New Leadership Announced for DFI Of India

February 8, 2023, Chennai, India:

DFI of India announces the appointment of a new chair and new vice chair.

Mohan Ramanathan has been named as chair of DFI of India after serving as vice chair. He succeeds I.V. Anirudhan. In addition, Sunil S. Basarkar, Ph.D., has been appointed as vice chair of DFI of India after serving on the executive committee.

Ramanathan is the founder/director of the ACT Group of Companies based in Chennai. He has over 40 years of experience in pile foundations, heavy earthmoving equipment, demolition and concrete flooring. He has been actively involved in identifying and transferring technologies relating to construction, ground engineering and mechanisation to India from developed countries. He is a member of several professional societies including the Indian Geotechnical Society, Institution of Engineers (India), ACCE, ICI and IDA. Ramanathan has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from IIT, Madras and a master’s degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the U.S.

Basarkar is the general manager (design) at Afcons Infrastructure in Mumbai, responsible for pan-global infrastructure projects. He leads a specialized geotechnical engineering design and technical section involved in land, marine and turnkey projects. He is a fellow in several professional organizations including the Indian Geotechnical Society and the Institution of Engineers (India). He has authored more than 50 journal and conference papers including “Load Transfer Characteristics of Socketed Piles in Mumbai Region,” published in Soils and Foundations, Japan, and is an editor for the DFI Journal. Basarkar earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from National Institute of Technology Rourkela, a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering from Pune University and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from IIT Bombay.