The story of the Surat Chapter of CSI started some time before 1988. The Chairperson at the time was Prof. I.D.Desai of SVNIT.

Prof. P. Trimurthy, the National student counselor of the time advised Mr. Naren Burade to start the Student branch of CSI-Surat and so the CSI student branch started in first quarter of 1990 by Mr. Naren Burade (Counsellor) at Government polytechnic for girls. The first Chairman was Mr. Satyen Desai and other members were Ms. Neerka Tandon, Ms. Jigna Shah, Lutfiya Rangwala and a few others. The student branch conducted various activities for the students once a month. In the late 1990’s, Student branch wished to send a team for a competition to be held at Chennai.

The student branch approached the CSI Headquarters seeking financial aid and on further insistance discovered that the Surat Chapter of CSI had been revoked.

CSI HQ advised us to approach CSI, Surat chapter for financial aid. On further enquiry it was discovered that the Surat Chapter had been revoked citing inactivity.

CSI – Surat Student branch continued to be active and decided to conduct the National Student Convention.

NSC-91 was held on the 16th-17th March, 1991 at SGCCI. The chief guest for the event were the Gujarat High Court Justice NJ Pandya and Dr. Ratan Datta (Advisor to GOI). Approximately 150 students from across the country attended the Convention. The convention was a resounding success. The major contributors then who made it possible were KRIBHCO, Mr. Pranav Pandya and his team.

Upon success of NSC-91 and various other activities, Surat Chapter Student Branch was awarded with Best Student Branch of the country award at Hotel Ashoka, New Delhi at CSI National Convention.

The need of having a Chapter in the City was felt enormously and thus, Prof. Kalthia and Mr. Naren Burade decided to contact the industries and academia for the purpose in a meeting conducted at MTB arts college hall and attended by 200+ interested enthusiasts. We then approached Prof. Trimurthy and with his support at National ExeCom meeting, the decision to revive Surat Chapter was taken. Thus, Prof. Kalthia became the first Chairman of CSI, Surat chapter.