Year: 2020

From the heart

From the heart

Prof.Damodar Acharya, alumnus and former Director of IIT Kharagpur, was the invited guest of the Director, Prof. V.K. Tewari, at the 17th Annual Alumni Meet. He participated in the brainstorming session with three other former directors to contemplate on the future of the Institute. Prof. Acharya has decided to pay for the renovation of the two hostel rooms he occupied, first as an MTech student in 1970-72, and then during his PhD from 1972-75. KGP Chronicle talks to him about his decision and his thoughts on his alma mater. What prompted you to contribute to the renovation of the two…
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Bringing Glory Home

Bringing Glory Home

A team of five students, Madhav Krishna, Nishant Kumar, and Suraj Bhandare, students of the MBA program, and Anusha Rao and Arkajeet Santra, students of the EMBA program, at the Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur secured the Runner-up position in Stock-Trak Global Portfolio Simulation Competition organized by SMU Singapore for the best-managed portfolio. Watch Video: https://youtu.be/nR_859SRHp4 Sponsored by City-SMU Financial Literacy Program for Young Adults, the competition saw 50 teams from all over the globe participate in the portfolio optimization exercise which ran for 6 weeks from 7th Oct 2019 till 15th Nov 2019. The teams were required…
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SPARC Workshop Explores Critical Challenges of Children’s Healthcare

SPARC Workshop Explores Critical Challenges of Children’s Healthcare

The School of Medical Science and Technology at IIT Kharagpur recently held an Indo-UK Residential Workshop in collaboration with the University of Manchester, UK, on the "Practical Management of Inherited Pediatric Hematological Disorders". The focus was on clinical reasoning of cases related to children’s blood and bone marrow disorders using an interactive problem-based learning approach with direct interactions with globally renowned experts. The areas covered in the workshop included the workup of the child presenting with signs and symptoms of reduction in the number of various blood cells, or cytopenias including pancytopenia or bone marrow failure. Workup included understanding the…
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The many ways of ‘giving’

The many ways of ‘giving’

A warm smile playing on her lips, Sushmita Sur of the 1980 batch made an unusual disclosure at the interactive session, “Be the change-maker”, at the 17th Annual Alumni Meet. Her daughter had just joined the faculty at the Institute’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. “There are different ways of giving back and having your children continue your legacy and contribute to the Institute is just another way,” said the proud mother. Her statement was greeted with thunderous applause and outside the Bhatnagar auditorium, she was thronged by her batchmates who took their turns to congratulate her. Some hours…
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Paper chase

Paper chase

Economic Times  Outlook  Daily World   Inc42 Hindustan Times Like many other sectors, Artificial Intelligence is all set to impact jurisprudence. In countries such as USA, Britain, Japan, Singapore and Australia, it is already changing the way lawyers do business. AI is being used to perform legal research, review documents during litigation and conduct due diligence, analyse contracts to determine whether they meet pre-determined criteria and to even predict outcomes. AI is yet to sufficiently penetrate the legal field in India though. But that may soon change. At IIT Kharagpur, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering is conducting a slew…
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Building Knowledge Portal of India

Building Knowledge Portal of India

For most people outside the country, India is a land of antiquity, of ancient wisdom and knowledge. The preservation of said antiquity and the wealth of cultural heritage, however, has proved to be a challenge in our country. Locating the original material is itself a task but by no means the largest hurdle. Worn, yellow and tattered pages need careful supervision and expert handling of the material. Apart from the expertise required in traditional preservation of antique documents, the digital age calls for the preserved material to not just be digitized, but also be accessible to users of all ages,…
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Happiness Run : The 2.2 Marathon

Happiness Run : The 2.2 Marathon

12th January 2020, 6:30 AM. Technology Students’ Gymkhana was bubbling with some 100-150 students, both past and present. A very unusual scene, especially on a Sunday morning. Packets of Glucon-D were being constantly poured and mixed into 20-litre water jars. T-shirts were being distributed and students were seen warming themselves up. It was indeed a big day. Each had to complete the 2.2 Marathon beating the rest to win the coveted title of a Marathoner. The 17th Annual Alumni Meet of 2020 saw a host of IIT Kharagpur’s ‘young’ bunch, aged 18 years to almost 68 years gear up for…
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Yeh Papa ka college hai…

Yeh Papa ka college hai…

“Papa yahan khelta thha?” lisped a 3-year-old Ghrishneshvar, as he pointed out to the Tata Steel sports ground, just opposite to the Ramanujan Complex. He, along with his elder sister, Ujjavalaa, both toddlers, were at IIT Kharagpur campus for the first time with their parents and elder brother Aayush, who is in IIT-BHU. Their father, Mr Ajit Kumar Alok, a 1995 alumnus of the Electrical Engineering Department of the Institute, was here to attend the 17th Annual Alumni Meet held at the campus from 10th to 12th January 2020. It was a sunny Saturday afternoon when The KGP Chronicle caught…
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All in days’ work

All in days’ work

Two back-to-back workshops organized by the Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory (PI: Prof. Ramkrishna Sen) of the Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur along with the collaborators from USA and Australia from January 2-5, 2020 under the Government of India’s Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) brought to students latest news on how the scientific community the world over is bracing up for a future that will see biofuels replace petroleum and green technologies being employed in a world that is seeing the steady depletion of natural resources. The bottom-line of both the workshops were the pursuit of…
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Book Review: The Telecom Man

Book Review: The Telecom Man

Much to the surprise of friends and family, in 1991, Brijendra K. Syngal resigned from a plush, tax-free job with Inmarsat in London to head Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited, an old-style, stodgy public sector company. Over the next seven years, Syngal transformed VSNL into a nimble new-generation telecom behemoth. By connecting India to the world through high-speed digital links, he was instrumental in the emergence of the Indian software sector as a global player. And in a move that would revolutionize the country and all our lives, he brought the internet to India in 1995. On Syngal’s watch, VSNL also…
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