IT Kharagpur’s 74th Foundation Day: Amitabh Kant emphasizes academia-research-industry partnership

New Delhi: IIT Kharagpur entered its 74th year of foundation on 18th August 2024 which was adorned by the eminent personalities.

Amitabh Kant, India’s G-20 Sherpa and Former CEO of NITI Aayog graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Dr S P Somanath, Chairman ISRO; Dr Samir V Kamat, Chairman, DRDO and Dr. Sonal Mansingh, Padma Vibhshan Awardee and Former MP, Rajya Sabha also graced the occasion as the Guests of Honour.

Amitabh Kant, Chief Guest remarked, “For the growing India, we need innovation of the highest order which would require India to become an Innovation hub. This in turn will require us to invest in applied research and market oriented innovation for which we need a huge build-up of Academia-Research-Industry Partnership. We also need to build innovation, infrastructure talent with prototyping and testing to transition from labs to markets. The mistakes we did in our initial years was to establish research Institutes outside which were independent outside but all future research should be part of the academic institutions like the IIT Kharagpur.”

Kant added further: “All CSIR/DSIR institutions should be linked to academic institutions. All the innovations in the world happens from the academic institutions where professors and students work together, that is how Silicon Valley was created. Industry oriented skills has to come from institutions like IIT Kharagpur and further innovation and research must come IIT research. High quality patents can lead to huge competitive advantage for India and make India a market leader because patents must lead to commercially viable innovation. All patents must lead to commercial innovation. We also have to enhance the scientific and public innovation. India is paying much more in Intellectual Property Royalties (IPR) than in returns. We have 24000 PhD graduates in India, the US produces 68000 doctoral graduated.”

“According to the economic survey only 51.25% of the Indian graduates are deemed employable. So, we are responsible for whoever we produce from the academic institutions must not only be employable but should be highly innovative and should be an innovator and should disrupt society in a manner that the society has ever seen before, We need to create many more institutions like ISRO and DRDO which will ensure that our defence imports are brought to zero and we become the world’s leading exporter with space entrepreneurs. The government has taken several initiatives, it has pushed for innovation, a new mission on artificial intelligence, quantum computing, pushed for 76000 crore scheme for semi-conductors and 25000 crore scheme for green hydrogen; 1.93 lakh crores on production linked incentive manufacturing in India so that Make in India & Start-up India receives huge impetus. In a very short time we have become the 3^rd best start-up ecosystem in the world.”

“To become the 5 trillion dollar economy in the next 4-5 years, the challenge for India is to raise its per capita income which can come from intuitions like IIT Kharagpur. IIT Kharagpur was the founder of all IITs, it has been the father figure to all IITs. It has not only inspired million of engineers in India but also inspired all other IITs to become the centre of excellence so the future of India is truly in the hands of Institutions like IIT Kharagpur. Its energy, its vitality, its dynamism will shape India in the years to come,” outlined Kant.

The Young Alumni Achiever Award was given to 32 young alumni of IIT Kharagpur honouring excellence in innovations, technological developments, research, community welfare, leadership, entrepreneurship, social impact, nation building, national interest and professional accomplishments.

A total of 09 Faculty Excellence Awards, along with 30 Staff Excellence Awards were given. A total of 74 employees were recognized for their uninterrupted 25 years of service to the Institution. The Nina Saxena Excellence in Technology Award 2024 was awarded to ankaj Kumar & Siddhant Aagrwal at IIT Guwahati for developing the technology of Floating Solar PV Technology.

Dr. S P Somanath, Chairman ISRO, “Thank you so much for this opportunity and selecting me for the Life Award. I would like to tell you that I am totally 100% made in India product. Whatever I did was from the knowledge and skill I acquired from the Indian Space Research Organization. I would like to thank my alma mater and TKM College of Engineering, IISc Bangalore and others. I thank all my teachers and gurus in ISRO and this institutions. Our work has been in building certain capabilities in this organization in the last 38 years along with the years I was working. I am fortunate to work with great people, motivators, leaders, who made ISRO what it is today and had the opportunity to follow their footsteps today and do certain works that made all of us proud like the Chandrayaan 3. This gives us more courage and determination to work more towards achieving greater goals in the future.”

Dr. Smair V kamat, Chairman, DRDO said: “As you are aware, I am the Alumni of this institute and it is indeed special when you alma mater recognizes you. Whatever little I have achieved in my career is because of the strong foundation that I got in IIT Kharagpur. And let me say it is not only the knowledge I gained here but it is the life skills that I learnt here which has helped me in my career. So as Dr. Somanath said that when you work in organizations like ISRO and DRDO, it is not individuals who make the difference. It is a collective effort which goes in when you have to realize large systems and where I am standing today is because of all the collaborations and all the team work that several people contributed in achievements that we made.”

Prof. Debashish Chakravarty, Dean Alumni Affairs, IIT Kharagpur talked about Gurudakshina, an aesthetic giveaway by the Alumni of IIT Kharagpur. Guru Dakshina for my Alma Mater will be received from the Alumni of the institute which will help in making IIT Kharagpur self-reliant over a period of time. The funds received through Guru Dakshina shall alleviate the challenge of collecting funds by the students for Spring Festival, Kshitij, Sports Fest and even for increasing and improving hall amenities.

Total 34 Pledges of Gurudakshina has been received with the current batch of students. Dr. V Narayanan, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, ISRO; Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. Debashish Chakravarty, Dean Alumni Affairs and Commander V K Jaitly, Chairman, C_cube Consultants are the donars who have already contributed their part of Gurudakshina to IIT Kharagpur.