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Rahul Garg, Cofounder of B2B ecommerce unicorn Moglix, and Mukesh Bansal, Co-founder of fitness platform Cure.Fit, have been honoured with the Distinguished Alumnus Award (DAA) of 2021 by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur.

Abhay Karandikar, Director at IIT Kanpur, revealed the names of 11 IIT alumni in a tweet on Tuesday. 

The Distinguished Alumnus Award (DAA), started in 1989, is the highest award given by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur to its alumni in recognition of their outstanding achievements. 

Every year, the institute, in consultation with its alumni, honours individuals who have made a significant contribution in these four domains: Academic Excellence, Professional Excellence, Entrepreneurship and Management, and any other activity pertaining to the service of humanity at large. 

The other IIT Kanpur alumni selected for DAA 2021 are:

• Prof Rajesh Kumar Gupta (BT/EE/1984), Distinguished Professor, University of California San Diego
• Prof Abhay Lalit Deshpande (MSC2/PHY/1987), Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, Stony Brook University, New York
• Prof Vijay Vittal (MT/EE/1979), Professor, Arizona State University, Arizona State University
• Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw (MT/IME/1994), Union Cabinet Minister, Government of India 
• Rakesh Bhargava (BT/CHE/1973), former Chairman of Fresenius Kabi Oncology Ltd 
• Saurabh Chandra (BT/EE/1976), Former Secretary, Government of India, Chairman, MCX India ltd 
• Mrs Vartika Shukla (BT/CHE/1988), Chairman & Managing Director, Engineers India Ltd
• Dr Dev Joneja (BT/ME/1984), Chief Risk Officer at Exodus Point Capital Management, US
• Hemant Kumar Jalan (BT/CHE/1977), Managing Director at Indigo Paints Pvt Ltd., INDIGO Paints

“We are indeed proud of the achievements of all of them. My heartiest congratulations to all the awardees,” said Abhay.

In the past, IIT Kanpur has honoured several leaders from the Indian startup ecosystem, including both entrepreneurs and investors. In 2020, Gokul Rajaram, Founder at DoorDash; Dr Ashish Gupta, Co-founder and Senior Managing Director, Helion Advisors; Ved Arya, Founder at Srijan and Buddha; and Dr Subrata Mitra also made it to the list of DAA honourees.