Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Encyclopedia
The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur or IIT KGP) is an autonomous engineering
, technology
and management
oriented institute of higher education
established by the government of India
in 1951. The first of the IITs
to be established, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance by the government of India.
The institute was established to train scientists and engineers after India attained independence
in 1947. It shares its organisational structure and undergraduate admission process
with sister IITs. The students and alumni of IIT Kharagpur are informally referred to as KGPians. Among all IITs, IIT Kharagpur has the largest campus (2,100 acre
s), the most departments, and the highest student enrollment. IIT Kharagpur is known for its festivals: Spring Fest
(Social and Cultural Festival), Kshitij
(Techno-Management Festival) and Shaurya (sports festival).
With the help of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy
(Chief Minister of West Bengal), Indian educationalists Humayun Kabir
and Jogendra Singh
formed a committee in 1946 to consider the creation of higher technical institutions for post-war
industrial development of India. This was followed by the creation of a 22-member committee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar
. In its interim report, the Sarkar Committee recommended the establishment of higher technical institutions in India, along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, with affiliated secondary institutions. The report urged that work should start with the speedy establishment of major institutions in the four quarters of the country with the ones in the East and the West to be set up immediately.
On the grounds that West Bengal
had the highest concentration of industries at the time, B. C. Roy persuaded Jawaharlal Nehru
(India's first Prime Minister
) to establish the first institute in West Bengal. The first Indian Institute of Technology was thus established in May 1950 as the Eastern Higher Technical Institute. The institute was located in Esplanade East
, Calcutta
, and in September 1950 shifted to its permanent campus at Hijli, Kharagpur located 120 kilometres southwest of Kolkata. When the first session started in August 1951, there were 224 students and 42 teachers ten 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 political revolutionaries were imprisoned and executed during the British rule
. The office building had served as the headquarters of the Bomber Command of the U.S. 20th Air Force
during World War II. To honour B.C.Roy (Bidhan Chandra Roy), the area in front of the main building is named Bidhan Chowk.
The name "Indian Institute of Technology" was adopted before the formal inauguration of the institute on 18 August 1951 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
. On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India
passed the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act declaring it an Institute of National Importance. Prime Minister Nehru, in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, said:
The Shaheed Bhawan was converted to a museum in 1990. The Srinivasa Ramanujan Complex was incorporated as another academic complex of the institute with Takshashila starting operation in 2002 and Vikramshila in 2003.
IIT Kharagpur shares a common Visitor (a position held by the President of India
) and the IIT Council
with other IITs. The rest of IIT Kharagpur's organisational structure is distinct from that of the other IITs. The Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur is under the IIT Council, and has 13 members that include representatives of the 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 institute's director, who serves as the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT. He is aided by the deputy director. Under the director and the deputy director are 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 and oversees day-to-day operations. He is the custodian of records, funds, and other properties of the institute. Under the charge of the heads of departments (HOD) are the faculty (full-time professors as well as those of associate and assistant status). The wardens of hostels are placed under the chairman of the hall management committee in the organisation.
IIT Kharagpur receives disproportionately more funding than other engineering colleges in India. While the total government funding to most other engineering colleges is around Rs.
100–200 million (US$ 2–4.5 million) per year, IIT Kharagpur gets nearly Rs. 1,300 million ($ 30 million) per year. Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding by industry-sponsored projects. IIT Kharagpur subsidises undergraduate student fees by approximately 80% and provide scholarships to all M.Tech. students and research scholars to encourage them to pursue higher studies. The cost borne by undergraduate students, including boarding and mess expenses, is around Rs. 90,000 ($ 2,000) per annum. 35% of undergraduate students are given additional financial support based on personal need and economic background, with their annual expenses being nearly Rs. 45,000 ($ 1000).
The academic policies of IIT Kharagpur are decided by its senate. It consists of all professors of the institute, and administrative and student representatives. The senate 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 follows 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. For each semester, the students are graded by taking a weighted average from all the courses with their respective credit points. Each semester's evaluation is done independently with a cumulative grade point average
(CGPA) reflecting the average performance across semesters. The medium of instruction is English.
IIT Kharagpur is located 120 kilometres (74.6 mi) west of Kolkata
. The campus is located five kilometres away from 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 8.5 square kilometres (2,100.4 acre) campus is residence to about 20,000 inhabitants. In 2006, IIT Kharagpur had about 470 faculty members, 1,933 employees and approximately 5,500 students living on the campus. The campus has a total of 55 kilometres (34 miles) of roadways.
The 20 student hostels are located on either side of Scholars Avenue, which extends from the institute gate to the B. C. Roy Technology Hospital. The three earliest halls—Patel, Azad, and Nehru—together constitute the PAN loop or Old Campus, which is located just next to Scholar's Avenue. There are eight hostels for undergraduate male students (MMM, RP, RK, MS, LLR, HJB, Patel, Azad and Nehru) and one for undergraduate female students (SN). Another hostel for women has been constructed. There are a few post-graduate students' hostels including two for women and two hostels for research scholars (BCR and JCB) and a separate hostel for scholars from the armed forces. The Jnan Ghosh stadium and Tata Sports Complex host large-scale sports competitions. The Tagore Open Air Theatre has a capacity of 3,000 people, and is used to host cultural programs. 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.
In addition to the main campus at Kharagpur, the institute has an extension centre at Kolkata to provide venues for continuing education programmes, distance learning courses, and guesthouse accommodation. The institute plans to expand the Kolkata extension centre at Rajarhat
, and use it to offer full-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses from the 2008 session onwards. The 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) Rajarhat campus will house 2,500 students, and will eventually expand to 250 acres (1 km²). The institute's plan for a similar branch campus of 200 acre (0.809372 km²) in Bhubaneswar
was scrapped following rejection by the Union Human Resource and Development ministry.
IIT Kharagpur has 19 academic departments, eight multi-disciplinary centres/schools, and 13 schools of excellence in addition to laboratories and central research facilities. Apart from the main building in the central academic complex, the Srinivasa Ramanujan Complex also has common academic facilities. In the S. R. Complex, the Takshashila building houses the G. S. Sanyal School of Telecommunication, the School of Information Technology and the Computer and Informatics Centre; and has facilities for conducting lecture classes as well. Vikramshila is another academic building in the S. R. Complex, having four lecture halls, several seminar rooms, and Kalidas Auditorium, which has a seating capacity of 850.
The School of Medical Science and Technology is housed in the basement of the Vikramshila building.
The institute main building houses most of the administrative offices, the lecture halls, and two auditoriums on either side. The signage at the front displays the message," Dedicated to the service of the nation." The tower of the main building has a steel tank with 10,000 imperial gallons of water capacity for emergency supply needs. The Netaji Auditorium in the main building is used for official functions and events, and doubles as a cinema theatre on weekend nights, showing movies to the IIT community at subsidised rates.
IIT Kharagpur's first library was located in a small room of the institute's Old Building (Shaheed Bhawan). At the time of its opening in 1951, the library had a collection of 2,500 books. Now located in the main building of the institute, the Central Library is one of the largest of its type. Its collection includes over 350,000 books and documents, and it subscribes to more than 1,600 printed and online journals and conference proceedings.
The library has six halls and a section exclusively 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 library's transaction service is automated and online searches are possible through an Online Public Access Catalog
(OPAC). The Electronic Library section has a collection of databases, video lectures and miscellaneous other resources.
The Nehru Museum of Science and Technology
has over a hundred indoor exhibits that include technical models collected from institutions 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, showing documents relating to the history of the institute and West Midnapore district
. The Rural Museum, located in the Rural Development Centre of the institute, has a collection of exhibits in local culture.
The institute campus has six guest houses, a civic hospital, four nationalised banks, four schools, a railway reservation counter and a police station. The campus has a water pumping station, electrical sub-station, telephone exchange, a market, six restaurants, and a garbage disposal section for the daily needs of the residents. Construction is going on for another guest house and a convention centre having a capacity of 2,000. The institute draws its supply of water from wells near the Kosai river
(located 112 kilometres away from institute) by harnessing sub-surface water. Three deep wells near the institute supplement the supply from the river. The water is supplied by a 16 inches (406.4 mm) pipeline to 12 tanks in the campus with a total capacity of 2,800,000 litre
s (615,000 imperial gallons). However students have recently shown dissatisfaction with the current level of amenities, especially the civic hospital, forcing the director to resign.
IIT Kharagpur is located just outside the town of Kharagpur, in the Hijli village. The civic amenities provided to the campus of IIT Kharagpur make it nearly self-sufficient with regards to the basic needs of the residents. As Kharagpur is a small town, there is limited direct interaction between the campus community and the town. There is also little opportunity for the employment of family members of the faculty. Unlike some other IITs (such as IIT Bombay
), IIT Kharagpur does not restrict outsiders' entry into the campus. IIT Kharagpur provides much of its benefits to the local community through the Rural Development Centre (RDC) located in the campus. Established in 1975, the RDC helps the local community by developing customised technologies. The RDC also co-ordinates the National Service Scheme
(NSS) programs in IIT Kharagpur, with the members of NSS taking part in weekly community service activities such as sanitation, road construction, teaching and building educational models.
In 2005, IIT Kharagpur started construction of a boundary wall for the security of the campus, which is now complete.
Mild restrictions apply to entry of outside vehicles. The boundary wall was opposed by the local community as it would hinder their access to amenities provided by the institute. Campus residents have also been denied direct access to the adjoining
Hijli railway station as a result of this wall. 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. The construction of the 1052.69 m long flyover has been approved by the Indian Railways
and West Bengal state government. It will be formally called Hijli Road overbridge, and will be constructed for estimated cost of Rs. 237 million ($ 5.3 million).
Admission to most undergraduate and postgraduate courses in IIT Kharagpur is granted through written entrance examinations. Admissions to M.S.(by Research) and Ph.D. programmes are based on written tests followed by personal interviews.
Admission to undergraduate programmes in all IITs is tied to the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination
(IIT-JEE). Candidates who qualify for admission through IIT-JEE can apply for admission in four year B.Tech.
(Bachelor of Technology), five year B.Arch. degree, five year Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelor of Technology
and Master of Technology) and five year integrated M.Sc. (Master of Sciences
) courses at IIT Kharagpur. The admissions to postgraduate programmes (M.Tech.) are made primarily through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering
(GATE). Other postgraduate entrance exams include Joint Admission to M.Sc. (JAM) for M.Sc., and Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) for management studies.
15% of the seats are reserved for students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes
(ST). As of 2008, 27% separate reservation exists for the Other Backward Class
es.
IIT Kharagpur is a member of LAOTSE
, a network of universities in Europe and Asia exchanging students and senior scholars.
IIT Kharagpur offers degrees as part of its undergraduate programmes. They include Bachelor of Technology
(B.Tech.), Bachelor of Architecture
(B.Arch.) and the 5 year integrated Master of Science. 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 programme with eight semesters. The first year of the B.Tech. curriculum has common courses from various departments. At the end of the first year, an option to change departments is given to students on the basis of their performance in the first two semesters.
From the second year onwards, the students take courses offered by their departments that are known as depth courses. In addition to these, the students takef inter-disciplinary courses known as breadth courses. Separate courses from the humanities
and social sciences
(HSS) department, and management and information technology are also required. At the end of the third year, the B.Tech. and Dual Degree students undertake industrial training for a minimum period of eight working weeks as part of the undergraduate curriculum. 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 by applying to recruiting organisations directly. In addition to the major degree
as part of the undergraduate education, students can take courses from other departments, and by demonstrating knowledge of a discipline based on objectives set by the department, earn a minor in that department.
(MBA), and Master of Sciences (M.Sc.). Some specialised post graduate programmes offered by IIT Kharagpur include Master
of Human Resource Management
(MHRM
), Postgraduate 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 znd Management (PGDMOM). The institute offers the Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D) as part of its doctoral education programme
. The doctoral scholars are given a topic by the professor, or work on the consultancy projects sponsored by industry. The duration of the programme is usually unspecified and depends on the discipline. Ph.D scholars submit a dissertation as well as conduct an oral defence of their thesis
. Teaching assistant
ships (TA) and research assistant
ships (RA) are provided based on the scholar's academic profile. IIT Kharagpur offers an M.S. (by research) programme; the M.Tech. and M.S. being similar to the US universities' non-thesis (course-based) and thesis (research-based) master programmes respectively.
IIT Kharagpur (along with other IITs) offers Dual Degree programs that integrate undergraduate and postgraduate studies in selected pairs of branches and specialisations. Most of the Dual Degree programs involve specialisation in the major field of education of the student. For a dual degree involving an MBA from Vinod Gupta School of Management
, the selection is made on the basis of an aptitude test of students across all engineering streams. The Dual Degree program spans five years as against six years in conventional B.Tech. (four years) followed by an M.Tech. or MBA (two years). IIT Kharagpur has a management school (Vinod Gupta School of Management
), an entrepreneurship school (Rajendra Mishra
School of Engineering Entrepreneurship) and a law school (Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law
) on its premises. The Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law has been opened in collaboration with George Washington University
.
, 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. As of 2006, the CEP has facilitated publication of 103 course curriculum books. The CEP administers SIMAP (Small Industries Management Assistant Programme) and STUP (Skill-cum-Technology Upgradation Programme) on behalf of IIT Kharagpur; the institute being a corpus institute of SIDBI
(Small Industries Development Bank of India).
417 million ($ 9.25 million)—and 130 consultancy projects in the 2005–06 session. The institute transferred 15 technologies to industry during the same session. The institute has filed 125 patents and 25 of them have been granted. This does not include patents obtained by individual professors or students. During the same session, the value of the international projects was Rs. 9.9 million ($ 220,000), and the revenue from transferred technologies was about Rs. 2.5 million ($ 55,000). The institute earned Rs. 520 million ($ 11.5 million) from research projects in the 2005–06 session. Major sponsors for research include the Indian National Science Academy
, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Defence Research and Development Organisation
, Microsoft Corporation
, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India)
and Indian Space Research Organisation
. IIT Kharagpur has had a cell known as the SRIC (Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy) cell since 1982. It handles sponsored research projects and industrial consultancy assignments, and has the infrastructure to simultaneously administer 600 R&D
projects.
. It was ranked 439 in the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP). In India, among engineering colleges, it ranked 3 by India Today
, 1 by Outlook India, and 3 by Dataquest
. In the Mint
Government Colleges survey of 2009 it ranked 4.
IIT Kharagpur provides on-campus residential facilities to its students, research scholars, faculty members and many of its staff. The students live in hostels (referred to as halls) throughout their stay in the IIT.
Hostel rooms are wired for internet, for which students pay a compulsory charge. Most of the rooms in the halls of residences are designed to accommodate one student per room. Now (2005–2009), due to scarcity of sufficient student accommodation, two students share a single seater room for the first two years.
Undergraduate students choose between National Cadet Corps
(NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Sports Organisation
(NSO) for their first two years of study. IIT Kharagpur has common sports grounds for cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, and athletics; and swimming pools for aquatic events. Most of the hostels have their own sports grounds. The institute organises an annual inter-collegiate sports and games meet in October
The students of IIT Kharagpur compete among themselves in various events held under the purview of open-IIT and inter-hall events, and the results of the latter contribute to the points that determine the winner of General Championship. The four categories in which General Championships are decided are Sports, Social and cultural activities, Technology, and Hall affairs. The women's hostel together participate as a single team in all events with the exception of sports, where women's team do not participate at inter-hall level. IIT Kharagpur participates in the Inter-IIT Sports Meet, held annually in one of the IITs by policy of rotation.
The students choose their representatives by elections held under the control of the Technology Students' Gymkhana. The highest-ranking student representative chosen by the elections is the Vice-President of the Gymkhana, and represents the students in the senate. All halls nominate two representatives for the senate. The Gymkhana publishes an annual magazine called Alankar. A fortnightly newsletter called The Scholar's Avenue, named after the avenue common to the student halls, is also published by an independent student body. A Hindi monthly newsletter Awaaz is also published by another independent student body. Individual halls organise "Hall day" — an annual event that involves lighting and decoration of the organising hall, with a social gathering of students from all halls—during March. The event is also used by the halls to popularise their candidates for student body elections.
Students who violate the code of conduct of the institute have to defend themselves in front of the Hall Disciplinary Committee (HDC), which investigates the case and prescribes punishment if necessary. Students may appeal against the punishment to the Appellate
-cum-Liaison
Committee known as Inter Hall Disciplinary Committee (IHDC). The IHDC submits its recommendations to the Senate, which 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 committed anywhere in India. IIT Kharagpur has strict provisions dealing with physical and mental harassment of junior students (ragging
). Students found harassing their juniors are suspended from the institute, without going through the Disciplinary Committee.
, Kshitij
. Spring Fest, the annual social and cultural festival, is held in January. Spring Fest includes cultural competitions in addition to stage shows (known as Star-nights) by singers and performers such as K.K.
, Pritam
, Kailash Kher, Shaan
, Breathe, Led Zepplica, Parikrama
etc. The event attracts participation from colleges across India. IIT Kharagpur organises a techno-management festival known as Kshitij. It is the biggest techno-management festival of Asia with a total budget of more than 1.5 crore and a total prize money of Rs 50 lakh. An annual techno-management festival organised in January or February, it receives participation from foreign universities as well. Events include technical workshops, seminars, and competitions.
Robotix
, the annual robotics competition held by IIT Kharagpur, is organised during Kshitij. IIT Kharagpur organises an annual inter-collegiate sports and games meet known as Shaurya. It is held in the autumn semester in October. Events include cricket, hockey, volleyball, basketball, badminton, table tennis, lawn tennis and aquatics. Workshops for archery, boxing and handball are held
Illumination, known as Illu, is a festival unique to IIT Kharagpur. It is inspired from the day of Diwali
(the festival of lights) and is usually held on the day of Diwali itself. It is held as a competition among student halls. As part of the Illumination festival, all halls build vertical panels of bamboo (called Chatais) on which thousands of lamps (diyas) are mounted forming outlines of people or things; illustrating an event, or a place of importance. The chatais may reach a height of 6 metres (19.7 ft), with nearly 20,000 lighted lamps. The lamps on the chatais are lighted with all other light sources switched off, to showcase the art-panels made by the flickering lamps. On the same day as Illumination, the Rangoli Competition is organised as an inter-hall event. Rangoli
s of exquisite detail and shading—measuring around 3.5 by —are constructed using coloured powders, crushed bangles, and pebbles. Interplay of light and shadow and ambient music are part of the display.
In January the Entrepreneurship Cell
organises a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which consists of guest lectures, workshops, a start-up camp and other events relating to entrepreneurship
and starting-up.
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering organises Bitwise IIT Kharagpur
, an online programing contest annually in February. Programing and algorithmic challenges are given in a span of 12 hours. In Bitwise 2010, 4900 teams participated from 65 countries. Bitwise 2011 is scheduled on 13 February 2011.
It conducts two major events, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit(GES), which is a three-day event, held in January at the institute, and the Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive (EAD), a 10-day event, consisting of guest lectures in 10 cities across India. Knowledge Camp is conducted annually for the benefit of students within IIT-Kgp, while the Innovation Platform and Fund-aKGPian programs continue throughout the year, to recognise and support innovative ideas among students of IIT-Kgp, besides workshops and guest lectures throughout the year.
Prof. Sunil Handa, Padma Shri
Prof. Anil K. Gupta, Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Vinod Dham
, Arjun Malhotra
are some of the speakers, who have delivered lectures within and outside IIT -Kgp.
E-Cell has been instrumental in the establishment of School of Engineering Entrepreneurship (SoEE). The E-Cell has played a key role in the Deferred Placement Programme (DPP), whereby, a student can opt for placement a year after the completion of his/her course, in case they are involved in a startup company. This is the first time such a programme is being offered at the undergraduate level in India.
This huge jump can be attributed to the fact that it is the first time in IIT Kharagpur’s history that students have been allowed to take up foreign placements by companies. “We, in fact, had a documented policy of not allowing foreign placements. This was overturned last year,” GS Sinha, former IIT Kgp’s placement in-charge, said. “Since all the other IITs were already allowing this, we wanted it to happen at IIT-Kharagpur as well,” he added.
“Since we got the permission a bit late last year, the kind of active marketing that was required did not happen. This year, we plan to plug into our alumni network and scale up the process in a much bigger way,” said Prof Sinha.
The top domestic compensation this year came in at Rs 18 lakh per annum. In 2011 batch, Goldman Sachs
recruited 10 students on a package of Rs. 26 lakhs per annum.
Barclays Capital
recruited 11 students with a package of US $55,000(Rs.22 lacs./annum) in December 2009. The highest salary offered till now is Rs 1.7 crore by social networking site
Facebook
in an off-shore recruitment (of which ESOPs were offered valued at 1 crore). The 2010 batch of B.Tech students saw 94% placements while the remaining preferred IIMs or entrepreneurship.Deutsche Bank
recruited 9 students on a package of Rs. 15 lakhs per annum.
). The motto literally translates to "Perfection in action is Yoga
" essentially implying that doing your work well is (true) yoga. It is sourced to Sri Krishna's
discourse to Arjuna
in Bhagavad Gita
. This quote in its larger context of Gita urges man to acquire equanimity because such a soul endowed with the mind of equanimity allows him to shed the effects of his good and evil deeds in this world itself. Equanimity is the source of perfection in Karmic
endeavors while leading to Salvation
..
The Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM) and Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law were established with donated funds from Vinod Gupta
(founder, Infogroup) along with support from the government of India. VGSOM started in 1993 with a batch of 30 students. 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 1992, is the alumni association of the institute with chapters in cities in India and abroad. Dr. Subrata Gupta IAS is the Director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. The alumni association publishes the quarterly newsletter KGPian for the alumni. The institute also publishes a monthly e-newsletter titled KGP Konnexion for alumni. IIT Kharagpur has a dean for alumni affairs to manage liaisons with alumni. The US-based alumni of IIT Kharagpur have started the Vision 2020 fundraiser, to provide infrastructure (like labs and equipment) and attract and retain faculty and students. The objective of Vision 2020 is to raise a US$200 million endowment fund by the year 2020 for technology education, research and innovation related growth of the institute.
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, technology
Institute of technology
Institute of technology is a designation employed in a wide range of learning institutions awarding different types of degrees and operating often at variable levels of the educational system...
and management
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
oriented institute of higher education
Education in India
Education in India is provided by the public sector as well as the private sector, with control and funding coming from three levels: federal, state, and local. Child education is compulsory. The Nalanda University was the oldest university-system of education in the world...
established by the government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
in 1951. The first of the IITs
Indian Institutes of Technology
The Indian Institutes of Technology are a group of autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institutes of higher education. The IITs are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 which has declared them as “institutions of national importance”, and lays down their powers, duties,...
to be established, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance by the government of India.
The institute was established to train scientists and engineers after India attained independence
Indian independence movement
The term Indian independence movement encompasses a wide area of political organisations, philosophies, and movements which had the common aim of ending first British East India Company rule, and then British imperial authority, in parts of South Asia...
in 1947. It shares its organisational structure and undergraduate admission process
Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination
The Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination is an annual college entrance examination in India. It is used as a sole criterion for the Indian Institutes of Technology as well as other institutes.The exam is conducted by the various IITs by a policy of rotation...
with sister IITs. The students and alumni of IIT Kharagpur are informally referred to as KGPians. Among all IITs, IIT Kharagpur has the largest campus (2,100 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s), the most departments, and the highest student enrollment. IIT Kharagpur is known for its festivals: Spring Fest
Spring Fest
Spring Fest, popularly known as SF, is the annual social & cultural festival of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur held during the month of January in the spring semester...
(Social and Cultural Festival), Kshitij
Kshitij
Kshitij is the annual techno-management fest of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India. Kshitij started off in 2004 with the aim of promoting technology and entrepreneurship in India, and in 8 years, it has grown to become the Asia’s largest techno-management fest. The...
(Techno-Management Festival) and Shaurya (sports festival).
History
Bidhan Chandra Roy
Bidhan Chandra Roy, M.R.C.P., F.R.C.S. was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal in India. He remained in his post for 14 years as a Indian National Congress candidate, from 1948 until his death in 1962. He was a highly respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter...
(Chief Minister of West Bengal), Indian educationalists Humayun Kabir
Humayun Kabir
Humayun Zahiruddin Amir-i Kabir or Humayun Kabir was an Indian educationist, politician, writer and philosopher.-Ancestry and early life:...
and Jogendra Singh
Jogendra Singh
Sir Jogendra Singh was a member of Viceroy's Executive Council in India. He served as Chairman of the Department of Health, Education and Lands. He was a figure in the Sikh community and one of several delegates chosen to represent the Sikh community before the Cripps' mission of 1942...
formed a committee in 1946 to consider the creation of higher technical institutions for post-war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
industrial development of India. This was followed by the creation of a 22-member committee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar
Nalini Ranjan Sarkar
Nalini Ranjan Sarkar was a businessman, industrialist, public leader, and was greatly involved in the political and economic regeneration of Bengal. He was born in a middle class Kayastha family of greater Mymensingh district...
. In its interim report, the Sarkar Committee recommended the establishment of higher technical institutions in India, along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, with affiliated secondary institutions. The report urged that work should start with the speedy establishment of major institutions in the four quarters of the country with the ones in the East and the West to be set up immediately.
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
had the highest concentration of industries at the time, B. C. Roy persuaded Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru , often referred to with the epithet of Panditji, was an Indian statesman who became the first Prime Minister of independent India and became noted for his “neutralist” policies in foreign affairs. He was also one of the principal leaders of India’s independence movement in the...
(India's first Prime Minister
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
) to establish the first institute in West Bengal. The first Indian Institute of Technology was thus established in May 1950 as the Eastern Higher Technical Institute. The institute was located in Esplanade East
Esplanade, Calcutta
Esplanade is an area in central Kolkata, earlier known as Calcutta, in the Indian state of West Bengal. This is not a conventional esplanade in the sense that the place is not exactly situated alongside a waterbody. However, the river Ganges, also known as the Ganga or the Hooghly, is located nearby...
, Calcutta
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, and in September 1950 shifted to its permanent campus at Hijli, Kharagpur located 120 kilometres southwest of Kolkata. When the first session started in August 1951, there were 224 students and 42 teachers ten departments of the institute. The class rooms, laboratories and the administrative office were housed in the historic building of the Hijli Detention Camp
Hijli Detention Camp
Hijli Detention Camp, located in Hijli, beside Kharagpur, , in the district of Midnapore West, West Bengal, India, was significant in the struggle against the British Raj in the early 20th century....
(now known as Shaheed Bhawan), where political revolutionaries were imprisoned and executed during the British rule
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
. The office building had served as the headquarters of the Bomber Command of the U.S. 20th Air Force
Twentieth Air Force
The Twentieth Air Force is a numbered air force of the United States Air Force Global Strike Command . It is headquartered at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming.20 AF's primary mission is Intercontinental Ballistic Missile operations...
during World War II. To honour B.C.Roy (Bidhan Chandra Roy), the area in front of the main building is named Bidhan Chowk.
The name "Indian Institute of Technology" was adopted before the formal inauguration of the institute on 18 August 1951 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
Maulana Abul Kalam Muhiyuddin Ahmed was an Indian Muslim scholar and a senior political leader of the Indian independence movement, who lived from 11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958. He was one of the most prominent Muslim leaders to support Hindu-Muslim unity, opposing the partition of India on...
. On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...
passed the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act declaring it an Institute of National Importance. Prime Minister Nehru, in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, said:
The Shaheed Bhawan was converted to a museum in 1990. The Srinivasa Ramanujan Complex was incorporated as another academic complex of the institute with Takshashila starting operation in 2002 and Vikramshila in 2003.
Administration
President of India
The President of India is the head of state and first citizen of India, as well as the Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces. President of India is also the formal head of all the three branches of Indian Democracy - Legislature, Executive and Judiciary...
) and the IIT Council
IIT Council
The IIT Council is the governing body responsible for all of the Indian Institutes of Technology.The IIT Council comprises the minister-in-charge of technical education in the Union Government , three Members of Parliament, the Chairmen of all IITs, the Directors of all IITs, the Chairman of the...
with other IITs. The rest of IIT Kharagpur's organisational structure is distinct from that of the other IITs. The Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur is under the IIT Council, and has 13 members that include representatives of the states of West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
, Jharkhand
Jharkhand
Jharkhand is a state in eastern India. It was carved out of the southern part of Bihar on 15 November 2000. Jharkhand shares its border with the states of Bihar to the north, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to the west, Orissa to the south, and West Bengal to the east...
and Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
, in addition to other members appointed by the IIT Council and the institute's senate
Academic Senate
An Academic Senate is a governing body in some universities and colleges, and is typically the supreme academic authority for the institution.-Scotland:...
. Under the Board of Governors is the institute's director, who serves as the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT. He is aided by the deputy director. Under the director and the deputy director are the deans
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...
, heads of departments, registrar, president of the students' council, and chairman of the hall management committee. The registrar is the chief administrative officer and oversees day-to-day operations. He is the custodian of records, funds, and other properties of the institute. Under the charge of the heads of departments (HOD) are the faculty (full-time professors as well as those of associate and assistant status). The wardens of hostels are placed under the chairman of the hall management committee in the organisation.
IIT Kharagpur receives disproportionately more funding than other engineering colleges in India. While the total government funding to most other engineering colleges is around Rs.
Indian rupee
The Indian rupee is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India....
100–200 million (US$ 2–4.5 million) per year, IIT Kharagpur gets nearly Rs. 1,300 million ($ 30 million) per year. Other sources of funds include student fees and research funding by industry-sponsored projects. IIT Kharagpur subsidises undergraduate student fees by approximately 80% and provide scholarships to all M.Tech. students and research scholars to encourage them to pursue higher studies. The cost borne by undergraduate students, including boarding and mess expenses, is around Rs. 90,000 ($ 2,000) per annum. 35% of undergraduate students are given additional financial support based on personal need and economic background, with their annual expenses being nearly Rs. 45,000 ($ 1000).
The academic policies of IIT Kharagpur are decided by its senate. It consists of all professors of the institute, and administrative and student representatives. The senate 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 follows the credit
Credit (education)
A course credit is a unit that gives weighting to the value, level or time requirements of an academic course taken at a school or other educational institution.- United States :...
-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. For each semester, the students are graded by taking a weighted average from all the courses with their respective credit points. Each semester's evaluation is done independently with a cumulative grade point average
Grade (education)
Grades are standardized measurements of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area. Grades can be assigned in letters , as a range , as a number out of a possible total , as descriptors , in percentages, or, as is common in some post-secondary...
(CGPA) reflecting the average performance across semesters. The medium of instruction is English.
Campus
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
. The campus is located five kilometres away from 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
Werner M. Moser
Werner Max Moser was a Swiss architect whose most famous work is the modern campus of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur....
, a Swiss architect. The 8.5 square kilometres (2,100.4 acre) campus is residence to about 20,000 inhabitants. In 2006, IIT Kharagpur had about 470 faculty members, 1,933 employees and approximately 5,500 students living on the campus. The campus has a total of 55 kilometres (34 miles) of roadways.
The 20 student hostels are located on either side of Scholars Avenue, which extends from the institute gate to the B. C. Roy Technology Hospital. The three earliest halls—Patel, Azad, and Nehru—together constitute the PAN loop or Old Campus, which is located just next to Scholar's Avenue. There are eight hostels for undergraduate male students (MMM, RP, RK, MS, LLR, HJB, Patel, Azad and Nehru) and one for undergraduate female students (SN). Another hostel for women has been constructed. There are a few post-graduate students' hostels including two for women and two hostels for research scholars (BCR and JCB) and a separate hostel for scholars from the armed forces. The Jnan Ghosh stadium and Tata Sports Complex host large-scale sports competitions. The Tagore Open Air Theatre has a capacity of 3,000 people, and is used to host cultural programs. 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.
In addition to the main campus at Kharagpur, the institute has an extension centre at Kolkata to provide venues for continuing education programmes, distance learning courses, and guesthouse accommodation. The institute plans to expand the Kolkata extension centre at Rajarhat
Rajarhat
Rajarhat Gopalpur , a neighbourhood of Calcutta, located in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, is a fast-growing planned new city. It is situated near the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport. Many high-profile industrialists of national and international standing are...
, and use it to offer full-time undergraduate and postgraduate courses from the 2008 session onwards. The 10 acres (40,468.6 m²) Rajarhat campus will house 2,500 students, and will eventually expand to 250 acres (1 km²). The institute's plan for a similar branch campus of 200 acre (0.809372 km²) in Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar is the capital of the Indian state of Orissa, officially Odisha. The city has a long history of over 2000 years starting with Chedi dynasty who had Sisupalgarh near present-day Bhubaneswar as their capital...
was scrapped following rejection by the Union Human Resource and Development ministry.
Academic buildings
The School of Medical Science and Technology is housed in the basement of the Vikramshila building.
The institute main building houses most of the administrative offices, the lecture halls, and two auditoriums on either side. The signage at the front displays the message," Dedicated to the service of the nation." The tower of the main building has a steel tank with 10,000 imperial gallons of water capacity for emergency supply needs. The Netaji Auditorium in the main building is used for official functions and events, and doubles as a cinema theatre on weekend nights, showing movies to the IIT community at subsidised rates.
IIT Kharagpur's first library was located in a small room of the institute's Old Building (Shaheed Bhawan). At the time of its opening in 1951, the library had a collection of 2,500 books. Now located in the main building of the institute, the Central Library is one of the largest of its type. Its collection includes over 350,000 books and documents, and it subscribes to more than 1,600 printed and online journals and conference proceedings.
The library has six halls and a section exclusively for SC and ST
Adivasi
Adivasi is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups claimed to be the aboriginal population of India. They comprise a substantial indigenous minority of the population of India...
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 library's transaction service is automated and online searches are possible through an Online Public Access Catalog
OPAC
An Online Public Access Catalog is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries...
(OPAC). The Electronic Library section has a collection of databases, video lectures and miscellaneous other resources.
The Nehru Museum of Science and Technology
Nehru Museum of Science and Technology
The Nehru Museum of Science and Technology is a museum in India. It was founded in 1990 at the Hijli Detention camp building, later the IIT-Kharagpur Heritage Building, which is now named as Hijli Saheed Bhavan...
has over a hundred indoor exhibits that include technical models collected from institutions 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, showing documents relating to the history of the institute and West Midnapore district
Paschim Medinipur
Paschim Medinipur district or West Midnapore district is the districts of the state of West Bengal, India. It was formed on January 1, 2002 after the Partition of Midnapore into Paschim Medinipur and Purba Medinipur. The district has 4 sub-divisions: Kharagpur, Medinipur Sadar, Ghatal and Jhargram...
. The Rural Museum, located in the Rural Development Centre of the institute, has a collection of exhibits in local culture.
Civic amenities
Kosai river
The Kosai River is a small river located near Kharagpur in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the primary source of water supply for the township and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur....
(located 112 kilometres away from institute) by harnessing sub-surface water. Three deep wells near the institute supplement the supply from the river. The water is supplied by a 16 inches (406.4 mm) pipeline to 12 tanks in the campus with a total capacity of 2,800,000 litre
Litre
pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...
s (615,000 imperial gallons). However students have recently shown dissatisfaction with the current level of amenities, especially the civic hospital, forcing the director to resign.
IIT Kharagpur is located just outside the town of Kharagpur, in the Hijli village. The civic amenities provided to the campus of IIT Kharagpur make it nearly self-sufficient with regards to the basic needs of the residents. As Kharagpur is a small town, there is limited direct interaction between the campus community and the town. There is also little opportunity for the employment of family members of the faculty. Unlike some other IITs (such as IIT Bombay
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay , popularly known as IIT Bombay or IITB, is a public research university located in Powai, Mumbai...
), IIT Kharagpur does not restrict outsiders' entry into the campus. IIT Kharagpur provides much of its benefits to the local community through the Rural Development Centre (RDC) located in the campus. Established in 1975, the RDC helps the local community by developing customised technologies. The RDC also co-ordinates the National Service Scheme
National Service Scheme
National Service Scheme ' is an Indian government-sponsored program under the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of India. It was started in 1969.-History:...
(NSS) programs in IIT Kharagpur, with the members of NSS taking part in weekly community service activities such as sanitation, road construction, teaching and building educational models.
In 2005, IIT Kharagpur started construction of a boundary wall for the security of the campus, which is now complete.
Mild restrictions apply to entry of outside vehicles. The boundary wall was opposed by the local community as it would hinder their access to amenities provided by the institute. Campus residents have also been denied direct access to the adjoining
Hijli railway station as a result of this wall. The local community also opposes the construction of a flyover
Overpass
An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...
from the railway station to the campus, as it would lead to substantial losses of opportunity for the shops along the roads. The construction of the 1052.69 m long flyover has been approved by the Indian Railways
Indian Railways
Indian Railways , abbreviated as IR , is a departmental undertaking of Government of India, which owns and operates most of India's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India....
and West Bengal state government. It will be formally called Hijli Road overbridge, and will be constructed for estimated cost of Rs. 237 million ($ 5.3 million).
Academics
Admission to undergraduate programmes in all IITs is tied to the Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination
Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination
The Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination is an annual college entrance examination in India. It is used as a sole criterion for the Indian Institutes of Technology as well as other institutes.The exam is conducted by the various IITs by a policy of rotation...
(IIT-JEE). Candidates who qualify for admission through IIT-JEE can apply for admission in four year B.Tech.
Bachelor of Technology
The Bachelor of Technology is an undergraduate academic degree conferred after completion of a three or four year program of studies at an accredited university or accredited university-level institution...
(Bachelor of Technology), five year B.Arch. degree, five year Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelor of Technology
Bachelor of Technology
The Bachelor of Technology is an undergraduate academic degree conferred after completion of a three or four year program of studies at an accredited university or accredited university-level institution...
and Master of Technology) and five year integrated M.Sc. (Master of Sciences
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
) courses at IIT Kharagpur. The admissions to postgraduate programmes (M.Tech.) are made primarily through the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering
Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering is an examination administered and conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institutes of Technologies on behalf of the National Coordination Board – GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development ,...
(GATE). Other postgraduate entrance exams include Joint Admission to M.Sc. (JAM) for M.Sc., and Joint Management Entrance Test (JMET) for management studies.
15% of the seats are reserved for students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 7.5% for Scheduled Tribes
Adivasi
Adivasi is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups claimed to be the aboriginal population of India. They comprise a substantial indigenous minority of the population of India...
(ST). As of 2008, 27% separate reservation exists for the Other Backward Class
Other Backward Class
The Central Government of India classifies some of its citizens based on their social and economic condition as Scheduled Caste , Scheduled Tribe , and Other Backward Class . The OBC list presented by the commission is dynamic and will change from time to time depending on social, educational and...
es.
IIT Kharagpur is a member of LAOTSE
Engineering education
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles related to the professional practice of engineering. It includes the initial education for becoming an engineer and any advanced education and specialization that follow...
, a network of universities in Europe and Asia exchanging students and senior scholars.
Undergraduate education
Bachelor of Technology
The Bachelor of Technology is an undergraduate academic degree conferred after completion of a three or four year program of studies at an accredited university or accredited university-level institution...
(B.Tech.), Bachelor of Architecture
Bachelor of Architecture
The Bachelor of Architecture is an undergraduate academic degree designed to satisfy the academic component of professional accreditation bodies, to be followed by a period of practical training prior to professional examination and registration. It is awarded for a course of study that lasts up...
(B.Arch.) and the 5 year integrated Master of Science. 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 programme with eight semesters. The first year of the B.Tech. curriculum has common courses from various departments. At the end of the first year, an option to change departments is given to students on the basis of their performance in the first two semesters.
From the second year onwards, the students take courses offered by their departments that are known as depth courses. In addition to these, the students takef inter-disciplinary courses known as breadth courses. Separate courses from the humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
(HSS) department, and management and information technology are also required. At the end of the third year, the B.Tech. and Dual Degree students undertake industrial training for a minimum period of eight working weeks as part of the undergraduate curriculum. 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 by applying to recruiting organisations directly. In addition to the major degree
Academic major
In the United States and Canada, an academic major or major concentration is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits....
as part of the undergraduate education, students can take courses from other departments, and by demonstrating knowledge of a discipline based on objectives set by the department, earn a minor in that department.
Postgraduate and doctoral education
IIT Kharagpur offers postgraduate programmes including Master of Technology (M.Tech.), Master of Business AdministrationMaster of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
(MBA), and Master of Sciences (M.Sc.). Some specialised post graduate programmes offered by IIT Kharagpur include Master
MHRM, IIT Kharagpur
The Master of Human Resource Management is a specialized management programme in the field of Human Resource offered by Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Kharagpur.-History:...
of Human Resource Management
Human resource management
Human Resource Management is the management of an organization's employees. While human resource management is sometimes referred to as a "soft" management skill, effective practice within an organization requires a strategic focus to ensure that people resources can facilitate the achievement of...
(MHRM
MHRM, IIT Kharagpur
The Master of Human Resource Management is a specialized management programme in the field of Human Resource offered by Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Kharagpur.-History:...
), Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
(PGDIT), Master in Medical Science and Technology (MMST), Master of City Planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
(MCP), Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
(PGDIPL), and Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation znd Management (PGDMOM). The institute offers the Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D) as part of its doctoral education programme
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
. The doctoral scholars are given a topic by the professor, or work on the consultancy projects sponsored by industry. The duration of the programme is usually unspecified and depends on the discipline. Ph.D scholars submit a dissertation as well as conduct an oral defence of their thesis
Thesis
A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...
. Teaching assistant
Teaching assistant
A teaching assistant is an individual who assists a professor or teacher with instructional responsibilities. TAs include graduate teaching assistants , who are graduate students; undergraduate teaching assistants , who are undergraduate students; secondary school TAs, who are either high school...
ships (TA) and research assistant
Research assistant
A research assistant is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university or a research institute, for the purpose of assisting in academic research...
ships (RA) are provided based on the scholar's academic profile. IIT Kharagpur offers an M.S. (by research) programme; the M.Tech. and M.S. being similar to the US universities' non-thesis (course-based) and thesis (research-based) master programmes respectively.
IIT Kharagpur (along with other IITs) offers Dual Degree programs that integrate undergraduate and postgraduate studies in selected pairs of branches and specialisations. Most of the Dual Degree programs involve specialisation in the major field of education of the student. For a dual degree involving an MBA from Vinod Gupta School of Management
Vinod Gupta School of Management
The Vinod Gupta School of Management is a business school in India. It was established in 1993 at IIT Kharagpur and was the first management school to be setup within the IIT system....
, the selection is made on the basis of an aptitude test of students across all engineering streams. The Dual Degree program spans five years as against six years in conventional B.Tech. (four years) followed by an M.Tech. or MBA (two years). IIT Kharagpur has a management school (Vinod Gupta School of Management
Vinod Gupta School of Management
The Vinod Gupta School of Management is a business school in India. It was established in 1993 at IIT Kharagpur and was the first management school to be setup within the IIT system....
), an entrepreneurship school (Rajendra Mishra
Rajendra Mishra
Professor Rajendra Mishra was an education pioneer and one of the founders of the first Indian Institute of Technology, IIT Kharagpur, in 1951. He helped establish the Institute’s infrastructure, pioneered the engineering disciplines of Mechanical, Production, and Industrial Engineering, and...
School of Engineering Entrepreneurship) and a law school (Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law
Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law
Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law is a Law school based at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. It was set up in collaboration with the George Washington University Law School, Washington DC and has the unique distinction of being the only law school within the IIT system...
) on its premises. The Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law has been opened in collaboration with George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
.
Continuing education
The institute offers the Continuing Education Programme (CEP) for qualified engineers and scientists to learn technologies and developments in their academic disciplines. As part of CEP, the institute offers formal degree programmes (M.Tech and Ph.D) and an Early Faculty Induction Programme (EFIP) under the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP), short-term courses supported by the All India Council for Technical EducationAll India Council for Technical Education
The All India Council for Technical Education is the statutory body and a national-level council for technical education, under Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development...
, 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. As of 2006, the CEP has facilitated publication of 103 course curriculum books. The CEP administers SIMAP (Small Industries Management Assistant Programme) and STUP (Skill-cum-Technology Upgradation Programme) on behalf of IIT Kharagpur; the institute being a corpus institute of SIDBI
SIDBI
Small Industries Development Bank of India is an independent financial institution aimed to aid the growth and development of micro, small and medium-scale enterprises in India. Set up on April 2, 1990 through an act of parliament, it was incorporated initially as a wholly owned subsidiary of...
(Small Industries Development Bank of India).
Sponsored research
The institute received 171 research revenue worth Rs.Indian rupee
The Indian rupee is the official currency of the Republic of India. The issuance of the currency is controlled by the Reserve Bank of India....
417 million ($ 9.25 million)—and 130 consultancy projects in the 2005–06 session. The institute transferred 15 technologies to industry during the same session. The institute has filed 125 patents and 25 of them have been granted. This does not include patents obtained by individual professors or students. During the same session, the value of the international projects was Rs. 9.9 million ($ 220,000), and the revenue from transferred technologies was about Rs. 2.5 million ($ 55,000). The institute earned Rs. 520 million ($ 11.5 million) from research projects in the 2005–06 session. Major sponsors for research include the Indian National Science Academy
Indian National Science Academy
The Indian National Science Academy , New Delhi is the apex body of Indian scientists representing all branches of science & technology.-History:...
, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Defence Research and Development Organisation
Defence Research and Development Organisation
The Defence Research and Development Organisation is a agency of the Republic of India, responsible for the development of technology for use by the military, headquartered in New Delhi, India...
, Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India)
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India)
The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is an Indian government ministry. It contains three departments:*Department of Telecommunications*Department of Information Technology*Department of Posts...
and Indian Space Research Organisation
Indian Space Research Organisation
The Indian Space Research Organisation is an independent Indian governmental agency established in 1969 for the research and development of vehicles and activities for the exploration of space within and outside of Earth’s atmosphere. Headquartered in Bangalore...
. IIT Kharagpur has had a cell known as the SRIC (Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy) cell since 1982. It handles sponsored research projects and industrial consultancy assignments, and has the infrastructure to simultaneously administer 600 R&D
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
projects.
Institutes and departments
The Centre for Ocean, River, Atmosphere and Land Science (CORALs) is an academic and research department in earth sciences.Rankings
Internationally, IIT Kharagpur was ranked 341 in the QS World University RankingsQS World University Rankings
The QS World University Rankings is a ranking of the world’s top 500 universities by Quacquarelli Symonds using a method that has published annually since 2004....
. It was ranked 439 in the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP). In India, among engineering colleges, it ranked 3 by India Today
India Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
, 1 by Outlook India, and 3 by Dataquest
Dataquest
Dataquest is India's oldest IT publication. A fortnightly, Dataquest is published by Cyber Media India Ltd, South Asia's largest specialty media group. The magazine targets senior IT managers in user organizations as well as the IT industry professionals in India.Dataquest has grown with the Indian...
. In the Mint
Mint (newspaper)
Mint is a business newspaper from HT Media Ltd, launched in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal on 1 February 2007. It is a premium business news publication aimed at decision makers and policy makers of the country and it is the first newspaper in India to be published in the Berliner...
Government Colleges survey of 2009 it ranked 4.
Student life and culture
Hostel rooms are wired for internet, for which students pay a compulsory charge. Most of the rooms in the halls of residences are designed to accommodate one student per room. Now (2005–2009), due to scarcity of sufficient student accommodation, two students share a single seater room for the first two years.
Undergraduate students choose between National Cadet Corps
National Cadet Corps (India)
The National Cadet Corps is the Indian military cadet corps with its Headquarters at New Delhi. It is open to school and college students on voluntary basis....
(NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS) and National Sports Organisation
National Sports Organisation (India)
The National Sports Organisation is an effort by the Government of India to promote the development of athletics and sporting activities with the youth of India....
(NSO) for their first two years of study. IIT Kharagpur has common sports grounds for cricket, football, hockey, volleyball, lawn tennis, badminton, and athletics; and swimming pools for aquatic events. Most of the hostels have their own sports grounds. The institute organises an annual inter-collegiate sports and games meet in October
The students of IIT Kharagpur compete among themselves in various events held under the purview of open-IIT and inter-hall events, and the results of the latter contribute to the points that determine the winner of General Championship. The four categories in which General Championships are decided are Sports, Social and cultural activities, Technology, and Hall affairs. The women's hostel together participate as a single team in all events with the exception of sports, where women's team do not participate at inter-hall level. IIT Kharagpur participates in the Inter-IIT Sports Meet, held annually in one of the IITs by policy of rotation.
Students who violate the code of conduct of the institute have to defend themselves in front of the Hall Disciplinary Committee (HDC), which investigates the case and prescribes punishment if necessary. Students may appeal against the punishment to the Appellate
Appeal
An appeal is a petition for review of a case that has been decided by a court of law. The petition is made to a higher court for the purpose of overturning the lower court's decision....
-cum-Liaison
Liaison job
Liaison jobs are jobs that "link" two or more specialties. For example, "systems analyst" jobs work with customers and management to understand and document their automation needs and then transfer such information to computer programmers, who turn the collected information into working software...
Committee known as Inter Hall Disciplinary Committee (IHDC). The IHDC submits its recommendations to the Senate, which 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 committed anywhere in India. IIT Kharagpur has strict provisions dealing with physical and mental harassment of junior students (ragging
Ragging
Ragging is a practice in educational institutions in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka that involves existing students baiting or bullying new students. It is similar to the American phenomenon of hazing. It often takes a malignant form wherein the newcomers may be subjected to psychological or...
). Students found harassing their juniors are suspended from the institute, without going through the Disciplinary Committee.
Festivals
IIT Kharagpur has festivals like Spring FestSpring Fest
Spring Fest, popularly known as SF, is the annual social & cultural festival of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur held during the month of January in the spring semester...
, Kshitij
Kshitij
Kshitij is the annual techno-management fest of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India. Kshitij started off in 2004 with the aim of promoting technology and entrepreneurship in India, and in 8 years, it has grown to become the Asia’s largest techno-management fest. The...
. Spring Fest, the annual social and cultural festival, is held in January. Spring Fest includes cultural competitions in addition to stage shows (known as Star-nights) by singers and performers such as K.K.
Kay Kay Menon
Kay Kay Menon is an Indian actor.-Early life:Menon was raised in Ambarnath and Pune, Maharashtra. His early life was in "H" type Rangehills, Khadki which were factory quarters for those working in the ammunition and high explosives factories. His father was popularly known as "Cashier Menon"...
, Pritam
Pritam
Pritam Chakraborty , better known as Pritam is a music director and composer from Kolkata who currently works in Bollywood, Mumbai.- Early life :...
, Kailash Kher, Shaan
Shaan (singer)
Shaan , is an Indian playback singer, and television host. He hosted the shows Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs, Star Voice of India and "Star Voice of India 2"...
, Breathe, Led Zepplica, Parikrama
Parikrama
For meaning of word see Parikrama .Parikrama is a Rock and Roll band from Delhi, India. They have several live performances and original numbers to their name. The band was officially formed on June 17, 1991 in Delhi...
etc. The event attracts participation from colleges across India. IIT Kharagpur organises a techno-management festival known as Kshitij. It is the biggest techno-management festival of Asia with a total budget of more than 1.5 crore and a total prize money of Rs 50 lakh. An annual techno-management festival organised in January or February, it receives participation from foreign universities as well. Events include technical workshops, seminars, and competitions.
Robotix
Robotix (competition)
Robotix is an annual robotics and programming event, organised by the Technology Robotix Society, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Robotix is organised during Kshitij, the annual techno-management festival of the institute. Participation is open to any college student...
, the annual robotics competition held by IIT Kharagpur, is organised during Kshitij. IIT Kharagpur organises an annual inter-collegiate sports and games meet known as Shaurya. It is held in the autumn semester in October. Events include cricket, hockey, volleyball, basketball, badminton, table tennis, lawn tennis and aquatics. Workshops for archery, boxing and handball are held
Diwali
Diwali or DeepavaliThe name of the festival in various regional languages include:, , , , , , , , , , , , , popularly known as the "festival of lights," is a festival celebrated between mid-October and mid-December for different reasons...
(the festival of lights) and is usually held on the day of Diwali itself. It is held as a competition among student halls. As part of the Illumination festival, all halls build vertical panels of bamboo (called Chatais) on which thousands of lamps (diyas) are mounted forming outlines of people or things; illustrating an event, or a place of importance. The chatais may reach a height of 6 metres (19.7 ft), with nearly 20,000 lighted lamps. The lamps on the chatais are lighted with all other light sources switched off, to showcase the art-panels made by the flickering lamps. On the same day as Illumination, the Rangoli Competition is organised as an inter-hall event. Rangoli
Rangoli
Rangoli is a traditional decorative folk art from India. These are decorative designs made on floors of living rooms and courtyards during Hindu festivals and are meant as sacred welcoming areas for the Hindu deities. The ancient symbols have been passed on through the ages, from each generation to...
s of exquisite detail and shading—measuring around 3.5 by —are constructed using coloured powders, crushed bangles, and pebbles. Interplay of light and shadow and ambient music are part of the display.
In January the Entrepreneurship Cell
Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur
Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Kharagpur is a non-profit student’s organization dedicated to promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship among students throughout India...
organises a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which consists of guest lectures, workshops, a start-up camp and other events relating to entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is the act of being an entrepreneur, which can be defined as "one who undertakes innovations, finance and business acumen in an effort to transform innovations into economic goods". This may result in new organizations or may be part of revitalizing mature organizations in response...
and starting-up.
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering organises Bitwise IIT Kharagpur
Bitwise IIT Kharagpur
Bitwise is an online programming contest. The contest is time constrained and posed with difficult programming and algorithms challenges, to be solved in a short span of 12 hours....
, an online programing contest annually in February. Programing and algorithmic challenges are given in a span of 12 hours. In Bitwise 2010, 4900 teams participated from 65 countries. Bitwise 2011 is scheduled on 13 February 2011.
Entrepreneurship Cell
Entrepreneurship Cell (E-Cell) is a student's organisation, functioning under STEP (Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park), from within the Institute, with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship among students throughout India. It provides mentorship and support to startup companies and helps them with financing, through Venture Capitalists and incubation, through STEP and SRIC, IIT Kharagpur.It conducts two major events, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit(GES), which is a three-day event, held in January at the institute, and the Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive (EAD), a 10-day event, consisting of guest lectures in 10 cities across India. Knowledge Camp is conducted annually for the benefit of students within IIT-Kgp, while the Innovation Platform and Fund-aKGPian programs continue throughout the year, to recognise and support innovative ideas among students of IIT-Kgp, besides workshops and guest lectures throughout the year.
Prof. Sunil Handa, Padma Shri
Padma Shri
Padma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
Prof. Anil K. Gupta, Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Vinod Dham
Vinod Dham
Vinod Dham is an Inventor, Entrepreneur and Venture Capitalist. He is popularly known as the Father of the Pentium chip. for his contribution to the development of highly successful Pentium Processors from Intel...
, Arjun Malhotra
Arjun Malhotra
Arjun Malhotra is an Indian businessman who co-founded HCL Technologies with Shiv Nadar in 1976. He is an alumnus of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He also attended the The Doon School in Dehradun and St. Columba's School in New Delhi. He founded...
are some of the speakers, who have delivered lectures within and outside IIT -Kgp.
E-Cell has been instrumental in the establishment of School of Engineering Entrepreneurship (SoEE). The E-Cell has played a key role in the Deferred Placement Programme (DPP), whereby, a student can opt for placement a year after the completion of his/her course, in case they are involved in a startup company. This is the first time such a programme is being offered at the undergraduate level in India.
Spectra
"Spectra" is a student initiative that promotes fine arts among the students of IIT Kharagpur. Spectra has organized workshops on Photoshop, Photography, Film Making, and Animation since its foundation in 2007. It has also organized all the fine arts events in Spring Fest since 2009 under the banner of "Destination Artland". The details of its events can be found at website.Placements at IIT Kharagpur
The international placements began in 2006. IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM) had completed Vantage 2008, its annual recruitment programme, on a high note with a 30% increase in the average salary levels offered to the 121-strong batch, reports Sreeradha D Basu in Kolkata. According to IT magazine Dataquest’s annual survey, IIT Kharagpur is the second best technology college in terms of placement in India.This huge jump can be attributed to the fact that it is the first time in IIT Kharagpur’s history that students have been allowed to take up foreign placements by companies. “We, in fact, had a documented policy of not allowing foreign placements. This was overturned last year,” GS Sinha, former IIT Kgp’s placement in-charge, said. “Since all the other IITs were already allowing this, we wanted it to happen at IIT-Kharagpur as well,” he added.
“Since we got the permission a bit late last year, the kind of active marketing that was required did not happen. This year, we plan to plug into our alumni network and scale up the process in a much bigger way,” said Prof Sinha.
The top domestic compensation this year came in at Rs 18 lakh per annum. In 2011 batch, Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
recruited 10 students on a package of Rs. 26 lakhs per annum.
Barclays Capital
Barclays Capital
Barclays Capital is a global British investment bank. It is the investment banking division of Barclays plc which has a balance sheet of over £1.2 trillion . Barclays Capital provides financing and risk management services to large companies, institutions and government clients. It is a primary...
recruited 11 students with a package of US $55,000(Rs.22 lacs./annum) in December 2009. The highest salary offered till now is Rs 1.7 crore by social networking site
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
in an off-shore recruitment (of which ESOPs were offered valued at 1 crore). The 2010 batch of B.Tech students saw 94% placements while the remaining preferred IIMs or entrepreneurship.Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank
Deutsche Bank AG is a global financial service company with its headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. It employs more than 100,000 people in over 70 countries, and has a large presence in Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and the emerging markets...
recruited 9 students on a package of Rs. 15 lakhs per annum.
Motto
The motto of IIT Kharagpur is "Yoga Karmashu Kaushalam" (योगः कर्मसु कौशलम् in SanskritSanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
). The motto literally translates to "Perfection in action is Yoga
Yoga
Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual discipline, originating in ancient India. The goal of yoga, or of the person practicing yoga, is the attainment of a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquility while meditating on Supersoul...
" essentially implying that doing your work well is (true) yoga. It is sourced to Sri Krishna's
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
discourse to Arjuna
Arjuna
Arjuna in Indian mythology is the greatest warrior on earth and is one of the Pandavas, the heroes of the Hindu epic Mahābhārata. Arjuna, whose name means 'bright', 'shining', 'white' or 'silver' Arjuna (Devanagari: अर्जुन, Thai: อรชุน, Orachun, Tamil: Arjunan, Indonesian and Javanese: Harjuna,...
in Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita
The ' , also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Sanskrit epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that constitute general Vedic tradition...
. This quote in its larger context of Gita urges man to acquire equanimity because such a soul endowed with the mind of equanimity allows him to shed the effects of his good and evil deeds in this world itself. Equanimity is the source of perfection in Karmic
Karma
Karma in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh philosophies....
endeavors while leading to Salvation
Moksha
Within Indian religions, moksha or mukti , literally "release" , is the liberation from samsara and the concomitant suffering involved in being subject to the cycle of repeated death and reincarnation or rebirth.-Origins:It is highly probable that the concept of moksha was first developed in...
..
Alumni
Alumni-institute interaction is maintained through the Alumni Network under the aegis of the Dean of Alumni Affairs and International Relations, his office staff and student representatives. It also helps in conducting the annual alumni meets.Alumni Network
The Alumni Network is a student body in IIT Kharagpur that organises interaction between the institute and its alumni. The network consists of a group of IITians from Kharagpur who network, publish, and run an annual alumni meet. The group is guided by the Dean of Alumni Affairs and International RelationsAlumni Meet 2010
The VIth global alumni meet (January 2010) saw the arrival of hundreds of alumni at the institute. The meet had events such as panel discussions, performances by the students, cultural programmes like Hasya Kavi Samelan, photo exhibition showcasing achievements of the institute, and a campus tour.Alumni Meet 2011
The VIIth version of the Global Alumni Meet was held in January 2011 at IIT Kharagpur.Notable Alumni and Alumni initiatives
IIT Kharagpur is proud of its numerous alumni who have distinguished themselves in diverse fields. With more than 20,000 degrees granted since the Institute’s founding, the list of its notable alumni is long and the few names provided below are necessarily a small sample. Persons interested in additional names of distinguished alumni in a particular field may contact the Institute’s Office of Alumni Relations.
Sushantha Kumar Bhattacharyya (Baron Bhattacharya) was awarded the CBEOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, a knightKnightA knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
hood, and Padma BhushanPadma BhushanThe Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is awarded by the Government of India.-History:...
, and eventually a life peerage. V. C. Kulandaiswamy was awarded Padma ShriPadma ShriPadma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
and Padma Bhushan. Srikumar Bannerjee was appointed the Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research CentreBhabha Atomic Research CentreThe Bhabha Atomic Research Centre is India's primary nuclear research facility based in Mumbai. It has a number of nuclear reactors, all of which are used for India's nuclear power and research programme.- History :...
. Praveen Chaudhary (B'58) was Director of Brookhaven National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy. Surendra Prasad (B'69) was Director of IIT Delhi. Pradeep Khosla (B'80) is Dean of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Kirit ParikhKirit ParikhKirit S. Parikh is Emeritus Professor and Founder Director of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research , Mumbai, India. He has also served as Senior Economic Advisor to United Nations Development Programme from October 1997 to September 1998...
was the founder director of Indira Gandhi Institute of Development ResearchIndira Gandhi Institute of Development ResearchThe Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research is a research institution dedicated to promoting scientific research on the developmental issues facing India...
(IGIDR) and a member of Union Planning Commission of India. Kalyan BanerjeeKalyan BanerjeeKalyan Banerjee is President of Rotary International, one of the largest humanitarian service organizations in the world. He took office on July 1, 2011. He took over from Ray Klinginsmith. He leads a world wide network of 1.2 million individuals from more than 200 countries and geographical...
is President of Rotary InternationalRotary InternationalRotary International is an organization of service clubs known as Rotary Clubs located all over the world. The stated purpose of the organization is to bring together business and professional leaders to provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help...
for the year 2011-2012.
Five alumni of IIT Kharagpur have been elected to the US National Academy of Engineering: Praveen Chaudhary (B’58), for significant contributions to the field of materials science and engineering and to the advancement of electronic materials; R. Shankar Nair (B’65), for advances in the art and science of engineering through the design of innovative bridges and building structures; Kanti Jain (B’69), for invention and development of deep-ultraviolet excimer laser lithography, the dominant microfabrication process used worldwide in the manufacture of nearly all semiconductor electronic devices; Pallab Chatterjee (B’72), for advances in submicron microelectronics and computer technology; and Pradeep Khosla (B’80), for design and sensor-based control in robotic systems for high-precision electronics and for leadership in engineering education. Praveen Chaudhary has also been awarded the US National Medal of Technology for the discovery and development of amorphous magnetic materials that are the basis of erasable, read-write, optical storage disk technology.
As some examples of accomplishments in the corporate world, Suhas PatilSuhas PatilDr. Suhas S. Patil, born 1944 in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, India, is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, venture capitalist and philanthropist. He founded the company Cirrus Logic a fabless semiconductor company....
founded Cirrus LogicCirrus LogicCirrus Logic is a fabless semiconductor supplier specializing in analog, mixed-signal, and audio DSP integrated circuits . They are presently headquartered in Austin, Texas. Their audio processors and audio converters are found in many professional audio and consumer entertainment products,...
, Arjun MalhotraArjun MalhotraArjun Malhotra is an Indian businessman who co-founded HCL Technologies with Shiv Nadar in 1976. He is an alumnus of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta and the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He also attended the The Doon School in Dehradun and St. Columba's School in New Delhi. He founded...
co-founded HCL TechnologiesHCL TechnologiesHCL Technologies Limited is a leading global IT services company headquartered in Noida, India. It is primarily engaged in providing a range of software services, business process outsourcing and infrastructure services. HCL Technologies is fourth largest IT company in India and is ranked 48 in...
, Vinod GuptaVinod GuptaVinod Gupta is the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of infoGROUP . Mr. Gupta served as CEO of the company from the time of its incorporation in 1972 until September 1997 and from August 1998 to August 2008...
founded InfoUSA, Ajit JainAjit JainAjit Jain is a businessman who currently heads several reinsurance businesses for Berkshire Hathaway and has been touted as a possible successor to Warren Buffett.-Early life:...
became president of Berkshire HathawayBerkshire HathawayBerkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies. The company averaged an annual growth in book value of 20.3% to its shareholders for the last 44 years,...
's Reinsurance GroupNational Indemnity CompanyNational Indemnity Company is an insurance company based in Omaha, Nebraska, and founded in 1940. It is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, who bought the company in 1967....
, and Arun SarinArun SarinArun Sarin was the CEO of Britain's Vodafone Group plc. On June 29, 2008, he announced his resignation as CEO of Vodafone Group. He is a senior adviser at the private equity firm KKR. He serves on the board of directors of Cisco Systems and Safeway, Inc...
became the CEO of VodafoneVodafoneVodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
., Ramesh ChandraRamesh ChandraRamesh Chandra is the founder of the multi-billion dollar Indian Real Estate company Unitech. As of 11 March 2009, his net worth was estimated at $600 million, which dropped from $9.6 billion just a year back...
founded Unitech GroupUnitech GroupThe Unitech Group is India's second largest real estate investment company, and has recently claimed to be the largest real estate builder in the country.....
, India's second largest real estate company. Ravi KantRavi KantRavi Kant is the Vice Chairman and a former managing director of TATA Motors, India's largest automobile manufacturing company. He is also the chairman of Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company, Hispano Carrocera and Tata Cummins...
is Vice Chairman and former Managing Director of Tata MotorsTata MotorsTata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. Part of the Tata Group, it was formerly known as TELCO...
. R. Gopalakrishnan is the Director of Tata MotorsTata MotorsTata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Mumbai, India. Part of the Tata Group, it was formerly known as TELCO...
and Tata PowerTata PowerTata Power is India’s oldest and largest private sector power utility with an installed generation capacity of over 2977 MW.On the 22 March 2011 it has announced partnership with Sunengy an Australian firm, to build India's first floating solar plant....
. Prith Banerjee is Director of HP LabsHP LabsHP Labs is the exploratory and advanced research group for Hewlett-Packard. The lab has some 600 researchersin seven locations throughout the world....
, the research wing of Hewlett-PackardHewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
. Raj Dutt, Chairman and CEO of privately-held APIC Corp and Photonic Corp., has made contributions in developing next-generation energy-efficient computer chips. Aneesh Reddy and Krishna Mehra, two alumni, founded Capillary TechnologiesCapillary TechnologiesCapillary Technologies is an information technology company headquartered in Bangalore, India. Established in 2008, Capillary is present in India, Singapore, United Kingdom, South Africa and Middle East.-History:...
in 2008. It is a 150-employee company with operations across India and in the UK, Middle East and South Africa.
Vinod Gupta
Vinod Gupta is the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of infoGROUP . Mr. Gupta served as CEO of the company from the time of its incorporation in 1972 until September 1997 and from August 1998 to August 2008...
(founder, Infogroup) along with support from the government of India. VGSOM started in 1993 with a batch of 30 students. Other centres built by funding from alumni include the G.S. Sanyal School of Telecommunication and VLSI
Very-large-scale integration
Very-large-scale integration is the process of creating integrated circuits by combining thousands of transistors into a single chip. VLSI began in the 1970s when complex semiconductor and communication technologies were being developed. The microprocessor is a VLSI device.The first semiconductor...
-CAD
Computer-aided design
Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
laboratory. The IIT Foundation, started by Vinod Gupta in 1992, is the alumni association of the institute with chapters in cities in India and abroad. Dr. Subrata Gupta IAS is the Director of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. The alumni association publishes the quarterly newsletter KGPian for the alumni. The institute also publishes a monthly e-newsletter titled KGP Konnexion for alumni. IIT Kharagpur has a dean for alumni affairs to manage liaisons with alumni. The US-based alumni of IIT Kharagpur have started the Vision 2020 fundraiser, to provide infrastructure (like labs and equipment) and attract and retain faculty and students. The objective of Vision 2020 is to raise a US$200 million endowment fund by the year 2020 for technology education, research and innovation related growth of the institute.