New Delhi: A
glittering combination of achievers in public service, industry
and arts have been appointed to St Stephen's College alumni
executive to help it ramp up its infrastructure and meet its
target of becoming a world-class institution by 2050.
At a well-attended meeting convened in the college late Sunday,
Ved Marwah, former governor of Manipur and Jharkhand, was
re-nominated president of the body by patron and principal Rev
Valson Thampu. Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi will be
the vice president.
"The alumni reviewed the ground-level improvements under way in
the college library, science blocks, junior, ladies and senior
combination rooms, internet resource centre and science dhaba. We
decided to register the alumni association in an appropriate
manner," Marwah told IANS.
Marwah said the new executive's main mission was to galvanise the
alumni to first understand the developmental efforts now on and
then to implement the master plan based on Vision 2050 approved by
the governing body.
As part of its master plan, St. Stephens aspires to achieve a
deemed university status by 2025 or at least by 2050, increase
intake in key streams, upgrade infrastructure and offer a wide
array of courses.
"We will reach out to alumni across the world to share the master
plan and Vision 2050 encompassing hard and soft infrastructure
that the college must have to maintain and consolidate its
unmatched and growing relevance to national life," said Quraishi.
Some of the other members of the alumni body are Perfect Relations
co-founder Bobby Kewalramani (Secretary), senior civil servant
Vijay Chhibber (Treasurer) and Hammurabi and Solomon Consulting
LLP Chief Executive Officer Rohit Bansal (media advisor).
The revamped national executive to guide alumni affairs also
includes Delhi Lokayukta Manmohan Sarin, Delhi High Court judge
Sanjay Kishen Kaul, Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, Pioneer
editor Chandan Mitra, Naukri.com founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani and
Amitabh Kant, chief executive of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial
Corridor Corp.
Thampu, only the third alumni to be principal of the college,
emphasised the supreme significance of the role of alumni and
their participation in the life of the college.
Nineteen MPs in today's parliament are from the college, including
ministers Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Virbhadra Singh and Sachin
Pilot.
Others from the college include Planning Commission deputy
chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, incoming cabinet secretary Ajit
Kumar Seth, Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu, authors Khushwant
Singh and Amitabh Ghosh, industrialist Rahul Bajaj and Delhi
University Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh.
(James Jose can
be contacted at james.jose@ians.in)
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