Mita Mukherjee

Eight former students and their families of IIT-Kharagpur have come forward to collectively raise a corpus fund of Rs 2.5 crore to support students who need financial help for their academics and research.

On receiving the generous contribution, Kharagpur IIT has decided to institute eight grants for the ensuing Autumn semester scheduled to start in August this year.

A unique feature of these grants is the allocation of over Rs 65 Lakh exclusively for undergraduate girl students for a period of 15 years.

The fund will be used for helping needy students in the form of awards and scholarships studying undergraduate and postgraduate courses in chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, electronics and electrical communication engineering, healthcare, mechanical engineering, metallurgical and materials engineering.

A virtual MoU was signed between the eight alumni and their families for instituting the awards and scholarships at an event held recently that was attended by Kharagpur IIt director V.K Tewari, an official of Kharagpur IIT said.

The director appreciated the alumni for their zeal towards the institute and keeping its welfare in their hearts. He also welcomed the alumni to contribute towards this initiative through participation in the global outreach programmes and “thrust area specific activities” of the institute.

An official said the IIT had initiated several programmes to reach out to female aspirants and their families to encourage more girl students to pursue IIT education and also to facilitate those who have already taken admission,particularly at the IIT Kharagpur.

In the last few years, IITs have been consistently increasing the strength of girl students through the supernumerary quota for women introduced in 2018. From the initial target of 17 per cent which has been fulfilled, the IITs are set to increase the quota to 20per cent in accordance with a decision taken by the IIT Council.

Kharagpur IIT dean, alumni affairs, Subrata Chattopadhyay said, “Now that we are an Institute of Eminence and guided by the New Education Policy, we are committed to bringing up the ratio of our girl students much higher. We have the mandate to cross the 20 per cent threshold at the soonest.”

According to the donors they envisioned a range of dynamic ideas which motivated them to contribute towards these scholarships and awards and inspiring the spirit of giving back to society for the greater good while instilling some traits which are very own to IIT Kharagpur, an official said.

The eight scholarships and awards include , the Sobhraj And Krishna Gajria Scholarship, Dr. R R Verma Prize for Best Masters Thesis in Healthcare Technology, Late Shri Saradindu Sur Scholarship, Brundabana Sahu Student Award, Prof. Sankar Kumar Som Memorial Award, Pradip Kumar Basu Memorial Student Scholarship, V V Dhruva Narayana Memorial Student Award and Late Srimati Gopa Chakraborty Scholarship for Female Students.

The scholarship amount will be increased after every four ears to cope up with the inflation rate, an official said.

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