The main focus behind this fresh start is to help India become a tech independent and reduce its dependence on foreign designs and chips as the present case of today. Below are the list of Departments that are being started by IIT Kharagpur :
Energy Science and Energy Department : Dealing with the common knowledge of that fossil fuels comprise about 80% of our energy needs and that the reserves are depleting fast. Naturally, the demand for research on alternative fuels is high on the national agenda. IITK has ambitious plans of inventing and patenting a bio-fuel that will both be cost effective and cheap for vehicular use.
Bio-sciences Department : It focuses on bio-science-based research for sometime now and has been consistently breaking grounds in biotechnology, bio informatics and genetic engineering. This department will become extremely important when the parliament by an act allows the institute to set up a school on medical technology soon. However, IIT Kharagpur will be the first IIT school in the country to also teach medical technology.
Engineering Entrepreneurship Department : It would start an integrated programme on engineering entrepreneurship, whereby after completion of B. Tech, a student automatically will move on to pursue two years of entrepreneurship training and completes his masters.
Environmental Engineering Department : This department will look at ecological renewal and pollution control be it air, water or soil. Water and waste water management, solid and hazardous waste management, including radioactive and biological waste management, will feature prominently in the research done here.
Nano Science and Technology Department : Though Nano technology is being practiced in the institute for some time now in every engineering stream, the scope of the new school will not be limited to the traditional approaches of synthesis, characterization and exploitation of nano materials.
Engineering Design and Manufacturing Department : The new department aims to innovate designs for all kinds of products, representing a whole range of consumers products from automobiles to telecom equipments and from computers to audio-visual equipments, to end the tech hegemony of China, Japan and Germany over us.
Embedded Electronics Controls and Software department : Considering the importance of modern computerized control panels not only in automobiles as well as in aircraft’s etc, the institute will set up a department where research will be conducted on control panels that will suit cars with unmatched fuel and pick up efficiency that are yet to come into the market.