July 2020 – The KGP Chronicle

IIT KGP Director Speaks on NEP

On Higher Education

A day of celebration as an educationist as we welcome the National Education Policy (#NEP2020) announced by Dr.Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. The policy has substantial elements for the higher education sector. The key among them is setting up the National Research Foundation to foster research culture and removal of MPhil which has been witnessing a downward trend in offering research career opportunities hence fewer number of takers.

Emphasis on Interdisciplinary and Humanities Education at IITs

Another area I must mention is the thrust on multidisciplinary education including more of Humanities and Social Sciences at the IITs. While the older IITs have a strong presence in this sector, this would strengthen the holistic academic needs of new generation IITs. At IIT Kharagpur we are already offering microspecializations, micro-credits and research programs that are typically interdisciplinary. We have specialized centres in these areas, to name a few are the Rekhi Centre for Science of Happiness, the Academy for Classical and Folk Arts, our law school which is the first-of-its-kind focusing on Intellectual Property. We will be glad to work with new IITs in these areas.

Democratization of School Education

What excited me most is the School Education Policy. It has come after almost four decades and with much democratization of pre-primary, primary and middle school education. The emphasis on primary education in regional languages and the introduction of Sanskrit, following the three-language formula, will turn out to be a great boon to the people of the country, especially in the rural areas. In several European universities, Sanskrit is being explored as a coveted academic discipline.

German universities have delved into Sanskrit learning to conduct research on the scientific heritage of the Vedas, Upanishads and other ancient Indian scriptures such as Baudhāyana sūtras (800 BCE) which contains mathematical principles of square roots, Pythagorean theorem, geometric principles etc. or Pingala’s misrau cha (400 BCE) which is usually identified as the Fibonacci number series and works on advanced Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Metallurgy and much more. India in this 21st century has still much left to look back and explore our hidden wealth. Endowing our student community with an evolved language like Sanskrit will help shape a rational thought process among school-going children.

The regional and Sanskrit language education will also enable our student community to grow strong indigenous roots and learn from the resources of our rich heritage while training in computer programming will upskill them to dive for more opportunities as the 21st century progresses.

Education through the National Digital Library of India

The National Digital Library of India developed by IIT Kharagpur as an initiative of MHRD has much to offer towards this new policy. It can give a significant impetus to pre-primary, primary, middle school and high school education through incorporating not only educational resources but also developing online education pedagogy and outreach programmes facilitating rural students. It can further provide resources for the education of the elderly to make them more equipped for Digital India.

IIT Kharagpur Researchers Develop Novel Technology for COVID-19 Rapid Test

The entire rapid test can be conducted in an ultra-low-cost portable device with the test results available in a customized smartphone application for dissemination within 1 hour without requiring manual interpretation. All of this at a cost of around ₹ 400/- per test.

Photo: Arnab Moitra, Graphics: Suman Sutradhar

In a unique effort, researchers at IIT Kharagpur have innovated a novel portable rapid diagnostic device to detect COVID-19 infection. This first-of-its-kind device will bring the testing for COVID-19 out from the walls of expensive laboratories and RT-PCR machines and enable testing at affordable costs for the under-served community across the world.

This entire test with the extracted RNA from the patient saliva samples can be conducted in an ultra-low-cost portable enclosure as an alternative to specialized laboratory equipment. The same portable unit can be used for a large number of tests, on mere replacement of the paper cartridge after each test. The device has been proven to produce no false result with remarkable accuracy and sensitivity compatible to standard RT-PCR tests. This test has an unprecedented low cost of less than ₹ 400/- per test, taking all components of expenses and business model into account.

Considering the impending outbreak of COVID-19 infection at progressively more geographical locations with the anticipated increment in number of affected personnel at a dramatic rate, there is an emergent need to run large numbers of reliable diagnostic tests at affordable cost and minimal infrastructural support, for monitoring the early stages of progression of the disease when many of the infected persons do not exhibit discernible symptoms of infection.

However, the testing technologies currently under use are highly expensive, despite the innovations in low-cost testing kits as the actual testing machinery cost remains high. Further testing mechanism has logistical issues due to the infrastructural requirement of the testing centres. A team of researchers from IIT Kharagpur, contemplating on the challenge, realized the alternative cannot be new innovations for the existing detection systems such as testing kits and PCR machines but a disruptive approach leading to a new technology and testing process being innovated without sacrificing the scientific rigor and medically acceptable high standards of the test results.

Prof. Suman Chakraborty (L), Prof. Arindam Mondal (R)

Prof. Suman Chakraborty from the Mechanical Engineering Department, IIT Kharagpur, and Dr. Arindam Mondal from the School of Bio Science, IIT Kharagpur, came up with the concept of a portable non-invasive rapid detection test for COVID-19 thus taking the testing mechanism to a whole new level. The technology essentially deploys a disposable simple paper-strip for chemical analysis and visualization of results.

The device is capable of conducting the detection of the viral genomic RNA in an ultra-low-cost portable enclosure as an alternative to a highly expensive RT-PCR machine. The same portable unit can be used for a large number of tests, on mere replacement of the paper cartridge after each test. The new device has been designed to be usable at locations with extremely poor resources in an uncontrolled environment, catering the needs of the underserved population. Moreover, it can be operated by minimally trained personnel, precluding the needs for skilled technicians.

The research team has successfully validated the detection procedure, taking time of approximately 60 minutes to run each test. This obviates the need of an expensive PCR machine, by means of a set of innovations such as a portable automated pre-programmable temperature control unit for the genomic analysis, coupled with a specially functionalized detection unit on a simple strip of paper, and a customized smartphone application for dissemination of test results without requiring manual interpretation. While the Institute can produce the testing kit up to a certain scale, patent licensing will facilitate commercialization opportunities for medical technology companies.

Under the guidance of the Professors, the device design and fabrication work has been spearheaded by doctoral student Mr. Sujay Kumar Biswas, and the bio-analytical protocol has been standardized by doctoral students Mr. Saptarshi Banerjee and Ms. Nandita Kedia. Dr. Aditya Bandopahyay has further helped in developing the thermal unit.

Highlighting the need for such equipment, Prof. Suman Chakraborty, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, said, “In assessing the utility of a specific method of disease detection, there is a common failure to recognize that the cost of the test kit may not turn out to be the most critical factor from the viewpoint of affordable diagnosis, unlike what is being commonly portrayed. Rather, the greater challenge is complete elimination of the need for any specialized infrastructure and ensuring the possibility of conducting tests at large scale at low cost without compromised accuracy. In that light, the RT-PCR based tests suffer from a compelling constraint of requiring an elaborate laboratory-infrastructure and support system including the operational and maintenance cost, to perform the test. The alternative existing approaches to these tests, on the other hand, are either invasive (blood tests) and non-indicative of early stage of development of the infection, or dependent on reagents that are extremely unstable and cannot be implemented in resource-limited settings.”

The equipment developed by IIT Kharagpur Researchers will cost about ₹ 2,000 if a pilot facility is used. Use of a large-scale commercial facility will further reduce with increase in the production scale. This compares very favourably with the RT PCR machine costing ₹ 15 Lakh.

Further, Dr. Arindam Mondal, Assistant Professor, School of Bio Science, IIT Kharagpur, added, “The unique portable device developed by the IIT Kharagpur researchers has not only been validated for the diagnostics of COVID-19, but also been designed to be capable of detecting any other kind of RNA virus by following the same generic procedure. The impact of this, therefore, is long lasting, empowered by the capability of detecting unforeseen viral pandemics in the coming years that may potentially endanger human lives time and again.”

The results from this new technology have been strictly validated by following all established laboratory controls against the benchmarked results obtained from RT-PCR machine, using synthetic viral RNA. The synthetic RNA is exactly the same replicate of the viral RNA extracted from infected patients, as per accepted scientific benchmarking procedure, and is used for validating laboratory tests to avoid undue contamination and danger due to spreading of infection while handling sensitive body-fluid samples

Prof. Suman Chakraborty (L), Prof. V K Tewari, Director (Right)

The project received financial support from the Institute in late April as Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, decided to set up a fund to support COVID-19 related research and product development.

“This unique innovation is aligned with the Institutional vision to develop high-end healthcare technologies that can be afforded by the ailing common people all around the globe at virtually no cost, and is likely to make significant breakthrough in global viral pandemic management”, opined Director Prof. V K Tewari.

The Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India has also been reaching out to all technical institutions regarding ongoing research work to help address India’s increasing need to augment testing facilities.

IIT Kharagpur is ready for commercialization of the product. Any corporate or start-up can approach the Institute for technology licensing and commercial scale of production. The Institute is open to tie-ups, including a mode where the government intervenes with regards to meeting our low-cost healthcare objective for the under-served community as a policy measure to protect the interest of public health amidst the pandemic situation, instead of merely developing a strong profit-oriented model.

Contacts:

Project Information: Prof. Suman Chakraborty, suman@mech.iitkgp.ac.in; Prof. Arindam Mondal, arindam.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in

For more information visit: iitkgp.ac.in. More News: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/

Follow IIT Kharagpur on Social Media: Facebook: @IIT.Kgp; Twitter: @IITKgp; Instagram: @iit.kgp

International e-Symposia: Gandhian Thoughts & Philosophy

The year 2020 has been a life-time experience for the world. But amidst all the uncertainties, bewilderment and isolation, we are seeking motivation and hope to look beyond the pandemic. As we are journeying through this challenge, we draw our inspiration from those who carried on relentless struggle in different spheres of life. One such personality was Mahatma Gandhi. He was not only the tallest leader of the Indian freedom movement but has been the role model for many world leaders, in matters of fundamental rights, nationalism and beyond. In this pandemic situation, the commemoration of the year-long 150th birth anniversary celebration of the Mahatma becomes all the more significant. On this occasion, IIT Kharagpur is organizing an international e-symposia on ‘Gandhian Thoughts and Philosophy’. The month-long event will feature talks by experts from across the world.

To participate please register using the link:

REGISTER

Program Schedule:

August 8, 2020 (07.30 PM IST) – Watch Recording

August 15, 2020 (07.30 PM IST) – Watch Recording

Topic	University	Speakers
Sarvodyaya	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA	Prof. Bish Sanyal
Swavalamban	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA	Prof. Brent D Ryan
Gandhian Lifestyle	Gandhi Forum, India	Dr. Shobhna Radhakrishna
	IIT Kharagpur	Prof. Anjali Gera Roy (Moderator)
August 15
Sarvodyaya	Tufts University, USA	Prof. Partha Ghosh
Swavalamban	STS Sytems, India	Shri Arunendu Banerjee
Saranagati	IIT Kharagpur	Prof. Kanchan Chowdhury
	IIT Kharagpur	Prof. Anjali Gera Roy (Moderator)

August 20, 2020 (06.30 PM IST) – Watch Recording

University of Manchester, UK	Prof. Anindita Ghosh	Gandhian legacies in the World Today
University of Texas Arlington, USA	Prof. Ritu Khanduri	Branding Gandhi ji
IIT Kharagpur	Prof. Swagato Chatterjee	Gandhian Economics for Growth in India: From Aatman Nirbhar Bharat to Sarvodaya
IIT Kharagpur	Prof. Chhanda Chakraborti	Moderator

August 27, 2020 (01.30 PM IST) – Watch Recording

University of Leeds, UK	Dr Surender Munjal	Philosophy of Gandhian Economics
University of Melbourne, Australia	Prof. Udaya Parampalli	Gandhian Ideas on Academic Honesty Issues
IIT Kharagpur	Prof. Animesh Mukherjee	Gandhipedia: a one-stop portal for browsing Gandhian literature, life-events and his social network
University of Auckland, New Zealand	Prof. Partha Roop	Gandhian Principles for Enhancing Health and Wellbeing
University of Auckland, New Zealand	Aron Jeremiah
Clinical Health Professional	Dr. Giresh Kanji

August 28, 2020 (07.30 PM IST) – Watch Recording

University of Alberta, Canada	Prof. Florence Glanfield (Speaker and Moderator)	Gandhi’s Teachings Woven Through the Fabric of Teaching, Research, and Administration
University of Alberta, Canada	Prof. Mijung Kim	Possibilities and challenges of peace and sustainability in science classrooms: a journey of hope
University of Toronto, Canada	Dr. Reva Joshee	Gandhian ideas and education in Canada
IIT Kharagpur	Prof. Chhanda Chakraborti	Repurposing Gandhiji’s Philosophical Thoughts

To participate please register using the link:

REGISTER

This is an initiative of the Ministry of Education (formerly Human Resource Development), Government of India

Organised by Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Office of Alumni Affairs and Office of International Relations

For further information write to media@iitkgp.ac.in

IIT Kharagpur Start-up Launches Low-cost Surgical Face Masks

IIT Kharagpur incubated start-up has developed P3 layered surgical face masks. Anigiene Technical Textiles, led by a group of researchers at the Institute’s Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park, has developed the product keeping in mind the affordability by India’s low income groups as well as the quality requirement by those working in the healthcare sector.

The company has completed the field testing using local volunteers with encouraging feedback. The target for a full commercial production is expected to be one lakh units per month and to be priced at ₹10/-.

Watch Video

“We have kept in mind typically the needs of the people who are economically challenged while strictly avoiding any compromise on the part of health protection. Our product also caters to the health workers,” said Dr. Satyabrata Ghosh, Research Associate at the Department of Biotechnology at IIT Kharagpur and Director of Anigiene Technical Textiles.

Recently WHO has confirmed that eliminating COVID-19 pandemic would be a long haul. Thus with the health mandate to wear facial masks, it is expected that over the next several months its demand would remain exceptionally high. Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur has been emphasising on the role of technical institutions like IIT Kharagpur in addressing the health and hygiene, and other technological needs to combat COVID-19.

“Addressing basic needs of the public and making them available at affordable prices is critical. Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park at IIT Kharagpur is catering to this need by incubating and facilitating start-ups. I congratulate the researchers who have come forward with this product and contributed to keeping the country safe,” he said.

The startup is conducting end-to-end business operations at the facility allotted to them at STEP, the incubation hub of IIT Kharagpur. The infrastructure support is from faculty mentors at IIT Kharagpur and Focus Incubation Centre sponsored by the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, located in STEP IIT Kharagpur.

“We are conducting further experiments on using natural fibres such as fruit peels for fully biodegradable masks,” remarked Anigiene Director Dr. Ghosh.

Contacts:

Project Information: Dr. Satyabrata Ghosh, satyabrataghosh23@gmail.com

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in;

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in;

More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/;

Follow IIT Kharagpur on Social Media: Facebook:@IIT.Kgp; Twitter: @IITKgp; Instagram: @iit.kgp

IIT KGP Forecasts Facilitating Farming Decisions

IIT Kharagpur’s Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa is forecasting climatic risks and advising farmers for better agricultural decision-making

Hindustan Times Live Mint India Blooms News 18 (Hindi) Careers360 The Week Outlook News Nation USA Science News Financial Express Republic World Navbharat Times The Arunachal Times Deccan Herald

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have developed an advanced weather prediction system to facilitate better decision making in agricultural production and reduction of climatic uncertainties and risks. Sponsored by the Ministry of Earth Sciences the two projects ‘Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa’ ‘and ‘Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agrometeorology & Land based observations’ provide timely and right management decisions to farmers to minimize the climatic risk of agricultural production and improve economic return of farming community. The Institute, in collaboration with India Meteorological Department, is disseminating a weather based agro-advisory to farmers for improving agricultural production in highly variable weather conditions.

“The agro-advisory indicating crop and variety selection, sowing/planting time, land preparation, input management, harvest, etc are prepared based on future weather and land characteristics of specific location,” said Prof. Dilip Kumar Swain, from the Dept. of Agricultural & Food Engineering at IIT Kharagpur.

Yield forecasting of crops such as rice, mustard and potato are done at the beginning of sowing/planting, during cropping season and before crop harvest for different districts of West Bengal for introducing specific actions to avoid the yield loss due to weather abnormalities.

“Farmers get awareness on input management such as fertilizer, irrigation, and pesticide application every week throughout the cropping season. Based on a five-day weather forecast, the agro-advisory is prepared on Tuesday and Friday every week and communicated to farmers’ through their mobile phone,” he added.

The advisory is sent in local language to about 3 lakh farmers of five districts (West Medinipur, Jharagram, Bankura, Birbhum, and Purulia) in West Bengal. The advisory is also communicated to district level agricultural officers, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, NGOs, farmers’ portal, TV programme, etc. Using the advisory, farmers protect their crop from extreme events and reduce the production cost by need based irrigation, fertilizer and pesticide application.

“Besides sending the agro-advisory, we also conduct training and awareness programmes regularly in villages on organic farming, vermicomposting, hydroponics, integrated farming, advanced production technology, etc for sustainable agricultural growth, farmers’ capacity building, rural employment generation, increasing economic profit, etc.,” remarked Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur.

A good response from the farmers was received about the agromet advisory services provided by IIT Kharagpur, he confirmed

Towards Farm Digitization

IIT Kharagpur Training Researchers in Application of Digital Technologies in Agriculture for bringing Digital Revolution in the Farm sector

In 2015, the Government of India had launched the Digital India programme to transition India’s public service sector into the digital space. Agriculture is the largest employment vertical with a GDP share of 14% holds a key place in this mission to digitization. Over the years, India has witnessed a substantial increase in yields, crop diversity due to mechanization and knowledge dissemination programmes. However, the steeping consumption due to population explosion and rising income has been a constant challenge despite the progress in the agricultural sector. While the Govt. of India has set up several programmes to achieve the dual solution of automation and digitization, technical institutions can facilitate the transformation. Towards this end, IIT Kharagpur is training the farming community and organizing outreach programmes.

The Dept. of Agricultural and Food Engineering has launched an online course on “Application of Digital Technologies in Agriculture” under the Centre of Excellence for Digital Farming Solutions for Enhancing Productivity by Robots, Drones and AGVs project sponsored by NAHEP-CAAST, ICAR, New Delhi. The short-term course will focus on engaging smart technologies for enhancing productivity with minimal effort and cost. These would include Sensors, Drones, Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Machine Vision Techniques, Computer-Aided Design and Advanced Digital Technologies application in Agriculture.

“Outreach projects in agricultural digitization are of paramount importance towards development and adoption of knowledge-intensive agriculture education. Globally researchers have been extending their support to precision farming and smart farming through innovations and data analytics. While our Prime Minister had announced a digital marketplace for the farming community, the technical institutions like ours also need to facilitate farming technology requirements of India. The recent calamities and their aftermath has shown why we need to be ready for bad monsoon or climate change or even return to organic farming ways while enhancing agricultural yields by means of technology,” said Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur and Principal Investigator of NAHEP-CAAST-IIT Kharagpur.

The NAHEP centre is integrated by three interdisciplinary research divisions such as Agribots, Agri-Drones and Agri-AGV’s based on four portfolios – 1. Climate-based Digital Knowledge Support Centre; 2. Seed/Seedling Processing and Nursery Automation Centre; 3. Smart Portable Machinery Centre; 4. Food Processing Automation Centre. It envisages the enhancement of quality and relevance of agricultural higher education to the agricultural university students.

“It is crucial to empower the human resources with digital technologies in the field of agricultural science and technology, particularly in less-explored domains. The penetration of such knowledge will drive further R&D and create a culture to understand and expedite the adoption of advanced technologies in agricultural practices,” said Prof. Rajendra Machavaram, joint Principal Investigator of NAHEP-CAAST-IIT Kharagpur.

The current course piloted with the postgraduate and doctoral students, faculty members, and scientists from the Vasantarao Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Maharashtra. However, it garnered significant interest among students and researchers from other institutions and also alumni of IIT Kharagpur. The online lectures for the course have been made available on the Google Meet Link: https://meet.google.com/mwg-cgbn-ddy

Media Coverage:

Careers 360 LiveMint Outlook NDTV DataQuest The Week

Contacts:

Project Information: Prof. Rajendra Machavaram rajendra@agfe.iitkgp.ac.in;

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in;

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in;

More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/;

Follow IIT Kharagpur on Social Media: Facebook:@IIT.Kgp; Twitter: @IITKgp; Instagram: @iit.kgp

Transforming Rural Economies

COVID-19 has given a clarion call for a technology-enabled world, more so in the context of the Indian rural sector which has always stayed several steps behind the urban way of living. The slow progress could be attributed to not just lack of financial resources but also towards weak communication of functional knowledge, for a large population lacking literacy (M: 80.9%, F: 64.6%), and reliance on western technologies failing to cater to the requirements of the rural population of India. Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have come forward to bridge this gap by rolling out farming technologies as well as non-farming technologies for rural employment.

Talking about this initiative, Director, IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Virendra Tewari said,

“The Government of India offers huge subsidies for mechanization of the rural sector, but the farm machinery sector has not invested significantly in creating a market for indigenous technologies addressing the burning need of the Indian rural sector. Experts at IIT Kharagpur are answering this challenge by designing technologies well suited for the livelihood of the rural class of our country.”

The Institute, through its Precision Farming Development Centre, Farm Implements and Machinery and Rural Technology Action Group projects, has developed and deployed farm machinery including ranging from micro-irrigation, combined harvester, crop and vegetable planters, solar energy operated transplanters, groundnut diggers, ultrasonic sprayers. Further non-farming livelihood technologies for rural small-scale and cottage industries have been mechanized. To name a few, Dhenki, Potter Wheel, Jute Rope making, Door Mat making, Amber Charkha, Rice Flaking. The initiative also includes social impact technologies such as Smokeless Chullahs, Rural Drinking Water Facility.

Prof Kamlesh Tiwari, one of the lead researchers in this program confirmed the training of around 2500 farmers from nearby villages of West Bengal and Odisha in micro-irrigation and protected cultivation structures. Several farmers who adopted these farm machinery and farm equipment reported a decrease in labor cost, reduction in the cost of cultivation, timeliness operations, improvement in pulverization, increase in soil fertility and production. Mr. Karthik Maity, from Hurnal village of Purba Medinipur and Subratha Mahesh from the Gurgram village of Paschim Medinipur, expressed their delight over their enhanced yield due to the technologies they adopted and the increased profits.

Further, outreach programs were organized by the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering and the Rural Development Centre to communicate, train rural people and help their transition to mechanized farming and livelihoods. IIT Kharagpur has extensively mobilized the funding available under national mission projects like ‘National Initiative for Design Innovation’ and ‘Unnat Bharat Abhiyan’ towards achieving this goal.

“We are ensuring the technologies are being implemented either in their farms or being adopted to generate employment through startups, setting up self-help groups. The livelihood technology adoption program witnessed significant acceptance in three North Eastern states including Assam, Manipur, Tripura as well as in several districts of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu,” Prof. Kamlesh Tiwari said.

Earlier this year, the India Brand Equity Foundation, an initiative of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, had estimated the gross value to be added by the rural sector, including agriculture, forestry and fishing, at ₹20 trillion approximately with a dominant employment share of 58%. Also, in May, the Finance Ministry had announced an economic stimulus of ₹1.5 trillion to boost agricultural infrastructure and logistics and ₹400 billion was allocated for the rural employment guarantee scheme. Referring to this Director, Prof. Virendra Tewari further emphasized on the strategic importance of such technology development.

He remarked, “While India is moving at an accelerated pace towards digitization, there is a crucial need to complement it with automation in the rural livelihood and farming sector and warrant a uniform progress. Such transition in rural livelihood will not only increase productivity and earnings manifold but will also lead to capacity building for rural and cottage industries, improved product quality, increased employment, and entrepreneurship opportunities in rural areas.”

Media Coverage:

Business Insider Outlook Republic World Dainik Jagran NDTV Patrika Hindustan Times

Contacts:

Project Information: Prof. Kamlesh N Tiwari, kamlesh@agfe.iitkgp.ac.in;

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in;

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in; More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/;

Follow IIT Kharagpur on Social Media: Facebook:@IIT.Kgp; Twitter: @IITKgp; Instagram: @iit.kgp

STEP towards Innovation Drive

IIT Kharagpur has been among the firsts to build industrial parks within an academic setup, in the country. While the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park (STEP) was set up within and in the vicinity of the IIT Kharagpur campus, a Research Park has also been built in Kolkata to set up industrial laboratories involving researchers from IIT Kharagpur. STEP is aimed at encouraging and nurturing students to launch their startups through incubation facilities.

Recently Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur in the context of mobile application development by Indian companies, has been vocal about start-up ecosystem in technical institutions. While keeping his faith on STEP IIT Kharagpur he can lead the initiative through seed funding and incubation facility.

Prof. Siddhartha Das, the newly appointed Managing Director of Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park, shares his insights regarding STEP towards this end.

How STEP has been providing incubation support to startups?

The Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park at IIT Kharagpur sprawls over 20,000 sq.ft. of incubation space which is made available to startups for incubation. While fully constructed laboratory facilities are available, mobile laboratories for conducting experiments have been developed too. Further the Park is equipped with conference space for brainstorming and collaboration.

Apart from space for R&D and operations, STEP performs few critical functions which are essential for startups:

i) Seed Funding

ii) Intellectual Property and other techno-legal requirements

iii) Business operations Advisory

i) Seed Funding – Seed funding is one of the most important aspects of a start-up and for a company incubated at STEP, the following seed loans are provided: (a) Technology Business Incubator (TBI) Seed Loan, (b) Technology Incubation and Entrepreneurship Training Society (TIETS) Seed Loan, (c) Technology Development Board (TDB) Seed Loan and (d) Technology Incubation & Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) Seed Loan.

The seed loan amount ranges from ₹ 2 – 25 Lakh per start-up depending on the budget for the technology commercialization and business operations.

ii) Intellectual Property and Techno-legal requirements – Offering support in acquiring intellectual property rights is another important function of STEP. The unit collaborates with the law school of IIT Kharagpur, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, towards conducting seminars and workshops round the year and educating entrepreneurs in techno-legal matters. Further, the IPR office of the Institute facilitates filing of IP and registration.

iii) Marketing and Business Operations – Now, probably the most important part of a business is marketing because that is what introduces the product to the world. STEP has been seeking expertise from one of the top most business schools in India as ranked by MHRD’s NIRF – Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM). Not only its presence on the campus, but VGSOM is known for its innovative practices, focus on research and industrial consultancy, educational outreach, which make it just the right partner for STEP to enrich the marketing experience of the startups incubated at the Park. The faculty experts from VGSOM conduct lectures, seminars and discussion forums to train startups towards managing business operations efficiently and marketing of the products developed by them.

Who can apply for incubating their startup ideas under STEP?

A key factor for STEP is its inclusiveness. The unit is open to any technology-based start-up with the legal status to register and operate in India irrespective of whether they are associated with the Institute or not. It enables STEP to not only invite the 750+ faculty or 60000+ alumni worldwide or the current students, but also any Indian with the ambition to innovate new technologies. Furthermore, STEP is in the process of starting collaboration with MSMEs across the eastern region for entrepreneurship development. To promote technical advisory and networking it is also collaborating with various chambers of commerce and capital rich industries.

Will there be any special drive for developing mobile applications?

Our Director Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari has affirmed that the incubation facilities at various technical institutions in India are capable of leading such drives. STEP IIT Kharagpur, indeed can emerge as a beacon because of our existing system of incubation through infrastructure, operational support and seed funding. STEP can boast of a decent record in terms of incubation. The total no. of companies incubated till date are 200 out of which 183 companies have graduated and 17 are being mentored.

In the current situation, it is quite important that useful mobile applications and services are designed and operated in India. The Director has already mentioned planning for a drive to call for submission of proposals for mobile application development which can be sponsored by the Institute. If the technologies developed are market worthy or for the B2B industry, then STEP would certainly step into the process to incubate them into startups for future use by India.

New Faces in Administration

IIT Kharagpur has recently welcomed new faces in various administrative roles. From academic units to R&D units to Institute maintenance, the Institute has geared up to step-up its activities under new leadership.

Prof. Goutam Saha, Professor, Dept. of Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering has been appointed as the Dean of Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, IIT Kharagpur. In the past Prof. Saha has headed the IPR office at IIT Kharagpur. The school has been recently ranked 4th in the NIRF rank announced by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India scoring high on parameters of Teaching, Learning & Resources and Research and Professional Practice.

Vinod Gupta School of Management too welcomes new Dean Prof. Pradip K Ray from the Dept. of Industrial & Systems Engineering. The business school of IIT Kharagpur recently celebrated its success in the NIRF rank for being among the top 5 in the India’s management academic discipline.

Two stalwarts from the Dept. of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering will now be spearheading innovations. While Prof. Siddhartha Das took over as the Managing Director, Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Park, Prof. Shiv Brat Singh has been appointed as the Chairman of the Steel Technology Centre

IIT Kharagpur’s 2100 acre campus and a campus population close to 25000 involves extensive administration. In view of this, a vertical has been created with Prof. Khanindra Pathak from Dept. of Mining Engineering as Dean, Infrastructure. He has now been joined by two associate deans, Prof. Aurobinda Routray from the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, who will be heading of Electrical Works, Refrigeration & Air Conditioning Unit and Prof. Arghya Deb from the Dept. of Civil Engineering, as the head of Civil Construction & Maintenance, Water, Sanitary & Horticulture.

We wish them great success in their endeavours to scale new heights in their leadership roles.

IIT Kharagpur’s COVID Community Outreach

Times of India Economic Times

It has been more than 3 months since IIT Kharagpur has been in a lockdown state followed by social distancing norms. When lockdown was announced there were more than 5500 students living on campus spread across 22 halls of residence. Maintaining their hygiene and security following regulatory orders by the Govt. of India, was a mammoth task. While the Institute designated the security, mess, sanitation and health workers towards the campus maintenance, it had another concern to address – accommodating the essential workers and supporting those fearing probable loss of livelihood due to lockdown and limited attendance at work.

At a time like this when IIT Kharagpur under the leadership of Director, Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari was chalking out its lockdown policies for human resource management, a chord struck with someone thousands of miles away. Vinod Gupta, the US-based distinguished alumnus, entrepreneur and philanthropist, floated the idea to raise USD 1 million to create a temporary relief fund. His goal was to give back in the memory of Papaya, the hostel ward boy who had once taken care of him when he fell sick during his student days. He saw many in the likes of Papaya in these times of distress – those who have been preparing dinner for 12000+ students, keeping their rooms clean, keeping them safe round the clock and many more affected people in the campus neighbourhood. These were more than 10000 people and their families.

Prof. Tewari led a well planned initiative on all logistical fronts including accounting of funds, purchasing relief materials, organizing the camps, and overall audit.

“The thought of giving comes from our connection with the people. At IIT Kharagpur, we have traditionally valued interpersonal connection, not just between a student and his alma mater but with every person we interact. May be because we are a couple of hours away from the city, we get more opportunity to explore inward and create bonds so strong that while conducting our core duties of teaching and research, we simultaneously contemplate on the intense need to reach out to the souls who make our campus liveable. They are our family, an extended one, but without them there is no IIT KGP,” remarked the Director Tewari.

With the IIT Kharagpur Foundation USA led by President Ranbir Gupta conducting the fundraising campaign, by June, Rs. 2.5 crore has been received by the Institute. Among the 800 donations received so far towards this campaign include Arjun Malhotra, R N Mukhija, Rakesh Gupta along with hundreds of alumni from 1959 to 2017 batches.

“One has to see to believe how every step has been planned and executed. In serving the community we lived our institutional motto of YogaH Karmasu Kaushalam,” said Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay, Dean Alumni Affairs.

Until now the Institute has disbursed relief and monetary help for close to an amount of Rs. 1.5 crore, towards phase wise relief distribution, fund transfers, hospitality of emergency workers since April, confirmed Dean Chattopadhyay. The beneficiaries include daily wagers working in different eateries, halls as ward boys, dhobi, small culvert tea shops, rickshaw pullers, maid servants, workers in construction projects and many others in the area. In a novel gesture, the Institute reached to the aged and physically disabled people in the campus neighbourhood even though they were not engaged in any activity in the campus. They belong to the strata of the society who depend on alms and charity at public places and are unable to seek help under current circumstances.

Another key initiative taken by Prof. Tewari is direct to bank transfers for the essential workers. Each worker received an additional bonus of Rs. 3,000/-. More such fund transfers have been planned in the coming months. The Institute also covered the expenses incurred by the essential workers towards fooding and lodging during the lockdown period.

“The essential workers took up the responsibility to keep our home safe by staying away from their home during a time when we all were advised to ‘stay home stay safe’. Accommodating them in our campus, taking care of their stay and health, was in the spirit of IIT KGP,” said Prof. Tewari.

Close to 1200 workers serving as security personnel, hostel mess, sanitation etc. were accommodated in the campus guest house and halls of residence.

Subhojit Adhikari who has been working as a security personnel at the Institute felt immensely proud to be of service to the nation at these trying times.

“I have been away from my family and home for over 3 months now but I feel so honoured for being appreciated by the students, alumni and Institute authorities,” he said.

Many of his colleagues along with him were on emergency duty and were given a bonus of Rs 3000/- for their relentless service along with on-campus accommodation.

An elated Bina Awasthi who has been working as a domestic help at the IIT Kharagpur campus for more than three decades said,

“Can you imagine that someone by the name Vinod Baba from far off America is thinking about us? IIT Kharagpur has been my home since my father was a guard here. I am so glad that the Institute authorities and Director Sahib took care of us at a time like this. We got adequate quantities of ration and even vegetables, soaps and other supplies which lasted for 15-30 days. My son who is working in the mess, was accommodated there itself and was given an additional Rs. 3,000/-.”

Meanwhile the campus market which was partially affected in a fire incident was quickly renovated and the shopkeepers were reinstated.

The fundraising campaign is going on with full vigour and alumni from across the globe are pouring in their purses. The alumni community in the USA aims to raise about Rs. 8 crore to help the unsung heroes of IIT Kharagpur campus, said Vinod Gupta in one of his messages to the alumni.

Director Tewari has further urged the alumni community to support this noble cause.

Talking about giving back he said, “The campaign is being appreciated by sixty thousand people who are associated either as donors or benefactors or by means of their association with IIT Kharagpur. Recently, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal, Honourable Minister, Human Resources Development, Government of India acknowledged our efforts on his social media. We are aiming to raise enough funds to roll this campaign till the end of this year. I call upon every Kgpian to reminisce the days at the halls of residence and the mess dada’s smile, the adda at the night canteens and the faces who served you that cup of tea and paratha.”