These are difficult times. Here’s now IIT Kharagpur’s students inside the campus are braving the odds
“No two days are alike, nor even two hours, neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike…”
Sometimes, like times such as these, when the hours seem to collapse into one another and the days just roll on, the profound wisdom contained in the words of the famous British painter, John Constable, have trouble seeping in.
But we are all bravehearts in our own ways, or so say the students of IIT Kharagpur, many of whom are residing within the campus and are finding their own ways to beat the gloom.
Some of them have not been able to go back home. Others have stayed back to keep near and dear ones at home safe. The way back, after all, would have not only exposed them to the Covid-19 virus but also made them unwitting carriers of the disease home, where some have aged parents and grandparents. Others stayed back in the fond hope of being able to tie up loose ends in their academic work.
The best thing that can happen to anyone during a trying time is to have friends around. That alone has made the biggest difference to the more than five thousand students who are braving the lockdown in their respective Halls. They are not allowed to freely move within the campus, and even in the Halls, there are restrictions in place.
So how are they spending their time? “Since the lockdown and the restriction of movement came about, we have been reading books and binge-watching TV shows, also attending classes which are being conducted online. The assignments and projects keep us busy most of the days here,” says Snigdha Pathak, final year UG student in the Department of Chemistry.
And yet, they have been doing amazing things. Snigdha herself, together with her batchmate and wingmate, Ritika Agarwal, at the SN/IG Hall have been participants in the PanIIT WINIndia Challenge (Wellness Indoors Now) and have managed to bring a lot of creativity in the way they have tackled the fitness challenges. In the first challenge – leg raises over an obstacle – it was Ritika’s idea to feature one of the participants as the plank, while the other did the leg raises.
Aditya Singhania, General Secretary Sports and Games, Technology Students’ Gymkhana, says that 800-850 students from IIT KGP have participated in the challenge either from their hostels and homes. Shivam Gupta, 3rd year student of Industrial and System Engineering and a regular participant in the Inter-IIT athletics, too participated in WINIndia together with fellow athletes in RP Hall. “When the challenge started, we used to ping everyone, telling each other ‘let’s do it’. But it really felt good when everyone started taking part,” says Shivam. He believes that girls have been more creative than the boys and is happy to see an overwhelming number of 1st year students participate in WINIndia, where IIT Kharagpur made it to the 2nd runners-up position.
Much like Shivam, for Aman Damara, who was captain of IIT KGP’s cricket team last year, fitness has been and remains a part of the daily routine. He exercises for 1-1.5 hours every day in the terrace of LBS Hall. A 2nd year MTech student, Aman even welcomes the respite from the regular routine. “It has given us time to think about ourselves, something we could not do earlier. So I am using the time to read up things that will help me in the future.” Aman is mostly reading books on entrepreneurship, and of course academic papers now that he knows he has to submit his research paper by May 25, a month earlier than scheduled.
Picking-up-that-long-forgotten-book-lying-under-a-pile-of-other-reading-material is something that appears to run on loop in every conversation on the daily routine during lockdown. Many like Rana Madhvendra, who is Editor, Technology Students’ Gymkhana, have revived their childhood reading habit. Rana has already finished reading three books – Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, Bloomberg by Bloomberg and When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics. Ninaad Lohakare, Vice President at Technology Students’ Gymkhana, IIT Kharagpur, is reading India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha. Even Bhaskar Basak, member of the Branding and Relations Cell of IIT Kharagpur, who is juggling several equally enticing activities – binge watching films with friends, playing cards, or doing some assigned work for BARC, has picked up an odd Murakami or two.
Bhaskar, in fact, has gone back to another activity he had done in school – sketching. Some like Ayush Kumar, a 3rd year student of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture are trying something completely different. Ayush is learning to play the guitar through an app and believes he is only a week away from being able to play a song. “It’s just that my fingers have to move a lot faster,” says a determined Ayush.
Almost all of them are listening to music of some kind. “I am listening to hip-hop, classic rock, alt-rock, etc. We have also been learning to cook a bit since all the outlets are closed and we have a fixed time for availing mess facilities,” says Rana. Bhaskar has mastered making the omelette and his now trying his hand at frying potatoes.
But there are some who have taken up gardening. At SN/IN Hall, Atanuka Pal, a 5th year student of the Department of Chemistry, is tending to the 30 plants that she has started caring for. She has also been painting, on and off. But what sees her throughout the day is that game of badminton with her friends in the evening.
Still others like research scholars Biswarup Mondal and Pragnaditya Malakar of the Department of Geology and Geophysics, are keeping themselves busy with their green initiative, Vision Prabaho, that recently conducted the Green Indoor, 50th Earth Day online competition for students and children of the campus. They are working on Vision Prabaho’s awareness campaign on Covid-19, which has seen them translate the MHA’s directives into regional languages and come up with a cartoon strip for wider dissemination of the information.
Classes, friends, and a bit of coding, is how Chinmay Singh, a 3rd year Chemical Engineering student sums up his day. He is reading novels and also doing his remote internship with IBM Research. “A lot of my batchmates have also taken up remote internship as this is a two credit course in the third year and industry experience is very valuable.”
Chinmay’s response shows how IIT Kharagpur’s students are braving the odds. Many of their plans, industry internships, internships abroad, research partnerships, even job appointments hang in balance owing to the situation forced down on an unsuspecting, unprepared humankind by Covid-19.
And yet they keep their chin up – working in isolation, or following a long forgotten passion that once brought them joy, taking up new hobbies and seeking out the comfort of their friends’ company to steer them through these difficult times.
Director Prof. Virendra K Tewari said, “I thank Vinod Gupta from the core of my heart to have taken the lead and created this fund to help people who are facing dire times. I have known Vinod for 22 years and always observed him to be forthcoming when it comes to helping the needy recalling his humble roots.” 
“I salute our alumni, who have always guided us, supported us and above all, remained connected to us. The Alumni Covid-19 Social Welfare Programme funded by our
He further stated, “In 1962, in my first year at IIT, it was a surreal experience for a 16-year-old kid from a village in U.P. When I got sick, the guy who took care of me was the Ward Boy in Patel Hall and his name was Papaya. I still remember him. I remember former US President Bill Clinton, who shared such a nostalgic experience of inviting a porter who took care of him during his university days, to the Presidential swearing-in ceremony. It just shows how important they have been in our lives.” 
Dr. Arindam Mondal, Assistant Professor at IIT Kharagpur’s School of Bioscience speaks with The Kgp Chronicle regarding frequently asked questions about novel coronavirus. Dr. Mondal leads the Molecular Virology Laboratory in the School of Bioscience where they study human RNA virus replication and host pathogen interaction on molecular detail to develop novel strategies for therapeutic or prophylactic measures. Currently, his lab focuses upon influenza viruses as a model that causes mild to severe respiratory illness.
All of these viruses have drawn public attention due to pandemic or epidemics caused in the recent past, such as the 1918 Spanish flu, the 2009 Swine Flu, the 2014 West African Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic and the 2003 SARS epidemic. While bird and swine flu were caused by different subtypes of influenza viruses, Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever. The novel coronavirus, recently identified to have been originated from Wuhan province of China, is closely related to the SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) that caused the 2002-2003 epidemic, and has thus been alternatively designated as SARS-CoV2. Like the SARS-CoV that originated from bats and got transmitted to humans via an intermediate mammalian host (civets), the SARS-CoV2 seems to have jumped host species from bats to humans, although the existence or identity of the intermediate host is yet to be elucidated. Recent reports have identified pangolins as the possible intermediate host. 
Several antivirals have been identified that could combat the virus by interfering with different stages of the viral life cycle, for example, uncoating inhibitors chloroquine and 
From the beginning of my service career, my target had been to improve my academic background. To fulfil my aspiration, I had joined the Graduate program of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) during my service in Chandigarh. I cleared the Grad. IETE examination in 1989 and after serving in IAF for about nine-and-a-half years, I took voluntary retirement from defence service on April 4, 1991 to join the Punjab Wireless Systems Ltd. (A Govt. of Punjab Enterprise) as an Executive Engineer.
In 2002, I joined back the E&ECE Department as part of the department’s technical resource pool. I completed my MTech in Microelectronics & VLSI Design from IIT Kharagpur in 2007. During this phase, I tried my best to advance the non-invasive blood glucose monitoring research projects that I was earlier associated, with active support from L&T, which could source us the required sensors and ICs. Our hard work bore fruit as our biomedical research work led by Prof. Swapna Banerjee and Prof. Anindya Sundar Dhar was recognized with the grant of an Indian patent in developing non-invasive photoacoustic blood glucose measurement.
I have always loved to take up new challenges, and creating the infrastructure for the countrywide classroom program under the T10KT and NKN virtual classroom was one such challenge. It was quite difficult to design the T10KT studios in the basement of Kalidas Auditorium and three NKN classrooms in the Departments of ECE, Industrial and System Engineering (later shifted to Sir JCB Lab Complex) and GSSST, but I now feel happy that everything went well and we are still continuing to use all the infrastructure for their intended uses successfully.
I also look after the day-to-day operation of SWAYAM Prabha DTH educational channels 11 & 13 of MHRD, coordinated by IIT Kharagpur. Besides the virtual meeting infrastructure of the Institute, I coordinate the recording and live streaming activities of ISWT, GIAN, LEAP, Annual Convocation, GES, etc.
The therapy requires the use of Collagen, the protein that helps maintain the structure and functionality of the cartilage. Once Collagen becomes available as oral nutrient supplements or injectable gel, the therapy will receive a big boost. However, isolating the protein in large amounts is a problem and researchers the world over are looking for ways to do that from various sources.
The isolated Collagen was incorporated in a highly stable Pluronic F127 gel base. The CP (Collagen-Pluronic) hydrogel could be used for cartilage regeneration therapy. In addition, when combined with stem cells derived from the goat ear adipose tissue, this injectable hydrogel was found in laboratory conditions to highly facilitate cartilage formation. It could thus speed up the healing of cartilage injury.
Prof. Dhara said, “The blended CP hydrogel has an encouraging result to be used as injectable hydrogel for cartilage regeneration and also to perform as a stem cell delivery vehicle by minimal invasion.” The multi-institutional and multidisciplinary team included researchers from the School of Medical Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology and Rubber Technology Centre of IIT Kharagpur and from the Centre for Healthcare Science and Technology, IIEST, Shibpur.
The identification and mapping of Hyp position in signature motif plays an important role to correlate molecular alteration of the component chains of cartilage with the progression of arthritis. Prof. Dhara said, “This identification may contribute to early prediction of dysfunctional collagen leading to rheumatoid arthritis as well as molecular identification of Collagen from other sources.”
Innovaccer, a data-driven healthcare technology start-up co-founded by Abhinav Shashank and Kanav Hasija from 2010 batch, has has launched a self-assessment based ap
In another such initiative, Intugine, co-founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni Harshit Shrivastava (2016 batch) and Ayush Agrawal (2018 batch), is using their flagship product ‘Mobile Number Location Tracking’ to monitor huge number of home-quarantined individuals and ensure they follow social distancing. The Kgpians claim that their location intellige
While surveillance of the population is critical, a significant section of the population engaged in essential services are required to regularly access public spaces. Alumnus Debayan Saha collaboratively developed Airlens Minus Corona, a device which may help sanitise large areas. The innovators claim that the product might be able to address the challenge by using charged water droplets which are ionised using the viral discharge.
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