REC Calicut, established in 1961, had become the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Calicut in June 2002. The Ministry of Human Resource Development granted NIT status to REC Calicut, giving it academic and administrative autonomy. However, the alumni forum had remained as RECCAA for a few more years. NITCAA was formally established in 2018.

First World RECCAA meet was held in Muscat, Oman in 2001 and the second in Chennai in 2007. Cochin chapter being the oldest and largest, decided to host the third WNM in the Golden Jubilee year.

There was an organizing committee formed, including members from a range of batches, who put in relentless efforts to make the event a grand success. This ensured participation from almost every batch over the years. The team worked for about a year, the committee meeting every single week, making progress systematically. Organizing committee members travelled to different cities in India and abroad and invited the members of each chapter personally. All such travels and meetings were done on personal expenses. It was a great team effort.

The funding was through sponsorship from the alumni and advertisement in the planned brochure.

The World NITCA Meet of 2011 was from August 12 – 15, commemorating the Golden Jubilee celebrations.

“Reliving Yesterday…” was the theme.

There was a beautiful brochure prepared for the event. Thomas Chacko was the editor for the magazine.

The greeting message was from none other than the honorable President of India, Smt. Prathibha Patil. Fazal Ali remembers himself, Philip and Prof Babu T Jose travelling to Delhi to invite her to the event, and took up the invitation through the former secretary Mr. Christi Fernandes, with whom Fazal had personal connects, and he hosted a party for the team at his residence. However, due to pre-committed appointments, the President could not make it, and sent her wishes instead.

There were also messages from the then NITC Director Prof Sandeep Sancheti and Director in charge Dr. TL Jose, WNM Organizing Committee President Joseph Philip (1975 batch) and V M Fazal Ali, then President, NITCAA Cochin Chapter.

The Brochure carried articles on the history of RECCAA thus far by Fazal Ali, Memoire of Prof. K M Bahauddin by Dr. Babu T Jose, Memoire of Prof. Jussay by Prof. K Shankaran Nair.

There were pages introducing NITCAA Chapters and office bearers of Bangalore, Calicut, Chennai, Cochin, Delhi, Kuwait, Mumbai, Muscat, UAE and Trivandrum chapters.

There were articles by notable alumni – K A David (Nuclear Energy expert), Derrick Samuel, Devadas D P, Madhu Thangavelu, Shankar Meembat, John Mathai IAS (former Chief Secretary to Govt. of Kerala), Dr. P V Chandramohan (recipient of National Award for most outstanding bridge in 1996 and 2009), G Krishnakumar (then COO of Society of Energy Engineers and Managers), U Uthaman, Sheela Mary Cherian, Dr. P P Anil Kumar, Anitha Mary Andrew and Joseph Martin (Climate change and sustainability expert).

The brochure was truly a collector’s edition.

The grand event took place at Bolgati Palace and Gokulam Convention Centre.

Minister K V Thomas, MLA Dominic Presentation, MLA Hybi Eden and NITC Director Prof Sandeep Sancheti were the guests of honour.
Joseph Philip welcomed the guests.

Fazal Ali did the Presidential address. Prof Sankaran Nair remembered Prof. Jussay in his speech. Guests of honour addressed the gathering, wishing all success and offering support. Sandeep Krishnan NITCAA Cochin chapter gave the thank you note, concluding the inaugural function.

Members from Far East, Middle East, Europe, US and most states of India participated in the event. There were participants from all batches since inception. More than 1000 members attended the event. WNM2011 can boast of the highest participation ever.

Singer Rimi Tomy and Comedian K S Prasad led the entertainment programs. There were surprise lucky draws. Dubai team surprised all by making a grand appearance in Arab traditional attire.

Suresh Manimala presented his short film on the daily life at REC/NIT, invoking nostalgia and RECCAA spirit. Chilprakash spoke about the progress of the RECCAA Club construction, and urged the participants to take up membership in the club, for, this is meant to be the place for all of REC/NIT alumni to come together and achieve greater things for the society. Francis K Paul stressed on the advantages of being the charter members of the RECCAA Charitable society. There were several enquiries, and many of these were converted to memberships.

Each chapter gave a presentation on the activities and achievements. Shilen talked about the vision of NITCAA and Vijayaraj about the need for a World NITCAA Council and the importance of bringing young members to the fold. There were talks by NITCAA faculty.

In commemoration of this event, two awards were instituted – first one in the name of Prof. K M Bahauddin, the architect of REC Calicut, to recognize distinguished Engineering Teachers of Kerala (Rs. 1 Lakh, citation and memento) and second one in the name of Prof. P M Jussay, the founder of Cochin RECCAA Chapter for the best Student.

Idea of institution of awards was the brain child of Prof. Babu T Jose. Dr. A Unnikrishnan, who was the NPOL director contributed significantly. Prof Babu T Jose, Dr. Unnikrishnan, Prof. Ravindran Nair and Fazal Ali met several times to crystalize the modality of operation of the Award with detailed guidelines and operating procedures, in the Officers Club of NPOL, Kochi (hosted by the member Dr. Unnikrishnan), and also at the residence of Fazal Ali.

Prof Babu T Jose shared the award criteria with his PhD mentor Dr. A Sridharan, an eminent scientist and academician, for review. He not only accoladed the criteria, but also forwarded it to All India council for technical education for recommended implementation. The awardees have all been eminent achievers in their field. The policies were revised from time to time to make the claims and the supporting documents bring real contributions. In the year 2022, the policies were revised to include requirement of supporting evidence like Google Scholar Sheet etc. to make the claims more concrete.

Prof Chandramohan, from Amritha institute was the first recipient of the Prof Bahauddin award. The committee was delighted that a truly deserving candidate was receiving the award, but surprising everyone, he accepted only the certificate and returned the award money of one lakh, requesting to institute a scholarship for needy students using this as capital. He mentioned that he had struggled through the loss of a parent and tough financial situations, his home not having electricity while studying engineering and having to complete engineering drawing sheets placing kerosine lamp over the drawing sheet. He wanted to make a difference to the struggling students.

A committee was formed consisting Prof. Babu T Jose, Babu Varghese, Fazal etc., to establish this scholarship and they sent out letters to Government and Government aided Engineering colleges, notifying them of the scholarship and asking for nominations. From the many nominations received, the team finally shortlisted four, but could not reduce the number further, because all four were truly deserving. With the RECCAA spirit in action, the committee members came forward to sponsor the scholarships, so the very first year, four scholarships of 10,000 each were given. Scholarship amount and numbers have been increasing gradually since.

WNM 2011 was a huge success, in terms of the execution, quality of content, networking and also financially. There was a profit of 10 Lakhs, mainly from the advertisements in the event brochure. This contributed to the capital for the NITCAA.

More importantly, the event caused the rise of a new set of leaders for the RECCAA Cochin chapter, who have been taking the RECCAA/NITCAA and the RECCAA Charitable Society to new heights in the years since.