accreditation in CS & EC branch in year 2017.
• PCE has been ranked 2nd & Poornima Institute of Engineering & Technology (PIET) has been ranked 6th by Rajasthan Technical University in recent grading of its 116 affiliated colleges. Rankings were based on QIV parameters including placement, faculty, academics, results
• PCE got grant from department of science & technology (DST) for more than Rs 3 Lacs for 23 projects it is the highest by any institution in Rajasthan. Poornima Group of Institutions (PGI) & Poornima University (PU) got DST grants of over Rs 2 Lacs for 16 projects (2nd highest by any private & institutions) and PIET got DST grants for over Rs 1.5 Lacs for 12 projects
• Poornima University’s Professor Dr. Arun Dev Dhar Dwivedi got grant of Rs 50 Lacs for his project “Numerical simulation & compact modelling of organic thin film transistor for future flexible electronics ”
• Poornima College of Engineering got grant of Rs 50 Lacs under the AICTE Quality Improvement Scheme (AQIS)
• In 2016, Amongst 70 students of Rajasthan 16 Students of Poornima got RTU merits that’s more than 20%
• In 2015, amongst 70 students 21 students of Poornima got RTU merits that’s 30%. In this year overall topper of RTU was Mr. Luv Chaturvedi, student of Poornima College of Engineering. He secured 88% overall.
• Our student of 2013 batch EC branch Samrat Deval who was also a hosteler for all 4 years got selected in prestigious Indian Foreign Services & is currently serving in Indian Embassy Belgium.
• Poornima University was awarded the best upcoming university by Associated Chamber of Commerce (ASSOCHAM)
• Poornima JIET Education Foundation established high end IBM software labs for emerging technologies in all of its campuses in Jaipur & Jodhpur
• Students of PGI won 1st price in Chattra Vishwakarma award 2017 organised by AICTE. They were awarded by Chairman, AICTE Sh. Anil Sahasrabudhe
• PIET hosted Sh. Kailash Satyarthi on the occasion of Jaipur leg of Bharat Yatra. The renovated administrative block of PIET also got inaugurated by him.
• 85 students got placed in Pinnacle, it was highest in India
• 86 students got placed in Infosys, it was highest in Rajasthan
• 41 students got placed in Capgemini
• 21 students got placed in TCS this year
• 26 students got placed in Micromax
• 10 students got placed in JARO Education at a package of INR 600000
• 5 students got placed in IBM
• 2 students got placed in SAP
• Highest Package On Campus in Pvt. Sector: Juspay 12 LPA
• Highest Package OFF Campus: New Mont Goldmining 61.9 LPA
• Most valued hiring: Ms. Pooja Sharma, ME Branch, Poornima Group in Google (India) at an initial package of INR 37 Lacs
• Association with Core Giants : Asahi, Pinnacle, Precast , P3, Polycab Wires, JMC Projects in core sector
• Poornima University successfully organised its 4th Convocation in which NITI aayog member Padmabhushan Sh VK Saraswat was invited as chief guest
• We introduced a concept of Mini-Convocation at Poornima institutions affiliated to RTU, Kota. Recently 86 students of 2016 batch of PGI were awarded their degrees
• Faculty members are visiting training programs abroad, recently Dr. Manoj Gupta visited Germany & visited many solar parks.
• Dr. OP Sharma also visited Thailand for Adobe Leadership Summit
• Mr. Ashwani Kapoor visited in Indian School of Business, Hyderabad for a leadership summit organised by Young Indians, CII
• Faculty & staff picnic were organised in PGC & PU
• 100 KW rooftop solar plant at Poornima University
• Poornima a very active member of IEEE.
• Focus on students driven initiatives like students council, great debate in association with British high commission, model united nations
• Poornima students shining at national level car racing championship being organised at Budhh International Circuit. Total cash prize of INR 1.25 Lacs was awarded to two participating teams from Poornima
• Exclusive GATE classes at Poornima for students of Poornima commenced from session 2017-18
• Udaan Aero-modelling club of Poornima actively participates in various aero show hosted by IITs
• Poornima University hosted the 59th Annual NASA Convention in which more than 4000 architecture students from all over the country participated. It was the first convention of this stature to be hosted in Rajasthan in 60 years of history of NASA India.
• PU–SPA got affiliated by Indian Institute of Architects (IIA)
• PU–SPA bagged the north zone award of merit in INTACH heritage awards for excellence in documentation of unprotected heritage
• Annual Fashion Show: Poornima Trends
• PU – SOD got affiliated by Institute of Indian Interior Designers (IIID)
• SOM & SOC students recently won the regional round of RBI policy challenge 2018. They got Rs 10000 as cash award.
• New Course at PU – Cloud Computing, Mobile Application, Animation VFX, Bachelor of Science
• New Course of Hospital Management in PU in association with Fortis Hospital Jaipur
• Poornima Foundation has associated with AIESEC for exchange programs & recently students met Ms. Indra Nooyi, CEO Pepsico, up till now more than 20 students have visited countries like Vietnam, Egypt, Malaysia, Russia, Sri Lanka, Portugal etc
• PIET hosted AIESEC Global village in which 85 delegates from more than 15 countries showcased their tradition & culture.
• Poornima University runs a school named Poornima Paathshala for underprivileged children of nearby villages
• Coaching for American football, kabaddi, basketball, volleyball, and soccer is being given to students for their all-round development
• Poornima University launched its official Merchandise store – Poornima Panthers Merchandise Store, Poornima Panthers is the sports team of Poornima University
• Our students now volunteer for many renowned programs like Jaipur by Nite, Jaipur Marathon, Talk Journalism, Resurgent Rajasthan, programs hosted by CII, Nadi Abhiyan by Sadhguru, Jaipur Architecture Fest, Arcasia
• On the eve of children’s day 2014, we handed over the maintenance of all our official social media pages to 2nd & 3rd year students.

The world has changed. And once again, Poornima has responded by listening to the industries that hire the talent Poornima develops, and delivers the change they need. We strongly believe in our core philosophy of fulfilling your dreams. We believe it will:

• Ensure that, Poornima is clearly recognised as the leading group for technical education, not only in Rajasthan, but also in World;
• Attract the best and brightest students;
• Attract outstanding faculty and;
• Build a sustainable financial model.

My final point for this afternoon is about you, our alumni, and our hope that you will support us in our future endeavours. We are now a family of more than 16000 Alumni worldwide. Though we started with just 140 students and now have about 8000 students wandering in our premises each year, reputation continues to be the clear reason students enrol, recruiters recruit and scholars attend our research & development programs.

It is word of mouth -- the eons-old advertising vehicle that continues to dominate all other means.

You can help most by talking about Poornima, mentoring students, accepting opportunities to attend class, recruiting Poornima's students, participating in alumni events and sharing your views and expertise.

As I stated a few minutes ago, each of you represents Poornima's past and are the foundation of our future. We are defined by your achievements and by your contributions to your organisations and your societies. We celebrate our success in yours.

We are building Poornima's future on a history characterised by vision, passion and courage but more importantly - on a hope that we can make a difference.

Please join us as we embark on this great new era in the history of Poornima Foundation.

Jai Jai Poornima Sansthan

Jai Hind