New Delh: IIT Delhi professor M Jagdeesh Kumar has been appointed the next Vice Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University after his name was cleared by President Pranab Mukherjee from a panel of four forwarded to him by the HRD ministry. Kumar, a professor of electrical engineering at IIT Delhi, said that he had received a communication from the ministry today informing him about his appointment.
He said after taking over as the Vice Chancellor his priorities would be to strengthen collaboration between institutions, streamlining of recruitment process and interaction with students to see how the research output can be improved. He said institutions like IIT Delhi and JNU are close to each other and there can be more cross-collaboration in various areas. Asked about reports that he attended an RSS linked event, Kumar said, "I am an academician and have no formal association with any organisation," and added that he attended the event as it was about science and organised at IIT-Delhi.
The event was organised by RSS linked body Vijnana Bharati. Asked as to how he, with a primarily science background, would administer JNU, which has a very strong humanities side, Kumar said science and humanities can work together. He added that even in engineering studies there is an important humanities component.
"I think JNU is a unique institution, the way it has several schools and centers like on languages, international studies and law etc and I consider them a strength of the institution," he added.
The term of JNU's current VC Professor Sudhir Kumar Sopory will end by January 27. The President, as Visitor of all central universities, selected Kumar from a panel of four eminent names, including scientist V S Chauhan, coordinator of the National Centre of Applied Human Genetics, JNU, R N K Bamezai and Ramakrishna Ramaswamy of the Department of Physical Sciences, JNU, it is learnt.
