alumni gift – The KGP Chronicle

IIT Kharagpur Alumni and their Families Set up Over ₹ 2 Crore Student Grant

IIT Kharagpur has instituted eight new student grants for the upcoming Autumn semester scheduled to begin in August 2021. The Institute has received generous grants from eight alumni and their families who have come forward to support the students on merit-cum-means scholarships and merit-based awards towards their academics and research.

The grants are collectively valued at around ₹ 2.25 crore for funding of undergraduate and postgraduate students across the departments of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, Healthcare, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering.

A virtual MoU was signed with the donating alumni and their families for instituting the student aids and grants in a recently concluded event.

The donors envisioned a range of dynamic ideas which motivated them to contribute towards these scholarships and awards and inspiring the spirit of giving back to society for the greater good while instilling some traits which are very own to IIT Kharagpur.

Thanking the donors for the generous contributions Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur appreciated their proactive zeal towards the Institute and for keeping its welfare in their hearts. He further spoke of the uniqueness of the vast plethora of disciplines taught at IIT Kharagpur and how benchmarking is being done for them to collectively compete against the world’s topmost universities. He welcomed the alumni to contribute towards this initiative through participation in the global outreach programs and thrust area-specific activities of the Institute. Director Tewari further affirmed starting new initiatives under the NEP 2020 and the holistic and fast-moving developments that are underway at IIT Kharagpur.

A unique feature of these grants is the allocation of over ₹ 65 Lakh exclusively for undergraduate female students for a period of 15 years. IIT Kharagpur has been setting up various avenues to reach out to larger sections of girl students, their teachers and parents through counseling, outreach initiatives as well as financial aid to encourage more girls to aim for IIT education as well as facilitating those taking admission at IIT Kharagpur in particular.

Dean, Alumni Affairs, Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay remarked, “now that we are an Institute of Eminence and guided by the New Education Policy, we are committed to bringing up the ratio of our undergraduate girl students much higher. We have the mandate to cross the 20% threshold at the soonest.”

In the last few years, IITs have been consistently increasing the strength of girl undergraduate students through the supernumerary quota for women introduced in 2018. From the initial target of 17% which has been fulfilled, the IITs are set to increase the quota to 20% in accordance with a decision by the IIT Council. At IIT Kharagpur the overall ratio of male and female students is already 1:5 while in some research-based programs and Master’s level programs, even a higher ratio can be observed.

The Institute has a few dedicated grants for women funded by various agencies such as DRDO Scholarship for Girl Through AR&DB, Indian Women’s Association, BONN Scholarship etc. A travel grant was also set up Smt. Sudha Murthy, Chairman, Infosys Foundation to facilitate the participation of women research scholars in international conferences. The alumni have also supported the up-gradation of facilities at the girls’ hostels. Further, the Institute conducts several women-specific research work on women’s health, gender violence and crimes against women, gendering the smart cities and experience of migrant women. The Institute also supports the KIRAN IPR Women Scientists program.

About the Donor & MoU

Mr. Chandrasen Gajria is an alumnus of the 1970 Batch from the Chemistry department of IIT Kharagpur. He has set up an MCM scholarship named Sobhraj And Krishna Gajria Scholarship in the memory of his parents Mr. Sobhraj Gajira and Mrs. Krishna Gajria which will provide annual support to the needy yet meritorious students of the Chemistry Department of the Institute.

Mr.Peeyush Ranjan is an alumnus of the 1995 batch from the Computer Science department He has set up the Dr. R R Verma Prize for Best Masters Thesis in Healthcare Technology in the memory of his late father Dr. R. R. Verma for the best M.Tech thesis on Healthcare technology across all the Departments, Centers and Schools of the Institute with an annual prize.

Mrs. Suprabha Sur has set up the Late Shri Saradindu Sur Scholarship in the fond memories of her husband Late Shri Saradindu Sur who is an alumnus of 1956 batch from the Mechanical Engineering Department and was the resident of Nehru Hall, to support the needy yet meritorious students of the Mechanical Dept. of the Institute with a yearly MCM scholarship.

Dr. R.P.Sahu is an alumnus of the 1970 batch from Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Dept. He has set up the Brundabana Sahu Student Award in memory of his maternal grandfather Shri Brundabana Sahu to help a 1st-year B.Tech student with a yearly MCM-based award to address any special needs of the awardee.

Mrs. Banani Som, the wife of Late Prof. Sankar Kumar Som, who is a proud alumnus as well as the Ex-director of IIT Kharagpur, has set up the Prof. Sankar Kumar Som Memorial Award in the fond memories of her late husband to recognize the best M.Tech thesis in the field of Thermal Science from the Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of the Institute with an annual award.

Mr. Indranil Basu is an alumnus of the 1987 batch from the Electronics and Electrical Communication Engg. Dept. Neil has set up the Pradip Kumar Basu Memorial Student Scholarship in memory of his late father Shri Pradip Kumar Basu, who was an aircraft maintenance engineer, to support a 2nd-year female student of IIT Kharagpur till her graduation with an annual scholarship based on MCM criteria.

Mrs. Napina Vangipuram, the wife of Late Dr. V. V. Dhruvanarayana, who is an alumnus of the 1955 batch from the Civil Engineering Department, has set up the V V Dhruva Narayana Memorial Student Award to recognize a 2nd-year B.Tech student of Civil Engineering Dept with an annual award as per the MCM criteria.

Mr. Debashis Chakraborty is an alumnus of the 1981 batch from the Chemical Engineering Department. He set up the Late Smt. Gopa Chakraborty Scholarship for Female Students in the fond memories of his late wife Smt. Gopa Chakraborty. This Scholarship aims towards supporting female students of IIT Kharagpur across all the departments, Schools, Centres and Academics with a special emphasis on the chemistry and chemical engineering department, by providing them yearly Scholarships based on MCM criteria. However, the Scholarship amount will be increased after every 4 years to cope up with the inflation rate.

Contact: deanaa@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; media@iitkgp.ac.in

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The Incredible 1970s and Spring Fest

Colourful festoons, huge sponsor banners and flags decked up the entire campus last weekend. Makeshift ‘pandals’ popped up and an air of festivity hung around. Students scurried across different venues. They had spent sleepless nights for weeks. It was that time of the year when students from all over India flocked to the campus for one of the most outstanding college fests in south Asia – the Spring Fest.

This year, Spring Fest saw a mini galaxy descend on campus. Around 150 alumni from the Batch of 1970 came back to their alma mater to celebrate their 50^th graduation anniversary. They also inaugurated the ‘ADDA’ and which is one among their many gifts to the Institute. The campus, departments, Halls, and most importantly, the Spring Fest brought back a flood of memories to this ‘young’ bunch of graduates who were more than happy to be back and share their memories of Spring Fests they were a part of, more than half a decade back.

“Our times were very different and so were our celebrations, you know. There was no such thing as corporate sponsorships way back in 1965-‘66-‘67. It was more of an Inter-Hall competition,” said Ms. Jayashree Singh, a 1970 graduate from the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering. She currently works with inhabitants of the Sunderbans, helping them fight economic challenges and lead a decent life.

“We had several events even during our time. There were dramatics, music competitions – both solo and in groups – and there were debates. Among all those 4-5 days of competitions, one evening was reserved only for classical vocal recital. The event you call ‘Pal’ now, existed in a different form in our times. Stalwarts like Pt Ravi Shankar, Lata Mangeshkar, Manna Dey, Md Rafi and Mukesh, all came here and performed throughout the night! All of us would eagerly wait for this particular evening,” continued Ms Singh. Her eyes lit up with pride as she remembered Lata Mangeshkar housed in her Hall – SN/IG Hall of Residence.

Mr Sukhminder Singh Grewal, a resident of Connecticut and a former leading man in GE, USA, recalled his own fun moment. “There was a dramatics competition during one of the Spring Fests during my time. One participating college put up a play which went completely tangential for all of us! One of our batchmates mimicked a scene from the same play and screamed, ‘Turn off the lights; we all want to sleep,” he narrated. Grewal broke into a fit of laughter relating the sorts of mischiefs students were up to during Spring Fest.

Notable alumni and pioneer of the Indian IT industry, Mr Arjun Malhotra, remembers Spring Fest being celebrated in a much smaller dimension. He recalls that the event was very culturally rooted and was not as global as it is today. There was just one venue – the Jnan Ghosh Stadium. “We could attend all the events as the venues were not scattered like now. The Spring Fest, back then, was a very low-key event and there were just a few colleges from Kolkata and neighbouring districts which would participate,” said Mr Malhotra.

Alumni Clock Tower was inaugurated by Shri Amit Khare, IAS, Secretary, MHRD, Govt. of India

Amidst the hustle-bustle at the Tikka Circle for the Alumni Clock Tower inauguration, The KGP Chronicle caught up with the then Secretary for SoCult (read Socio-Cultural), Mr Dipak Basak. “Fifty years back, the expectations were quite different. We did everything – from constructing the stage by stealing dining tables from the mess, to setting up the sound system and changing backdrops within a few seconds! When you are in charge of something like this, you need to organize all the required materials all by yourself, and so we stuck to our age-old theme – beg, borrow or steal. There was no concept of outsourcing like today. We enjoyed the simplest pleasures of life like rejoicing if girls from Loreto College participated,” he said with a smile and a wink.

His friend, Mr Ravi Raj Bhatia, added, “We made huge stage backdrops by sticking drawing sheets together and painting them. They had to be 26’X 6’ in size, and mind you, there would be separate banners for every event. We attended all our classes in the mornings and only after dinner did we get time to paint these. There was a target fixed for us – one backdrop every night. So you understand the amount of effort that went in?”

As the crowd started dispersing from the Tikka Circle after the Alumni Clock Tower inauguration, this incredible batch of 1970 were seen taking selfies, laughing away to silly jokes, hugging each other, calling each other names they gave while in college, planning which event of Spring Fest to gatecrash into and so on. Repeated announcements for different events floated in the air as the forever young and Forever KGPians from the Batch of ’70 melted into the crowd.

Art of Gift, Gift to Art

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IIT Kharagpur’s Academy of Classical and Folk Arts has roped another key patron with US-based alumnus Mukund Padmanabhan donating ₹52 Lakh to this one of its kind outreach unit in the IIT system. The funding is towards building a music auditorium with a digitally enhanced learning environment, conducting thematic workshops on classical and folk arts and engaging teaching fellows.

Plans have been drawn to set up a digital classroom for music training in proscenium setting as distance mode teaching-learning with aesthetic and acoustically appropriate interiors. Two teaching positions are also being created for providing training on classical music and arts on a regular basis.

The Academy will offer training in music, fine arts and the performing arts, and also introduce credit courses in the forms of electives and micro-specializations. Additionally, it will create national and international outreach programs for dissemination and collaborative research on science and technology interventions in Indian classical music and other classical arts. The Academy will also be a hub to create teaching-learning resources for Indian classical music and other classical arts.

“While the Institute will provide the required space we are thankful to Mukund who has come forward to patronize this initiative. This new pedagogy in teaching and learning these classical and folk art forms will go a long way in preserving the core fundamentals of the traditional art form,’ said Subrata Chattopadhyay, Dean Alumni Affairs and Avinash Gupta Chair Professor.

Students of IIT Kharagpur will get the unique opportunity to explore this transdisciplinary program in classical and folk arts. Prof. Pallab Dasgupta and Prof. Joy Sen who are heading this initiative are enthusiastic about introducing students of engineering and architectural disciplines and encourage them to supplement the highly-competitive technical education through the use of artistic talents.

“Students of IIT Kharagpur constitute a rich talent pool of cultural virtuosity combined with exceptional creative intellect. We believe the Academy will open up new forays for expression of this talent, nurtured through a deeper understanding of our unique cultural heritage, and study through the lens of Science and Technology”, expressed the duo.

An MoU signed recently will also involve Mukund’s non-profit organization Guru Krupa Foundation. Dr. Mukund Padmanabhan is an expert in the domain of finance specializing in statistical financial modeling though he pursued his education in the field of Electronics and Electrical Engineering. After completing his B.Tech. from IIT Kharagpur in 1987 from the Dept. of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, he did Masters and Doctoral degrees from UCLA in electrical engineering. Mukund set up Guru Krupa Foundation, a New York-based charitable foundation to support social, educational and cultural initiatives.

Talking about the Academy Mukund said, “IIT is an institution that is known for hosting the best and brightest technical talent in India. Developing and excelling in a modern scientific approach to all things is required to make practical progress and advance our knowledge about the world we live in. However, traditional art and culture are also very important as it defines our history and represents our roots. From my point of view, the newly formed Academy of Classical and Folk Arts at IIT KGP represents a very creative experiment.”

According to him, the Academy serves three purposes – a non-technical creative outlet for the students and staff, enabling traditional forms of creative expression (music and arts) to be examined through the lens of technology and modern science, and introducing future leaders to these traditional art forms, it helps preserve the art forms for posterity.

Mukund’s philanthropic organization Guru Krupa Foundation will be involved in supporting the activities of the Academy. Guru Krupa Foundation has a charter of promoting the acquisition of knowledge, preservation of knowledge that we have already acquired (in the form of our cultural heritage) and also helping the disadvantaged in society.

“Support for the Academy of Classical and Folk Arts aligns well with this charter. In the near term, GKF will provide financial support, for instance, we are already providing support for Academy workshops that are planned for the 2020 year. Besides IIT KGP is my alma mater and it gives me great satisfaction to be able to give something back to the institution that laid the foundation for my professional life. It is my privilege to be able to give back to the institution that laid the foundation for my career,” he said.

The Academy has had additional contributions and support from other alumni, including Arjun Malhotra and Kiran Seth. Arjun and his associates has also been major contributors to the Academy. The IIT Kharagpur Foundation in the US has been actively working towards bringing forward more alumni towards this initiative.

“We are proud to bring alumnus like Mukund Padmanabhan in active engagement with their alma mater,” said alumnus and President of the Foundation, Ron Gupta.

Attempts are being made to collaborate with corporate houses with CSR goals towards preserving the scientific heritage and culture of India in the lines of IIT Kharagpur’s SANDHI programme funded by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India.

Mukund is optimistic about alumni contributions driving areas that break away from the traditional expertise of the IITs.

“Historically, many advances have been made by cross-pollination of ideas. Enabling additional areas in which the traditional expertise of IITians can be applied could lead to great advances in those areas and also develop new applications for traditional expertise. Hence, support for new areas like the Academy of Arts is a good way of paying our dues forward to our alma mater. Who knows where this cross-pollination may lead!” – remarked Mukund.

Photo Credit: University of California, Los Angeles

Alumni Gift on Alumni Meet

Times of India

Giving back at the Annual Alumni Meet is a ritual at IIT Kharagpur. In keeping true to the tradition, close to 400 alumni from the 1969, 1979, 1994 and 1997 batches have donated Rs. 3.6 crore to their Alma Mater on the occasion of the 16th Annual Alumni Meet scheduled from January 11-13, 2019. The annual giving is among the several alumni fundraising campaigns conducted by the grand old IIT during the year.

The donation has been made towards their respective batches in endowment mode, partial interest out of which will be utilized every year to support a research program for undergraduate students. To encourage such endowment gifts, classrooms are named after batches which collectively donate Rs. 50 Lakh and more.

“These classrooms remind the students each day that graduation is only the beginning of the life-long bonding with IIT KGP. With each passing year, the memories of the years at IIT KGP become more meaningful bringing back the nostalgia and the warmth of an extended family which they gained at IIT KGP. The idea of giving back in the name of the batch is rekindling this bond with the Kgpian family,” said Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay, Dean of Alumni Affairs.

The journey was certainly different, to gather enough people from the batches for the cause of the Alma Mater and raise fund for the Alma Mater. In fact, several alumni got connected with the Institute years after their graduation.

For a batch like 1969 the task was by no means easy, made more so by the fact that in the days when they graduated there were no emails, almost no phones (certainly no cell-phones), and no social networking sites. So staying in touch was more of an exception than the rule. Alumni like Pronob Guha, Arvind Jain, Ramnath Mani and later Udit Bhanu Dasgupta from the 1969 batch, hence focused their energies on the activity of friend-raising from their batches. “Each alumnus has their own story and own set of friends in the batch and their own set of emotions to donate to their alma mater,” echoed the batch leaders with a hearty laugh. From the initial 36 contacts, the group soon expanded to 90 and raised Rs. 82 Lakh.

For the alumni from the batch of 1994, the challenge was of a different sort with the alumni being at the peak of their professional lives. Abhirup Mukherjee, Vijay Krishna, Subhas Lingareddy, Chandrakant Ekkirala and Manish Pandey from the batch took up the challenge and motivated the batch for a grand celebration of their Silver Jubilee reunion at the 16th Annual Alumni Meet. Soon, the batch gathered momentum with 180 strong batch-mates and not only reached the target of Rs. 50 Lakh to claim their classroom but raised Rs. 1.22 crore for development work at their respective halls of residence.

“Halls are the heart of IIT KGP where the bonding, which Kgpians are so proud of, begins. Each hall has its own culture and spirit. While residents of some halls are known to win medals in sports, some others are experts in socio-cultural activities and residents from another group of halls go on to win several technological championships. Alumni understand this diverse talent and the varied requirements at the halls such as well-equipped model common rooms, air-conditioned libraries, modern messes etc. and take up the cause for upgrading the facilities at their halls,” remarked Prof. S K Pal, Associate Dean, Alumni Affairs who earlier headed the Hall Management Centre at the Institute.

The 1979 batch which is completing its 40th year of graduation and hence its Ruby Jubilee is very close to becoming the Founding Endowment Batch with Rs. 46 Lakh raised from 36 alumni. Cmdr. V. K. Jaitley, Rakesh Agarwal, Chetan Date, Ranganathan Gurumoorthy and Vipin Asija are raising the tempo of their batch-mates during the event to achieve their goal before the closing ceremony on January 13.

“We Can! We Can!”, that’s not only the name of a book that I have written, rather it encapsulates the tempo of us, Kgpians across all ages, and we can definitely make our best effort in enriching the experience of the younger generations at IIT KGP. We Must! We Must! They are also our descendants through our alma mater, They Are The Future,” said an overwhelmed Cmdr. V. K. Jaitley from the 1979 batch.

While these batches are celebrating at the Meet, another batch also reached their goal way before their Jubilee celebrations. The 1997 batch visited the Institute in December 2017 to celebrate their 20th year and pledged to etch their legacy in the Nalanda Academic Complex by December 2018. 85 donors from the batch led by Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Associate Professor at the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Dean of International Relations raised Rs. 60 Lakh just before the Meet, thus becoming the youngest Founding Endowment Batch so far.

“As a batch leader, I am overwhelmed by the response from my friends not only in terms of monetary contributions but also their heartwarming messages that they have expressed expressing their gratitude for the Institute. As we look back after, we realize even more the value of the education we received here and the role the Institute has played in shaping our careers.” expressed an enthusiastic Bhattacharya.