Prof. Pillai is the Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi and also the Chairman of the Distance Education Council (DEC), which looks after the co-ordination of standards, quality, recognition and developmental assistance to all the 13 State Open Universities, over 150 Distance Education Institutes in the Conventional Universities and in other private Open and Distance Learning institutions in the country.

In his thought provoking inaugural speech, Prof Pillai was emphatic in stating that purpose of education is to improve the quality of life and that BITS is undoubtedly a pioneer in educational innovation for developing a model which had inbuilt mechanism for imparting soft skills and for fostering industry university collaborations. He had words of praise for the work integrated learning philosophy based off campus distance learning programme initiatives of BITS Pilani.

After inaugurating the conference, Prof Pillai visited the BITS library housed in a building of architectural marvel and the Centre for Educational Technology which has the digital video studio equipped with the satellite (EDUSAT) based as well as leased line based high quality video conferencing facilities for delivering lectures to various BITS on campus and off campus programmes. Prof Rahul Banerjee Chief of Software Development and Educational Technology (SDET) unit explained and demonstrated to Prof Pillai, the internet based highly scalable desk top video conferencing facility with interactive features for delivering lectures to the off campus distance learning programme students of the Institute. In the meeting with Vice Chancellor and other senior officers of the Institute, Prof Pillai shared his thoughts on distance learning and said that the journey for excellence in education must deploy more and more emerging technologies.

While the world would remember 19 September as the birthday of George Cadbury founder of the famous chocolate brand, BITS will always remember it as the day Prof Rajasekharan Pillai visited Pilani.

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Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani Rajasthan which has the reputation of pioneering the online examinations for admissions through the path breaking BITSAT and setting a bench mark in industry university collaborations is one among the top ranking universities towering above the rest in various best college surveys in India today. BITS offers degrees in various disciplines presently at Pilani, Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad campuses apart from an array of work integrated learning programmes for HRD of a vast spectrum of Indian corporates. The alumni of the Institute who are who is who in various professions and Proud to be BITSians peaking with Passion Quotient for Alma mater are spread across the globe from Australia to America.