IIT Kharagpur

Template:Infobox Indian Institute of Technology The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (Hindi:भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान, खड़गपुर) (commonly known as IIT Kharagpur or IIT KGP) is an autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institute of higher education established by the Government of India. IIT Kharagpur was the first of the seven IITs, established in 1951. Like other IITs, it was established to train scientists and engineers after India attained independence from British rule in 1947. It is linked to the other IITs in its organizational structure as well as its admission process (IIT-JEE).

The students and alumni of IIT Kharagpur are referred to as KGPians. IIT Kharagpur has the largest campus (2,100 acres), maximum student enrolment, maximum number of departments, and the largest library among all IITs. IIT Kharagpur is particularly famous for Illumination and Rangoli festival, in addition to Spring Fest (social and cultural festival) and Kshitij (technology festival).

History

Main article: History of Indian Institutes of Technology

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Old building of IIT Kharagpur (Hijli Shaheed Bhawan): A former detention camp, and IIT Kharagpur's first academic building.

After the end of the Second World War and before India attained independence, Ardeshir Dalal from the Viceroy's Executive Council, foreseeing that the future prosperity of India would depend not so much on capital as on technology, conceptualised institutes that would train such work-force in the country itself. Humayun Kabir encouraged B. C. Roy, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, to work on Ardeshir Dalal's proposal. In 1946, Humayun Kabir and Jogendra Singh set up a committee whose task was to consider the creation of Higher Technical Institutions for post-war industrial development in India. The 22 member committee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar recommended the establishment of Higher Technical Institutions in various parts of the country, along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), with affiliated secondary institutions. The report urged the speedy establishment of all the four institutions with the ones in the East and the West to be started immediately. The committee felt that such institutes should not only produce undergraduates, but researchers and academics as well. The standard of the graduate education was recommended to be at par with those from elite technical institutions all over the world. L. S. Chandrakant and Biman Sen in the Education Ministry drafted a blueprint for an autonomous educational institution as required by the Sarkar Committee. On grounds of Bengal having highest concentration of engineering industries, the committee suggested that an first such institute be set up in Bengal. This encouraged B. C. Roy to persuade Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, to push through a special Act for the establishment of institute in Bengal. In accordance with the recommendations, the first Indian Institute of Technology was established in May 1950, in eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Initially, the IIT started functioning at 5, Esplanade East, Calcutta as "Eastern Higher Technical Institute" and in September 1950, shifted 120 km south east to Hijli, Kharagpur. The name Hijli carries the significance of historically famous Hijli Kingdom.

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Jawaharlal Nehru laying foundation stone of IIT Kharagpur

When the first session started in August 1951, there were 224 freshers and 42 teachers in 10 departments of the institute. The class rooms, laboratories and the administrative office were housed in the historic building of the Hijli Detention Camp (now known as Shaheed Bhawan), where freedom fighters were imprisoned and executed. The office building at the camp, that served as the headquarters of the Bomber Command of the United States 20th Air Force during World War II, initially housed classrooms and the library. It is has now been converted into a museum (Nehru Museum of Science and Technology).

The present name 'Indian Institute of Technology' was adopted before the formal inauguration of the Institute on August 18, 1951, by Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad. On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India passed an act known as the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act declaring it as an Institute of National Importance. Jawaharlal Nehru, in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, said :

Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India.

Organisational structure

Main article: Indian Institutes of Technology § Organisational structure

Organisational Structure of IITs

IIT Kharagpur is linked to the other IITs organisationally, having a common Visitor and IIT Council. After the IIT Council, the organisational structure of IITs is separate from one another. Under the IIT Council is the Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur. The Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur has 13 members that include representatives of states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Orissa in addition to other members appointed by the IIT Council and the institute's senate. Under the Board of Governors is the Director, who is the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT.Template:Inote Under the Director, in the organisational structure, comes the Deputy Director. The role of the Deputy Director is to assist the Director in academic and administrative work and maintaining liaison with Institution of higher learning and research. Under the Director and the Deputy Director, come the Deans, Heads of Departments, Registrar, President of the Students' Council, and Chairman of the Hall Management Committee. The Registrar is the chief administrative officer of the IIT and overviews the day-to-day operations.Template:Inote He is the custodian of records, funds of Institute and such other properties of the Institute. Below the Heads of Department (HOD) are the faculty members (Professors, Associate Professors, and Assistant Professors). The Wardens come under the Chairman of the Hall Management Committee.

Campus

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Institute Main Building, IIT Kharagpur

IIT Kharagpur is located 120 km west of Kolkata. The campus is located 5 km away from the Kharagpur's railway station. The layout of the present campus and the design of the buildings were carried out by a group of engineers and architects under the guidance of Werner M. Moser (a Swiss architect). The 2,100 acre (8.5 km²) campus is a township of about 20,000 inhabitants. As of 2006, IIT Kharagpur has about 550 faculty, 2,200 employees and 5,500 students living in the campus. The Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park (STEP) provides infrastructure facilities to alumni who want to become entrepreneurs but lack infrastructure to start their own corporation. The Tagore Open Air Theatre, used to host cultural programs, has a capacity of 3,000 people.

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Scholar's Avenue

There are 18 hostels along the Scholars Avenue which extends from the institute gate to the B. C. Roy Technology Hospital. There are eight hostels in all for undergraduate male students and three for female. In addition, there are a few post-graduate students' hostels and a separate hostel for defense staff. The Gyan Ghosh stadium and Tata Sports Complex are used for hosting sports competition on a large scale.

In addition to the main campus at Kharagpur, the instutite has extension centres in Bhubaneswar and Kolkata to provide venue for continuing education programmes, distance learning courses (e.g. PGDIT) and guest house accommodation. The institute plans to expand the Kolkata extension centre at Rajarhat, and use it to offer full-time under-graduate and post-graduate courses from 2008 session onwards. The Rajarhat campus will house 2,500 students. The 300 acre campus will be located 30 km away from the city of Bhubaneswar, and will house 5,000 under-graduate and post-graduate students.

Academic buildings

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Takshashila complex

The institute building and the departments are in the main academic campus. The main gate of the central academic complex is located near to the campus entrance. Beyond the main gate is a traffic circle (known as Bidhan Chowk), with the Main Building next to it. IIT Kharagpur has 19 academic departments, 8 multi-disciplinary centres/schools, 13 schools of excellence in addition to labs and central facilities. Apart from the Main Building in the central academic complex, there is another academic complex named Ramanujan complex having two buildings, Takshashila as a central computer centre and Vikramshila as academic complex. Takshashila has a capacity of nearly 1,000 students, and Vikramshila has four big lecture halls, in addition to seminar rooms an auditorium (Kalidas Auditorium) having seating capacity of 1,000.

The Main Building is structurally similar to the Old Building, having a prominent tower and two flanks. This unit houses all administrative offices of the institute. It has numerous lecture halls, two big auditoriums (referred to, by their room numbers, as F-142 and F-116) on its either sides and a central auditorium (the Netaji Auditorium) for conducting official and other prominent events. The Netaji auditorium is also used as a cinema theatre on weekend nights at subsidised rates by the Technology Film Society (TFS) under the Technology Students' Gymkhana (TSG). The tower of the Main Building has a Steel tank that stores 10,000 gallons of water for emergency supply needs.

Library and museum

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IIT Kharagpur's Central Library

IIT Kharagpur's first library was located in a small room of institute's Old Building (commonly known as Shaheed Bhawan) in 1951. At the time of opening, the library had a collection of 2,500 books.The library has grown on to be the biggest technical library in Asia with over 350,000 books and documents, more than 1,000 journals and 600 online journals. The library has six halls and a separate section for SC and ST students. The library's collection consists of books, reports, conference proceedings, back-volumes of periodicals, standards, theses, micro-forms, CD-ROMs, floppies and audio-visual material. The books are arranged according to Dewey Decimal Classification. The library's transaction service is fully automated and online search can be made through Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). The Electronic Library section has a number of databases, video lectures and other resources.

The institute has a museum in its premises, the Nehru Museum of Science and Technology. The museum, established in 1990, is located in the ground floor or Hijli Shaheed Bhawan. The museum has over 100 indoor exhibits that include large number of technical models collected from various institutes and organisations across India. The park outside the museum contains 14 open-air demonstrations and outdoor exhibits including a hunter plane, and a steam engine. The museum has an archive room showcasing documents relating to history of the Institute and Midnapore district. A separate museum (Rural Museum) showcasing rural culture is located in the Rural Development Centre.

Civic ameneties

The institute campus has four guest houses,Template:Inote a hospital, four nationalised banks, four schools, and a railway reservation counter. The campus has its own water pumping station, electrical sub-station, telephone exchange, a market, six restaurants, and garbage disposal section for the daily needs of the residents. The campus has a government hospital (B.C. Roy Technology Hospital) in its premises. The institute draws its supply of water from wells near Kosai river (112 km away from institute) by harnessing sub-surface water. Three deep wells near the institute suppliment the supply from the river. The water is supplied by a 16 inch. pipeline to 12 tanks in the campus with a total capacity of 615,000 gallons.

Interaction with local community

IIT Kharagpur is located just outside the town of Kharagpur, in the Hijli village. The civic ameneties provided in the campus of IIT Kharagpur makes it nearly self-sufficient with regards to basic needs of the residents. Since Kharagpur is a small town, there is little direct interaction of the campus community with outside. There is also little opportunity for employment of other family members of the faculty, who are not working for IIT. Unlike other IITs such as IIT Bombay that restricts entry to its campus for outsiders, IIT Kharagpur does not have similar restrictions. Since 2005, IIT Kharagpur started construction of a boundary wall for the security of the campus. Restrictions to free entry are planned once the construction is complete. This move was opposed by the local community as it would wean them from the benefits they enjoy from the ameneties provided by the institute. The local community also opposes the construction of a flyover from the railway station to the campus as it would lead to substantial losses of opportunity for the shops along the roads.

IIT Kharagpur provides much of its benefits to the community through the Rural Development Centre (RDC) located in the campus. Established in 1975, the RDC helps the local community by developing technologies specific to the needs of the community. The RDC co-ordinates the working of National Service Scheme (NSS) in IIT Kharagpur, and the members of NSS take part in weekly community service activities like teaching and building educational models, sanitisation, and road construction.

Academics

Admission

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Entrance gate of IIT Kharagpur

Admission to most undergraduate and postgraduate courses in IIT Kharagpur is granted through written entrance examinations. Admission to M.S. and Ph.D. programs is based primarily on a personal interview, though candidates have to appear for written tests as well. The IITs are well known for their special reservation policy, which stands out in contrast with the rest of India.

Admission to undergraduate programs in all IITs is tied to the Joint Entrance Examination, popularly known as IIT-JEE. Candidates who qualify admission via IIT-JEE can apply for admission in B.Tech. (Bachelor of Technology), Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelor of Technology and Master of Technology) and Integrated M.Sc. (Master of Sciences) courses in IIT Kharagpur. The admissions into the postgraduate programmes are made through various exams, primarily the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) for M.Tech. courses. Other prominent entrance exams include JAM (Joint Admission to M.Sc.) for M.Sc., and JMET (Joint Management Entrance Test) for Management Studies.

As per the rules of admission to IIT Kharagpur, 15% of the admitted students must be of the Scheduled Castes, and 7.5% of seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. As of 2006, no separate reservation exists for the Other Backward Classes (a group of castes which, though not untouchable, are socially and economically disadvantaged). Since the institute is not bound to fill these quotas of seats, many of them remain vacant owing to the nature of selection process.

See also: Reservation policy in IITs

Funding

IIT Kharagpur receives disproportionately higher grants as compared to the other engineering colleges in India. While the total government funding to most of the other engineering colleges is around Rs. 100–200 million per year, IIT Kharagpur gets nearly 1,300 million per year. Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding from industry. IIT Kharagpur subsidises undergraduate student fees by approximately 80% and provide scholarships to all Master of Technology students and Research Scholars in order to encourage students for higher studies. The cost borne by undergraduate students including boarding and mess expenses is around Rs. 50,000 per annum. 35% of students are given additional financial support because of their economic background, and their annual expense is nearly Rs. 25,000.

Policies

The academic policies of IIT Kharagpur are decided by its Senate. It comprises all professors of the institute, and student representatives. It controls and approves the curriculum, courses, examinations and results, and appoints committees to look into specific academic matters. The teaching, training and research activities of the institute are periodically reviewed by the senate to maintain educational standards. The Director of IIT Kharagpur is the ex-officio Chairman of the Senate.

IIT Kharagpur follow the credit based system of performance evaluation, with proportional weighting of courses based on their importance. The total marks (usually out of 100) form the basis of grades, with a grade value (out of 10) assigned to a range of marks. Sometimes, relative grading is done considering the overall performance of the whole class. For each semester, the students are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 based on their performance, by taking a weighted average of the grade points from all the courses, with their respective credit points. Each semester evaluation is done independently and then the weighted average over all semesters is used to calculate the cumulative cumulative grade point average (known as CGPA). The medium of instruction is English. The classes are usually held between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

IIT Kharagpur is a member of LAOTSE, an international network of universities in Europe and Asia exchanging students and senior scholars. The institute has been ranked as India's best engineering institute by India Today in 2001, 2002, and 2003. In the Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Academic Ranking of World Universities, IIT Kharagpur was the only IIT listed among the top 500 universities worldwide.

Undergraduate education

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Takshashila houses the computer centre of the institute.

IIT Kharagpur offers a number of degrees as part of its undergraduate programs. They include Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.), Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.), Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.; integrated with corresponding masters degree, M.Sc.). The B.Tech. degree is the most common undergraduate degree in IIT Kharagpur in terms of student enrolment. It is based on a four-year program with eight semesters. The first year of B.Tech. has common course structure for all the students. The common courses include the basics from most of the departments like Electronics, Mechanics, Chemistry, and Physics. At the end of first year, an option to change departments is given to meritorious students on the basis of their performance in the first two semesters.

From the second year onwards, the students study subjects exclusively from their respective departments (known as depth courses). In addition to these, the students have to compulsorily take inter-disciplinary (breadth) courses. Separate compulsory courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) department, and sometimes from management and information technology are enforced. At the end of third year, the B.Tech. and Dual Degree students undertake a mandatory industrial training as part of the curriculum. The stipulated requirement for the training period is a minimum of eight working weeks. In the final year of their studies, most of the students are offered jobs in industries and other organisations through the Training and Placement section of the institute. Some students opt out of this facility in favour of higher studies or to take up jobs by applying to organisations directly. In addition to the major degree as part of the undergraduate education, students can take up additional subjects from other departments, and by demonstrating knowledge of discipline based on performance parameters and course objectives set by the department, they can earn a minor in the other department.

Postgraduate and doctoral education

IIT Kharagpur offer a number of postgraduate programs including Master of Technology (M.Tech.), Master of Business Administration (MBA), and Master of Science (M.Sc.). Some specialised graduate programmes offered by IIT Kharagpur include Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT), Master in Medical Science and Technology (MMST), Master of City Planning (MCP), Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law (PGDIPL), and Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation & Management (PGDMOM). IIT Kharagpur offers Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) as part of its doctoral education program. In it, the candidates are given a topic of academic interest by the professor or have to work on the consultancy projects given by the industries. The duration of the program is usually unspecified and depends on the specific discipline. Ph.D. candidates have to submit a dissertation as well as provide oral defense for their thesis. Teaching Assistantships (TA) and Research Assistantships (RA) are provided based on the candidate's academic profile. IIT Kharagpur offers an M.S. (by research) program; the M.Tech. and M.S. are similar to the US universities' non-thesis (course based) and thesis (research based) master programs respectively.

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Vinod Gupta School of Management

IIT Kharagpur (along with other IITs) offers an unconventional B.Tech. and M.Tech. integrated educational program called "Dual Degree". It integrates undergraduate and postgraduate studies in selected pairs of branch and specialisation. It is completed in 5 years as against 6 years in conventional B.Tech. (4 years) followed by an M.Tech. (2 years). The reason for starting this program was to encourage IITians to complete postgraduate studies from IIT rather than going to other reputed institutes. IIT Kharagpur has a management school (Vinod Gupta School of Management) and a law school (Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law) in its premises. The Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law is being opened in collaboration with George Washington University.

Continuing Education Program

IIT Kharagpur offers a Continuing Education Program (CEP), for qualified engineers and scientists, to learn new technologies and developments in their academic disciplines. As part of CEP, the institute offers formal degree programs under Quality Improvement Program (QIP), short-term courses supported by Government agencies like AICTE, self-financed short-term courses supported by course fees, and certificate courses conducted as distance education. In addition to conducting educational courses, the CEP develops model curricula for engineering education. The CEP administers SIMAP (Small Industries Management Assistant Program) and STUP (Skill-cum-Technology Upgradation Program) on behalf of IIT Kharagpur; the institute being a corpus institute of SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India).

Sponsored research and industrial consultancy

The institute received 171 research projects (worth Rs. 41.70 crore) and 130 consultancy projects in 2005–06 session. The institute transferred 15 technologies to the industry during the same session. The institute has filed 125 patents so far and 25 of them have been granted. The value of the international projects is Rs. 9.9 million, and the revenue from transferred technologies in about Rs. 2.5 million. The institute earned Rs. 52 crore from research projects in 2005–06 session. The major sponsors for the research include Indian National Science Academy, Ministry of Human Resource and Development (India), Defence Research and Development Organisation (India), Microsoft Corporation, Department of Science and Technology (India), and Indian Space Research Organization. IIT Kharagpur has a separate cell known as SRIC (Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy) cell since 1982. It handles sponsored research projects and industrial consultancy assignments, and can administer 600 R&D projects.

Student life and culture

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LLR Hall. One of the 18 hostels in IIT Kharagpur

IIT Kharagpur provides on-campus residential facilities to the students, research scholars and faculty. The students live in hostels (referred to as halls) throughout their stay in the IIT. Students must choose between National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Sports Organisation (NSO) in their first two years. In the first year, NCC is compulsory for all male students, though a limited number of male students with sports talent are allowed to pursue NSO. Those male students who can't be allotted NCC because of health-related issues are allotted NSS. NSS is compulsory for female students in the first two years, and a limited number of female students with sports talent are allowed to pursue NSO. IIT Kharagpur has common sports grounds for cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, and athletics; and swimming pool for aquatic events. Most of the hostels have their own sports grounds.

The students of IIT Kharagpur compete among themselves in various events held under the purview of open-hall (open for all) and inter-hall (between different halls) events. The results of inter-hall events contribute to the overall tally of points that determine the winner of General Championship of that year. The four broad categories in which General Championships are decided are: Sports, Social and cultural activities, Technology, and Hall affairs. IIT Kharagpur participates in the Inter-IIT Sports Meet, held annually in one of the IITs by a policy of rotation.

The students of IIT Kharagpur choose representatives among themselves by participating in elections held under the purview of Technology Students' Gymkhana. The highest ranking student representative chosen by the elections is the Vice-President of the Gymkhana, and represents the students in Senate. In addition to him, all halls send two representatives to the Senate. The Gymkhana publishes an annual magazine called "Alankar", and a fortnightly news-letter called Scholar's Avenue, named after the avenue that contains the student halls.

Any act of indiscipline by a student is looked into by the Hall Disciplinary Committee (HDC) of the Hall the student belongs to. Students may appeal against the verdict to the Appellate-cum-Liaison Committee known as Inter Hall Disciplinary Committee (IHDC). The IHDC submits its recommendations to the Senate that finalises the punishment. Extreme cases of indiscipline are referred directly to the IHDC. The IHDC is empowered to give punishments to students for acts of indiscretion anywhere in India. IIT Kharagpur has strict provisions dealing with ragging. There are separate halls for first year undergraduate male students, that have been put off-limits to the senior students. Students found indulging in ragging are summarily rusticated, without going through the Disciplinary Committee or being fined. For instances of ragging of sophomores, along with action on offending students, the whole hall often gets barred from participating in inter-hall competitions.

The culture of IIT Kharagpur is salient in certain features, on many occasions developing even officially. An example of the salience is that most of the clubs, societies, and places are prefixed with the word "Technology". Among others, this is found in Technology Post Office, Technology Market, Technology Film Society, and Technology Swimming Pool. Unofficially, the eateries in and around the IIT campus are suffixes with "-ies/is". For example, this is found in Chhedis, Vegies, Aunties and Boudies.

Technical and cultural festivals

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A night show in Spring Fest

IIT Kharagpur organises a technical festival known as Kshitij (previously known as Ideon). An annual techno-management festival organised in the month of January or February, it receives participation from many colleges in addition to the institute itself. It includes technical workshops, seminars, and competitions. Robotix, the annual robotics competition of IIT Kharagpur, is organised during Kshitij.

The cultural festival of IIT Kharagpur is known as Spring Fest, and is organised in the month of January. Spring Fest includes numerous cultural competitions in addition to stage shows (known as Star-nights) by noted singers and performers. The Star-nights are the main attraction of the Spring Fest having nearly 10,000 audiences packed in the Tagore Open Air Theatre built to carry 3,000 people.

Illumination and Rangoli

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Multiple panels with illuminated lamps on display

Main article: Illumination and Rangoli

Illumination, popularly known as Illu, is a festival unique to IIT Kharagpur. It is celebrated and inspired from the day of Diwali, the festival of lights and is usually held on the day of Diwali itself. It is organized in a competitive environment, with all the halls fighting for the prestigious prize. As a part of the competition, all halls build vertical panels of bamboo (called Chatais) on which thousands of lamps (diyas) are mounted forming outlines of people/things that illustrate an event or a place of importance. The chatais may reach a height of 20 ft, with 20,000 lighted lamps. The lamps on the chatais are lighted with all other light sources switched off, the art-panels made by the flickering light of the lamps. Traditionally, themes from Ramayan and Mahabharat have been popular choice for the competition.

On the same day as Illumination, the Rangoli Competition is organised as an inter-hall event. Rangolis (around 12 ft long and 12 ft across) of exquisite detail and shading are constructed using coloured powders, crushed bangles, and pebbles. Interplay of light and shadow and ambient music are part of the display.

Alumni

The alumni of IIT Kharagpur have achieved notable success in a variety of fields.

• Sushantha Kumar Bhattacharyya was awarded the CBE, a knighthood, and Padma Bhushan
• V. C. Kulandaiswamy was awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.
• Mani Lal Bhaumik invented the excimer laser.
• Parvati Dev is the Director of SUMMIT Stanford.
• Kirit Parikh was the founder director of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), and a member of Union Planning Commission of India
• Srikumar Banerjee became the Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
• Suhas S. Patil founded Cirrus Logic Inc.
• Arjun Malhotra co-founded HCL Technologies
• Vinod Gupta founded InfoUSA
• Ajit Jain became president of Berkshire Hathaway's Reinsurance Group
• Arun Sarin is the CEO of the British based global mobile telecommunications company Vodafone Group Plc.
• R Gopalakrishnan is the executive director of Tata Sons, the promoter of all key companies of the Tata Group which is India's largest private sector enterprise.
• Praveen Chaudhari is the Director of the Brookhaven National Laboratory, a multi-program national laboratory of the US that is operated by Brookhaven Science Associates for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in New York.

The Vinod Gupta School of Management and Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law were established by donation funds from an IIT alumnus, Vinod Gupta. Other centres built by funding from alumni include the G.S. Sanyal School of Telecommunication and VLSI-CAD laboratory. The IIT Foundation started by Vinod Gupta in 1992Template:Inote is the alum association of the institute, and has chapters in many cities in India and abroad.. The institute publishes the quarterly newsletter named KGPian for its alumni.

The alumni of IIT Kharagpur started a fundraiser named Vision 2020, that aims to provide infrastructure (like labs and equipments), attract and retain faculty, and students. Started by the IIT Foundation, the objective of Vision 2020 is to raise a US$ 200 million endowment fund by the year 2020 for growth in technology education, research and innovation. The Vision 2020 Team consists of IIT Kharagpur alumni from the USA.

IIT Kharagpur has a Dean of Alumni Affairs to handle liaisioning with alumni. The post is currently occupied by Dr Madhusudan Chakraborty. The institute also organizes an alumni meet in January annually to recognize the role of its alumni in building and sustaining the world-class nature of the institution.

Further reading

• Deb, Sandipan (2004). The IITians. India: Penguin Books. ISBN 0670049867.
• Students of IIT Kharagpur (2004). Introduction to IIT Kharagpur (Documentary). India: TSG. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
• Chattopadhyay, Suhrid Sankar (2002-09-13). "Enabling industrial progress". Volume 19 - Issue 18. Frontline Magazine. Retrieved 2006-07-29. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

• Official Website
• Alumni Association of IIT Kharagpur
• Map of IIT Kharagpur
• Vinod Gupta School of Management

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