| MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) has received one of its largest private donations from an old boy in New York.
At an alumni gathering in the Big Apple, Romesh Wadhwani, founder of the Symphony Group, gifted his alma mater a purse of $5 million (about Rs 22 crore) to set up a research centre in the area of bio-sciences.
"The lab will work in the area of research in bio-sciences and bio-engineering," IIT-B director Ashok Misra t old TOI from New York. Details of the centre's focus areas will be worked out after discussions between Wadhwani and the bio-sciences faculty.
IIT-B deputy director Juzer Vasi said the centre would work closely with the six-year-old bio-sciences school on the campus.
An electrical engineer from the class of 1969, Wadhwani went on to get a Ph.D from Carnegie Mellon University. The trust he set up, the Wadhwani Trust, has been pro-active in the area of bio sciences, especially via the National Entrepreneurship Network that it started.
Sources in the Union human resource development ministry said Wadhwani was serious about setting up an institute of bio-science and bio-engineering. He is in the process of discussing the proposal with the government and is scouting for land for the school.
D Panda, head of the bio-sciences school at IIT-B, said the purse would give the school a chance to invest in high-end research equipment for its young scholars-80 doing their Ph.D, 40 M.Tech students and 35 studying for their masters.
IIT-B is in its golden jubilee year. When celebrations kicked off last September, former students scattered around the globe received a slim package from their alma mater. It was a news capsule on their old college by a Mumbai lake. Playing broadcaster was faculty member Deepak Phatak, who recounted everything that had happened at Powai since they had graduated from the premier technology school.
This simple outreach hit the right spot. It evoked warm memories of a serene, leafy campus, hostel bonding and nick names-in short, the best years of their life. Along with the CD was a donation form. The response was "phenomenal" and IIT-B was snowed under with funds.
"Marketing cannot be connected to fund-raising, but the response from former students was exceptional," said professor Phatak, who is spearheading the celebrations.
His team sent out almost 4,000 packages to alumni in the US and 12,000 to those in India. The aim was to raise Rs 100 crore for campus facilities. Wadhwani's generous cheque has single-handedly looked after almost one-fourth of the target. |