The Young Alumni Excellence Award (YAE) is an initiative to honor and recognize the achievements of IIT Gandhinagar alumni who have made outstanding contributions to their respective fields. IIT Gandhinagar has a highly engaged alumni community, and this award aims to encourage and recognize the early achievements of these alumni and inspire them to take up more challenging and impactful roles in their careers.
By recognizing and honoring young alumni who have excelled in various fields, we hope to inspire IITGN students and future graduates to pursue their passions and make a difference in the world.
Do you know of an IITGN Alumni worthy of recognition for a particular achievement, a successful entrepreneurial venture, or excellence in leadership, public influence, societal impact, and volunteerism?
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Recipients of YAEA 2024
Outstanding Academic Achievement
Sumitava Mukherjee (PhD/CG/2014)
Associate Professor, IIT Delhi
Outstanding Professional Achievement
Vishnu Kumar Gupta (MTech/ME/2016)
Senior Vice President, Testbook
Sumitava Mukherjee is an Associate Professor at IIT Delhi and a behavioral and cognitive scientist with over 15 years of experience studying human judgment and decision-making. He is deeply engaged in applying decision research and behavioral science to projects with social relevance, particularly those aligned with sustainable development goals (SDGs) in India. His research spans two major areas. His Gain Loss Lab focuses on the psychology of value, gains, and losses—providing insights into behavioral economics and valuation.
His more recent initiative, the WaterThoughts Research Group, explores the psychological dimensions of water as a critical resource, underscoring his commitment to environmental sustainability. With a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from IIT Gandhinagar, Dr. Mukherjee has co-edited a book named ‘Applied Cognitive Science and Technology: Implications of Interactions Between Human Cognition and Technology’. He has worked as a Research Assistant and DST postdoctoral fellow at IIM Ahmedabad.
Before joining IIT Delhi as an Assistant Professor, he joined Ahmedabad University and IIT Roorkee as an Assistant Professor. He serves as an associate faculty at the Yardi School of Artificial Intelligence (ScAI), focusing on the public psychology of AI.
Sumitava has received several awards such as ‘Emerging Psychologist, award Issued by the National Academy of Psychology (India),’ Young Psychologist award Issued by the National Academy of Psychology, and ‘Outstanding Researcher award’ Issued by the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. He is also a member of the Association for Psychological Science, USA, since 2010.
Vishu is the Senior Vice President at Testbook where he started his professional journey as a Subject Matter Expert. With a passion for empowering others, he has dedicated himself to creating impactful solutions in the field of education. Currently, he serves over 40 million users, helping them achieve their dreams of excelling in government exams by offering the highest quality content at the most affordable prices.
Over an eight-year tenure at Testbook, he has held key leadership roles, including Vice President of Content, and Associate Vice President and Team lead. As Senior Vice President, he manages the P&L for Testbook Pass/Pro, India's largest government exam preparation subscription, achieving remarkable milestones such as 2.8 million active subscribers, approximately 2 lakh monthly transactions, and a Net Promoter Score exceeding 40. Under his leadership, the subscription service experienced a 40% increase in key performance indicators while reducing costs by 60% in just one year.
He did his MTech in mechanical engineering from IIT Gandhinagar. During this time he was a Class Representative and a member of the Senate.
Outstanding Entrepreneurship
Ajinkya Kulkarni (BTech/ME/2012)
Co-founder & CEO, Wint Wealth
Outstanding Entrepreneurship
Abhik Patel (BTech/ME/2012)
Co-founder & CPO, Wint Wealth
Ajinkya Kulkarni comes with rich experience working in lending and Financial services for 10+ years. He is co-founder and CEO of Wint Wealth, which aims to democratize Indian debt capital markets. Wint Wealth is a SEBI-regulated platform that allows users to invest in high fixed-interest rate bonds and FDs. Before starting Wint Wealth, Ajinkya was Vice President and head of the merchant lending business at Mswipe. Mswipe's merchant lending business enabled credit access to thousands of merchants who otherwise wouldn't have access to credit facilities. Before Mswipe; he was at CreditVidya, leading its marketplace business which enabled low-interest-rate loans for first-time borrowers.
Before CreditVidya, Ajinkya co-founded CreditPeriod- an invoice bill discounting platform for SMEs so that they can buy raw materials at the lowest costs. Ajinkya did his BTech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Gandhinagar. During his time at IIT Gandhinagar, he served as the General Secretary and the Cultural Secretary.
Abhik Patel is the Co-Founder and CPO of Wint Wealth, formerly known as GrowFix, a company established in January 2020. Wint Wealth focuses on building high-yield investment opportunities that offer higher returns than traditional debt mutual funds, revolutionizing the debt investment landscape in India. Before founding Wint Wealth, Abhik worked with Shop 101 from July 2017 to March 2020, driving seller growth and operational strategies in the e-commerce domain.
He also co-founded CreditPeriod.com, a financial platform that provides flexible credit solutions for businesses. CreditPeriod.com was successfully acquired by FlexiLoans in 2017, marking a significant milestone in Abhik's career. Abhik did his BTech in Mechanical Engineering with honors from IIT Gandhinagar, graduating in 2012.
Outstanding Entrepreneurship
Nisarg Shah (BTech/EE/2014)
Co-Founder & CEO, Affable.ai
Nisarg Shah is the Co-Founder and CEO of Affable.ai, a MarTech startup with offices in Singapore and the United States. Affable.ai’s Influencer Management Platform was acquired by Bazaarvoice in 2023.
Nisarg graduated from IIT Gandhinagar in 2014 in electrical engineering. Nisarg was awarded the Director's Silver Medal for Outstanding Overall Performance at IIT Gandhinagar. During his time at IIT Gandhinagar, Nisarg served as the Overall Placement Coordinator. Subsequently, he worked as a Software Engineer with Goldman Sachs for 3 years before co-founding Affable.ai with his co-founder. They raised over $3M in initial funding and grew Affable into one of the fastest growing companies in Singapore. Nisarg was also included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2022 for the disruptive technology they built at Affable.ai.
Outstanding Academic Achievement
Aishwarya Agrawal (BTech/EE/2014)
Assistant Professor, University of Montreal
Outstanding Entrepreneurship
Silky Agrawal (MTech/CE/2015)
Founder, GeoCarte Radar Technology
Aishwarya Agrawal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at the University of Montreal. She is also a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and a core academic member of Mila -- Quebec AI Institute. She also spends one day a week at DeepMind as a Research Scientist.
She graduated from IIT Gandhinagar in Electrical Engineering with a Computer Science and Engineering minor in 2014. She completed her PhD from Georgia Institute of Technology in 2019. Subsequently, she worked as a Research Scientist at DeepMind. Aishwarya's research interests lie at Artificial Intelligence (AI) intersections: computer vision, deep learning, and natural language processing. She focuses on developing AI systems that can 'see' (i.e., understand the contents of an image: who, what, where, doing what?) and 'talk' (i.e., communicate the understanding to humans in free-form natural language).
Aishwarya has received several awards and scholarships, such as the Georgia Tech 2020 Sigma Xi Best Ph.D. Thesis Award, Georgia Tech 2020 College of Computing Dissertation Award, 2019 Google Fellowship (declined), Facebook Fellowship 2019-2020 (declined) and NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship 2018-2019. Aishwarya was one of the 2019 AAAI / ACM SIGAI Dissertation Award runner-ups. Aishwarya was also selected for the Rising Stars in EECS 2018.
Silky Agrawal is the Founder of GeoCarte Radar Technology, a startup providing non-destructive geophysical exploration services.
She did her Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering at the Institute of Engineering and Technology Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (IET DAVV), Indore. She graduated from IIT Gandhinagar with a Master's in Civil Engineering in 2015. The same year, she incubated GeoCarte Radar Technology at IIT Gandhinagar. It was recognized as one of the top 60 startups in The Economic Times Power of Ideas 2018.
GeoCarte uses Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to image the subsurface. It can detect metallic or non-metallic objects in various domains, such as soil, water, ice, and concrete. This can be used for infrastructure monitoring, estimating groundwater depth, archaeological investigations, and more.
Outstanding Entrepreneurship
Saurya Prakash (BTech/EE/2013)
Co-Founder & CEO, Recko
Outstanding Entrepreneurship
Prashant Borde (BTech/EE/2012)
Co-Founder & CTO, Recko
Saurya Prakash Sinha is the Co-Founder and CEO of Recko, a FinTech Startup headquartered in Bengaluru, India. Recko was acquired by Stripe in 2021. He is now the Product Lead at Stripe.
He graduated from IIT Gandhinagar in Electrical Engineering in 2013. Subsequently, he worked with Flipkart as a Business Analyst for two years. He then co-founded Townrush, a business-to-business logistics service provider that Grofers acquired in 6 months. He continued to work as Assistant Vice President at Grofers. Later, he worked at PhonePe as a Product Manager for just two months. In 2018, he co-founded Recko with his friend Prashant. They raised $6 million in initial funding and, after four years, were acquired by Stripe.
Prashant Borde is the Co-Founder and CTO of Recko, a FinTech Startup headquartered in Bengaluru, India. Recko was acquired by Stripe in 2021. He is now the Engineering Leader at Stripe.
He graduated from IIT Gandhinagar in Electrical Engineering in 2012. He co-founded GridAnts, IITGN's first startup, in 2012 with his friends. After four years, Myntra acquired GridAnts. He then worked at Jio for a year. In 2018, he co-founded Recko with his friend Saurya. They raised $6 million in initial funding and, after four years, were acquired by Stripe.