Kolkata, Nov 12: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, has embarked on A rs 300-crore expansion programme to be among the top three technological institutes in Asia by 2013. Announcing this here yesterday, IIT Kharagpur board of governors chairman Sanjiv Goenka said the aim of the programme was to focus and excel in IIT's research-oriented jobs in selected areas of engineering, science and technology, besides creating research laboratories and converting them into centres of excellence in respective fields.
During the period, the country's premier engineering institute would also increase the student strength from about 4,100 at present to 10,000 by 2013 in phases, Goenka said.
Simultaneously, the number of faculty members would also be increased from about 100 to over 1,000, said the noted industrialist.
Further, in accordance with world standards, the IIT had decided to introduce the ''standing advertisement concept'' for recruting the best talents as faculty members.
''To start with, 15 young promising faculty members would be appointed for four selected departments and on the basis of the success of the new concept at least 100 more would be recruited within this year,'' Goenka announced.
Hailing the standards of IIT, Kharagpur, faculty over the past several years, he said the sole recepient of the coveted ''Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Scientific Award'' for this year was Dr Soumitra Banerjee who had been chosen for the award for his research on the theory of ''border collision bifurcation''.
Bureau Report