Month: March 2021

Saturday Manufacturing Talks by CoE in Advanced Manufacturing Technology

The Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology of IIT Kharagpur is conducting a mega event titled “SATURDAY MANUFACTURING TALKS”.

Join Online Every Saturday, from 8:30 to 9:30 pm IST
https://iitkharagpur.webex.com/iitkharagpur/j.php?MTID=m00ba321c9f62cf6aeb29a33edab1b210

It is planned to be a year-long series of webinars on topics of advanced manufacturing. It will stress the need for an industry-academia collaboration perspective.

The topics include but not limited to :
– Robotics, Automation, and Use of AI and ML in manufacturing
– Simulation in manufacturing
– Specialty materials in manufacturing
– Additive manufacturing
– AI in Supply Chain
– Design of Experiments in engineering

Watch Video for insights of Industry 4.0 related work at Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology, IIT Kharagpur

A few highlights of the event are as follows:
– Webinars will be delivered by both academicians and industry professionals – this will help in broadening the reach and outlook
– Speakers would be Alumni of IIT Kharagpur in academics and industry (India and Abroad) – this will help in understanding the research being conducted globally on advanced manufacturing

For more information please visit: https://www.coeamt.com/index.php or write to coeamt@iitkgp.ac.in

For the Women By the Women – Celebration of International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day was observed around the globe to celebrate women’s empowerment. At IIT Kharagpur a three-day program was organized to bring to light the achievements and talents of the ladies on campus who have been icons for other women on the campus. Several of them have adopted various self-employment professions or pursued their hobbies to become financially independent, others have been instrumental in offering their services for social upliftment, while there have been another group of ladies who promote healthy living and support the campus community. 

To highlight their flair in diverse areas a range of events were organized. The events started on March 6 with a short film on the life journey of women residing on campus. This was followed by a debate in the context of chauvinistic attitude and chivalrous behaviour towards women, titled “Chivalry and Chauvinism are two sides of the same coin” culminating in the unanimous verdict of gender-neutral approaches to life.

‘Health and fitness’ events drew enthusiastic participation on March 7 with women both on campus as well as women staff members participating in Yoga camp, athletics & fun game competitions, followed by cultural programs by campus women. 

The event day of March 8 started with a photography and painting exhibition cum competition. A video collage was also presented featuring twelve first-year female undergraduate students, who have never visited the campus before, talked about their life experience in closing the gender gap at IITs which typically suffers from a skewed gender ratio, both among students and staff members including faculty. 

This unique program was inspired by Director, Prof. Virendra K Tewari’s vision to create meaningful engagements for the women force on campus. He further aims to a women’s welfare organization to empower and facilitate social initiatives and ventures led by the women on campus for the welfare of women in and around the campus.

A key event in the program was the panel discussion on “Combating anemia in women: from adolescence to senescence”. A mix of clinical doctors and medical researchers Dr. Rashmi Sinha, Prof. Sangeeta Das Bhattacharyya, Dr. Indranath Banerjee and Prof. Koel Chaudhury (moderator)  from the Institute came together to deliberate on the crucial challenge posed by anemia and create awareness among larger groups of women.

According to the National Family Health Survey, about 50% of Indian women and nearly 60% of children under the age of 5 years are suffering from anemia. The experts underlined the various causes of anemia such as iron deficiency anemia, vitamin B12 deficiency anemia, folate deficiency anemia, out of which nutritional deficiency anemia was suggested to be the most common type encountered amongst women and children. The doctors pointed out the presence of anemia even among men to the extent of 38% in Eastern India.

The panelists also discussed the association between anemia and worm infection. They pondered on the finding that intestinal worms can cause rashes, respiratory and gastrointestinal problems causing regular loss of blood eventually leading to iron deficiency anemia.

They further pointed out that nearly 50% of Indian pregnant women are anemic and the adverse effect persists shortly before, during, and immediately after childbirth. Early marriage and early childbearing age were suggested to be the major factors contributing towards anemia during the course of pregnancy.

Chronic hemolytic anemia, with special emphasis on beta-thalassemia, was another important topic of discussion. The effect of the pandemic on maternal and child health was also deliberated upon. An overwhelming number of maternal and child deaths have been reported during the pandemic due to disruption in regular visits to maternal health and antenatal clinics for routine check-ups. Also, with the closure of schools during this period, midday meal schemes have been disrupted. This is a matter of concern, they said, as the health and well-being of a large number of deprived children may have been adversely affected. 

While they assured beta-thalassemia can be cured, the importance of screening the general population through awareness programs, premarital and prenatal screening, screening and counseling of target families were highlighted. To reduce the burden of this disease, the experts, while opining on healthy dietary intake, supplements, improved sanitation and awareness programs, they also referred to traditional habits and practices such as switching to iron-made utensils instead of steel or Teflon coated ones. 

The audience actively participated throughout the session and urged to hold more such awareness programs so that together we can fight the disease.  

Organizing Body:

Prof. Debjani Chakraborty, Dept. of Mathematics (Chairperson), Prof. Haimati Banerji, Dept. of Architecture and Regional Planning (Secretary), Dr. Sunita Mishra, Dept. of Mining Engineering (Jt. Secretary), Dr. Debarati Sen, G.S. Sanyal School of Telecommunication (Treasurer), Members: Prof. Sudhesna Sarkar, Dept. Computer Science and Engineering, Prof. Padmavati Manchikanti, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, Prof. Karabi Das, Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Dr. Gayatri Mukherjee, School of Medical Science and Technology, Dr. Mahasweta Chaudhuri, B.C. Roy Technology Hospital, Ms. Priyanka Singh, Technology Student Gymkhana

Associate Members: Publicity: Ms. Shreyoshi Ghosh, Executive Officer, Film Unit: Mr. Arnab Moitra, Executive, OAA (Film-making), Ms. Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya (Script), Ms. Koushiki Mukherjee, Executive, OIR (Voice-over)

Honorary Guest Member: Smt. Lakshmi Tewari

This School at IIT Kharagpur is Upgrading Quality and Reliability for Indian Industries

“Quality combines people power and process power .  .  . The costs of poor quality are tangible; they will cost you customers and money, and ultimately affect the success of your business” ~ Subir Chowdhury, Quality Guru, Distinguished Alumnus Awardee

India has taken a giant step towards upgrading its manufacturing operations to Industry 4.0 and transforming into an industrial hub. As industry-oriented research, product development and IP transfer are being intensified across a wide range of advanced manufacturing, an important aspect for the industry to address is now the quality of people and process which thereby would lead to optimal product quality. Achieving this goal of India-specific quality maintenance in the industrial sector would require a whole new vertical of professionals who would be excelling in Quality and Reliability of the 3Ps – people, product and process.

IIT Kharagpur, which has pioneered in several academic disciplines in India, has taken up the responsibility to train industry professionals and academicians through courses and training modules to develop the new age quality professionals at the Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability.

Talking about the opportunities unlocked by the School, Head, Prof. Sanjay Kumar Chaturvedi said, “over the years we have experienced a great scope as well as demand for engineers from diverse backgrounds who are well-trained in quality and reliability. Our records give evidence with our graduates placed from the nuclear energy sector to defense research to automobile, steel, power, other manufacturing sectors and even IT.”

In India, while Quality courses are offered by most of the universities as part of the industrial engineering program at the undergraduate level, specializations in quality are mainly offered by a few IITs only at the postgraduate level. However, IIT Kharagpur is the only institution in India to offer a comprehensive M.Tech. program in Quality and Reliability Engineering. Besides, the School offers MS and PhD programs in various domains of quality and reliability such as network, human, software, Maintenance Engineering, Probabilistic Risk and Safety etc.

“In addition to postgraduate degree programs in Quality and Reliability Engineering we offer core courses, electives and microspecializations to students at all levels of study. Our quality and reliability courses are offered separately without any amalgamation,” added Prof. Chaturvedi.

Further, the School has been organizing short-term courses for working professionals both from academic and industry backgrounds. Several of the industrial training programs were in-situ for industries, wherein solving a real problem from the industry by an attendee was a part of the course. In the recent past, the School has worked with top industry brands such as Siemens, Whirlpool, TVS, John Deere, Tata Steel, DRDO etc. in areas encompassing system reliability, industrial safety, risk assessment, life testing, reliability centered maintenance, product reliability assessment and assurance and many more.

Opining his vision for the School, patron Subir Chowdhury said, “The economic impact of poor quality on a nation is huge. It affects the quality of life for its citizens. The quality and reliability processes taught and practiced in India need to be upgraded to a much higher level. Since India has ambitious plans for self-sustainability in the manufacturing sector, it is necessary that the products developed and manufactured meet national and international standards in terms of quality and reliability and safety. Also in order to meet the production targets, manufacturing processes needs to be made reliable. The School can really contribute in this journey in terms of supplying training, consultancy and research.”

Along with his organization ASI Consulting Group, USA, Subir is actively engaged in the development of academic materials, laboratories and faculty for the School. Recently in an e-workshop organized by the School in association with ASI Consulting Group international quality experts Shin Taguchi (CTO, ASI), and Alan Wu (VP, ASI) shared insights on Robust Engineering and Optimization. 

Following Subir’s goal to take the concept of quality to the common citizens of India and making it their personal need and responsibility, the faculty members at Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability are in the process of organizing web-based awareness programs.

The School further aims to develop newer modules in Industry 4.0 and AIML.

Pondering on it Prof. Chaturvedi remarked, “With the aim of researching this impact as well as the utilized methods a comprehensive analysis of the effect of Industry 4.0 on quality control is imperative. The integration of wireless sensor networks and IIoT is a substantial challenge and it should be implemented to guide engineers to make the correct decisions. As a consequence, by utilizing machine learning and smart sensors, irregularities could be automatically accommodated by the process in order to guarantee the best possible quality of the final products. It is particularly important to integrate and apply the tools of Industry 4.0 to quality control in order to decidedly increase the precision of the measurement.”

More about Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability: http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/department/RE

The article has been written in collaboration with various authors from the Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability

Insights into Blockchain by Dr. Sandip Chakraborty

The term “Blockchain” has now become a buzzword, and several myths, propagandas, misconceptions, and fairy tales have been around throughout the past ten years concerning this new yet powerful technology. Let me start by highlighting the real power of this technology and its plausible use cases. 

Blockchain ≠ Bitcoin!

If we consider Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as the “Electric bulbs,” Blockchain is the “Electricity.” Let me try to explain it with an example. 

Trade financing during international trades involves prolonged negotiations and risks with complex legal obligations. Consequently, such tradings are facilitated by the banks as the intermediaries, who provide the financing for the trade deals and guarantee the payments after verification of supply documents. While this involves a network of banks, individual banks have their policies, and they are the competitors in the market. How can we create a digitized platform where the banks can cooperate in a reliable, transparent, and secured manner for trade financing? 

A global database with all transaction information can solve this, but then, who will maintain it? Individual banks can’t, as they are the competitors; a third-party cloud will involve cost and has privacy concerns. Blockchain solves this; you do not need a global physical database to store and update all the transactions; instead, each bank holds its own copy of the database and performs operations individually and independently. Blockchain helps maintain the consistency, correctness, and security of the data in that database and provides the competing enterprises the power to cooperate to deliver fast, transparent, and reliable services to their customers. You may check We.Trade (https://we-trade.com/), which is a blockchain-based network of 16 banks across 15 countries, for supporting trade-financing. 

Blockchain in India:

Very recently (January 2021), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY), Government of India has published the first draft of the “National Strategy on Blockchain.” The document highlights 17 potential applications that are of national interest; these include property record management, digital certificate management, eVoting, pharmaceutical supply chain, farm infrastructure, power distribution, identity management, electronic health record management, public service delivery, etc.  

Interestingly, if we look into these applications, inherently, they are multifaceted, having several stakeholders with different governance and policy implications. There are national and state-controlled organizations for many of these services, and bringing them on a common digitized platform is the real challenge. Blockchain can undoubtedly improve the service provisioning performance of these sectors and bring transparency to the entire process. However, this multifaceted and diverse governance is both our strength and our weakness. While we have a vast scope of getting the technology-in-the-loop, the diversity itself slows down its adoption.

Blockchain@SMRL, IIT Kharagpur

At the Systems and Mobile Research Lab (SMRL) within the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, one of our primary research focuses is on supporting interoperability among multiple blockchain networks, like Hyperledger, Corda, Ripple, Quorum, OpenChain, Steller, etc., which are being adopted by various enterprises globally. These individual networks typically work in silos, but, many a time, there is a strong need for interoperation among them. For example, in my earlier example of trade financing, the seller can use TradeLens (https://www.tradelens.com/), a blockchain network for trade logistics, to deliver the Goods to the buyer. In this case, the system becomes more performant if we can readily transfer the logistics details and its billing from the TradeLens network to the We.Trade network. However, freely moving sensitive information from one network to another breaks the basic principles of transparency, security, and reliability, as supported by Blockchain. At our lab, we are working towards developing such interoperation solutions in collaboration with IBM Research. We shall present this work at IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (IEEE ICBC) which will be held virtually from 3-6 May, 2021.  

We are also working on developing blockchain-based applications in our lab. One of our recently accepted papers at IEEE INFOCOM 2021 talks about the design and prototype implementation of a multi-cloud federated architecture where different small and medium cloud service providers can use a blockchain-based open marketplace to trade cloud resources. The architecture is similar to popular cloud federation platforms like OnApp Federation (https://onapp.com/onapp-federation/), but it does not use intermediaries or cloud brokers. 

Given the widespread applicability of blockchains, we should now focus on bringing blockchain-related courses into the mainstream education of Computer Science and other departments. Earlier, I had offered an NPTEL MOOC course jointly with Dr. Praveen Jayachandran, IBM IRL, on “Blockchains: Architecture, Design, and Use Cases.” We are now working on designing a similar course as a postgraduate elective for IIT Kharagpur students. There is also scope for developing a micro-specialization on Blockchain and its use cases by combining this technology’s interdisciplinary aspects from various fronts. 

The Future

The enterprises have slowly started adopting blockchain-based solutions to develop reliable, cost-effective, and secure solutions for providing fast, transparent, and efficient services to their customers. The Government has started developing the policies for its adoption in the Indian markets. With this backdrop, I see the massive potential of this technology in the coming future. However, I do not believe that Blockchain can solve all our problems; we need to find out the right use-case with the right technology at the right place. The Indian academia should play a significant role here, while the industries and the Government focus on system development, adoption, and policy decisions.   

The article was also published on ABP Education

Dr. Sandip Chakraborty is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kharagpur, where he leads multiple high-valued research projects, sponsored by the GoI and various industries. He is working as an Area Editor of Elsevier Ad Hoc Networks journal. He received various awards including INAE Young Engineers’ Award 2019. His research interests are Computer Systems, Computer-Human Interactions, and Distributed Systems. He did his Ph.D. from IIT Guwahati in 2014. 

IIT Kharagpur Among Top 50 in QS Subject Rank 2021

IIT Kharagpur has been featured among the Top 50 in QS Subject Rank 2021.

IIT Kharagpur has been ranked among the top 50 in Mineral & Mining Engineering [44] while emerging as India’s top-ranking institution in the field of Agriculture & Forestry.  The disciplines of Electrical & Electronic Engineering have featured among the top 100 as well [Ranked 92].

It has been ranked second in the country in the disciplines including Mineral & Mining Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Economics & Econometrics and Statistics & Operational Research. Further, the Institute has been ranked among India’s top five in the disciplines including Engineering & Technology, Computer Science & Information Systems, Civil & Structural, Electrical & Electronic, Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing, Earth & Marine Sciences, Materials Science and Accounting & Finance.

IIT Kharagpur has surpassed its top subject rank in 2021 with the highest worldwide subject rank this year at 44 in comparison to 46 in 2020 and 47 in 2019. The Institute has been ranked in 2021 in 3 out of 5 broad subject areas and scored in 36 narrow subjects while being ranked in 19 out of them.

QS Subject Rankings are published each year based on research quality and accomplishments, academic reputation, and graduate employment. 51 narrow subjects have been ranked in 2021 under five broad subject areas in 1,453 institutions from across the globe.

Graphic: Suman Sutradhar

Media Coverage

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Using Air to Store Energy

Authored by Dr. Rohan Dutta (Former Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cryogenic Engineering Centre) and Dr. Pavitra Sandilya, Assistant Professor, Cryogenic Engineering Centre

Highlights of the Research

  • Potential application: Large-scale energy storage system throughout the world. With its demonstrated efficiency as high as 55% to 90%, this invention is a potential alternative to existing systems including compressed air energy storage and similar technologies.

  • Possible end users: Various power generation and distribution agencies, large energy-intensive industries (iron and steel, cement, chemical, petrochemical, LNG handling, glass etc.) with the potential of low and medium grade waste heat.

  • Potential of marketability: Large; considering the growth of demand for large, grid-scale energy storage systems due to penetration of renewable energy sources in the power market.

With an ever-increasing population and the economy, the gap between power demand and generation is also increasing worldwide. The power sector has to bridge this gap. One way of tackling such a situation is by developing large-scale energy storage systems. These systems store the excess energy when the power supply is in excess of demand. The stored energy is then released when the demand for power increases.

Cryogenic Energy Storage (CES) system is one of the alternatives for energy storage.

Compared to the more common energy storage technologies like pumped-hydro, compressed air energy storage systems, the CSE system offers advantages because it is scalable, not location-specific, clean, and sustainable with virtually no cost for working fluid (air) and no greenhouse gas emission.

A typical CES process involves two alternately operated charging and discharging processes. In the charging process or a liquefaction process, the air is liquefied by using the excess power to compress the ambient air to high pressure of about 120-150 bar and stored. During the discharging process or a power cycle, the stored energy is released during the deficit period of power by first regasifying the liquefied air to high pressure (about 150 bar), and then expanding this compressed air to run a turbine for power generation.

Hitachi, a Japanese multinational conglomerate, developed and demonstrated similar versions of the CES system using air. However, the energy storage efficiencies of these systems were not comparable with those of the prevalent energy storage technologies. In 2006, UK-based company HighView Power® started developing a modular liquid air energy storage system that was scalable to gigawatts-hr of energy storage and could be taken to the customer site. Using the equipment available in the conventional power, and oil and gas industries, they obtained a significant increase in the turnaround efficiency (ratio of energy output to energy input).

Through our work, we demonstrated that the turnaround efficiency of the CES system would get enhanced by:

  1. Using the heat of compression during the liquefaction process in an Organic Rankine Cycle to produce power during the discharging process
  2. Pre-cooling the working fluid using traditional room temperature closed-cycle refrigerator during liquefaction
  3. Introducing multistage turbines with intermediate heating and an appropriate combination of turbine and valve at the last stage of liquefaction
  4. Heat integration between liquefaction and power cycles by using waste heat from the liquefaction stage as well from industries, and cooling using the waste-cold from the power cycle as well as external sources such as LNG regasification plants, etc.

A prototype of a packed-bed-based waste-cold storage method using commonly found and cheaply available pebbles has been developed at a laboratory scale. This was found to be the most critical to the successful implementation of the process modifications as observed in the study of operability of the modified process by process simulation.

A plant with the afore-mentioned modifications was shown to have not only higher overall turnaround efficiency, but also a lower payback period than a plant not using waste heat and refrigeration.

A patent has been filed already.

Cite Paper: 

1. Dutta, Rohan and Sandilya, Pavitra, Experimental Investigations on the Cold Recovery-Efficiency of a Packed-bed in a Cryogenic Energy Storage System, CEC-ICMC 2019, Connecticut Convention Centre, Hartford, USA, 21-25 July 2019. https://www.academia.edu/43848430/Experimental_Investigations_on_the_Cold_Recovery_Efficiency_of_a_Packed_bed_in_a_Cryogenic_Energy_Storage_System

2. Dutta, Rohan and Sandilya, Pavitra, Improvement Potential of Cryogenic Energy Storage Systems by Process Modifications and Heat Integration, Energy, 221, April 2021, 119841 DOI:10.1016/j.energy.2021.119841

Event Report: Global Entrepreneurship Summit 2021

A four-day Annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) 2021 ended on Sunday, 28th February, organized by the Entrepreneurship Cell (ECell), functioning under the aegis of Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship, IIT Kharagpur.  This flagship program of ECell which is one of India’s largest student-run non-profit organizations was inaugurated by Prof. V.K. Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur on 25th and was addressed by Hon’ble Cabinet Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani, Padma Bhushan Dr. V.K. Saraswat, and Mr. Kiran Mani, MD, Google. This year’s theme has been “Festival of Fortitude” and it is the first time the event was held online due to the ongoing pandemic. 

Smt Smriti Irani said “The fact that the summit encourages more and more youngsters to come forward with innovative ideas, the fact that many can dream and achieve them on this platform gives us a great cause of celebration. There is a need for emphasis on women being central in this startup ecosystem and today when I look at Atmanirbhar Bharat, I can say that it will rise on the shoulders of women”. Professor Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director of IIT Kharagpur stressed on ‘Local for Vocal’ and elaborated on the address by Shri Narendra Modi, Hon’ble Prime Minister who emphasized the need for affordable technologies through an innovative mindset in the recently held convocation.

The summit had a plethora of events including competitions such as GES Pitchers, Intern Carnival, Co Founder’s meet, and Intel AI Entrepre-Neural with six-figure cash prizes. Several insightful keynote sessions were from industry stalwarts like Mr. Kevin Goldsmith, Chief Technology Officer at Anaconda, Larry Kim, CEO of MobileMonkey, Mr. Shiv Khera, Renowned Author, and motivational speaker and workshops from experts like Mr. Shrehith Karkera, Co-founder, Finshots or S.Manohar of VDMA India. Speakers from various parts of the world took part in workshops, such as   Dr. Larry W. Cox, Prof. Raghu Echempati and Prof. Jonathan M. Weaver from the US, Dr. Robert E. Wendrich from the Netherlands, Dr. Luciana Pereira from Brazil or Mr. Venkata Gandikota from Finland. Various startups participated in the Intern Carnival, where they offered various internships in fields as diverse from Business Development to Computer Vision, to students from all around the country. Co Founder’s Meet was a great event where various budding entrepreneurs met like-minded people to discuss their ideas and explored possibilities of a venture together. Connecting the Dots was another great initiative in the GES’21 where representatives from various Entrepreneurship Cells from Indian Universities participated to discuss modalities of improving the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The closing ceremony consisted of keynote sessions by Mr. Amitabh Chaudhry, MD & CEO, Axis Bank, and Dr. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, where the latter talked about the priorities of government and said “A Self-reliant economy is built on capabilities, Capabilities themselves are built through competition. ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ is different from earlier attempts as it relies on the empowerment of the private sector and has a much higher chance of succeeding” He also talked about various reforms and waivers offered by the government and how they will impact the nation and create assets while focusing on sustainable economic growth at the same time. The participation level was quite high with over 100 leading investors, 300 plus startups, and more than 1500 college students from different parts of the country, besides faculty members of several institutions.

IIT Kharagpur, the Destination Home for International Students in India

Indian culture has been a magnet for many fresh off the boats for centuries. The country’s music, art, knowledge systems, festivals have always awed the world, drawing explorers from Europe, the Middle East and the Orient. The legacy echoed in the anecdotes of Pavel Karmanov and Juan David Matallana Guerrero on the day of their convocation on February 23, 2021.

Pavel from the Winterland 

While growing up in the city of Chita, located near the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia, the five-year-old Pavel used to listen to an unfamiliar but exotic tune on the radio. Soon he learned the name of the musical instrument and its performer – it was the Sitar of Pandit Ravi Shankar. Many may have heard the maestro of Hindustani classical music but to only a few it would have been a guiding light to the land of its origin. Pavel was one such admirer. A few years later Bollywood added to his admiration for the country. Even to this day, he remembers the joy of watching the popular 70s movie Seeta Aur Geeta. Added to these was the medieval period account on India by Russian explorer Afanasy Nikitin. For the next few years, the idea of India only gained momentum in Pavel’s thoughts which transformed his career aspirations. A student of Geophysics who completed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in this discipline, Pavel found his destination to fulfill his career goals along with answering his call for India; Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, for him, was the conflux.

In 2018 Pavel Karmanov joined the M.Tech. program at the Dept. of Geology and Geophysics at IIT Kharagpur. He was awarded the Institute Silver Medal at 66th Convocation for being the topper in his discipline. If not a first but this is a rare achievement for foreign students in India in recent times. Pavel continues his higher education at IIT Kharagpur as a doctoral student in the department with a specialization in Hydrocarbon Exploration. [Learn more about the program]

For Pavel, the charm of India and her people is such that neither the hot summers nor the hot Indian curry could deter him from the Indian way of living and living among his friends.

Light, Colors, And Juan

Indian festivals have always drawn the attention of global tourists. For the young Juan in the city of Bogota in Colombia, Holi (festival of colors) and Diwali (festival of lights) celebrated by the Indian Embassy were captivating. Added with it were the food and festivities. Juan David Matallana Guerrero knew his terminal journey had only one name – India.

Aspiring to study Metallurgy, Juan’s compass located a familiar name and his alma mater. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Arun Sarin, former CEO of Vodafone had both started their journey at the Dept. of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. He followed the career path of several other renowned personalities hailing from IIT Kharagpur in the field of metallurgy and materials as well as the global academic reputation of the department.

In 2018 Juan took admission in the M.Tech. program at the Institute. Following his graduation, he joined the Ph.D. program in the department to study the field of surface engineering. [Know more about the program]

Pavel and Juan were among the four foreign students (excluding PIO and OCI card holders) who got their degrees at the 66th Convocation of IIT Kharagpur. While Ruairidh Mitchell from Australia received his doctoral degree in Geology & Geophysics under a dual doctoral program with Curtin University, Karma Tenzin from Bhutan completed M.Sc. Physics. 

In Karma’s words, “The degree means a lot to me. I am already making an impact here in  Bhutan. Also getting lots of professional development opportunities after earning a degree from IIT Kharagpur.” Thanking the international office and professors he hopes for similar support in the future.

The International Office which was formally set-up in 2015, witnessed a significant transformation by 2017-18. From the inception in 2015 with only exchange students, the Institute today has eighteen students in 2021 pursuing their degree programs. In addition, the institute has had a steady stream of short-term students coming from different parts of the world for research internships or under semester abroad programs. In addition to government-sponsored schemes like ICCR, DST, ASEAN, etc. the Institute has also established its own in-house programs to support international visiting scholars and degree students viz. Shri Gopal Rajgarhia International Program (SGRIP), Asoke Dey Sarkar International Programme (ADSIP) and the Guru Kripa Foundation International Scheme (GKFIS) funded by alumni Shri Gopal Rajgahria, Asoke Dey Sarkar and Mukund Padmanabhan respectively. The Institute has a dedicated International Relations Office to cater to the needs of the foreign students as well as a student body named International Relations (IR) Cell to help the incoming students to settle down and seamlessly integrate with the new place and culture. 

Talking about the way forward, Associate Dean Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya said, “When I took up this role in 2018, my “boss”, the Dean (IR)  Prof. Baidurya Bhattacharya spoke about the vision to make our institute the destination of choice for foreign students in India. Over the last 3 years, we have taken significant strides.  The pandemic has made our path bumpy but I am confident it is not for long. While Pavel and Juan’s are remarkable testimonials of the impact of Indian culture on foreign students, we are moving forward with more strategic plans to augment our international outreach programs, be it through govt initiatives such as ICCR, or ASEAN Fellowships or DST schemes among others or our programs and funding opportunities available at IIT Kharagpur. We have set our goal for having more than 100 full-time degree students from foreign countries by 2025.”

For more information on international student admission and funding at IIT Kharagpur please visit: https://international.iitkgp.ac.in/