Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

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The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (Hindi:भारतीय प्रौद्योगिकी संस्थान, खड़गपुर) (or IIT Kharagpur or IIT KGP) is an autonomous engineering and technology-oriented institute of higher education established by the Government of India. IIT Kharagpur (established in 1951) was the first IIT to be established. Like other IITs, it was established to train scientists and engineers in order to develop a national skilled work-force with the aim of bolstering economic and social development of India after it attained independence from British rule in 1947. It is linked to the other IITs in its organizational structure as well as its admission process. The students and alumni of IIT Kharagpur are referred to as KGPians.

History

Jawaharlal Nehru laying foundation stone of IIT Kharagpur

The history of the IIT system dates to 1946 when Sir Jogendra Singh of the Viceroy's Executive Council set up a committee whose task was to consider the creation of Higher Technical Institutions for post-war industrial development in India. The 22 member committee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar recommended the establishment of Higher Technical Institutions in various parts of the country, possibly along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA), with a number of affiliated secondary institutions. The report also urged the speedy establishment of all the four institutions with the ones in the East and the West to be started immediately. The committee also felt that such institutes should not only produce undergraduates, but also researchers and academicians. The standard of the graduate education was recommended to be at par with those from elite technical institutions all over the world. In accordance with these recommendations of the Sarkar committee, the first Indian Institute of Technology was established in May 1950 in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Initially, the IIT started functioning at 5, Esplanade East, Calcutta as "Eastern Higher Technical Institute" and very soon shifted 120 km south east to Hijli, Kharagpur in September 1950. The name Hijli carries the significance of historically famous Hijli Kingdom.

There were 224 freshers and 42 teachers in 10 departments of the institute when the first session started in August 1951. The class rooms, laboratories and the Administrative office were housed in the historic building of the Hijli Detention Camp. IIT Kharagpur is possibly the only major technical institution in the world that started life in a prison house. IIT Kharagpur started in the pre-independence Hijli Detention Camp where freedom fighters were imprisoned and executed. The office building at the camp, which during World War II served as the headquarters of the 20th Bomber Command of the United States 20th Air Force, initially housed classrooms and the library. It is has now been converted into a museum (Nehru Museum of Science and Technology).

The present name 'Indian Institute of Technology' was adopted before the formal inauguration of the Institute on August 18, 1951, by Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad. On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India passed an act known as the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act declaring it as an Institute of National Importance. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, said:

Motto

बुद्धियुक्तो जहातीह उभे सुकृतदुष्कृते।

तस्माद्योगाय युज्यस्व योगः कर्मसु कौशलम्॥

(buddhi-yukto jahatiha, ubhe sukrta-duskrte, tasmad yogaya yujyasva, yogah karmasu kausalam.)

for which possible translations are (a) A man engaged in devotional service rids himself of both good and bad actions even in this life. Therefore strive for yoga, O Arjuna, which is the art of all work. and (b) With this mental poise you will release yourself from good deeds and ill deeds. Devote yourself to this Yoga: it is the secret of success in work.

However, in the context of the Institute, the phrase is very often translated as Yoga is skill in actions '''

Organisational structure

IIT Kharagpur is linked to the other IITs organisationally, having a common Visitor and IIT Council. The President of India is the most powerful person in the organisational structure of IITs, being the ex officio Visitor , and having residual powers. Directly under the President is the IIT Council, which comprises of the minister-in-charge of technical education in the Union Government, the Chairmen of all IITs, the Directors of all IITs, the Chairman of the University Grants Commission, the Director General of CSIR, the Chairman of IISc, the Director of IISc, three members of Parliament, the Joint Council Secretary of Ministry of Human Resource and Development, and three appointees each of the Union Government, AICTE, and the Visitor.

After the IIT Council, the organisational structure of IITs separate. Under the IIT Council is the Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur. The Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur has 13 members that include representatives of 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 Director, who is the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT. Under the Director, in the organisational structure, comes the Deputy Director. Under the Director and the Deputy Director, come 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 of the IIT and overviews the day-to-day operations. Below the Heads of Department (HOD) are the faculty members (Professors, Associate Professors, and Assistant Professors). The Wardens come under the Chairman of the Hall Management Committee.

Admission

Admission to undergraduate programs in all IITs is tied to the Joint Entrance Examination, popularly known as IIT-JEE. Candidates who qualify admission via IIT-JEE can apply for admission in B.Tech. (Bachelor of Technology), Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelor of Technology and Master of Technology) and Integrated M.Sc. (Master of Sciences) courses in IIT Kharagpur. IIT-JEE is a science-oriented entrance exam, testing candidate's knowledge of mathematics, physics and chemistry. It is conducted by an IIT chosen by a policy of rotation. Since its inception, the IIT-JEE has had a highly competitive pattern of questioning. The undergraduate acceptance rate at IITs through JEE is around 1 in 50, with about 300,000 annual test takers for about 5500 seats. Only about 4,000 of these seats are offered by IITs, the rest belonging to other institutes that use IIT-JEE. Out of these, IIT Kharagpur offers admission to 895 seats annually. Only students who have completed (or will complete at the end of the current academic session) their higher secondary studies from a recognised educational board are allowed to appear for IIT-JEE. The IIT-JEE is well known for frequently changing the types of questions asked in order to discourage study by rote. The candidates belonging to the general category must secure a minimum aggregate of 60% marks in the qualifying examination of the XII^th standard organised by various educational boards of India. Candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Physically Disabled (PD) categories must secure a minimum aggregate of 55% in the qualifying examination. The upper age limit for appearing for the IIT-JEE is 25 years. The age limit is relaxed to 30 years for candidates classified in the SC, ST and PD categories. Starting with IIT-JEE 2007, a candidate can take IIT-JEE a maximum of two times, and students who are selected for an IIT cannot attempt the examination again.

The admissions into the postgraduate programmes are made through various exams, primarily the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) for M.Tech. courses. Other prominent entrance exams include JAM (Joint Admission to M.Sc.) for M.Sc., and JMET (Joint Management Entrance Test) for Management Studies.

As per the rules of admission to IIT Kharagpur, 15% of the admitted students must be of the Scheduled Castes, and 7.5% of seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. As of 2006, no separate reservation exists for the Other Backward Classes (a group of castes which, though not untouchable, are socially and economically disadvantaged). The IITs are not bound to fill these quotas of seats, and many of them remain vacant owing to the nature of selection process.

Education

Because of provisions and powers granted by the Indian Institutes of Technology Act, IIT Kharagpur drafts own curricula to adapt to the changes in educational requirements, free from bureaucratic hurdles. The government has no direct control over internal policy decisions of IITs (like faculty recruitment and curricula) but has representation on the IIT Council. The medium of instruction is English. The classes are usually held between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

The academic policies of IIT Kharagpur are decided by its Senate. This comprises all professors of the IIT and student representatives. Unlike many western universities that have an elected senate, the IITs have an academic senate. It 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 follow the credits 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. Sometimes, relative grading is done considering the overall performance of the whole class. For each semester, the students are graded on a scale of 0 to 10 based on their performance, by taking a weighted average of the grade points from all the courses, with their respective credit points. Each semester evaluation is done independently and then the weighted average over all semesters is used to calculate the cumulative cumulative grade point average (known as CGPA).

Undergraduate education

From the second year onwards, the students study subjects exclusively from their respective departments. In addition to these, the students have to take compulsory advanced courses from other departments in order to broaden their education. Separate compulsory courses from humanities and social sciences department, and sometimes from management courses are also enforced. At the end of third year, the undergraduate students have to undertake a summer project at an industry or reputed academic institute as part of the curriculum. In the last year of their studies, most of the students are placed into industries and organisations via the placement process of the respective IIT, though some students opt out of this either when going for higher studies or when they take up jobs by applying to the companies directly.

Postgraduate and doctoral education

IIT Kharagpur (along with other IITs) also offer an unconventional B.Tech. and M.Tech. integrated educational program called "Dual Degree". It integrates undergraduate and postgraduate studies in selected pairs of branch and specialisation. It is completed in 5 years as against 6 years in conventional B.Tech. (4 years) followed by an M.Tech. (2 years). The reason for starting this program was to encourage IITians to complete postgraduate studies from IIT rather than going to other reputed institutes. IIT Kharagpur has a management school (Vinod Gupta School of Management) in its premises.

Campus

Institute Main Building, IIT Kharagpur

IIT Kharagpur is located 120 km west of Kolkata. The campus is spread over 2100 acres. The layout of the present campus and the design of our buildings were carried out by a group of engineers and architects under the guidance of Werner M. Moser (a Swiss architect). The campus currently has 29 academic departments, centres and schools and 17 hostels (called "Halls of Residence", or just Halls). The 2100 acre (8.5 km²) campus is a self contained township of over 15,000 inhabitants. Currently IIT Kharagpur has about 550 faculty, 2200 employees and 5500 students on the campus. The Institute campus has four guest houses, a hospital, four nationalised banks, and four schools. The Tagore Open Air Theatre, used to host cultural programs, can accomodate upto 3,000 people. The Institute also has a hospital in its premises.

There are 18 hostels that are laid out along Scholars Avenue which runs from the Institute gates to the B. C. Roy Technology Hospital. There are eight hostels in all for Undergraduate male students and three for women. In addition, there are a few Post Graduate Students' hostels and a separate hostel for defense staff.

Institute

Library and museum

The institute also has a museum in its premises, the Nehru Museum of Science and Technology. The museum, established in 1990, is located in the ground floor or Hijli Shahid Bhawan. The museum has over 100 indoor exibits includuding large number of technical models collected from various institutes and organisations across India. The park outside the museum contains 14 open-air demonstrations and outdoor exibits including a hunter plane, and a steam engine. The museum also has an archive room showcasing documents relating to history of the Institute and Midnapore district.

Miscellaneous

Record of Academic Excellence

The institute is a member of LAOTSE, an international network of leading universities in Europe and Asia exchanging students and senior scholars.

See also

• Student Life in IIT Kharagpur

Notes

External links

• [Official Website]
• [Vinod Gupta School of Management]
• [Alumni Site of IIT Kharagpur]
• [Unofficial Map of IIT Kharagpur]

     The Indian Institutes of Technology      

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