IIT-B to set up five new labs

MUMBAI: The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) will build five new ‘world-class’ laboratories in the next five years. The project is a part of its plan to develop itself as an ‘Institute of Excellence. IIT-B’S plan has been accepted by the ministry of human resource development (MHRD and the institute, along with five others, has been declared an Institute of Excellence. The institute will now enjoy complete administrative and academic autonomy and will receive a funding of ₹1,000 crore from the central government in the next five years. ₹200 crore will be dispensed each year.

The laboratories – which will facilitate research in nanofabrication, manufacturing and materials, health sciences and engineering, data and information scienceandsustainablechemical sciences – are expected to cost the institute ₹1,059 crore in the next five-year period.

A K Suresh, deputy director, academic and infrastructural affairs, IIT-B, said, “Teaching and research are the two main functions of the institute. The proposed labs cover fairly broad [disciplines], and will include most of the activities taking place at the institute,” he said.

Of the ₹2,240 crore budgeted for the five-year plan, ₹1,419 crore (almost two-third) will be spent on boosting research at the institute. In addition to building laboratories, IIT-B also plans to recruit an additional 125 PHD students every year in the next five years. To do so, the institute has proposed to build a 20-storey hostel for married scholars, with a capacity to house 400 students.

According to IIT-B’S annual report for the academic year 2016-17, faculty and researchers at the institute started working on 924 new research projects that year, 17% more than the previous year. As a result, the institute generated revenue to the tune of ₹390 crore, an increase from ₹252 crore earned in 2015-16.

While welcoming the push for research, a senior professor at IIT-B said that the institute needs even more funding for these activities. “If you ask me even ₹5,000 crore is not enough as machinery required as these laboratories cost a lot. More the funding, better will be the outcome of research,” he said.