After 57 years of focusing on technology, the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi (IIT-Delhi) is getting a makeover. Alumni including Rajat Khare, Neeraj Kumar
After 57 years of focusing on technology, the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi (IIT-D) is getting a makeover. The institution, which has produced some of the world’s brightest minds, including Sachin Bansal, Binny Bansal, Satya Nadela, Neeraj Kumar, Rajat Khare, Deepinder Goyal, Nikesh Arora, Amit Singhal, Nandan Nilkenai, and many more pioneers, is on its way to becoming a comprehensive multidisciplinary university.
Medical science, biomedical studies, public policy, design thinking, sustainability studies, executive education, and non-degree programmes are among the courses that will soon be offered at IIT-Delhi as the top college alters its focus to become more inclusive in its approach. Students and prominent IIT Delhi alumni have applauded the decision.
The IIT made the announcement about its big intentions on Monday, just a few days after the central government named it an Institute of Eminence (IoE). Apart from a multi-disciplinary approach to education and research, the institution claimed that it will be market-driven, similar to IIMs, in order to raise funding for its larger makeover.
In the next five years, IIT-Delhi expects to invest Rs 2,500 crore, including the Rs 1,000 crore IoE award, to improve its research facilities, physical infrastructure, and outreach, according to the IIT.
Rao also stated that starting in 2019, the IIT-D would open a new public policy school that will accept master’s and doctoral students, as well as a design school that will accept undergraduate and postgraduate students. It is launching doctorate programmes in a variety of fields in collaboration with the All India Institute of Medical Science.
Its new priority for establishing excellence will be advanced computing systems, including artificial intelligence and block-chain, biological and health-care systems, energy and environment, smart and sustainable infrastructure, and habitat, according to the director. He stated that they will invest Rs 200 crore in a bio-research park at IIT-future Delhi’s satellite campus in Jhajjhar, Haryana, with AIIMS as a partner.
In addition to degree programmes, the IIT has announced that it would provide short-term courses such as certificates to meet the needs of the industry at large. These courses will be market-driven and priced accordingly. For example, a one-year AI diploma will set you back roughly Rs 10 lakh, more than three times the cost of an IIT’s flagship four-year B Tech programme.
“Customized postgraduate and certificate courses would have market pricing,” said Sanjeev Sanghi, dean alumni and international programmes at IIT D. “We know with industry clusters around Delhi NCR, the needs will be enormous.”
