May 2019 – The KGP Chronicle

Shape of water

“Wherever you are is the entry point” – Kabir

We don’t know if Vijay Kiyawat (1967/BTech/ME/NH) came across these words of Kabir, the great mystical poet and saint. But the trajectory of his life demonstrates the truth of the statement. That is, you can make a fresh beginning from any point of your life.

That is what happened when Kiyawat retired in 2008 after an extremely successful corporate career. “I wanted to do something different – something different from consulting, or teaching,” he says. So he took up the paint brush – a rather unusual choice for a person who had never painted before.

He could have simply spent his lazy afternoons dabbling in colours. But Kiyawat did way more than that. His intuitive grasp of the art medium, dedication and the undying professionalism that he carried into his post-retirement life, has made Kiyawat a well-known water colourist.

He has had solo exhibitions in India Habitat Centre and Jehangir Art Gallery – those iconic convention centres in India that surely indicated that one had arrived – as well as in foreign lands like Singapore and group exhibitions in India. His paintings adorn the walls of homes in faraway America, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and other countries as well as corporate offices. Recently, 11 of his paintings were picked up by Goldman Sachs for its new office coming up in Bengaluru.

Did Kiyawat foresee becoming such a successful artist? Unlikely. He started off going to hobby classes of Delhi artist teachers Surinder Kaur and Rajesh Sharma, poring over books on the techniques of water colour, and learning with the keenness of a child from anyone who could teach him anything new. While visiting Pune, he sought out Milind Mulick and in Berkeley, artist and teacher Julie Cohn.

Magic happened when this learning, his powers of observation and imagination combined together. Kiyawat explains this confluence in more prosaic terms on a YouTube video – the right side and the left side of the brain coming together.

What comes across poignantly during our recent conversation at IIT Kharagpur’s Technology Guest House is Kiyawat’s matter-of-factness about his art. There is no anxiety in him to belong to any particular school or style of painting. He, in fact, is disparaging of the existing practice of making paintings look dark and gloomy. To him, his art is all about happiness. As he puts it succinctly, “I choose to be happy and water colour is a medium that is a happy medium. An artist paints what he is, not what he sees. I am happy and make people happy. That is what I am.”

What he means is that his art is a reflection of his self – spontaneous and easy-flowing – and the inner journey that his travels, his reading, his experiences trigger.

He has an entire series on Meditation, a series on the Jain philosophy of Parigrah and Aparigrah, or the Jain concept of Shatt Leshya. There is also a series based on his reading of Kalidasa’s ‘Ritu-Samhara’. There are also series based on his travels in Greece and Bhutan.

“My water colours are based on stories – they convey something. Take the Meditation series, which has elements of a particular tree or plant and I use them to depict the complexity of mind at one end of the painting and on the other to depict the post-meditative mind,” says Kiyawat.

Whether the Dream Garden series, or Meditation, or the depiction of seasons, or the raven series after his travels in Bhutan, Kiyawat always tries to introduce an element of mystery in his water colours. Many of them also have a bird – whether peacock, or Golden Oriole or crane – plant life or flowers. The colours are vibrant and the connection they forge with their viewer is strong and instant. “My paintings are popular because people relate to them,” says Kiyawat.

For IIT Kharapgur, which holds a special place in his heart, he has a novel scheme called ‘Arty Charity’, which means ‘Donate to IIT KGP and buy art at discount’.

So, when an alumnus donates to IIT Kharagpur, he/she could seek a discount (within 30 days of donation) of the donation amount on the price of the painting. [Click here to see details of the scheme].

“So it promotes my art and at the same time promotes donation to IIT,” says Kiyawat. Six alumni have bought paintings from him based on their donation to the Institute.

Kiyawat, in fact, has been a benefactor of the Institute since 2007, when he helped set up the Vijay Kiyawat Endowment Fund that provides financial support for the medical treatment of both teaching and non-teaching staff. The fund has also helped students of Nehru Hall and the Mechanical Engineering Department get a reading room and digital repository respectively.

“It was because of IIT Kharagpur that the gates opened in life. I came from a middle class family, as many of us, and without the scholarship given by the Institute, I could not have continued my studies. Mine is a small gesture of giving back,” said Kiyawat.

Vijay Kiyawat visited the campus on May 20-21 to discuss ways of improving the Nalanda Academic Complex

Photograph: Suman Sutradhar

Loophole Games

Kgpian Smarak Swain (B.Tech./EE/2006), IRS 2008 batch, Jt Commissioner of Income Tax, Bengaluru has published his seventh book Loophole Games: A Treatise on Tax Avoidance Strategies.

The book reveals loopholes available within the ambit of law, used by corporates in legal ways to avoid paying taxes. All abusive tax avoidance structures have been brought together in a single book. Tax avoidance preys on loopholes available within the ambit of the law.

In this book, the bestselling author has discussed key rulings of Indian as well as foreign courts and brought out the modus operandi discussed in major court rulings. He has also discussed the modus operandi of organized syndicates that facilitate tax evasion. Organized syndicates such as the stock market syndicates, shell company syndicates and hawaladar networks often facilitate in the laundering of black money and their infusion into formal accounts. Business managers and investment bankers should be aware of how these syndicates perform so that they can raise red flags on detecting accommodation entries made in accounts on behest of the syndicates.

The book has received positive reviews from experts in the field of law, auditing, and public policy. Ajay Mittal, Partner of Ascent Capital whose portfolio includes BigBasket, RBL Bank, and Maiyas Beverages, says that “[For] a Fund Manager, managing Private Equity funds, this book will be very helpful. It captures areas that we should cover in our due diligence on promoters and management of potential investee companies, such as, their private trusts/companies/other structures in tax heavens, mispricing, the domicile of IP etc. This will also help in monitoring the investee companies on a regular basis.” Justice B.K. Misra, a retired judge of Odisha High Court, observed that the book brings out, for the first time, the dilemma faced in the formulation and execution of tax laws. He further stated that “Swain is a master of narratives and demonstrates how abusive corporate structuring has affected both developing and developed countries adversely.”

However, some organizations have raised concerns about the utility of the book. The book describes tax avoidance strategies in great detail and then goes on to explain how courts in India and other countries have dealt with such strategies. There are concerns that the strategies mentioned in the book could be misused by tax dodgers. Tax Justice Network has twitted from its Luxembourg handle @TaxJusticeLU that it shudders “to think that some entrepreneurial criminals, [or] individuals might take [the strategies in the book] at face value and see [the] book as a ‘how-to’ guide”.

A clarification to such doubts is available in the introductory chapter of the book itself. The author maintains that these strategies for avoiding taxes are not new and tax detectives are aware of the strategies. Resorting to tax avoidance will actually lead to immense reputation risk and litigation risk. Each tax avoidance strategy discussed in the book is followed by true stories of court cases to highlight the high reputation and litigation risk involved in engaging in such strategies.

Preparing for the role

IIT Kharagpur is currently holding the MHRD inspired and sponsored LEAP program (May 13-24). Announced in November 2018 by the MHRD, LEAP is a three-week flagship ‘Leadership development’ training programme for second level academic functionaries in public funded higher education institutions under the Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching (PMMMNMTT) Scheme. Two weeks are dedicated to domestic training and the third week to foreign training.

The objective of the program is to prepare a second tier of academic heads who may have to assume leadership roles in the future. LEAP fulfils a long-felt need for preparing the senior faculty of the premier institutes of the country for future governance roles.

This program engages senior faculty- such as Deans and Heads of Departments – who have at least 8 years of experience in the grade of Professor and at least three years’ experience in administrative positions. The program provides them the opportunity to develop the required leadership and managerial skills, including skills of problem-solving, stress management, team-building, conflict management, better communication, understanding and coping with the complexity and challenges of governance in financial or administrative roles.

Prof. Adrijit Goswami, Dean, Continuing Education, the Department of IIT Kharagpur which is organizing the program, said, “Today, those assuming top administrative positions in an academic institution, such as that of the Director of Vice-Chancellor, now have multifarious responsibilities. They have to deal with the ministry, industry, international academia, funding bodies and so on. This program helps one prepare for the role.”

IIT Kharagpur is one of the 15 top academic institutions in the country – which include IITs, NITs, IISERs, TISS, DU and other institutes – which have been selected to run the course. Prof. M.K. Tiwari, program coordinator for IIT Kharagpur, said, “This is a judicious mix of institutions, and the program will help enhance the educational ecosystem in India.”

The venue of IIT Kharagpura’s LEAP, currently being held in Kolkata, will shift to the campus from May 20-24. The final leg of the program will be held in association with IFM, the University of Cambridge from June 3-7. There are four participants from IIT Kharagpur of the 28 who are attending IIT Kharagpur’s LEAP program.

Prof. Goswami, said, “Speakers at IIT Kharagpur’s LEAP have been chosen with great care. They are mostly Directors or former Directors, or top administrators of premier higher educational institutes, or from the industry, such as K. Anant Krishnan from TCS, or R. Gopalakrishnan of Tata Sons Ltd. Mr Parth S. Ghosh, policy advisor, strategist for Corporates and Governments, and alumni of IIT Kharagpur was also there for four days. There is also a top paramilitary officer, IGF S. Raveendran, who will talk on stress managment.”

Mr Ghosh, who has also seed-funded the forthcoming Academy of Leadership in IIT Kharagpur, spoke on the ‘DNA of leadership’ and ‘Visionary Leadership – for next generation Industrial and Social Revolution’. Mr Krishnan spoke on ‘Collaborative Leadership – Team Building, Delegating powers’ and Mr Gopalakrishnan on ‘Organizational leadership’ and ‘Charismatic or transformational leadership’.

Director, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, whose talk on ‘Anatomy of the Academic System’ included slides on cricket, said, “I am grateful to the stalwarts for sharing their knowledge and experiences to the next generation in a unique programme for developing the next generation. Lot of interesting ideas generated through discussions and assignments!”

Apart from hearing out speakers, field research, the program will expect the participants to research and write a substantive essay within the field of the programme for the Institution. The topic will normally be based on the interests and skills the participants develop through the program.

The participants will be evaluated based on several leadership attributes like problem solving abilities, handling stress; managing conflicts, decision making etc. and this assessment will be formulated in consultation with experts.

The final round of IIT Kharagpur’s LEAP will be held in UK in June. The star speakers for the program from May 20-24 in the campus will be Swami Atma Priyanand on ‘Code of Excellence’, Santanu Choudhury on ‘Leadership Everywhere – People in the Academic Institutions’, Srikumar Banerjee on ‘Power and authority – Financial Management and Planning’, Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti on ‘Future of Leaders and Leaders of Future- -Creating/ Developing Leadership’ and Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya on ‘Building Futuristic Infrastructure’.

The Impact We Made

Careers360 India Education Diary

In the launch edition of Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings, IIT Kharagpur has been ranked as the best performing institution from India.

This unique ranking initiative by THE is the only global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This first edition includes more than 450 universities from 76 countries. The list is led by New Zealand’s University of Auckland, while Canada’s McMaster University and the University of British Columbia, and the UK’s University of Manchester complete the top three. Japan is the most-represented nation in the table with 41 institutions, followed by the US with 31 and Russia with 30.

The Sustainable Development Goals covered under this ranking are Good Health and Wellbeing, Quality Education, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, Reduced Inequalities, Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate Action, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

IIT Kharagpur has been ranked among the world’s top 50 in the SDG of Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure which measured the number of university spin-offs and research income in comparison to the number of academic staff. “Every year we undertake projects worth ₹100-150 crore from government bodies, corporations and our international partners which leads to about 100 patent applications annually, around 2000 research papers in top journals outlining the impact of the work,” said Prof. M K Tiwari, Dean, Planning & Coordination.

In addition to this the Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Park at IIT Kharagpur has incubated more than 100 startups in a diverse set of areas such as ICT, analytics, sustainable energy, smart homes, affordable healthcare technologies, advanced materials for constructions, high-yielding feeds and fodders, rural technologies for improved economic sustenance and many more. The Institute is now coming up with a Research Park in Kolkata to promote industrial research and innovation.

“We are building an ecosystem for industrial research across key domains such as advanced manufacturing, transportation, AI, water thus bridging research done in academia with the industry and improving commercialization opportunities,” Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Director, IIT Kharagpur. “The motto of our Institute as you would see engraved outside our main building is ‘Dedicated to the service of the nation‘ and so it is only apt that the R&D in our laboratories take the path of transforming the lives of millions in the country,” he added.

The Institute has also been ranked among the world’s top 100 in the areas of Sustainable cities & communities, Responsible consumption & production, Partnerships for goals.

The parameter of ‘Responsible consumption & production’ deals with policy-making in areas involving ethical sourcing of food and supplies, waste disposal including hazardous materials, waste disposal including waste sent to landfill and recycled, minimization of plastic and disposable items. At IIT Kharagpur, these are thrust areas of research and not just campus maintenance. Many of the technologies developed by the researchers at IIT Kharagpur are field tested on-campus before deployment and commercialization. Water recycling and waste management are such areas.

The waste management site in the campus is the bed of resources for waste materials ranging from solid to wet yard waste to hazardous and even e-waste. The Centre for Rewater Research launched last year cater to anaerobic wastewater treatment, bioelectrochemical processes, MFC, MDC, waste to energy and water & wastewater treatment and recycling. Further, single-use plastic bags have been restricted on the campus.

Further, student initiatives like Vision Prabaho, tree plantation programme have been launched to promote environmental sustainability.

Partnership for goals is another key area where the Institute has taken a significant role. IIT Kharagpur directly works with various ministries under the Government of India and various state governments to identify issues pertaining to sustainable development and address them through research, policies, interventions either directly or through government bodies, monitoring, reporting and enabling adaptive management. These include areas such as solar power, drinking water, sanitation with recycling and reusing of water primary school education, affordable healthcare in rural areas, clean fuel for transportation, urban development etc. “We have been leading several initiatives and policy decisions of the Govt. of India in areas such as integrated education and outreach programmes such as the National Digital Library of India, Global Initiative of Academic Network (GIAN), ICT and healthcare domains in IMPRINT, Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), Centre of Excellence of Advanced Manufacturing and many more. Each of these initiatives is structured through goals and deliverables and are being led by domain experts in the Institute and other collaborating organizations,” said Prof. Tiwari.

The other aspects of Partnership for goals which include international collaborations and working with non-governmental bodies are also focused areas of the Institute. IIT Kharagpur has engaged with several universities in USA, Japan, and Europe to works towards sustainable development goals in areas of water, clean energy, network security and other areas of public welfare. On the other hand student volunteering programmes focus on rural development projects such as primary school teaching, infrastructure development, drinking water, personal hygiene. The Institute has also developed various technologies for educational resources for various learning groups in the society including people with special abilities.

A key feature of IIT Kharagpur is the self-contained campus which has led to its performance in the area of ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’. The 2100 acre campus sustains a green cover of over 40% and promotes an eco-friendly mode of transportation for about 10000 of its student population. It is a mini-township with not just amenities for a residential campus but with heritage spaces, museum, vibrant socio-cultural life and much more.

University World News, a leading global window on higher education wrote “India’s best-performing institution, the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is ranked at between 101-200, putting it in the top 25%-50% of institutions. This is a reasonably heartening result. ”

“However, we still have a long journey ahead in this direction. We will march ahead steadily, with unflinching resolve and most importantly silently. Look forward to the continuous support of all to keep us always — India’s Urges, India’s Future in the Making,” beams Prof. Chakrabarti.

A brave new start

India Today Careers360 Jagran Josh

Many of India’s villages may witness a sea change in water quality, management and distribution when the ideation of five projects that evolved out of a joint workshop between IIT Kharagpur and the University of Edinburgh (UoE) on Rural Water Quality and Management bear fruit. The workshop held at IIT Kharagpur during May 14-16 brought together scientists, engineers, social scientists, social workers as well as people from industry from India and abroad to brainstorm about an issue that is critical to promote socially inclusive development throughout the world. The workshop was funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) of UK which supports cutting-edge research that addresses the challenges faced by developing countries.

The scope of these projects is huge as they will tap not only the interdisciplinary expertise of IIT Kharagpur and the UoE, as well as that of the other participants in the dialogue and eventually involve government officials, local institutions, and community-based organizations. But, this is also because many of these projects intend to scale up from the cluster of 20-24 villages as the first point of study, to a thousand villages or more.

Prof. Pulak Mishra of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur, who coordinated the workshop on behalf of IIT Kharagpur said, “This joint international workshop aimed at stimulating new collaborative research projects in different aspects of water quality and management in rural areas, including the critical issues such as water treatment, wastewater management, water contamination, energy-water-food nexus, water and ecosystems, etc. Emphasis has also been given on understanding the potential role of policies, local level institutions and community based organizations in this regard.”

Prof. Kate Heal from the School of GeoSciences, UoE, is part of the project that focuses on “Improving the quality of life of rural communities by empowering them with skills and knowledge in water quality management”. “Good quality water is sometimes a lower priority below other issues,” she said. Her team will try to generate community awareness of water quality so as to create a demand for change from within the community. The team will also test different strategies for nudging behaviour change in the community to maintain the safe water option.

Prof. Kate Heal (front) and Prof. Neil Robertson

The other projects intend to create a “Smart village” by addressing the problems of water and sanitation, a digital data platform on rural water that would bring together all available information on water policies and facts, the use of ‘Natural-based solutions to water problems in rural India’, and to ‘Match water needs with water technologies’ through a portal that would facilitate data analytics. All the teams include not only researchers from the two organizing institutions but also those from potential partner institutions and organizations such as IISWBM, Kolkata, Presidency University, NALCO, Vidyasagar University, and non-profit organizations such as ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment) and Arghyam.

One common perspective of all these projects is to take into account not only the local hydro-geology, the social and economic circumstances but also cultural practices. Several of these projects are looking at learning, using and perhaps upgrading traditional knowledge. “We are not going to the local community to tell them what to do but to share with them our ideas,” said Prof. Dimitri Mignard, School of Engineering, UoE.

The workshop grew out of IIT Kharagpur’s ongoing collaboration with the UoE. Prof. Mishra of IIT Kharagpur participated in the Newton-Bhaba Workshop on Translating Clean Energy Research to Rural India organized by the UoE in collaboration with IISER Pune during 04-08 September 2017. The workshop brought together physical scientists, engineers and social scientists from both the UK and India to share expertise, develop new ideas and build new partnerships to tackle some of the challenges in the development of energy technologies in rural areas. Following participation in that workshop, Prof. Mishra’s collaboration with Prof. Neil Robertson, School of Chemistry, UoE continued. They have been working together to develop joint research proposals along with other faculty members of IIT Kharagpur. Besides, one research scholar from Edinburgh visited IIT Kharagpur recently to investigate rural water quality in India in association with Prof. B.C. Meikap of the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.

Prof. Robertson said, “IIT Kharagpur is a particularly important place in research regarding rural development. The setting of the Institute also provides an enormous opportunity of engagement with rural populations”. The workshop included field trips to the nearby villages. In one of them, IIT Kharagpur has set up a multi-filtered, UV treated water facility that the villagers run and manage.

The workshop introduced the participants to the problem areas regarding rural water in India and the years of research and action undertaken by IIT Kharagpur in rural welfare through the talks delivered by the three plenary speakers – Prof. Binay K. Dutta or the School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Prof. Manas K. Mandal of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Prof. Shirshendu De, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur. Prof. De’s laterite based low-cost arsenic removal technology has won a societal award from the National Research Development Corporation and has been widely implemented in households and schools in Murshidabad, Malda, Midnapore, South and North 24 Parganas.

“Through this workshop we tried to network and develop rural water related multi-disciplinary projects in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, industry, NGOs and other stakeholders. These will go a long way in solving the critical issue of drinking water in rural India if funding agencies join hands with IITKGP and UoE,” said Prof. Meikap, who has been part of the organizing committee of the workshop. The Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, delivered the inaugural address at the workshop.

Signing off after a gruelling three days of the workshop, where the moderator, Dr. Sara Shilton, Head of Researcher Development, UoE, kept everyone on their toes, Prof. Robertson said, “We have to draw in every bit of human knowledge and practical sense to solve the huge problem of water. That is what we tried to do through this workshop. We wanted to develop mega conversations with many partners, but also individual connections that are integral to the process.”

In the valedictory session, Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Director, IIT Khargapur highlighted the ongoing mega projects at IIT Khargapur in different critical areas. He said, “This workshop is extremely important in developing research ideas for solving the problems related to bettering life in rural areas.”

Simple and viable

Careers360 Jagran Josh

Supply of clean drinking water is considered to be the hallmark of a truly developed and integrated society. Owing to the largescale agriculture and anthropogenic stress, improving drinking water quality has become a nationwide issue and tackling it depends on the young generation of students who can draw upon their creativity to provide simple and effective solutions which may be readily adopted by the rural communities. A rural drinking water technology hackathon was conceptualised by the IIT Kharagpur Director, Prof Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, who has been mentoring the Design Innovation Centre (DIC) ever since its inception.

Debdas Chowdhury (left) and Priyabrata Mondal from Jadavpur University

The two-day event was planned as part of international workshop on Rural Water Quality and Management. Two teams of postgraduate students and research scholars from the School of Water Resources, Jadavpur University (Debdas Chowdhury, Saurabh Kumar Basak and Priyabrata Mandal) emerged winners of the Rural Drinking Water Technology Hackathon organized by the Design Innovation Centre of IIT Kharagpur.

They advocated the use of rusted nails for the adsorption of arsenic at minimal cost. They also showed the use of the dual filter media of anionic resin and activated alumina for removal of arsenic and fluoride from water.

The University of Endinburgh team talking to participants

The aim of the Hackathon was to explore cost-effective and innovative solutions to address the challenges related to drinking water problems in rural India. While giving out prizes to the winners, Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur, reminded the teams that besides evolving technologies that were “simple and economically viable”, they also needed to remember that removed pollutants should not go back to the water source/supply.

As many as 13 teams from premier engineering institutes from eastern India participated in the Hackathon sponsored by the Design Innovation Centre at IIT Kharagpur that was set up recently under the government of India’s “National Initiative for Design Innovation”.

The second prize was lifted by Usha Kumari, a Chemical Engineering student of IIT Kharagpur who devised a way to remove fluoride from water with alumina activated by sulphuric acid. The third prize was jointly shared by Siddharth T from NIT Warangal, who showed how plants can be used for ‘phytoremediation’, and a Neelanjan Dutta from IIEST Shibpur, who showed how electrocoagulation can be used to remove arsenic from water.

The winning technologies at the Hackathon were discussed at the workshop on ‘Rural Water Quality and Management’, organized by Prof. B.C. Meikap and Prof. P. Mishra, that began on May 14-16 at IIT Kharagpur. The workshop is being held jointly with the University of Edinburgh. The winning teams of the Hackathon will have their projects funded by the DIC and can work in association with IIT Kharagpur to further develop their ideas.

A team from the University of Edinburgh judged the Hackathon in association with IIT Kharagpur. Prof. Kate Heal of the university said, “I was greatly impressed by the diversity of ideas –from phytoremediation, solutions of rainwater harvesting, to the number of filtration systems, some of the contestants had also thought about the economy and access to water.” Also present was Prof. Neil Robertson, whose team has been working on photocatalysts.

The Hackathon showcased easy-to-implement technologies that made use of locally available materials like rice husk, biochar, sawdust, iron nails, gravel, the ubiquitous ‘matka’ or clay water pot. The programme was coordinated by Prof. P.B.S. Bhadoria and coordinator Aditya Bandopadhyay of IIT Kharagpur, and convened by Prof. Somnath Ghosal from the Rural Development Centre of IIT Kharagpur. The momentum set by the Hackathon will continue with the International Workshop on Rural Water Quality and Management.

That’s what friends are for

While inaugurating the Nagpur Alumni chapter in March, Dean, Alumni Affairs, Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay, talked about the hub-and-spoke model of Alumni connectivity. “If the two major Alumni foundations (of India and USA) form the hub of the connectivity efforts, the chapters are the spokes. The chapters channelize our efforts to reach out to the Alumni in every nook and corner of the country.”

The Technology Alumni Association Bangalore (TAAB) of IIT Kharagpur has been doing this for years, and now more proactively. Its assistance in facilitating summer internships this year is a prime example of this.

Each year, students – across departments and levels of study – reach out to the organization for its support and assistance in facilitating their summer internship. Having received around 12 requests this year, TAAB got to work.

TAAB President, Dipankar Khasnabish, says, “We collated the basic details – like name, year, departments, areas of interest, location preference if any – of the students. The preference was strongly for data analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.” That done, they began to look for ways to make the connections.

Khasnabish says, “Anjan Datta, our senior alumni, looked into his chapter database and identified alumni across the country who would be able to help in this regard. We connected with alumni who are founders of companies as also leaders and members or corporate organizations.”

Focussed communication was sent to around 250 people and quite a few dialogues started. Some of the respondents came back for CVs, some for clarifications. There were some who said they have no projects but can connect with other companies. In one case, a corporate house had something definite to offer, and it was connected to the placement cell of IIT Kharagpur. Khasnabish says, “Having made the initial contact, we connected the people either to the students directly or to the Institute.”

The initiative of the TAAB has generated a lot of goodwill. The effort has been appreciated by students and alumni alike for being unique and helpful. However, Khasnabish says, “The program has to be more structured in order to be effective. Besides, so far we have no infrastructure to cater to the needs of more than a handful of students.”

The other area where the Institute has received support from TAAB is in the run-up to the launch of the six month program in AI and ML by the Centre of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence. TAAB also played a part through the interactions of Capillary Technologies, which seed-funded the CoE for AI with the Institute, as well the team which is spearheading the efforts.

In October last year, TAAB, in association with the IIT Alumni Centre Bangalore, organized a panel discussion of IIT KGP faculty and alumni and experts in various AI domains to discuss state-of-the-art AI research and applications. The chief guest was IIT KGP Director, Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti. The experts were Subodh Kumar, Co-founder of liv.ai, Dr Sameep Mehta, Senior Researcher, STSM, IBM Research India, Dr Subrat Panda, Head, AI and Data Sciences at Capillary Technologies, and Dr Tathagato Rai Dastidar, Co-founder, SigTuple. The forum was widely appreciated by the speakers and the participants as one of the best they have attended.

Prof. Chakrabarti commented on the occasion (Oct 7, 2018) – a “very productive morning session in Bangalore starting with a meeting of IIT Kharagpur Alumni Foundation India…. What could be more satisfying for a teacher than to listen to the success of your students, especially work done in India and for India – three of the four outstanding speakers are my ex-students. Made a clarion call on AI for India. Received overwhelming support.”

TAAB has also hosted the interaction with the interns at Capillary Technologies. It organized a couple of speaker meetings – including one at Affine Analytics where Mr. Manas Agarwal, the Co-founder, was the speaker.

On the corporate connect front, TAAB facilitated the Institute’s discussions with Wells Fargo for a course in data analytics. TAAB hopes to redouble its efforts along these lines in the coming days.

Banner design: Suman Sutradhar

Where credit is due

Perhaps the best way to describe what a scholarship does for a student besides giving the recipient instant acclaim is that it gives him/her the opportunity to earn an education. For many, this is an absolute necessity. Without a scholarship, it would be the end of the road. But in all circumstances, whether dire or not, earning brings undiluted joy and immense pride. To earn your keep is to grow up, to take responsibility for your own self. This contribution is always valued, and increasingly so nowadays because higher education comes with a price tag that is directly proportional to how high you want to climb.

The two winners of the Tower Research Capital India Meritorious Scholarship for the year 2018-19 – Vedic Partap (B.Tech/CS/3rd year) and Vivek Gupta (Dual Degree/CS/3^rd year) are thus mighty pleased with themselves. The scholarship of Rs 2 lakh each will help them pay their tuition fees. They will also get Rs 20,000 to buy books.

Vivek puts it simply, “Since the scholarship covers my tuition fees for a whole year, this would reduce the burden on my parents to pay for the fees. Also, this is a personal achievement since getting selected for such a merit-based scholarship amidst such a fierce competition of the whole campus (sic) is a feat in itself.”

The Tower Research Capital India scholarship is open to 2nd and 3rd year B.Tech students of three departments – Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering, and MSc in Maths and Computing. So Vivek may be going slightly overboard when he talks about the “whole campus”.

But he is not exaggerating when he talks about the “fierce competition”. Unlike many other scholarships, the Tower Research Capital India scholarship does not consider the financial status of parents for eligibility. This is purely a merit-based scholarship that takes into account the CGPA (at least 8.5) of the undergraduate candidate in the 2^nd and 3^rd year and the candidate’s performance in the Hacker Rank test. There are not many such purely merit-based scholarships to go around with such a handsome pay-off, and hence the competition for it is truly cutthroat.

The “fierce competition” also brings to the forefront another peculiar problem about the funding of higher education. Vedic puts the issue more squarely. He says, “There are many scholarships that focus on the ‘means’ factor like the merit-cum-means scholarships and other state/national scholarships. Due to my family income, I was not eligible for any of the scholarship. But that does not mean that paying a large tuition fee is not a problem for me.”

Besides, Vedic adds, “The competition for the scholarship also gives us a chance to show our knowledge.” Both Vivek and Vedic, since they are from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, had to respond to questions on web development and database, data structure and algorithms, operating systems and systems design.

The Tower Research Capital India Meritorious Scholarship ticks many boxes. It gives the recipient a tremendous sense of pride in his/her abilities. The added satisfaction is the ability to pay for his/her own education – and thus a not-to-be-messed-with sense of honour among the self-conscious, self-righteous, self-dependent millennials of today.

According to recent studies, the cost of education in India is increasing at an average of 15% per annum. Professional courses, which have become mandatory now, cost a packet. For example, the tentative cost of an MBA is up from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 20 lakh in 15 years. As a top official of a finance company pointed out, “Aspirations have increased, and thus people want to stretch, sometimes ever so slightly beyond their means to pursue higher education which is likely to change the trajectory of their careers and their earnings in the future.”

Both Vedic and Vivek do not discount the importance of merit-cum-means scholarships. But they do believe that purely merit-based scholarships are also important to encourage top achievers who would not qualify otherwise to keep their performance at par with the best. Vedic says, “Many of my friends are very capable and in great need of scholarships.” Vivek too believes that there should be scope to compete for scholarships that fund foreign trainings and internships for which there are often no reimbursements.

IIT Kharagpur has been trying to address the “need” that Vedic talks about by increasing the financial threshold for eligibility for some of the scholarships, many of them instituted by the Alumni. The IIT KGP Foundation of US has also started a scholarship for foreign internships from the financial year 2017-18. But, quite obviously, more needs to be done.

Vedic wants to go for higher education in computational neuroscience and Vivek is looking forward to a summer Internship next semester. Do they have any plans for making use of the money they will eventually save?

Oh yes! Vedic wants to use his internship pay (and any of the rest he could save) to buy a new laptop or perhaps go for a trip. And Vivek? He chirps, “After paying the tuition fee, I could use the rest of the money (from the scholarship), along with my internship pay, to buy a new hardware, may be a laptop for myself. But before all this, a gift for my parents tops my list as without their support, this would not have been possible.”

Banner: Suman Sutradhar

Sheltering from Fani

India Today Careers360 Indian Express Telegraph Jagran Josh

As the extremely severe Cyclone Fani hit Odisha and Bengal, the grand old IIT at Kharagpur has again turned out to have a not so insignificant role as life savior. It was 2004, after the devastating super cyclone in 1999, IIT Kharagpur had designed economically viable. cyclone shelters with a capacity of holding several hundred. Orissa State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA), a constituent of the Government of Odisha, in association with IIT Kharagpur then constructed these shelters across coastal areas of Orissa.

The Odisha government in its action plan to minimize loss to life prepared a holistic degree plan of which a critical plan was to get people to the shelters. The state which has been hit by several storms and cyclones drilled for emergency actions. On Thursday one could hear announcements on the loudspeakers asking people to go to the nearest shelters. Government buses too dropped people to these shelters. As people were brought in to the shelters, food and water were also made available.

While Fani carried its assault outside the shelters, the several hundred relaxed in the safe space of these shelters. Some of them proactively expressed their gratitude for the safety being offered at the shelters.

What do the technologists from IIT Kharagpur who designed these shelter space, feel on this achievement?

As Director Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti recalls the implementation of the project more than a decade ago when he was Dean, Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy. “It was Prof G C Mitra and current Deputy Director Prof Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya who led the project. There were hurdles including audit objections but when it comes to works like this deeply rooted into national interest ways were innovated. IIT Kharagpur is proud to have implemented this project. The people’s blessings have been the highest reward. May we get more such opportunities and have more selfless, capable people like Prof Mitra and Prof Bhattacharyya.”

These two-storied buildings with concrete frameworks and masonry infill, on stilts located a few miles away from the seashores, have withstood the onslaughts of several cyclones since its inception. As Fani approached, thousands found safety in these ‘crab-like’ structures designed and implemented to be functionally adequate.

The structures that helped provide shelter during Phailin (2014), Titli (2018) and Fani (2019). Kudos and respects to the sturdy and practical design of Prof Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya and Prof G C Mitra, built with the support of the Odisha Government and the PMO. It is also designed to be used for other purposes during normal times.

“Several measures were taken to safeguard the structures as constructing the shelters in a few areas was rather difficult for poor soil condition. While designing the structures, aspect of the usage of these structures throughout the year for proper maintenance was thought of. Accordingly, most of the shelters were designed as market place cum shelters while some were designed as school cum cyclone shelters. Once again the structures withstood the fury of the cyclone with a wind speed of more than 200kmph, demonstrating its robustness in design and execution” explained Prof. S K Bhattacharyya.

Expressing his satisfaction that the cyclone shelters have saved the lives of a large number of people during the devastating cyclone Fani, Prof. Bhattacharya emphasized on the significance of the project which was funded by the Prime Minister’s Office to prevent recurrence of the devastating situation of the super-cyclone causing huge loss of lives.

“These kinds of works that are carried out at IIT Kharagpur give us immense satisfaction. As one of the investigators-in-charge along with my colleague and a renowned engineer (former Engineer-in-chief cum Secretary, Govt. of Orissa), Prof. Gopal Chandra Mitra, I take pride to be associated with such project, which saves the lives of people”, beamed prof. Bhattacharyya.

On a jovial note, Prof. Chakrabarti was heard telling the alumni on Saturday “Fani could not get beyond the two towers at IIT Kharagpur on its attempted march to Kolkata.”