Ex and founding VC of BPUT Prof. Damodar Acharya will be IIT Kharagpur director from July 2007
June 16th, 2007
UNI reports that Prof. Damodar Acharya, currently the Chairman of AICTE will become the director of IIT Kharagpur at the end of June 2007. Prior to being the AICTE Chairman he was the founding vice Chancellor of BPUT. At that time he had discussed with the Orissa government the importance of getting an IIT to Orissa and had led the development of Orissa government’s proposal for an IIT. Last year, while he was at AICTE, again with his help, the IIT Kharagpur branch campus in Bhubaneswar idea was made to a formal proposal. Now that he will be the director of IIT Kharagpur, lets hope that he takes some additional steps towards the fruition of a IIT Kharagpur branch in Bhubaneswar. Following is a biography of Prof. Acharya from the AICTE pages.
Prof. Damodar Acharya, FNAE, FNASc, Chairman, AICTE as unique strength in combining the academics with administrative skills in turning around Institutions .He has also proved himself as an excellent leader and organizer in motivating the academicians to get into the world of real life industrial problem solving, sponsored research, entrepreneurship, IPR creation and technology transfer. As an academician Prof Acharya has the distinction of supervising 30 Ph D students and publishing over 80 papers in National/International Journals. His academic contribution has been recognized by two of the four national Academies: Indian National Academy of Engineering and The National Academy of Sciences. Academic Administration: Prof. Acharya has left inedible marks in the field of Academic Administration. His contribution to opening for the first time a B.Tech Programme in Industrial Engineering in IIT System, propelling Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur to 11th position inthe country, reforms in JEE system of IIT’s bear testimony to his abilities. Within a short period of two years, as the Founding Vice-Chancellor of Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Rourkela, he has built a Technical University System with 109 affiliated and constituent colleges that may be emulated by others. Introducing flexible curricula and syllabi, keeping the national/ International trend and GATS requirements in view, with such features as Credit System, Continuous Evaluation, appropriate mix of Science, Engineering, hard Professional and Soft Humanities and management inputs are some of the novel features of BPUT. He has been successful in implementing non-negotiable academic calendar and in publishing results within a short period of three weeks, a record which few universities can surpass. He has also successfully introduced such novel welfare features as compulsory insurance for every student, full support for education in the event of the death of parent/guardian and Centralized Placement Facility for all graduates .All the colleges of the university are electronically connected. The University works with less than 1.0 non-teaching to teaching staff ratio. Prof Acharya has made significant contributions to number of institutions such as IIT, Kharagpur, NIT Rourkela and Biju Patnaik National Steel institute as member of their boards. His contributions to AICTE as member of Eastern Regional Committee, UG Engineering Education Review Committee, Undergraduate Board of Studies are all worth mentioning. Sponsored Research, IPR Protection and Entrepreneurship Development Besides personally handling projects over Rs 15 crores, he has been instrumental in developing a Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy System in IIT Kharagpur as its Dean to increase the SRIC revenue from mere Rs 2.0 Crore to Rs 18.0 Crore in a period of three years. The robust system now earns revenue of Rs 90.0 crore per year, As Executive Director of Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Park with the help of DST. Govt. of India, Govt. of West Bengal Financial Intuitions he could pull out a sick STEP to make it one of the best in the country. As Dean, he initiated IPR movement in IIT Kharagpur and could get over 40 patents for its faculty including 6 International patents in three years. Seven technologies were transferred.
Entry Filed under: BPUT, Rourkela,Distinguished faculty in India,IIT Kharagpur branch in Bhubaneswar,IIT, oDishA
1 Writeup
1. S K Sahoo | October 14th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Dear sir
It will be a great loss to Orissa,if Prof. Acharya leaves BPUT.Mafia raj will start in management of private engineering colleges.University will succumb to the pressure tactics of students who had got admission through money power with support of mafias in private engineering colleges.Please see,what is happening in the name of year back system.It was unheard of during our times 20 years ago.Those rich, arrogant & pampered children,who had got admission through back door,are crying wolf.BPUT must have stringent guidelines & suveylance system over private engineering colleges.
S.K.Sahoo