Indian Institute of Technology - Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) has received Rs 7 crore from the food processing department of government of India to transform its 46-year-old agriculture and food engineering department into a knowledge partner for food processing industries and companies.
Speaking to Business Standard, Damodar Acharya, director of IIT-KGP, said, “With Rs 7 crore fund, we plan to transform our agriculture and food engineering department into a hub for the industry at large as well as for the companies. We would act as the knowledge partner and come up with technologies as we have done in the past to help the companies and industry at large to prosper. We would also extend our expertise to train professionals in the industry.” In the recent past, Coffee Board of India and Tea Board of India had sought IIT-KGP’s help to modernise the respective industries.
IIT-KGP is also exploring the possibility of setting up a company to have equity share in its incubatee companies.
“IIT-KGP’s incubation centre incubates a large number of start-up companies. Eventually we would look at taking up stake in these companies to share their risks as well,” Acharya informed.
Currently the institute has a seed fund of Rs 10 lakhs given by the government of India.
The institute has also received $2 million from an alumni to set up a bio-fuel research centre at the institute premises, expected to be operational from 2009 academic session.
IIT-KGP has also received $1 million from another alumni to set up a school of entrepreneurship. With the School of Entrepreneurship, IIT-KGP will be the first IIT in India to set up a dedicated entrepreneurship school.
Being set up at an estimated investment of Rs 8 crore, the School of Entrepreneurship will initially admit about 50 students for the five-year course.
“The course will target students from financially secure backgrounds who are not looking for jobs,” pointed out Acharya. IIT-KGP’s entrepreneurship course will be a dual-degree programme — a Bachelor of Technology and a Master of Entrepreneurship — at the completion of the course. The students will be individually nurtured under the expert guidance of two mentors — an alumni and a faculty. The students will also have to produce a commercially viable idea before the course ends which IIT-KGP claims will be commercialised.
Speaking on the overall slowdown impacting placements, Acharya said, “Last year around 120 companies had confirmed participation in placements. This year, around 140 companies have confirmed participation. So the overall slowdown have not impacted our students at all and there is no dearth of jobs for IIT-KGP graduates.”
