IIT Kharagpur aiming for new highs on its way towards Vision 2020

The oldest and one of the best known higher educational institutions of India, IIT Kharagpur celebrated its 59th Annual Convocation this year on July 27, 2013. This year the Chief Guest was Dr. M M Pallam Raju, Honorable Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Also, the Chairman of the Board of Governors, Dr. Shiv Nadar graced the occasion.

In this convocation, the Senate and the Board of Governors of the Institute had confered the highest honour, the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) to Shri Arun Sarin, in recognition of being a doyen of the telecommunication industry making Vodafone the world's largest mobile phone company and Shri Y C Deveshwar, for his visionary leadership in making ITC become a truly global company. Also, Distinguished Alumnus Awards were conferred on ten alumni of eminence.

At this function, the Institute had confered 149 Ph.D., 25 MS, 771 M.Tech., 32 MCP, 123 MBA, 4 MMST, 17 MHRM, 27 LLB, 270 Dual Degree, 472 B.Tech. (Hons.), 20 B.Arch. (Hons.) and 228 M.Sc. degrees.

During the year, the roadmap for taking IIT-KGP into the league of top universities of the world under the initiative of Vision 2020 was also chartered. A white paper has been developed in consultation with KPMG.

The core committee has already been set up. Various initiatives for specific transformational themes have been identified and are being worked out for implementation.

The new students will be joining from July 29, 2013 (Monday) onwards. To accommodate the increased number of students new Halls of Residence have been constructed in the recent years. Construction of a new Hall named after Shri Lal Bahadur Sastri has been completed this year consisting of 667 rooms.

Also, special arrangements have been made to accommodate the increasing number of girl students. New accommodation facilities for faculty members have been constructed as well.

30 new classrooms at the Nalanda academic complex have been made available for use. New laboratories and science blocks are being completed as well to boost research facilities for students.

To modernize infrastructure and experimental facilities, the Institute has acquired new scientific equipment, and constructed new facilities in departments, schools and centers through the enhanced departmental planned grant.

The construction of the super specialty hospital with 400 beds in its first phase is to start soon and is expected to be completed within 2 years. This will be the stepping stone of the establishment of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy Institute of Medical Science and Research which would include a 750-bed super specialty hospital along with a medical education program and research in biomedical and healthcare science and engineering.

The newly established Centre for Railway Research is running successfully with 12 ongoing research projects. The building construction for the center is expected to be completed by 2014.

During the year 2012-13, the Institute received 296 research and consultancy projects valued at INR 144.37 crores. On the patents front, a special drive was carried out - 100 Days 100 Patents. 200 patent applications were received from faculty, students and staff, and more than 100 patent applications have been sent for filing.

Emphasis is being given on students' research projects as well. While the Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy Cell are funding the core research activities, the Office of Alumni Affairs & International Relations is facilitating students' participation in international contests.

A major drive to attract bright young faculty has also been undertaken since January 2013. Recently 70 new offers of appointment have been made at the entry level.

On the front of international collaboration, 10 new MoUs have been signed with Institutions like University of Osaka, Japan, United Nations University, Japan, University of Alberta, Canada, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Moscow State Mining University, Russia, Leibniz-Institut, Germany, Rhine-Waal University, Germany, Friedrich Schiller University, Germany.

Training and Placement saw another successful year with 200+ companies participating this year. Close to 80% of students across all streams who registered were placed. The overseas highest salary offered is $127000 while the Indian counterpart is at INR 28.5 lakh. Many companies offered pre-placement offers as well.

The Institutional Development (ID) program under the aegis of the Office of Alumni Affairs and International Relations has been mandated to support some aspects of the Vision 2020 activities.

Some novel initiatives are being promoted under the ID program - e-newsletters and dedicated website for the alumni, faculty and students, social media outreach; e-guest lectures through Google+ hangout sessions; mentorship of students by alumni; fundraising from alumni collectively under the Founding Endowment Batch campaign, motivating them to donate in the name of their batch thus ensuring better participation and involvement.

The batches of 1970 and 1968 have successfully contributed to become the 2nd and 3rd Founding Endowment batches this year. Last year 1991 batch became the 1st Founding Endowment Batch.

The young alumni from classes of 2012 and 2013 contributed a significant amount by donating their caution money to the Institute under the ‘My Imprint' program. The fund will be go into endowment to build a sustainable and diverse source of funding for IIT-KGP in the lines of world's top ranking universities.