IIT Kharagpur celebrates its 74th foundation day in presence of Amitabh Kant, ISRO chairman

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur marked its 74th Foundation Day on August 18, 2024. The IIT Kharagpur 74th foundation day ceremony highlighted the institute’s contributions to education and innovation. The event coincided with the nation’s 78th Independence Day celebrations and was graced by chief guest Amitabh Kant, India’s G-20 Sherpa and former CEO of NITI Aayog.

Kant was joined by a distinguished panel of guests including S P Somanath, chairman of ISRO; Samir V Kamat, chairman of DRDO; and Sonal Mansingh, Padma Vibhushan awardee and former MP of the Rajya Sabha. The ceremony commenced with the hoisting of the national flag and the institute flag at the main building of IIT Kharagpur. The highlight of the event was the conferment of various awards, recognizing exceptional contributions and long-standing service to the institution.

The Gitindra Saran Sanyal Faculty Excellence Awards were presented to nine faculty members who have demonstrated outstanding performance in their respective fields. In addition, thirty staff members received Staff Excellence Awards for their exceptional service. A special recognition was given to 74 employees who have completed 25 years of dedicated service to the institute.

IIT Kharagpur’s 74th Foundation Day: Young Alumni Achievers Awards

The Young Alumni Achievers Awards honored 32 of IIT Kharagpur’s young alumni for their achievements in areas such as innovation, technology, research, community welfare, leadership, entrepreneurship, and nation-building. Their contributions were celebrated as exemplars of excellence and impact. The Nina Saxena Excellence in Technology Award 2024 was presented to Pankaj Kumar and Siddhant Aagrwal from IIT Guwahati. They were recognized for their work in floating solar PV technology.

Kant remarked, “For the growing India, we need innovation of the highest order which would require India to become an Innovation hub. This in turn will require us to invest in applied research and market oriented innovation for which we need a huge build-up of Academia-Research-Industry Partnership. We also need to build innovation, infrastructure talent with prototyping and testing to transition from labs to markets. The mistakes we did in our initial years was to establish research Institutes outside which were independent outside but all future researches should be part of the academic institutions like the IIT Kharagpur. All CSIR/DSIR institutions should be linked to academic institutions. All the innovations in the world happens from the academic institutions where professors and students work together, that is how Silicon Valley was created. Industry oriented skills has to come from institutions like IIT Kharagpur and further innovation and research must come IIT research.

Debashish Chakravarty, the dean of alumni affairs at IIT Kharagpur, discussed the concept of Gurudakshina, a donation made by the alumni of the university. As per the official statement, the funds raised through Guru Dakshina will be given to my alma mater by the alumni, which will help the university become self-sufficient over time. The funds raised through Guru Dakshina will ease the burden of students collecting funds for events like the Spring Festival, Kshitij, Sports Fest, and even for expanding and improving hall amenities. A total of 34 pledges for Gurudakshina have been received with the current batch.