P J Narayanan, Director of the International Institute of Information Technology (Hyderabad), recalls meeting with Ratan Tata in 2006 in Mumbai. “The fledgling institute sought financial support from him. Prof Raj Reddy and Rajeev Sangal, the first director of the institute, met him in 2005 in Mumbai,” Narayan said.
“For the second meeting in February 2006, Rajeev Sangal and I were taken to him by S Ramadorai. He was very warm, polite, and visionary. The support in the form of the Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems came several years later, but it did come,” he says.
Kohli Center on Intelligent Systems (KCIS) is an integral part of the institute at its Gachibowli campus. The centre, which was established in 2015 with financial support from Tatas, focuses on research on intelligent systems.
“Tata inaugurated the T-Hub, which was located on the campus, on November 5, 2015. As the head of the host institution, I got to invite Tata to the campus and the event, along with the then Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao.