Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

, ,

Motto z (yoga karmasu kaualam) (Sanskrit)

MottoinEnglish

Excellence in action is yoga.

Type Public

Established 1951

Chairman Srikumar Banerjee

Director Partha Pratim

Chakraborty[1][2]

Academic staff 470

Administrativestaff

2403

Undergraduates 4500

Postgraduates 2500

Location Kharagpur, West Bengal, India

Campus 2,100 acres (8.5km2)[3]

Website www.iitkgp.ac.in(http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/)

Indian Institute of Technology KharagpurFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITKharagpur or IIT KGP; Bengali: , ) is a public engineering institutionestablished by the government of India in 1951. It wasthe first of the IITs to be established, and is recognizedas an Institute of National Importance by thegovernment of India.

As part of Nehru's dream for a free selfsufficient India,the institute was established to train scientists andengineers after India attained independence in 1947. Itshares its organisational structure and undergraduateadmission process with sister IITs. The students andalumni of IIT Kharagpur are informally referred to asKGPians. Among all IITs, IIT Kharagpur has thelargest campus (2,100acres),[4] the most departments,and the highest student enrollment. IIT Kharagpur isknown for its festivals: Spring Fest (Social and CulturalFestival) and Kshitij (Asia's largest TechnoManagement Festival).

Contents

1 History2 Administration3 Motto4 Campus

4.1 Academic buildings4.2 Civic amenities

5 Academics5.1 Undergraduate education5.2 Postgraduate and doctoral education5.3 Continuing education5.4 Sponsored research5.5 Academic Units5.6 Rankings

6 Placements at IIT Kharagpur7 Student life and culture

7.1 Halls of Residence7.2 Festivals7.3 Student organisations

7.3.1 Team KART (KharagpurAutomobile Racing Team)

7.3.2 Jagriti Vidya Mandir7.3.3 Entrepreneurship Cell7.3.4 Awaaz, IIT Kharagpur7.3.5 The Scholars' Avenue7.3.6 Space Technology Student

Society7.3.7 Technology Filmmaking and

Photography Society8 Alumni

8.1 Notable alumni8.2 Alumni initiatives

9 References10 Further reading11 External links

Coordinates: 221910.97N 871835.87E

The Hijli Detention Camp(photographed in 1951) served as IITKharagpur's first academic building

The main building of the instituteduring construction (1955)

History

With the help of Bidhan Chandra Roy (chief minister of WestBengal), Indian educationalists Humayun Kabir and JogendraSingh formed a committee in 1946 to consider the creation ofhigher technical institutions "for postwar industrial developmentof India." This was followed by the creation of a 22membercommittee headed by Nalini Ranjan Sarkar. In its interim report,the Sarkar Committee recommended the establishment of highertechnical institutions in India, along the lines of the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology and consulting from the University ofIllinois at UrbanaChampaign along with affiliated secondaryinstitutions. The report urged that work should start with thespeedy establishment of major institutions in the fourquarters of

the country with the ones in the east and the west to be set up immediately.[5]

On the grounds that West Bengal had the highest concentration ofindustries at the time, Roy persuaded Jawaharlal Nehru (India's firstprime minister) to establish the first institute in West Bengal. Thefirst Indian Institute of Technology was thus established in May 1950as the Eastern Higher Technical Institute.[6] It was located inEsplanade East, Calcutta, and in September 1950 shifted to itspermanent campus at Hijli, Kharagpur 120kilometres southwest ofCalcutta. Hijli had been used as a detention camp during the Britishcolonial rule in India, to keep Indian freedom fighters captive.[7]

IIT Kharagpur is the 3rd oldest technical institute in the state afterIIEST Shibpur (1856) and Jadavpur University (established as Bengal technical institute in 1906) Whenthe first session started in August 1951, there were 224 students and 42 teachers in the ten departments ofthe institute. The classrooms, laboratories and the administrative office were housed in the historicbuilding of the Hijli Detention Camp (now known as Shaheed Bhawan), where political revolutionarieswere imprisoned during the British rule.[8] The office building had served as the headquarters of theBomber Command of the U.S. 20th Air Force during World War II. To honour Bidhan Chandra Roy, thearea in front of the main building is named Bidhan Chowk.

The name "Indian Institute of Technology" was adopted before the formal inauguration of the institute on18 August 1951 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India passed theIndian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act declaring it an Institute of National Importance. PrimeMinister Nehru, in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, said:[9]

Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine monument of India,representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolicalof the changes that are coming to India.

The Shaheed Bhawan was converted to a museum in 1990.[10] The Srinivasa Ramanujan Complex wasincorporated as another academic complex of the institute with Takshashila starting operation in 2002,Vikramshila in 2003 and Nalanda in 2012.

Administration

IIT Kharagpur shares a common Visitor (a position held by the President of India) and the IIT Councilwith other IITs. The rest of IIT Kharagpur's organisational structure is distinct from that of the otherIITs. The Board of Governors of IIT Kharagpur is under the IIT Council, and has 13 members thatinclude representatives of the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, in addition to othermembers appointed by the IIT Council and the institute's senate. Under the Board of Governors is theinstitute director, who serves as the chief academic and executive officer of the IIT. He is aided by thedeputy director.[11] Under the director and the deputy director are the deans, heads of departments,registrar, president of the students' council, and chairman of the hall management committee. The

Organisational structure of the IITs

Institute Main Building, IITKharagpur

registrar is the chief administrative officer and oversees daytodayoperations. He is the custodian of records, funds, and otherproperties of the institute.[11] Under the charge of the heads ofdepartments (HOD) are the faculty (fulltime professors as well asthose of associate and assistant status). The wardens of hostels areplaced under the chairman of the hall management committee inthe organisation.[12]

IIT Kharagpur receives comparatively more funding than otherengineering colleges in India.[13] While the total governmentfunding to most other engineering colleges is around Rs.100200million (US$24.5million) per year, IIT Kharagpur gets nearlyRs.1,300million ($30million) per year.[14] Other sources of funds include student fees and researchfunding by industrysponsored projects. IIT Kharagpur subsidises undergraduate student fees byapproximately 80% and provide scholarships to all MTech students and research scholars to encouragethem to pursue higher studies. The cost borne by undergraduate students, including boarding and messexpenses, is around Rs.1,54,000 ($2,346) per annum. 35% of undergraduate students are given additionalfinancial support based on personal need and economic background, with their annual expenses beingnearly Rs.64,000 ($975).[15]

The academic policies of IIT Kharagpur are decided by its senate.[16] It consists of all professors of theinstitute, and administrative and student representatives. The senate controls and approves thecurriculum, courses, examinations and results, and appoints committees to look into specific academicmatters. The teaching, training and research activities of the institute are periodically reviewed by thesenate to maintain educational standards. The director of IIT Kharagpur is the ex officio chairman of thesenate.

IIT Kharagpur follows the creditbased system of performance evaluation, with proportional weighting ofcourses based on their importance.[17] The total marks (usually out of 100) form the basis of grades, witha grade value (out of 10) assigned to a range of marks. For each semester, the students are graded bytaking a weighted average from all the courses with their respective credit points. Each semester'sevaluation is done independently with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) reflecting the averageperformance across semesters. The medium of instruction is English.

Motto

The motto of IIT Kharagpur is "Yoga Karmashu Kaushalam" ( z in Sanskrit). The mottoliterally translates to "Excellence in action is Yoga" essentially implying that doing your work well is(true) yoga. It is sourced to Sri Krishna's discourse to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita, chapter 2 verse 50. Thisquote in its larger context of Gita urges man to acquire equanimity because such a soul endowed with themind of equanimity allows him to shed the effects of his good and evil deeds in this world itself.Equanimity is the source of perfection in Karmic endeavors while leading to Salvation..

Campus

IIT Kharagpur is located 120 kilometres (75mi) west of Kolkata.The campus is located five kilometres away from Kharagpur'srailway station. The layout of the present campus and the design ofthe buildings were carried out by a group of engineers andarchitects under the guidance of Werner M. Moser, a Swissarchitect.[18] The 8.5 square kilometres (2,100 acres) campus isresidence to about 22,000 inhabitants.[10] In 2015, IIT Kharagpurhad about 600 faculty members, 1,933 employees andapproximately 10,000 students living on the campus.[19] Thecampus has a total of 55 kilometres (34 miles) of roadways. TheInstitute plans to go Green by 2020.[20]

Takshashila complex

Vikramshila complex in IITKharagpur

The 22 student hostels are located on either side of Scholars Avenue, which extends from the institutegate to the B. C. Roy Technology Hospital. The three earliest hallsPatel, Azad, and Nehrutogetherconstitute the PAN loop or Old Campus, which is located just next to Scholar's Avenue. There are tenhostels for undergraduate male students (MMM, LBS, RP, RK, MS, LLR, HJB, Patel, Azad and Nehru)and two for undergraduate female students (SN/IG and MT). There are a few postgraduate students'hostels including four for women(RLB, Gokhle, Nivedita and SAM) and hostels for research scholars(BCR, VS, BRH and JCB) and a separate hostel for scholars from the armed forces.[18] The Jnan Ghoshstadium and Tata Sports Complex host largescale sports competitions. The Tagore Open Air Theatre has acapacity of 6,000 people, and is used to host cultural programs.[18] The Science and TechnologyEntrepreneurs' Park (STEP) provides infrastructure facilities to alumni who want to becomeentrepreneurs but lack infrastructure to start their own corporation.[21]

In addition to the main campus at Kharagpur, the institute has an extension centre at Kolkata to providevenues for continuing education programmes, distance learning courses, and guesthouse accommodation.The institute plans to expand the Kolkata extension centre at Rajarhat, and use it to offer fulltimeundergraduate and postgraduate courses from the 2008 session onwards.[22] The 10acre (40,000m2)Rajarhat campus will house 2,500 students, and will eventually expand to 250 acres (1.0km2).[23] Theinstitute's plan for a similar branch campus of 200 acres (0.81km2) in Bhubaneswar was scrappedfollowing rejection by the Union Human Resource and Development ministry.[24]

Academic buildings

IIT Kharagpur has 19 academic departments, eight multidisciplinary centres/schools, and 13 schools of excellence inaddition to more than 25 central research and development units.Apart from the main building in the central academic complex, theSrinivasa Ramanujan Complex also has common academic facilities.In the S. R. Complex, the Takshashila building houses the G. S.Sanyal School of Telecommunication, the School of InformationTechnology and the Computer and Informatics Centre; and hasfacilities for conducting lecture classes as well. Vikramshila isanother academic building in the S. R. Complex, having four lecturehalls, several seminar rooms, and Kalidas Auditorium, which has aseating capacity of 850.[25] The School of Medical Science andTechnology is housed in the basement of the Vikramshila building.

The institute main building houses most of the administrativeoffices, the lecture halls, and two auditoriums on either side. Thesignage at the front displays the message," Dedicated to the serviceof the nation." The tower of the main building has a steel tank with10,000 imperial gallons of water capacity for emergency supplyneeds. The Netaji Auditorium in the main building is used forofficial functions and events, and doubles as a cinema theatre onweekend nights, showing films to the IIT community at subsidisedrates.

IIT Kharagpur's first library was located in a small room of theinstitute's Old Building (Shaheed Bhawan). At the time of its opening in 1951, the library had a collectionof 2,500 books. Now located in the main building of the institute, the Central Library is one of the largestof its type. Its collection includes over 350,000 books and documents, and it subscribes to more than 1,600printed and online journals and conference proceedings.

The library has six halls and a section exclusively for SC and ST students. The library's collection consistsof books, reports, conference proceedings, back volumes of periodicals, standards, theses, microforms,DVDs, CDROMs, and audiovisual material. The library's transaction service is automated and onlinesearches are possible through an Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). The Electronic Library sectionhas a collection of databases, video lectures and miscellaneous other resources.

The Nehru Museum of Science and Technology has over a hundred indoor exhibits that include technicalmodels collected from institutions across India. The park outside the museum contains 14 openairdemonstrations and outdoor exhibits, including a hunter plane and a steam engine. The museum has an

The B.C. Roy Technology Hospitalis a civic hospital inside the IITcampus

Entrance gate

archive room, showing documents relating to the history of the institute and West Midnapore district.[26]

The Rural Museum, located in the Rural Development Centre of the institute, has a collection of exhibitsin local culture.

Civic amenities

The institute campus has six guest houses, a civic hospital, fournationalised banks, four schools, a railway reservation counter anda police station. The campus has a water pumping station, electricalsubstation, telephone exchange, a market, six restaurants, and agarbage disposal section for the daily needs of the residents.[10]Construction is going on for another guest house and a conventioncentre having a capacity of 2,000. The institute draws its supply ofwater from wells near the Kosai river (located 112kilometres awayfrom institute) by harnessing subsurface water. Three deep wellsnear the institute supplement the supply from the river. The wateris supplied by a 16inch (410mm) pipeline to 12 tanks in thecampus with a total capacity of 2,800,000litres (615,000 imperialgallons). However students have recently shown dissatisfactionwith the current level of amenities, especially the civic hospital,forcing the director to resign.[27]

IIT Kharagpur is located just outside the town of Kharagpur, in the Hijli village. The civic amenitiesprovided to the campus of IIT Kharagpur make it nearly selfsufficient with regards to the basic needs ofthe residents. As Kharagpur is a small town, there is limited direct interaction between the campuscommunity and the town. There is also little opportunity for the employment of family members of thefaculty. Unlike some other IITs (such as IIT Bombay), IIT Kharagpur does not restrict outsiders' entryinto the campus.[28] IIT Kharagpur provides much of its benefits to the local community through theRural Development Centre (RDC) located in the campus. Established in 1975, the RDC helps the localcommunity by developing customised technologies.[29] The RDC also coordinates the National ServiceScheme (NSS) programs in IIT Kharagpur, with the members of NSS taking part in weekly communityservice activities such as sanitation, road construction, teaching and building educational models.

In 2005, IIT Kharagpur started construction of a boundary wall for the security of the campus, which isnow complete. Mild restrictions apply to entry of outside vehicles. The boundary wall was opposed by thelocal community as it would hinder their access to amenities provided by the institute. Campus residentshave also been denied direct access to the adjoining Hijli railway station as a result of this wall. The localcommunity opposed the construction of a flyover from the railway station to the campus formerly, underthe pretext that it would lead to substantial losses of opportunity for the shops along the roads. After theflyover construction had been completed and became operational, things ensued in a manner as the localcommunity had anticipated, but the flyover has resulted in more convenience for transport.[30] Theconstruction of the 1052.69m long flyover was approved by the Indian Railways and West Bengal stategovernment. It's called Hijli Road overbridge, and was constructed for estimated cost of Rs.237million($5.3million).[31]

Academics

Admission to most undergraduate and postgraduate courses in IITKharagpur is granted through written entrance examinations.Admissions to M.S.(by Research) and PhD programmes are basedon written tests followed by personal interviews.

Admission to undergraduate programmes in all IITs is tied to theIndian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (IITJEE). Candidates who qualify for admission through IITJEE canapply for admission in fouryear BTech (Bachelor of Technology),fiveyear BArch degree, fiveyear Dual Degree (Integrated Bachelorof Technology and Master of Technology) and fiveyear integratedMSc (Master of Sciences) courses at IIT Kharagpur. The admissions

A lecture auditorium in theVikramshila complex

to postgraduate programmes (MTech) are made primarily through the Graduate Aptitude Test inEngineering (GATE). Other postgraduate entrance exams include Joint Admission to MSc (JAM) forMSc, and Common Admission Test (CAT) conducted by IIMs for management studies.

15% of the seats are reserved for students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) and 7.5% for ScheduledTribes (ST).[32] As of 2008, 27% separate reservation exists for the Other Backward Classes.

IIT Kharagpur is a member of LAOTSE, a network of universities in Europe and Asia exchangingstudents and senior scholars.

Undergraduate education

IIT Kharagpur offers degrees as part of its undergraduateprogrammes. They include Bachelor of Technology (BTech.Hons),Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) and the 5year integrated Masterof Science. The BTech degree is the most common undergraduatedegree in IIT Kharagpur in terms of student enrolment. It is basedon a fouryear programme with eight semesters. The first year ofthe BTech curriculum has common courses from variousdepartments. At the end of the first year, an option to changedepartments is given to students on the basis of their performancein the first two semesters.[17] Unlike other IITs which evaluatetheir students on the basis of others' performance which does notfoster shared learning and communication,IIT Kharagpur usesabsolute scores.[33]

From the second year onwards, the students take courses offered by their departments that are known asdepth courses. In addition to these, the students take interdisciplinary courses known as breadth courses.Separate courses from the humanities and social sciences (HSS) department, and management andinformation technology are also required. At the end of the third year, the BTech and dual degreestudents undertake industrial training for a minimum period of eight working weeks as part of theundergraduate curriculum.[34] In the final year of their studies, most of the students are offered jobs inindustries and other organisations through the Training and Placement section of the institute.[35] Somestudents opt out of this facility in favour of higher studies or by applying to recruiting organisationsdirectly. In addition to the major degree as part of the undergraduate education, students can take coursesfrom other departments, and by demonstrating knowledge of a discipline based on objectives set by thedepartment, earn a minor in that department.

Postgraduate and doctoral education

IIT Kharagpur offers postgraduate programmes including Master of Technology (MTech), Master ofBusiness Administration (MBA), and Master of Sciences (MSc). Some specialised post graduateprogrammes offered by IIT Kharagpur include Master of Human Resource Management (MHRM),Postgraduate Diploma in Information Technology (PGDIT), Master in Medical Science and Technology(MMST), Master of City Planning (MCP), LL.B in Intellectual Property Law (LL.B Honors in IP Law),and Postgraduate Diploma in Maritime Operation and Management (PGDMOM). The institute offers theDoctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) as part of its doctoral education programme. The doctoral scholarsare given a topic by the professor, or work on the consultancy projects sponsored by industry. Theduration of the programme is usually unspecified and depends on the discipline. PhD scholars submit adissertation as well as conduct an oral defence of their thesis. Teaching assistantships (TA) and researchassistantships (RA) are provided based on the scholar's academic profile. IIT Kharagpur offers an M.S. (byresearch) programme; the MTech and M.S. being similar to the US universities' nonthesis (coursebased)and thesis (researchbased) master programmes respectively.

IIT Kharagpur (along with other IITs) offers Dual Degree programs that integrate undergraduate andpostgraduate studies in selected pairs of branches and specialisations. Most of the Dual Degree programsinvolve specialisation in the major field of education of the student. For a dual degree involving an MBAfrom Vinod Gupta School of Management, the selection is made on the basis of an aptitude test of studentsacross all engineering streams. The Dual Degree program spans five years as against six years inconventional BTech (four years) followed by an MTech or MBA (two years).[36]

Kalpana Chawla Space TechnologyCell

IIT Kharagpur has a management school (Vinod Gupta School of Management), an entrepreneurshipschool (Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship) and a law school (Rajiv Gandhi Schoolof Intellectual Property Law) on its premises. The Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law hasbeen opened in collaboration with George Washington University.[37] The School of Medical Science andTechnology in IIT kharagpur is the first and also the "only" of its kind in the country where M.B.B.S.graduates are trained in art and science of medical research with aim to provide a platform forinterdisciplinary teaching and research in the field of medical science and technology. IIT Kharagpur willinvest around Rs 2.30billion for its 400 bed super specialty hospital in the campus which will impartundergraduate medical course to students.The institute is expected to start the course in 2017 which willbe recognised by Medical Council of India (MCI).[38]

Continuing education

The institute offers the Continuing Education Programme (CEP) for qualified engineers and scientists tolearn technologies and developments in their academic disciplines. As part of CEP, the institute offersformal degree programmes (MTech and PhD) and an Early Faculty Induction Programme (EFIP)[39]under the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP), shortterm courses supported by the All India Councilfor Technical Education, selffinanced shortterm courses supported by course fees, and certificate coursesconducted as distance education. In addition to conducting educational courses, the CEP develops modelcurricula for engineering education. As of 2006, the CEP has facilitated publication of 103 coursecurriculum books. The CEP administers SIMAP (Small Industries Management Assistant Programme)and STUP (SkillcumTechnology Upgradation Programme) on behalf of IIT Kharagpur; the institutebeing a corpus institute of SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India).[40]

Sponsored research

The institute received 171 research revenue worth Rs.417million($9.25million)and 130 consultancy projects in the 200506session. The institute transferred 15 technologies to industryduring the same session. The institute has filed 125 patents and 25of them have been granted. This does not include patents obtainedby individual professors or students. During the same session, thevalue of the international projects was Rs.9.9million ($220,000),and the revenue from transferred technologies was aboutRs.2.5million ($55,000). The institute earned Rs.520million($11.5million) from research projects in the 200506 session.[23]Major sponsors for research include the Indian National ScienceAcademy, Ministry of Human Resource and Development, DefenceResearch and Development Organisation, Microsoft Corporation,Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology(India) and Indian Space Research Organisation.[41] IIT Kharagpur has had a cell known as the SRIC(Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy) cell since 1982. It handles sponsored research projectsand industrial consultancy assignments, and has the infrastructure to simultaneously administer 600 R&Dprojects.[42]

Academic Units

Departments

Aerospace EngineeringAgricultural & Food EngineeringArchitecture & Regional PlanningBiotechnologyChemical EngineeringChemistryCivil EngineeringComputer Science & EngineeringElectrical EngineeringElectronics & Electrical Communication EngineeringECEGeology & GeophysicsHumanities & Social Sciences

University and college rankingsGeneral international

QS (World)[43] 286

QS (Asian)[44] 60

Times[45] 351400

General India

Careers 360 (Magazine)[46] 3

Engineering India

India Today[47] 3

Outlook India[48] 1

Dataquest[49] 4

Government colleges:

Mint[50] 4

Medical India

Business India

Industrial & Systems EngineeringMathematicsMechanical EngineeringMetallurgical & Materials EngineeringMining EngineeringOcean Engineering & Naval ArchitecturePhysics

Centres

Rubber TechnologyReliability EngineeringCryogenic EngineeringMaterials ScienceOceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land SciencesRural Development CentreCenter for Educational Technology

Schools

G S Sanyal School of TelecommunicationsRajendra Mishra School of Engineering EntrepreneurshipRajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property LawRanbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and ManagementMedical Science & TechnologySchool of Water ResourcesVinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur

Rankings

Internationally, IIT Kharagpur is ranked 286 in the QSWorld University Rankings (Quacquarelli Symonds) of2015[51][43] and 60 in the QS Asian UniversityRankings of 2014.[52][53][44]

IIT Kharagapur is ranked in the 351400 range by theTimes Higher Education World University Rankings of201314.[54][55][56] Recently, it was declared the topeducational hub in India as per the Times HigherEducation, Asia Rankings. It was ranked 439 in theUniversity Ranking by Academic Performance(URAP).[57] In India, among engineering colleges, itranked 3 by India Today in 2013,[58][59][47] 2 byOutlook India in 2013[60][48] and 4 by Dataquest in2011.[49] In India, among universities, it ranks 3 inCareers 360 (Magazine) Top Universities in India2015.[46] In the Mint Government Colleges survey of2009 it ranked 4.[50] IIT, Kharagpur, has emerged asthe top engineering college in EDURAND ranking2014 followed by IITs in Delhi and Kanpur.[61]

Placements at IIT Kharagpur

The international placements began in 2006.[62] Two foreign companies, oil giants Schlumberger andRoyal Dutch Shell, visited IIT Kharagpur that year and offered annual salaries to the tune of $80,000.[63]The reason for late international placements was that earlier the IIT Kharagpur was fully dedicated to theservice of the nation, as its motto says, but after the fee hike, it had to abandon its policy.[64] According toIT magazine Dataquest's annual survey, IIT Kharagpur is the second best technology college in terms ofplacement in India.[65][66][66]

Madan Mohan Malviya Hall is one of18 student halls

The top domestic compensation in 2008 came in at Rs 1.8million per annum.[67] In 2011 batch, GoldmanSachs recruited 10 students on a package of 2.6 million (US$39,000) per annum.[68]

Barclays Capital recruited 11 students with a package of 2 million (US$30,000) per annum in December2009. The highest salary offered till now is 17 million (US$250,000) per annum by social networkingsite Facebook in an offshore recruitment (of which Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) wereoffered valued at Rs 10million) in December 2010.[69][70][71] The 2010 batch of BTech students saw94% placements while the remaining preferred IIMs or entrepreneurship.Deutsche Bank recruited 9students on a package of 1.5 million (US$22,000) per annum.[72] For 2012 batch, Facebook has madethe highest offer US$150,000 to four students.[73][74][75][76][77] For 2013 batch, Three students havebagged salaries of 8 million (US$120,000) a year while eight others have got offers of 7.5 million(US$110,000) from Google, Facebook and Microsoft.[78] For 2014 batch, the highest package, offered to astudent stands at around 9 million (US$130,000) from Google.[79]

Student life and culture

Halls of Residence

IIT Kharagpur provides oncampus residential facilities to itsstudents, research scholars, faculty members and many of itsstaff.[80] The students live in hostels (referred to as halls)throughout their stay in the IIT.[81] Hostel rooms are wired forinternet, for which students pay a compulsory charge. Most of therooms in the older halls of residences are designed to accommodateone student, but due to scarcity of sufficient studentaccommodation, two students share the single seater room in firsttwo years. The new rooms of Lal Bahadur Shastri hall & newblocks of few other hall of residence accommodate three students inone room.

The halls of IIT Kharagpur are:

Ashutosh Mukherjee HallAzad HallBidhan Chandra Roy HallB R Ambedkar HallGokhale HallHomi Jehangir Bhabha HallJ C Bose HallLala Lajpat Rai HallLal Bahadur Shashtri HallMadan Mohan Malviya HallMeghnad Saha HallMother Teresa HallNehru HallPatel HallRadha Krishnan HallRajendra Prasad HallRani Laxmibai HallSarojini Naidu / Indira Gandhi HallVikram Sarabhai Residential complexVidyasagar HallZakir Hussain HallSister Nivedita Hall of Residence

Undergraduate students choose between National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS)and National Sports Organisation (NSO) for their first two years of study.[82] IIT Kharagpur hascommon sports grounds for cricket, football, hockey,one court for volleyball, two for lawn tennis, fourindoor badminton court, tracks for athletics; and swimming pools for aquatic events. Most of the hostelshave their own sports grounds. The institute organises Shaurya, an annual intercollegiate sports andgames meet in October[83]

A common room in a hostel (RPHall) during a cricket match telecast

Bands performing at Spring Fest2012, IIT Kharagpur.

The students of IIT Kharagpur compete among themselves in various events held under the purview ofopenIIT and interhall events, and the results of the latter contribute to the points that determine thewinner of General Championship. The four categories in which General Championships are decided areSports, Social and cultural activities, Technology, and Hall affairs. The women's hostel togetherparticipate as a single team in all events with the exception of sports, where women's team do notparticipate at interhall level. IIT Kharagpur participates in the Inter IIT Sports Meet, held annually inone of the IITs by policy of rotation.[84]

The students choose their representatives by elections held underthe control of the Technology Students' Gymkhana. The highestranking student representative chosen by the elections is the VicePresident of the Gymkhana, and represents the students in thesenate. All halls nominate two representatives for the senate.BesideVicePresident, General secretaries and Secretaries are also chosenby the Gymkhana election. The Gymkhana publishes an annualmagazine called Alankar. A fortnightly newsletter called TheScholar's Avenue, named after the avenue common to the studenthalls, is also published by an independent student body. A Hindimonthly newsletter Awaaz is also published by anotherindependent student body.[85] Individual halls organise "Hall day" an annual event that involves lighting and decoration of the

organising hall, with a social gathering of students from all hallsduring March. The event is also usedby the halls to popularise their candidates for student body elections.

Students who violate the code of conduct of the institute have to defend themselves in front of the HallDisciplinary Committee (HDC), which investigates the case and prescribes punishment if necessary.Students may appeal against the punishment to the AppellatecumLiaison Committee known as InterHall Disciplinary Committee (IHDC). The IHDC submits its recommendations to the Senate, whichfinalises the punishment. Extreme cases of indiscipline are referred directly to the IHDC. The IHDC isempowered to give punishments to students for acts of indiscretion committed anywhere in India.[86] IITKharagpur has strict provisions dealing with physical and mental harassment of junior students (ragging).Students found harassing their juniors are suspended from the institute, without going through theDisciplinary Committee.[87]

Festivals

IIT Kharagpur has festivals like Spring Fest, Kshitij. Spring Fest,the annual sociocultural fest of IIT Kharagpur is the largeststudent managed sociocultural fest of Asia. It is held in January.Spring Fest includes cultural competitions in addition to stageshows (known as Starnights) by singers and performers such asSunidhi Chauhan, Farhan Akhtar, SalimSulaiman, VishalShekhar,K.K., Pritam, Kailash Kher, Shaan, Breathe, Led Zepplica,Parikrama, Indian Ocean etc. The magnitude of Spring Fest is hugeand attracts participation from more than 150 colleges acrossIndia.[10] IIT Kharagpur organises a technomanagement festivalknown as Kshitij. It is the biggest technomanagement festival ofAsia with a total budget of more than 15million and a total prize money worth Rs 5million. An annualtechnomanagement festival organised in January or February, it receives participation from foreignuniversities as well. Events include technical workshops, seminars, and competitions.

Robotix, the annual robotics competition held by IIT Kharagpur, is organised during Kshitij. IITKharagpur organises an annual intercollegiate sports and games meet known as Shaurya. It is held in theautumn semester in October. Events include cricket, hockey, volleyball, basketball, badminton, tabletennis, lawn tennis and aquatics. Workshops for archery, boxing and handball are held.

Illumination, known as Illu, is a festival unique to IIT Kharagpur. It is inspired from the day of Diwali (thefestival of lights) and is usually held on the day of Diwali itself. It is held as a competition among studenthalls.[85] As part of the Illumination festival, all halls build vertical panels of bamboo (called Chatais) onwhich thousands of lamps (diyas) are mounted forming outlines of people or things; illustrating an event,or a place of importance. The chatais may reach a height of 6 metres (20ft), with nearly 20,000 lighted

Multiple panels with illuminatedlamps on display

lamps. The lamps on the chatais are lighted with all other lightsources switched off, to showcase the artpanels made by theflickering lamps. On the same day as Illumination, the RangoliCompetition is organised as an interhall event.[85] Rangolis ofexquisite detail and shadingmeasuring around 3.5 by 3.5 metres(11 by 11ft) are constructed using coloured powders, crushedbangles, and pebbles. Interplay of light and shadow and ambientmusic are part of the display.

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering organises Bitwise IIT Kharagpur, an onlineprograming contest annually in February. Programing and algorithmic challenges are given in a span of12 hours. In Bitwise 2011, 5000 teams participated from 80 countries. Bitwise 2012 was held on 12February 2012.

In January the Entrepreneurship Cell organises a Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which consists ofguest lectures, workshops, a startup camp and other events relating to entrepreneurship and startingup.

In October end, Space Technology Students' Society at IIT Kharagpur organized the National Students'Space Challenge, the first spacescience and engineering series of nationallevel competitions for studentsin India.

The Department of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture conducts its annual technical meetSamudramanthan in the month of March every year providing a platform for all the Naval Architectsacross the country to compete and share their knowledge in the field.

There are also other department festivals like Esperanza (organised by department of Electronics andelectrical communication engineering) Prithvi[88] (organised by department of geology)

A petroleum themed technical fest 'Petrofiesta' is organised in the month of November by the Society ofPetroleum Engineers IIT Kharagpur Chapter. This is a one of a kind fest which provides a platform forstudents from all over the country to compete and share their ideas and knowledge in the field ofpetroleum industry.[89]

Student organisations

Team KART (Kharagpur Automobile Racing Team)

Kharagpur Automobile Racing Team, better known as "Team KART" is a group of students who like toexplore the practical side of automotive engineering.The team designs and builds formula studentprototype racecars and represents IIT Kharagpur at Formula Student UK.[90] It was founded in 2008and has made three cars sincethe KX1, the K1 & the K2. K2 secured a rank of 67th out of 120 teamsworldwide at Formula Student UK 2013. Several design oversights in K2 were fixed in K2.2 by a newchassis and intakeexhaust system. The team participated in FDC 2015 and passed technical scrutiny andtook part in dynamic events securing the first runners up position in Business Presentation and CostReport, 2nd in Business Plan Presentation & 2nd in Cost and Manufacturing Report. Construction of K3is ongoing.

Jagriti Vidya Mandir

Students started an English medium school in VillageTangasole, Salua outside the campus for localchildren. Jagriti Vidya Mandir (JVM) run by Gopali Youth Welfare Society, managed by IIT Students, whereprovide Free of Cost Education for the underprivileged children. Current school is from class Nursery to V, provideSchool Uniform, Books & Stationary and transportation.[91]

Entrepreneurship Cell

Entrepreneurship Cell (ECell)[92] is a student's organisation, functioning under STEP (Science andTechnology Entrepreneurs' Park), from within the Institute, with the aim of promoting entrepreneurshipamong students throughout India.[93] It provides mentoring and support to startup companies and helpsthem with financing, through Venture Capitalists and incubation, through STEP and SRIC, IITKharagpur.

It conducts two major events, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit(GES), which is a threeday event,held in January at the institute, and the Entrepreneurship Awareness Drive (EAD), a 20day event,consisting of guest lectures in 20 cities across India. Knowledge Camp is conducted annually for thebenefit of students within IITKgp, while the Innovation Platform and FundaKGPian programscontinue throughout the year, to recognise and support innovative ideas among students of IITKgp,besides workshops and guest lectures throughout the year.

Professors Sunil Handa, Padma Shri Anil K. Gupta, Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Vinod Dham, Arjun Malhotra,Rajat Sharma and Kiran MazumdarShaw are some of the speakers who have delivered lectures within andoutside IIT Kgp.

ECell has been instrumental in the establishment of Rajendra Mishra School of EngineeringEntrepreneurship. The ECell has played a key role in the Deferred Placement Programme (DPP),whereby, a student can opt for placement a year after the completion of his/her course, in case they areinvolved in a startup company. This is the first time such a programme is being offered at theundergraduate level in India.

Awaaz, IIT Kharagpur

Awaaz is the monthly Hindi campus newsletter of IIT Kharagpur.

The Scholars' Avenue

The Scholars' Avenue is the independent studentrun campus newspaper of the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Kharagpur. Now in its tenth year, copies of The Scholars Avenue are delivered to over 7000students on campus and soft copies are mailed to all the faculty and over 10,000 odd alumni. The team isdrawn entirely from among the students of the institute, and its mission is to report and analyze eventsthat affect the campus, and to be the voice of the IIT Kharagpur student community. The Scholars'Avenue is a nonprofit organization supported by sponsorships (and donations); independent of theadministration of IIT Kharagpur.

Space Technology Student Society

Space Technology Student Society (spAts) is a student initiative that functions as the student body ofKalpana Chawla Space Technology Cell(KCSTC),the contact point of Indian Space ResearchOrganisation(ISRO) at IIT Kharagpur.It hosts an annual Spacefestival "National Students' SpaceChallenge".[94] spAts has been constantly instrumental in organizing spacethemed talks, sky gazingsessions, lectures and presentations within IIT Kharagpur. The group publishes a bi semester newsletter,'The Moonwalk', on latest ventures in space technology and various astronomy related articles.[95]

Technology Filmmaking and Photography Society

Technology Filmmaking and Photography Society(TFPS) is another students' interest club of IITKharagpur which aims to provide a platform to students interested in filmmaking and photography towork together and pursue their interests.[96] Biswapati Sarkar is one of the founding members ofTFPS.[97]

Autonomous Ground Vehicle Research Group

Team AGV is a multidisciplinary research group aimed at building a fully operational selfdriving car.The Teams best performance came in IGVC 2013, where the teams entry, Eklavya 2.0 was the 5th fastestin the Basic Challenge and 9th in the Advanced Navigation Challenge.

Technology Transfer Group

Technology Transfer Group (TTG) is students' initiative under the auspices of Sponsored Research &Industrial Consultancy, IIT Kharagpur, who believe in the potential of the Institute as a Premier Research& Development centre. This group aims at working towards achieving the target of successfullytransferring technologies developed inhouse to the industryultimately taking its benefits to the commonman and hence bridging the research Institutes in the country with the Industry. Founded in 2007, thisgroup is a first of its kind in the IIT system or for that matter any other Research Centre in the Country.