One Forward

One Batch. Many Futures.

Twenty-five years on, we go back to Pilani

In November 2026, the Batch of 2001 returns to campus for our silver jubilee reunion. We will walk past the Clock Tower again, argue about which bhawan had the better mess, and find that a quarter of a century has changed us more than it has changed the sand.

Every reunion batch since the very first graduating class has marked the occasion by leaving something behind for the students who came after. It is the oldest tradition BITS alumni have, and it is the one that has mattered most. This is our turn.

One Forward is the BITS Pilani 2001 batch fund. The name brings together the “one” in 2001 and a shared commitment: to help the next generation move forward, just as BITS helped us. The fund is our contribution to that tradition. It has one purpose: to ensure that a young person who has earned a place at BITS Pilani can take it, regardless of what their family can afford—and, once there, go as far as their work will carry them.

What we are asking for is participation. If every one of us does something — at whatever level makes sense — this becomes the largest thing our batch has ever done together.

The institute you would be giving to

Since leaving campus, most of us have followed BITS only loosely. It’s worth taking a moment to see where the institute stands today and how much it has evolved since our time there.

One finding from the institute is worth sitting with. When students are asked why they chose BITS, the second most common answer is: the alumni. Students come here partly because of us. That is both a debt and an opportunity.

Why alumni money matters more at BITS than almost anywhere else

BITS Pilani draws roughly 90% of its income from tuition fees, and about 3% from endowment and investment returns. For comparison, IIT Delhi is about 50% government-funded. MIT draws 22% of its income from its endowment and only 10% from tuition.

That single fact explains everything about the cost of a BITS education. There is no government subsidy to lean on and, as yet, very little endowment income. Fees are not a pricing decision — they are the institution. A first-degree student entering in 2026 pays ₹2,91,500 per semester, rising about five percent a year, plus a one-time admission fee of ₹64,100. Over four years, that is roughly ₹24 lakh in tuition alone, against ₹8–10 lakh at an IIT.

The institute is not blind to this. It already funds ₹132 crore of scholarships every year, and alumni and corporate donors add roughly ₹6 crore a year on top. The Vice-Chancellor has set out a clear ambition: to make BITS the first tuition-blind campus in India, where no admitted student is turned away by cost. That will be built by endowment, or it will not be built at all.

What the fund will do

Three objectives, all directed at First Degree students. We were first-degree students; this fund is for first-degree students. That focus is deliberate — it keeps the fund simple to explain, simple to administer, and unmistakably ours.

The objectives below reflect our discussions with the Institute and its current needs. They may evolve in consultation with the Institute, depending on the funds raised and emerging needs.

1. First Degree Scholarships for Women

Merit-cum-need scholarships covering tuition for admitted first-degree students whose families cannot meet the fee, ring-fenced for women entering the first degree — a track donors can choose explicitly.

The case

• Women are 19% of the 18,000+ students at BITS today.
• Among the 2,600+ PhD students at BITS — where students are funded and stipended rather than fee-paying — 41.5% are women. Women are 22.5% of the faculty.
• The proportion of women applying through BITSAT rose 18.26% in the last year. Demand is rising faster than admission.

Those figures do not prove a single cause, and the cohorts differ in more ways than money. But the shape of them is hard to ignore: where the fee is the gate, the number is 19%; where it is not, the number is close to parity. In our own years on campus, the balance was materially better than it is now.

What contributions fund

• ₹24,00,000 — a complete four-year first-degree tuition scholarship.
• ₹6,00,000 — one full academic year of tuition.
• ₹3,00,000 — one semester of tuition.

2. First Degree Research and Conference Travel

Grants that send first-degree students to present their work at conferences — registration, travel, visa and stay.

The case

• BITS published 2,953 papers in 2025, with a twelve-year publication growth CAGR of 10.3% and an average impact factor of 4.6. The research is real; the travel budget is thin.
• For an undergraduate, presenting at a serious conference is often the moment a career turns — the first international audience, the first real question from a stranger who works in the field.
• Travel Fellowships are already one of the institute’s nine designated gift areas, so this plugs into machinery that exists rather than asking BITS to build something new.

What contributions fund

• Approximately ₹50,000 provides a grant towards a first-degree student’s conference registration, travel, visa and accommodation.
• Ten contributions at our entry tier fund ten such trips.

3. BAFCE – BITS Alumni Fund for Children’s Education

Supporting the next generation of those who support BITS.

• Behind every BITS campus are people who work quietly every day to make student life smoother — our mess staff, Bhawan workers, and campus support teams.
• The BITS Alumni Fund for Children’s Education (BAFCE) provides an opportunity to support the educational aspirations of their children and help build a stronger future for their families.

Who We Aim to Support

• Children of permanent, lower-income BITS employees whose monthly salary is below ₹29,000.
• More than 250 lower-income employees reside on campus, many of whom have limited resources to support their children’s education, healthcare, and insurance needs.

Our Commitment

• Build an endowment dedicated to scholarships for children of BITS employees from families with an annual income below ₹3.5 lakh.
• Support 20 students every year for 20+ years, creating a sustained educational opportunity for deserving children.
• Strengthen the existing BAFCE initiative of BITSAA International and expand its ability to support more families.

A Lasting Way to Give Back

• This is more than a scholarship. It is an opportunity to recognize the people whose everyday efforts contribute to the BITS experience and to extend that support to the next generation.
• 20 scholarships a year. 20+ years of support. A legacy of gratitude.

What contributions fund

• ₹45,000 — one full academic year of tuition for a first-degree BAFCE student.

Our goal: ₹12 crore

We are publishing this as three milestones rather than one number, because each one means something different and each one is worth marking.

For scale: alumni and corporate donors together currently fund about ₹6 crore of scholarships at BITS each year. ₹12 crore from one batch is roughly two years of all alumni scholarship giving, combined.

Give in three, not one

We have three months. Rather than asking for one payment, we are asking for three — one in September, one in October, one in November, each representing a third of whatever amount you decide to give.

The total is identical; the monthly option simply makes the contribution easier to manage. Every tier below is shown both ways for exactly this reason. And if a single payment suits you better, that is entirely welcome as well.

Recurring donation in India: https://bitspilani3.my.salesforce-sites.com/eNACHForm

Recurring donation in USA:

Pledge for the Legacy 12 Cr target

And if you would like to participate in the post-reunion continuous giving program, you can record your intention on the pledge form so we can plan against it. The pledge form and payment page will remain active after the reunion, so batchmates can continue contributing or adding to their earlier donations. The reunion is a milestone — not a deadline for giving.

Link to Pledge Form: https://forms.gle/PC1Ur37z1q9aDxub7

Contribution tiers

Instalment figures are rounded for convenience; the final payment can be adjusted to land on the exact total. Contributions above, below or between these tiers are equally welcome — the tiers are a guide, not a gate.

After the reunion: the three-year pledge

A scholarship is a four-year promise made in a single year. Conference travel is an annual cost. Both need money that keeps arriving, not just money that arrives once — and this is where previous batches have found it hardest to sustain momentum.

So, alongside the campaign, we are asking the batch for something small and durable: a monthly contribution, pledged now and beginning after we return from Pilani, for three years.

$50 a month is a couple of restaurant meals. ₹2,500 a month is less than a phone bill. Neither will be noticed in a monthly budget, and 200 of us doing it for three years builds something future generations of aspiring students can benefit immensely from.

Two practical notes

• Choose your monthly level by where you live. Choose your payment channel by your passport — the rules under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act are set out below and are not ours to bend.
• The pledge is recorded before the reunion; the first payment falls after it. That way, the commitment is made while we are all together and paying it becomes a habit rather than a decision.

Link to Pledge Form: https://forms.gle/PC1Ur37z1q9aDxub7

Double your contribution at no extra cost

Thousands of employers match charitable contributions made by their staff, often rupee for rupee or dollar for dollar. Many of us work at companies that do. A ₹1 lakh contribution from someone at a matching employer becomes ₹2 lakh for the same money out of pocket.

BITSAA maintains a corporate matching gift lookup. Check your employer before you give — it takes about thirty seconds.

Double the Donation corporate matching gift and see if your employer will match your donation — https://www.bitsaa.org/page/gift-matching

How to claim your match

1. Make your contribution through the appropriate link at the top of this page.
2. Keep the receipt — you will need it, and it will reach you within about a week.
3. Submit the match request through your employer’s giving portal, usually under payroll, benefits or corporate social responsibility.
4. Forward the employer confirmation to the batch fund tracking address so we can record it against our total.

Matching programs are most common among US and international employers. Indian companies run them far less often, though the Indian arms of some multinationals do participate — worth a check either way.

How to contribute

Choose the correct account — this is determined by your passport, not your bank

1. Your passport nationality determines which account you must use. The location of your bank is irrelevant.
2. Indian passport holders must transfer to the Indian account, even when transferring from abroad. Use the "Indian Donors" button at the top of this page.
3. US passport holders must transfer through the BITSAA Account. Use the "US Donors" button at the top of this page.

Tell us about your contribution

The portals do not notify the batch committee automatically, so please send us a short email with the date and amount so we can track our progress and thank you properly.

BatchFund2001@gmail.com; alolika.mukherjee@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in; finance.alumnirelations@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in; donations@bitsaa.org; fundraising-team@bitsaa.org

You will receive an acknowledgement of your transfer within about a week of sending the details.

Tax deductions and benefits

1. Deductions apply to the financial year in which the contribution is made, in India, the US and Canada.
2. Contributions to BITS Pilani in India are 100% tax-exempt with an 80(G) benefit.
3. Contributions to BITSAA, a 501(c)(3) organisation in the US, are 100% tax-deductible.

• EIN: 22-3835037
• Address: 1030 E. El Camino Real, #256, Sunnyvale CA 94087

All three campaign instalments fall within the same Indian financial year, so splitting your contribution across September, October and November does not affect your 80(G) treatment.

This is our turn

We arrived in Pilani in 2001 as strangers and left as a batch. Twenty-five years later, most of what we have — the work, the people, the way we think — traces back in some part to a place in the middle of Rajasthan that took us in on merit and asked nothing about our families’ means.

That is the part we can protect. Not the buildings, not the rankings — the promise that if you have the potential, that is all you need to come and be part of something great.

One Forward is our commitment to that promise. A way to turn what Pilani gave us into an opportunity for someone whose journey is just beginning. Join us.