DASA Award Year: 2007 | Degree Year: 1966
Mr. Lalit Mehra received his Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 1966 with Director’s Gold Medal for being the best all round student. He also received the Institute Silver Medal for having stood first in his Department.
Mr. Lalit Mehra is presently the Chairman of Tara Vati Ram Gopal Mehra Foundation, a family foundation which provides medical assistance and scholarships to the needy.
During his business career, Mr. Mehra specialised in the sale of equipment, material and know-how for the wire & cable industry. He was responsible for the initial technology tie up of some of the country’s most successful telephone cable companies. He strengthened the family foundation, which operates a fully equipped outpatient Medical Centre in East Delhi and two Homeopathic Dispensaries in New Delhi, serving about 250 to 300 patients every day. The Foundation, through its support of Nirmal Shiksha Kendra, runs a Primary School in New Delhi with a strength of about 350 underprivileged children who pay no fees.
Mr. Lalit Mehra has been active in the Rotary organisation. He has been President and District Governor for Rotary Clubs in and around Delhi. He established the Rotary Foundation (India). He spearheaded Rotary’s effort to eradicate polio, first as Chairman of the Polioplus Campaign Committee for India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and later as Vice Chairman of the National Polioplus Immunisation Committee.
Mr. Lalit Mehra has taken a keen interest in the growth of his Alma Mater. He has been responsible for establishing the Tara Vati Ram Gopal Mehra Foundation Scholarship for a deserving and needy student at IIT Delhi in 1967 immediately after his graduation. He has been instrumental in setting up the Mehra Chair Professorship in Design & Manufacturing Technologies. He has also contributed significantly to improvement in hostel infrastructure as well as to the setting up of the Pearl Award (Batches 1965 to 1969). He has also instituted the Dr. P.L. Kapur Memorial Award for partially supporting the travel of a student of Department of Physics to an international conference.
In honouring Mr. Lalit Mehra, IIT Delhi recognises the significant efforts and contributions made by him for the development and progress of the Institute.