Research Park – The KGP Chronicle

Hon’ble Education Minister Shri Dharmendra Pradhan visits IIT Kharagpur Research Park

To foster an ecosystem for cutting-edge research, commercialization of technologies, and strategic partnerships with industries in West Bengal, Hon’ble Union Minister for Education Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State for Education Dr. Sukanta Majumdar visited the IIT Kharagpur Research Park in Kolkata on 20^th August 2024. The Research Park is a concept of integrated eco-system that provides research facilities including technical and infrastructure support along with other paraphernalia services. It focuses on R&D-driven innovation and product-oriented developmental activities using the institute’s wide expertise base and catering to the needs of the Nation and the interests of industry, entrepreneurs, and government agencies.

The IIT Kharagpur Research Park at Rajarhat, Kolkata, is a Section 8 Company, which is a globally recognized hub for innovation, research and technology transfer. With a built-up area of about 1.8 lakh square feet, a carpet area of 1.0 lakh square feet has been developed at Rajarhat, New Town, in Kolkata with funding from the Ministry of Education. It aims to emerge as a single window for national missions, start-ups, industry collaborations, host institutes’ incubators, R&D activities and outreach activities with different partners associated with the Institute and acts as an interface for the industry to collaborate on the commercialization of innovations.

The goals and objectives of the Research Park are to promote collaborative and interdisciplinary research through the sharing of facilities; Enabling technology transfer and commercialization of innovations; Supporting and incubating science and technology-based start-ups; Providing specialized training programs and workshops; Undertaking community outreach initiatives to promote awareness on scientific advancements; and Attracting international partnerships and projects to address global challenges.

The Research Park aims to facilitate the activities of academic units and Centres of Excellence at IIT KGP. Aiming to drive breakthroughs in science and technology research for the benefit of society through strategic partnerships and state-of-the-art facilities, the research park started a nursery industrial estate for small-scale industries at suitable places. It created a pool of sophisticated machine tools, analytical and test equipment, computers with semi-industrial processors and other facilities to support both industrial and central services to sponsored entrepreneurs.

At the same time, it will work with aspiring students, research scholars, staff and faculty members for technology and knowledge-based business development by hand-holding, ease of doing business, and providing IPR and patenting services, developing mechanisms to promote the dissemination of knowledge, cross-fertilization of ideas, and intellectual collaboration. Such interactions aim at enabling the creation of advanced technological solutions for the present and envisaged future industrial and social ecosystem.

During their visit, the Ministers took a tour of the state-of-the-art facilities at the IIT Kharagpur Research Park and met the TCS team of researchers and consultants. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has booked about 30,000 sq ft of space in the science and research park to house its research and development team.

Hon’ble Minister for Education Shri Dharmendra Pradhan took cognizance of the collaborative efforts of the 9 Higher Educational Institutions in West Bengal including NIT Durgapur, IISER Kolkata, IIEST Shibpur, IIIT Kalyani, Visva Bharti, IIM Kolkata, NITTR Kolkata, GKCIET Malda, and IIT Kharagpur in terms of research, technology transfer and commercialization, entrepreneurship, training programs, community engagement and infrastructure development. Shri Pradhan reviewed the intuitions, their academic performance, research projects, industry collaborations, rankings and ratings of IIT Kharagpur and other centrally-funded higher education institutions (HEIs) in West Bengal, as well as their future plans for growth and development. He also reiterated the words of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, urging the institutions to reignite the spirit of Nalanda, aiming to transform them into world-class knowledge hubs and contribute to the vision of “Viksit Bharat.”

Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur, remarked, “This visit highlights the continued focus of the Ministry of Education on strengthening India’s position as a global leader in education, research, and innovation. The IIT Kharagpur Research Park, with its advanced research capabilities and robust industry ties, plays a pivotal role in this vision. It fosters a dynamic environment for cutting-edge research and entrepreneurship, offering academic credits for start-up activities, supporting faculty-driven projects, and facilitating alumni startups through the EIR program and IPR licensing. Startups associated with the Institute or its technologies receive priority support.”

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Three decades and counting!

“September 24^th 1982. I joined IIT Kharagpur as a Lower Division Clerk, giving in to my parents repeated requests. Today, after spending more than two-thirds of my life here, I do not regret the decision of my parents.

Rubber Technology Center had started the year before, in 1981. With no one to look into office work there, I was posted in that department as secretary to the HoD. My job profile consisted of mainly typing and maintaining office records. I stayed there from 1982 to 1987. With my promotion in 1987, I joined the Recruitment Section for a few days and was later transferred to the Deans’ Office. In 1989 I was posted in GATE office initially and then SRIC office. I served there for perhaps the longest time – from 1992 to 2006 – a good 14 years!

During my tenure at the SRIC office I was in the team of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system which happens to be synonymous with IIT Kharagpur. This system was started by Prof R. N. Banerjee. We, as a team, were thinking of introducing a new system of documentation. ERP was initially a project mode of SRIC headed by Prof Banerjee and we were involved in providing all information to this pilot project for its smooth functioning – details of accounting, administration and project monitoring – all had to be fed into the project, which was further programmed by Prof Banerjee with the help of his students.

Since then, ERP has become an integral part of IIT-KGP system and has been upgraded continuously since the time of its inception.

It was during my tenure that the modernization of the SRIC office took place. What you see today is a complete rehashed version of what it was during the early 90s. A lot of brainstorming went into how to give the office a modern, corporate look. Under the leadership of Prof Damodar Acharya, the then Dean SRIC and Dr D Gunasekaran, the then Principal Administrative Officer (who was also the Registrar of the Institute), we visited a few corporate offices in Kolkata, to get an idea of a modern office set-up. We also concentrated on the work culture and environment, alongside a new corporate model. Workstations, with individual desktops were introduced along with in-service training for employees and new recruits. This included computer training, soft skill development training, training in office administration, rules’ implementation training and others.

After I took charge of the Establishment Section in the year 2006, the Institute took a policy to modernize all its administrative section on the lines of SRIC office. This called for a lot of effort, which had to be put in so as to get the desired infrastructure of a corporate office within IIT.

The best part of my service here at IIT Kharagpur would be the purchase of a piece of land from the Government of West Bengal to set up a Research Park, which will be operational very soon. I was one of the signatories in those official papers back in 2008.

We worked as a team under the leadership of Prof Samir Kumar Lahiri, the then Deputy Director and Prof. Anil K. Bhowmick, the then Dean SRIC, during IIT Kharagpur’s Golden Jubilee in 2001. It was a year-long celebration with an exhibition at Science City Kolkata, for three consecutive days. That huge event saw the participation of all departments of IIT Kharagpur, few industries and several colleges in Kolkata.

The work culture of the Institute was always highly appreciated by the guests / visitors to the Institute. Maintaining and nurturing a positive attitude to work and towards colleagues, I feel, is the need of the hour. Good conduct always pays off and it costs nothing. What do you say?”

Image credit: Suman Sutradhar, Mr Animesh Kumar Naskar

East’s 1st Research Park

Times of India Financial Express Business Standard Careers360 DevDiscourse

The 65th Convocation of IIT Kharagpur was marked by the launch of the Institute’s first ever Research Park. This is the first of its kind in eastern India which will provide a platform to create a self-sustained, healthy, vibrant, innovative ecosystem based on the spirit of collaborative research and consultancy between Industry and academia. The Research Park was inaugurated digitally by Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Honourable Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India in the presence of Shri Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman, Board of Governor and Chairman, RP – Sanjiv Goenka Group, Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, Director of IIT Kharagpur on 27 August 2019.

Spread over 10 acres of land at Rajarhat area of Kolkata and costing close to ₹100 crore, the G+9 Research Park seeks to develop and impart skills on product development, technology transfer, technology commercialization and patenting. It is equipped with a state-of-the-art incubation and research centre with over 70,000 square feet (1 acre <) of space dedicated to research and development, incubation and National Mission Labs.

“As a long-standing bastion of innovation through Research, with an entrepreneurship unit that bred industry leaders and entrepreneurs even before the birth of these disruptive changes, including the Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park since 1986 and the Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship from 2010, the IIT Kharagpur Research Park has been dedicated to the nation to amplify the effect of research in society, and solve real and relevant problems for both the industry and the individual alike,” remarked Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, Director (Officiating), IIT Kharagpur.

The incubatees and R&D partners will have access to several facilities both shared and on hire basis including the data centre, e-library, conference room and access to labs as required. The Park boasts of world-class infrastructure as well as collaborative, scalable research spaces to aid stakeholders across the industry as well as academia. With the advantages of an institution like IIT Kharagpur, the Park also aims to conduct advanced academic programs jointly with industry experts.

“There is a huge opportunity for joint endorsement of R&D with IIT Kharagpur while availing access to highest quality talent from IIT Kharagpur faculty, students and alumni, state-of-the-art laboratories, centres of excellence and knowledge sharing with trans-disciplinary National Mission Projects. And all of these in an affordable, attractive, scalable spaces customized to the needs of both industry as well as an entrepreneur in the proximity to the airport in the city of Kolkata, Eastern-India’s largest metropolitan,” noted Prof. Partha Pratim Das, Professor in-Charge of the Research Park.

Facilities:

Research:

Industrial R&D Lab
Incubation Hub
National Mission and Academic Lab
Shell space with flooring, power, air-conditioning, network, telephone (Future Ready)
Faculty and Scholar Offices

Services:

State-of-the-art Electronic Library, Data Centre, Conference Rooms
VC-enabled Class Rooms, Studio
Guest House with Pantry, Kitchen, Dining, Laundry and Gymnasium
ATM, Travel Services, Café, Food court, and Roof-top Cafeteria
Basement and Roadside Car Parking
500+ seater Auditorium

Support:

Centrally air-conditioned, 100% power backup, EPABX, Internet, Passenger and Service Lift
Reception and Waiting Hall
Fire Safety, Security, CCTV Surveillance, and Biometric Access integrated with BMS
Health Centre
LAN, BMS, CCTV, UPS, IPBX and Access Control and full power back up with DG

Modern Infrastructure Design:

The building has been designed to achieve a 4 Star rating from GRIHA with salient features such as use of Fly ash brick, PPC Cement, Low VOC paint, Double Glazing Unit (DGU), AC with VRF system, Occupancy Sensor, LED Lighting, dual flushing System, recycling of wastewater with STP, Solar power Generation also in accordance to have eco-friendly, energy efficiency and sustainability parameters.

The building facades have been treated with all the modern components elements, and new materials to be at par with the contemporary building design trends and to make it visually pleasing to the users as well.

The building has been designed for differently-abled people following accessible India guidelines with ramps at every entrance, accessible lifts and toilets at every floor.

The landscaping of the surrounding open spaces of the building has been done with local tropical plants, other green components, and lush green lawns to make it environmentally sustainable and rejuvenating for the users.