by Ashis Sinha
An alumnus of IIT-ISM (1967 Batch PE) and President, Omimex Group, USA, Naresh K. Vashisht announced a fund of Rs 10 Crore to his alma mater for setting up a Hydrogen & a Carbon (CO2) Capture and Sequestration Centre. He was addressing the 97th Foundation Day function of IIT (ISM) today at Penman Auditorium of the institute
Notably, an innovation hub named – “Naresh Vashisht Centre” for Tinkering and Innovation set up with a fund of Rs 8 Crore provided by him in 2020 is already operational in IIT (ISM) and promoting tinkering and innovation among students, scholars, and Hydrogen & Carbon Capture and Sequestration Centre will be the second centre established with the help of Vashisht.
Vashisht who delivered an online address from Texas (USA) said: “Students are the biggest assets of any institute as they act as brand ambassador of the institute.” He further said that India is in unique position with and only bright spot for the world in present scenario and further called upon the students to carry out research on areas like, which have several industrial applications.
The day also witnessed the announcement of funds by different alumnus and alumni chapters of IIT (ISM), including Kolkata Chapter of IIT (ISM) Alumni Association, which announced a fund of Rs 1 Crore to its alma mater over the next three years till the Centenary Year Celebration scheduled in phase wise manner beginning today during which they handed over a cheque Rs 30 lakh.
The function also witnessed felicitations and the presentation of awards to selected students, research scholars, faculty members and employees for their respective achievements and for their long services (in some cases).
An MoU exchange for an Endowment Fund and the launching of two online portals also took place during the occasion.
A campus tour for school students was also organized as part of the Foundation Day, during which more than 200 students of different schools of Dhanbad visited different facilities of the Institute, including the CRE, CRS and Central Library.
The videos made by Media & Branding of IIT (ISM) did the icing on the cake. The day began at Penman Auditorium at around 9.55 a.m., inviting the dignitaries on the dais, followed by the rendition of the invocation song & lighting of the Ceremonial Lamp by the Guest.
Professor Rajiv Shekhar, Director, IIT (ISM), who presided over the function while addressing the gathering, said that the issue related to stress among some students being faced by IITs, including IIT (ISM) is the identification of such students who face stress due to various reasons, including societal and peer pressure and other reasons including academic pressure.
“We have our systems in place to address such issues through counselling etc, but we need to further work upon in this direction,” added Shekhar.
He also reminisced about his memories in IIT (ISM) ever since he joined here as director in March 2018. Professor Shekhar, later also provided Long Service Awards to Prof V.M.S.R. Murthy of the Department of Mining Engineering, Dr Pramod Mathur (On Deputation) Additional Registrar (Admin) and R.K. Biswas, Junior Engineering for completing 25 years of service in the Institute.
The function progressed with the conferment of the Inder Mohan Thapar Research Awards, 2021, to altogether 17 research scholars by V. K. Arora, Chief Mentor, KCT Group and President, IIT (ISM) Alumni Association, Kolkata Chapter.
The Director, meanwhile, also felicitated 19 faculty members of the institute who are in top 2% of the world’s scientists in a survey conducted by Stanford University. The award for Product Development for Institutional Governance were conferred by Prof
Shekhar during the function to Prof Saurabh Srivastava of Computer Science Engineering Department and two employees of the Academic Section, Bishnu Kumar and V Prakash Narayan.
Altogether 23 students were also felicitated by Professor Shekhar during the function for their achievements in sports and other technical events including, Smart India Hackathon, Website Redesigning Contest and International Switch Energy Case Competition.
He later also felicitated six research scholars of the institute who are also Prime Minister Research Fellowship (PMRF) awardees for 2022, including Tripti Kundu & Saradindu Debnath of Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology; Namrata Mani Tripathi & Anjali Ramashankar Prasad of Mathematics & Computing Department, Avishek Dutta of Department of Applied Geology and Satyam Tiwari of Department of Civil Engineering.
A MoU Exchange with Prof S.P. Banerjee, Former Director, IIT (ISM) also took place for Endowment Fund by Prof R.M. Bhattarjee, Dean (International Relations & Alumni Affairs), IIT (ISM) during the occasion for which Prof Banerjee provide Rs 5 Lakh while Prof Bhattacharjee contributed Rs 1 lakh.
Two different online portals, including one for Centenary Fund Raising Programme and other for Alumni Group Health Insurance Scheme were also launched during the occasion by Professor R. M. Bhattacharjee.
