The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur or IIT KGP is a public engineering institution established by the government of India in 1951. It was the first of the IITs to be established, and is recognized as an Institute of National Importance by the government of India.
As part of Nehru's dream for a free self-sufficient 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 acres), the most departments, and the highest student enrollment. IIT Kharagpur is known for its festivals: Spring Fest (Social and Cultural Festival) and Kshitij (Asia's largest Techno-Management Festival).
History
With the help of Bidhan Chandra Roy (chief minister of West Bengal), Indian educationalists Humayun Kabir and Jogendra Singhformed 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 theMassachusetts Institute of Technology and consulting from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign along 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, 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. It was located in Esplanade East, Calcutta, and in September 1950 shifted to its permanent campus at Hijli, Kharagpur 120 kilometres south-west of Calcutta. Hijli had been used as a detention camp during the British colonial rule in India, to keep Indian freedom fighters captive.
IIT Kharagpur is the 3rd oldest technical institute in the state after IIEST Shibpur (1856) and Jadavpur University (established as Bengal technical institute in 1906) When the first session started in August 1951, there were 224 students and 42 teachers in the ten departments of the institute. The classrooms, 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 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 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 withTakshashila starting operation in 2002, Vikramshila in 2003 and Nalanda in 2012.
Administration
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 Odisha, in addition to other members appointed by the IIT Council and the institute's senate. Under the Board of Governors is the institute 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 comparatively 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 MTech 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. 1,54,000 ($2,346) 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. 64,000 ($975).
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 officiochairman of the senate.
IIT Kharagpur follows the credit-based system of performance evaluation, with proportional weighting of courses based on their importance.[17] 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.
Motto
The motto of IIT Kharagpur is "Yoga Karmashu Kaushalam" (योगः कर्मसु कौशलम् in Sanskrit). The motto literally translates to "Excellence 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, chapter 2 verse 50. 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.
Campus
IIT Kharagpur is located 120 kilometres (75 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 acres) campus is residence to about 22,000 inhabitants.[10] In 2015, IIT Kharagpur had about 600 faculty members, 1,933 employees and approximately 10,010 students living on the campus. The campus has a total of 55 kilometres (34 miles) of roadways. The Institute plans to go Green by 2020.
The 22 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 ten hostels for undergraduate male students (MMM, LBS, RP, RK, MS, LLR, HJB, Patel, Azad and Nehru) and two for undergraduate female students (SN/IG and MT). There are a few post-graduate students' hostels including four for women(RLB, Gokhle, Nivedita and SAM) and hostels for research scholars (BCR, VS, BRH 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 6,000 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-acre (40,000 m2) Rajarhat campus will house 2,500 students, and will eventually expand to 250 acres (1.0 km2). The institute's plan for a similar branch campus of 200 acres (0.81 km2) in Bhubaneswar was scrapped following rejection by the Union Human Resource and Development ministry.
Academic Buildings
IIT Kharagpur has 19 academic departments, eight multi-disciplinary centres/schools, and 13 schools of excellence in addition to more than 25 central research and development units. 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 films 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, DVDs, CD-ROMs, 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.
Undergraduate education
IIT Kharagpur offers degrees as part of its undergraduate programmes. They include Bachelor of Technology (BTech.Hons),Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) and the 5-year integrated Master of Science. The BTech 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 BTech 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. Unlike other IITs which evaluate their students on the basis of others' performance which does not foster shared learning and communication,IIT- Kharagpur uses absolute scores.
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 take inter-disciplinary courses known as breadth courses. Separate courses from the humanitiesand social sciences (HSS) department, and management and information technology are also required. At the end of the third year, the BTech 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 themajor 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.
Postgraduate and doctoral education
IIT Kharagpur offers postgraduate programmes including Master of Technology (MTech), Master of Business Administration (MBA), and Master of Sciences (MSc). 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), LL.B in Intellectual Property Law (LL.B Honors in IP Law), and Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation and Management (PGDMOM). The institute offers the Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) 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. PhD scholars submit a dissertation as well as conduct an oral defence of their thesis. Teaching assistantships (TA) andresearch assistantships (RA) are provided based on the scholar's academic profile. IIT Kharagpur offers an M.S. (by research) programme; the MTech 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 BTech (four years) followed by an MTech 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. The School of Medical Science and Technology in IIT kharagpur is the first and also the "only" of its kind in the country where M.B.B.S. graduates are trained in art and science of medical research with aim to provide a platform for interdisciplinary teaching and research in the field of medical science and technology. IIT Kharagpur will invest around Rs 2.30 billion for its 400 bed super specialty hospital in the campus which will impart undergraduate medical course to students.The institute is expected to start the course in 2017 which will be recognised by Medical Council of India (MCI).
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 (MTech and PhD) and an Early Faculty Induction Programme (EFIP) under the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP), short-term courses supported by the All India Council for Technical Education, 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).
Academic Units
Departments
- Aerospace Engineering
- Agricultural & Food Engineering
- Architecture & Regional Planning
- Biotechnology
- Chemical Engineering
- Chemistry
- Civil Engineering
- Computer Science & Engineering
- Electrical Engineering
- Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering
- ECE
- Geology & Geophysics
- Humanities & Social Sciences
- Industrial & Systems Engineering
- Mathematics
- Mechanical Engineering
- Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
- Mining Engineering
- Ocean Engineering & Naval Architecture
- Physics
Centres
- Rubber Technology
- Reliability Engineering
- Cryogenic Engineering
- Materials Science
- Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences
- Rural Development Centre
- Center for Educational Technology
Schools
- G S Sanyal School of Telecommunications
- Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship
- Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law
- Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management
- Medical Science & Technology
- School of Water Resources
- Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur
Rankings
Internationally, IIT Kharagpur is ranked 286 in the QS World University Rankings (Quacquarelli Symonds) of 2015 and 60 in the QS Asian University Rankings of 2014. IIT Kharagpur is ranked 3 in National Institutional Ranking Framework published by Ministry of Human Resource Development in April 2016.
IIT Kharagapur is ranked in the 351-400 range by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings of 2013-14. Recently, it was declared the top educational hub in India as per the Times Higher Education, Asia Rankings. It was ranked 439 in the University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP). In India, among engineering colleges, it ranked 3 by India Today in 2013, 2 by Outlook India in 2013 and 4 by Dataquest in 2011. In India, among universities, it ranks 3 in Careers 360 (Magazine) Top Universities in India 2015. In the Mint Government Colleges survey of 2009 it ranked 4. IIT, Kharagpur, has emerged as the top engineering college in EDU-RAND ranking 2014 followed by IITs in Delhi and Kanpur.
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