IIT Kharagpur Vision 2020
Letter from Arjun Malhotra, Chairman, Vision 2020 Initiative
June 8th, 2003
Fellow IIT Kharagpur alumni,
India Today recently ranked IIT Kharagpur as the No. 1 Engineering
College in India, for the third consecutive year! Kgp Ka Tempo High
Hai!
I am pleased to be writing to you as the Chairman of Vision 2020
initiative.
In Feb. 2003 we formally launched Vision 2020 -- a fundraising
initiative aimed at generating $200 million in endowment funds for
IIT Kharagpur by the year 2020. The Vision 2020 Team is responsible
for IIT Foundations overall fundraising efforts.
I feel fortunate about receiving world-class education in India at
almost no fee. I, like most of us, have been personally and
professionally shaped by a world-class educational experience at IIT
Kharagpur. We matured as persons, learnt from outstanding faculty
and fellow students and had access to the best infrastructure the
country could afford. This educational experience has helped most of
us IIT'ians in becoming corporate, academic or thought leaders in our
chosen fields, around the world.
I, therefore, feel a strong passion to "give back" to enhance the
educational experiences for future generations of IIT faculty and
students. As you may be aware, Dr. Suhas Patil (65, ECE, RK) and I
jointly funded the Golden Jubilee Alumni Network at IIT Kharagpur.
This network has wired each hall room in IIT with a world-class
Internet connection that we hope will connect the students to the
rapidly changing world of technology. My wife, Kiran, and I have also
funded the G.S. Sanyal School of Telecom, set up to conduct research
in the frontier areas of telecommunications such as networking,
switching, transmission, wireless and optical communication systems,
etc.
IIT Kharagpur requires your support to enhance and sustain its status
as the leading technical educational institute in the world. IIT
Kharagpur must have world-class infrastructure (labs, equipment,
etc.), attract and retain world-class faculty, and attract the best
students at all levels. All three elements require financial
resources.
I am sure you have a lot of questions about giving back. The Vision
2020 Team has developed comprehensive FAQs and answers. Please review
these at our web-site http://www.iitfoundation.org
. Be assured that
we, your fellow alums in the IIT Foundation Board of Directors and
the Vision 2020 Team, have the same interest in making sure that our
hard earned money is well spent and provides the biggest bang for
the buck.
So let the buck stop at each of your desks, minds and hearts. I
encourage you to give back as well. We all learnt stories in school
about strength in unity. There is strength in numbers. If each of us
gave back at whatever levels that we can afford today and continue to
do so each month, quarter and year we would be closer in achieving
our aim of $200 million endowment fund by year 2020. Find a program
or initiative that is close to your hearts, find a regular frequency
and level of giving that is comfortable to you. Give back to IIT
Kharagpur.
It was especially heart warming for me to read that the Golden
Jubilee Alumni Network, the Advanced VLSI Lab and the Distinguished
Lecture Series, all alumni funded programs, were mentioned by India
Today as some of the factors in its decision to rank IIT Kharagpur
No. 1 Engineering College in India, for the third consecutive year.
From my personal experience there are a few things in life that give
so much satisfaction as giving back to our beloved alma mater and
seeing the current generation of students get a better quality of
educational experience than we received.
IIT Kharagpur, the Vision 2020 Team and I are counting on you for
your contributions.
Warm regards,
Arjun Malhotra (70 ECE RP)
Chairman, Vision 2020 Initiative