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UPES | DR. PARAG DIWAN Architects of Future

Energy
Specialist
I
t has been a while since Dehradun ceased to be a sleepy
town of retired army officers. Other than a welcoming
climate almost year round, there is something in the air
between the Sivaliks and higher Himalayan foothills
that attracts pioneering institutions.
As you move down Chakrata Road, inhaling the ambient
freshness, you first find the imposing Indian Military
Academy Next comes the equally impressive Forest Research
.
Institute. A turn later, where the land levels off a bit in the
Pondha Valley, occur the amazing Energy Acres.
These 30 acres are home to the University of Petroleum and
Energy Studies or UPES. When a man of proven foresight Having seen the world and
started it in 2003, it might not have been seen as an institution assessed what was needed,
of necessity, but today it is an institution of emphatic choice. Dr. Parag Diwan started UPES out
Dr. Parag Diwan’s eyes pan across his office as he says with a of a building configured into a
chuckle, “I started this project in a room as big as this.” What dozen classrooms.
he modestly withholds is that by then he had already seen the
world and assessed what was needed. He was new neither to

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UPES | DR. PARAG DIWAN

The UPES campus in Dehradun’s
Pondha Valley offer a complete
solution to Energy and
logically allied industries. The
students here are combat ready
by the time they are done.

engineering, management, nor education. At a very young age of 30, Dr. Diwan joined the All India
During his assignment in the US, Dr. Parag Diwan was Management Association(AIMA) in 1992 and remained there till
involved with NASA as research associate for the development 2000. Working as Director in the Education Division of AIMA
of Carbon Fibre based composites which were then being was the turning point and determine where and what he is today .
developed for aerospace applications. While Dr. Diwan was “That is where I shifted to academic management,” he says.
working with Semi-Conductors Ltd, he worked with teams of “AIMA was in pretty bad shape in terms of programmes and
DRDO & ISRO led by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and was actively student enrolment then, and with the first phase of liberalisation
involved in the development of micro-chips for missiles and having begun, it was a time when India was transforming.”
various space applications. The beeline for MBA degrees was there for all to see. It was a

50 51


demand Dr. Diwan chose to address by providing satellite-
enabled distance education. “We created the way forward for
virtual universities on the Internet,” he says. “We were way
ahead of the times, yet the concept really took off, and the
student base became nearly 10,000 in three to four years.”
Things did not end there, because he had more to give. MAT
is an acronym used without apology in India today: it is well
known that it stands for Management Aptitude Test and is vital
for entry to a management institute. What is not so well known
is that it was created during Dr. Diwan’s tenure in AIMA. “We
conceived, planned and launched it, and now it has become one
of the national tests,” he says. “That is greatly satisfying.”
He floated high in the dot.com bubble briefly—his was an
HR portal with Swiss investors—but the bubble burst and
Dr. Diwan and a few old friends got thinking of starting an
institute of learning in the domain of energy .
“We went on a
benchmarking tour of three There is something in the
continents, seven countries, Dehradun air that attracts
and 22 institutions of pioneering institutions: the
worldwide repute in energy oil
, Energy Acres in Pondha Valley,
and gas,” he reminisces. “We home to Asia’s first University
put together a detailed project for the Energy domain,
report and did a market survey . is the latest.
All that took us to almost 2002.”
They approached various
state governments—including
Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra—but the first
enthusiastic response to the idea of a University dedicated to
the energy sector came from Uttarakhand.
“As luck would have it, Narayan Dutt Tiwari was the chief
minister of Uttarakhand and he was into his final innings,”
Dr. Diwan recalls. “He wanted to leave some indelible imprint
on Uttarakhand. Coincidentally he was petroleum minister in
,
Indira Gandhi’s cabinet, so he was understandably fascinated
with our idea and also with the idea of Uttarakhand and
Dehradun hosting a first-ever.”
Uttarakhand might not have any oil, but Dehradun has been
known as Oil Town, mainly because the twin presence of the

52 53


Oil and Natural Gas Commission and the Indian Institute of professional body representing 13,500 individuals and 300
Petroleum. They helped. “In the initial days, we used some of companies across 100 countries, UPES has emerged as a world-
their laboratories,” he says of the year 2003 and a bit thereafter. class institution, dedicated to developing super-specialised,
“We started with only 250 students, 15 faculty members, all ready-to-deploy managers and engineers. Simultaneously, it
in a large rented bungalow where we had created six remains committed to providing training, research, and
classrooms,” he says. “We now have a beautiful 30-acre campus, consultancy or outreach services in energy and allied areas.
with over 600,000 square feet of built-up space—a very modern While doing all this, it is not averse to encouraging private
campus, developed on North American lines.” enterprise. Dr. Diwan takes us back to the early days of UPES—
Within a decade of inception, Asia’s first such University when “carbon credits” and “carbon trading” were buzzwords—
has become a trusted ground for students and companies alike. to cite the instance of a third-year student whose
Nationally accredited and approved by the University Grants entrepreneurial dreams UPES encouraged. Today, his firm
Commission, it offers over 50 graduate, postgraduate and employs 100 UPES graduates. “He was given the Hottest
doctoral programmes to more than 5,000 students in the high Entrepreneur Award by Businessworld in 2011,” Dr. Diwan
growth sectors of oil and gas, power, aviation, shipping, says. “That has been of great personal joy .”
automobile, infrastructure, electronics, information UPES itself has been the recipient of many awards. In 2008, it
technology, and logistics and supply . was adjudged the Best Provider of Energy Sector Training and
Add too these programmes the ones in business Education by the London-based Getenergy ahead of Canadian
,
administration and law, and UPES becomes a lot more than and British contenders. Late in 2012,
what its nomenclature suggests. Nonetheless, its growth has Former NASA scientist Dr. it was voted the Best Petroleum
been quite as organic as oil and gas. “We started with the oil Parag Diwan is not merely in University by Fleming Publications,
and gas sector, built it to the larger sector of power, and built it sync with the present, he is in which has traditionally reserved the
further to the sector using oil and power, which is touch with the future. recognition for US education
transportation,” Dr. Diwan says of its logical progression. providers. “This feels good,”
“From Oil & Gas and Petroleum Engineering, we moved on he says.
to Automotive Design Engineering and Aerospace What are some the new areas
Engineering,” he illustrates. “Similarly, in business that UPES is looking at? “India might be having many reactors
administration, we moved on to MBA in Oil & Gas coming up soon, so we are looking at an M.Tech programme in
Management, Power Management and Aviation Management. nuclear science and technology,” Dr. Diwan says. “We are also
So, we have ended up with a very interesting mix. Though looking at an M. Tech programme in disaster management—
domain-specific, it is almost a full-service University .” there is no professional talent in disaster management.”
Recently, UPES started talks with IBM to launch a super- It is not content alone that concerns Dr. Diwan. He is
specialised B.Tech programme. “We are thinking of areas like sensitive to form as well and knows what the Internet era is
Cloud Computing, Open Source, Virtual Standards, and things asking of us. “This is the generation of Google graduates and
like that,” he says while pointing out that the accent is on Wikipedia professors,” he says with a laugh. But there is no
specialisation. “Even our law degrees are specialised—for cynicism behind his laughter. One can rest assured that he will
instance, Energy Law or Corporate Law. We have a very trim his sails whenever needed.
interesting B.Tech Law programme that addresses technology There was a time when his mission was to keep a vital
and patents.” generation energised. Now it might be to keep an energised
Accredited by the Energy Institute, UK, a leading generation vital.

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