Address by Principal

OUR HONOURABLE

Chief guest - Dr. Ashok Kolaskar, former Vice-Chancellor of University of Pune,

Guest of Hon.- Dr. M.M. Salunkhe Vice-Chancellor of Shivaji University, Kolhapur,

                        Dr. B.K. Bhadri, Western Regional Member,AICTE, Dr.N.B. Pasalkar Member, MPSE.

President of Today's function, Hon.Shri Jayant Patil- Minster for finance & Planning, Maharashtra State,

Chairman, Board of Governance RIT,Shri Bhagatsingh Patil,

Secretary of KES, Shri R.D.Sawant Sir,

Members of BOG - Shri.Vivek Sawant, Shri Shamrao Patil Kaka, Shri Shamrao Patil Anna, Prof P.R. Sawant, Prof M.T. Telsang 

All invited dignitaries off the dais, guests, faculty members, Staff and my dear students .

Ladies and Gentlemen!

It gives me immense pleasure to welcome every one of you on this auspicious occasion of Silver Jubilee celebration of KES'. Rajarambapu Institute of Technology.

            When we go back on memory lane…….. Late shri Rajarambapu Patil established the K. E. Society, by starting Azad Vidyalaya,Kasegaon in 1945.

            Very soon, he realized that it should be supported with a hostel, especially for downtrodden. Sarvodaya Vastigriha was first of its type in Maharashtra. In the span of next 39 years he strived for spreading this movement in the area by establishing 49 Schools/Colleges. K.E. Society is now one of the celebrated educational societies in Maharashtra.

            College of Engineering was established in 1983 by this great visionary with an objective of providing Engineering education to the students aspiring to take technical education in rural area. Unfortunately this Institute could get the guidance of its founder for very short period. With the sad demise of Shri Rajarambapu the responsibility of developing the Institute was shouldered by Hon. Jayant Patil as chairman of GB of Kasegoan education society & the founder Principal Shri M.V.Joglekar along with the BOG members.

             Thereafter the Institute grew in leaps & bounds. We started with 3 branches namely Construction Engineering, Production Engg. and Automobile Engineering with an intake of 180 students & today we have 07 Under Graduate Courses namely Auto./ Civil/ Electrical/ Mech./ ETC/Comp/IT & 05 Post Graduate courses including MBA and intake of 570 students with almost 2000 students on the campus .

             The College of Engineering started initially in a small Building shared with a School and today its sprawling over 43 acres of land with a built-up area of 4,50,000 sq ft (4,50,00 sqm). It has all modern amenities and state of art facilities like getting live lectures from IIT Powai through edu-sat to video conferencing for live programs from Infosys as part of campus connect initiative. Whether it is getting direct access to e-journals in digital library to campus wide networking though wi-fi or the laboratories in various departments they are well equipped to provide ambience for industry need based projects, encourage Research & Development culture as well as consultancy. In short infrastructure developed here is with a vision to create techno excellent citizens.

            Some of the landmark during our journey towards excellence -

1. All Eligible Courses accredited twice by National Board of Accreditation, New Delhi - Civil and     Mechanical engineering departments for five years & rest 3 Years.

2. Graded as "A" grade Institute by DTE.

3. Selected for Technical Education Quality Improvement Program by MHRD in first round of selection.

4. ISO 9001-2000 Certified Institute.

5. Accredited by Institution Of Engineers, Kolkata.

            Some of the best practices followed here to strengthen the teaching- learning process and focus on the quality of education is-

* Interaction with Industries like Bharat Forge for last two years through talent pipeline programme, MOU with Infosys for campus connect program by Infosys, MOU with Wipro, MCED, IIT Powai.

* Quality circles & 5S being practiced for last 15 yrs with representation & prizes won at national & International levels. Last year i.e. October 2007 our Institute has won Gold Medal in International competition for quality circles at Beijing China.

* Strategic mapping done for institute for three years and Performance management system for faculty with performance linked incentives based on Key result areas & targets achieved.

* Continuous Faculty development program - Faculty & staff trained in-house as well sponsored outside the Institute for training programs in various areas like pedagogy, knowledge up gradation, management capacity development also encouraged for up gradation of qualification like sponsoring for PhD and MTech programs.

* Academic systems and processes which have lead to a score of high "student satisfaction index" in a survey conducted by National Project Implementation unit, New Delhi under TEQIP. I feel proud to say that our student satisfaction index is higher than state and national average. in fact the "student satisfaction index" is highest when compared with some of the prestigious government institutes in Maharashtra state.

                 Our Institute has an excellent track record of academic results & placement of students. Every year there are students ranking in Shivaji University? Regarding placements we have our students placed in prestigious companies like Infosys, wipro, Bharat Forge Limited, L & T, Bajaj Auto, TACO, Nihilent, Reliance Energy etc. There are more than 40 companies visiting the campus for the placements. We also have a very strong Alumni base to name a few:

1. Sharad S. Ranmale , completed B.E. in civil Engg. in 1997, Presently working as Team Manager of Structural design of Aircraft Engines ,General Elect. Co. Banglore.

2. Vishwas Mokashi, completed B.E. in 1994, Worked in TCS as onsite USA Coordinator Presently working as Chief Information & System Manager, in Rajarambapu Sahakari Sakhar Kharkhana , Rajaramnagar.

3. Sandeep Patil, completed B.E. in 1999, Presently working as Superintendent of Police, Central Government.

4. Amar Padekar,Presently working as software engineer ,PTC Technologies, Texas USA.

5. Mandar Kurkarni ,Presently working as , Sr. Engineer ,L&T USA.

6. Girish Zond, Working as, System Administrator in IBM Banglore

                The journey of RIT for last 25 years has been an enduring one with all efforts pooled in to focus on nurturing the Institute to achieve the status of most preferred institute in Maharashtra. I would like to acknowledge with thanks the contribution of past member of BOG Late Shri. Babasaheb Dada, Late Shri M.V. Jagtap Sir though they are not with us today, founder Principal M. V. Joglekar, founder BOG member Shri. Shamrao Anna, Former Principal Dr. B.R. Badawe, Present BOG Chairman Shri Bhagatsingh Patil, Present chairman of K .E. Society's Shri Shamrao Patil Kaka, Secretary Shri R.D.Sawant Sir who have relentlessly contributed towards achieving excellence. We realize that excellence is seldom a result of happenstance its more often result of vision, planning & commitment. Today we are very fortunate to reap the benefits of seed sown 25 years ago.

                With your blessing we the disciplined and dedicated lot of RIT aim at becoming an autonomous Institute in the near future

               There is a sudden and vast expansion in technical education in India & with dynamic market & economical changes the goal post is continuously shifting & if we have to march forward Autonomy can provide the required solution and resilience to execute our very aims. Autonomy will give us

1. Ability to design & deliver courses, undertake research & field work.

2. Facilitate mobilization of faculty and financial recourses.

3. Establish reputed international contacts and collaboration on knowledge system.

4. To develop competitive brand image for the institution.

* We also plan to tie up with reputed Universities within and outside the country for faculty/student exchange programs to know and learn the best practices and innovation in technical education being carried out there. We strongly realize that, we have to benchmark, follow best practices and pursue Total Quality Management philosophy to be one of the best Institutes in the country.

*RIT in near future plans to be an Institute which is technology savvy with focal point on students & stakeholder's delight through faculty empowerment.

              You will all agree that any Institute gets the name, fame and face only because of the contribution of the people operational there. On this occasion, I take this opportunity to thank all the faculty and non-teaching staff of the institute without whom RIT would not have been what it is today. I am myself witness to the spiraling of RIT for last 21 years and I am indeed very proud to say I have grown with the Institute. In this connection, on behalf of RIT, and myself, as principal, I express my heart felt gratitude.

              About our chief guest today, I had met Dr. Kolaskar during the Indo US Collaboration for Engineering Education meeting at Pune and subsequently at Infosys campus connect and IUCEE Mysore program. I was highly impressed by his persona and genuineness. I had wished that he should come to RIT. Sir, thank you very much for accepting our invitation and being with us today.

              We seek guidance and support of all the experts on the dais, off the dais, as well as the community in our endeavor to build a robust & vibrant Institute.

              Once again I welcome all of you for today's function and hope you will enjoy.