Alumni open purse to help IIT-Delhi build research schools

The highly successful alumni of Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) have pumped in millions of dollars to the alma mater since it was established in 1961, helping the institute look beyond government funding for several ambitious research projects.

Currently, two complexes are being built in IIT-Delhi with 100 per cent alumni funding and the foundation for another one was laid recently to boost the institute’s research prospects. The first is Amarnath and Shashi Khosla School of Information Technology, named after parents of IIT-Delhi alumnus and US-based venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.

Khosla, a BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT-Delhi, co-founded Sun Microsystems along with his Stanford classmates in 1982. Dean of Alumni Affairs Ambuj Sagar said Khosla has provided $5 million for construction of the building and for research work to be taken up there. “The complex will be ready in the next six months,” Dean of Infrastructure Ashok Gupta said. It will be for inter-disciplinary, goal-oriented research, and also serve as an innovation centre for post-graduate education in information technology.

Kusuma School of Biological Sciences, funded by alumnus Anurag Dikshit through the UK-based Kusuma Trust, named after his mother, is another project coming up on the campus. The trust has said to have contributed more than £5 million to build the school. Dean of Infrastructure Gupta said Rs. 100 million has already been released for the building, while the rest would be utilised for setting up research laboratories within the facility. The project mission is to promote research by “interfacing modern biology with applied engineering sciences to address problems affecting human health and welfare, and training scholars to be the next generation scientists”.

Patanjali Keswani, Managing Director of Lemon Tree Hotels and an IIT-Delhi alumnus, recently announced Rs. 200 million for GH Keswani Research Centre at the institute. Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal laid the foundation of the project, which will be built in an area of approximately 130,000 square feet. It will reserved for research facilities for students.

IIT-Delhi has so far produced over 30,000 engineers, technologists, scientists, managers and entrepreneurs. Over the years, this rich roll-call has helped the institute financially and logistically take up several alumni-funded projects.

Source: The Indian Express, September 23, 2012

IIT-Delhi scouts for a second home

A six-member team of faculty members and officials from Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) on Thursday visited some plots in and around Jhajjar near Gurgaon to identify a site for the proposed campus expansion plans of the institute. The team, comprising IIT-Delhi Director R K Shevgaonkar, Deputy Director M Balakrishnan and former Director Surendra Prasad, visited three sites around Jhajjar and has zeroed in on a site “relatively close to Gurgaon”. The land is likely to be used as a research facility as the current campus, which has about 250 acres of functional area, is not not enough for the research needs of the institute.

Deputy Director (Faculty) of IIT-Delhi Professor M Balakrishnan said, “They (Haryana government) has been very positive in their response. They have shown us some sites but there are still many details that need to be looked at. It is really premature right now.” He said that at the current campus, many faculty members “did not have the kind of space required for their research. The proposed site is next to the second campus of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS),” the official said. He added AIIMS has already constructed a boundary wall around the site.

Former IIT-Delhi Director Surendra Prasad had announced during the institute’s Golden Jubilee celebrations in August 2011 that the Haryana government had offered 100 acres of land — free of cost — to IIT-Delhi to built a second campus. He had also said that the funding for the expansion will have to be generated by the institute itself as “this was an IIT-Delhi initiative” and not one of MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development).

Professor Balakrishnan said, “We are yet to look into the details of revenue generation and the facilities that may be developed at the new campus.” Early last year, the New York City had also offered IIT-Delhi space to open a campus there but the institute had declined saying that they “wanted to expand within the country first before going abroad.”

Source: The Indian Express, April 20, 2012