Guest Column - IIT KGP Story - Padma Shree Prof KL Chopra

 *************************************************************************************************************

The Gauntlet

Why don’t you do something for IIT-Kharagpur, Prof . Chopra?

This challenging question by the Adviser, Technical Education in the MHRD, India, haunted me. A physicist being chosen to head KGP was a surprise. For me the question was why I should abandon my forty coworkers in my internationally acclaimed TFL, IIT- Delhi, which was buzzing with excitement and innovations. In any case, I had no idea where Kharagpur was and what ailed IIT-Kharagpur. Yes, Kharagpurwas a part of the IIT family but know in Delhi more for its notoriety and indiscipline, among other things. In fact, I understand that the concerned minister threw up his hands at one time and wondered why it should not be closed and students transferred to other IITs. I mulled over these agonizing bits of information. My conscience stirred me to take up the challenge for a limited period of three years. I insisted on visiting KGP before I accept the position. The Ministry said a categorical “no” since the KGP unions were known to create unpleasant situations which would frighten anybody. Anyhow, I had myself invited to KGP to deliver an Institute Seminar.

I went around the campus and visited some department without giving any impression of what I was up to. It was clear that the grand old KGP must have seen glorious days. After all, it was the very first IIT, the Mother of the other IITs. The resurrection of such an institute of national importance posed not only a challenge but an opportunity to prove my credentials as a demanding educationist. I made up my mind to take up the gauntlet. The Ministry was happy with my positive response. Numerous senior scientists and administrators in the country were rather taken aback at my decision and advised me not to venture into a turbulent sea. Bets were on in Delhi as to how long a tough disciplinarian would last at KGP. I met RussiMody, the then Chairman of the Board of Governors. He was absolutely clear that he wanted a tough IAS type administrator for KGP whose first job was to dismiss two faculty association leaders who had manhandled another senior faculty of the Institute. When I told Mody that I was an academician first and an unknown administrator next and that I will do only what is good for the Institute, MrMody was not happy. He wanted to know why I applied for the job. I said that I have never considered applying for such a job but that I was invited by the Ministry. As I started walking out of his hotel room, MrMody followed me and putting his hands on my shoulder said that he is sure that I am the best person for the job. This was a crucial event between two strong personalities and it marked the beginning of my unfettered running of the Institute. I was asked to join immediately to conduct the Annual Convocation and then I could take off for a month abroad for lectures which I had given my commitment to much earlier.

THE TASK

            I joined one week before the Convocation, And that one week brought home some of acute problems of Kharagpur. Sitting in the dining hall of the guest house with dangerously cracked walls and roof all over, I overhead two service engineers talking about the sad affairs of the institute. The Cyber computer, which their company had sold to the Institute, was lying in the boxes for over a year and could not be installed for lack of a proper room, with power and air-conditioning. The more inquisitive I became during my morning walks and visits to various places, the more sordid the situation appeared. I was greeted by barking dogs, roaming chicken and menacing bulls inside the academic area, even at the entrance. Unreliable and inadequate were both the water supply and electricity, with nominal roads; shoddy and dilapidated buildings; dogs and cattle moving freely in the middle of roads, a thoroughfare road right through the campus ridden with speeding buses and letting in undesirable pedlars of country liquor and drugs; encroachment of IIT land by outsiders; disorderly bicycles parking everywhere fight upto the porch and entrance to the main offices; filthy corridors; non-functional telephones etc. these defined my task.

            In such a scenario, I was happy to get a break going abroad for a month. This gave me time to ponder over my line of action. I came back with a clear head more determined than ever to make the needed changes at KGP within the three years I had given myself.  On my return, I faced even more serious problems with regard to the financial health of the Institute. The Employees Provident fund to the tune of about Rupees Three crores had not been deposited to for about seven years. As per the law, the chief executive concerned could have been imprisoned for this serious lapse. I informed the Ministry that, if it wished me to continue, funds should be given to deposit and make up the deficit in the PF account. Fortunately, the Ministry welcomed and appreciated my alarm raising, and soon provided these funds to plug the deficit. This exercise was the first and foremost lesson that led me to understand how an the Institute finance was being managed and how it can be bankrupted by soft and populist measures. This was the beginning of the long range strategic thinking  to transform the budget which was the lowest among IITs then, by gradual enhancement to become the largest and most diverse to take Kharagpur to its rightful place. I started getting numerous anonymous letters of mischievous intent, whose writing I began to realize was the specialty of a few people here. These would be sent everywhere complaining about my frequent visits to Delhi alleging that these were just to collect travelling allowances, (those expenses that I rarely charged IIT for). No, I did not get deterred by these trivialities.

            ISRO, (Indian Space Res. Org.) had earlier agreed to set up a Regional Remote Sensing Centre here at KGP. Unsatisfied by the laggard progress of this work, they informed me that this Centre would be withdrawn. I requested and persuaded their Chairman to reconsider this issue, and assured them that I would personally attend to getting the building erected. Thence, ritually, I visited the construction site every morning till it was complete and to the satisfaction of ISRO. And now, of course, we have an ISRO Centre and its Community complex in the campus.

            As was expected, the Employees’ Union started flexing its muscles. And as the Teachers’ Association defending two office bearers was still involved in a long and expensive court battle keeping it temporarily subdued. The local area MP, kept threatening with dire consequences if I did not offer permanent employment to someof the daily wage workers. There was also the case of long standing defunct Jersey Bulls and its Dairy which had long dodged solutions. Dealing with Unions was not always easy, all of which make a long story and need to be told elsewhere.

 

THE STRATEGY

            My strategy of operation was now ready. And it included the following:

·        Involvement of Senior Faculty in the management of the Institute in all aspects.

·        Priority for Transparency and Accountability in Management.

·        All Rules to be liberalized for the benefit of the IIT community.

·        Campus beautified to make the IIT community proud and befitting a national institution.

·        Providing a Good basic Infrastructure for all (students, staff, faculty and residents).

·        Discipline relating to all spheres be seen by example and felt by action.

·        Create partnerships with alumni and industry.

·        Introduction of Continuing Education for industry and community in a professional and business mode.

·        Breaking down of barriers between departments/centers in academic subjects to the extent possible.

·        Introduction of Assessment of Teachers and Teaching.

·        Establish feedback channels through direct personal contacts with students, faculty and staff.

·        Regular follow up of all initiatives undertaken.

Men abhor change and intellectuals find good excuses to oppose any change. My propsed reforms and initiatives did not have a smooth sailing almost always. I had to personally direct the security personnel even to chase a fierce bull which was a regular visitor, in the main premises. They were so scared of this bull and would not go near it. And there  was a senior professor who refused the security and did not remove the cycle from the porch, a no parking zone. When I had to intervene, he said that the Director should have better things to do than remove cycles from the porch. Often I had get the cycles deflated and removed personally until this improved discipline began to get notice, appreciation and support from the majority of people affected.

      When we decided to build our Rural Development Centre in a more rural setting near the periphery of the campus, we were met with bows and arrows. Thousands of trees that had been meticulously planted by our students of under the National Social Service were set on fire by arsonists. Still we persisted and established our right and reclaimed the land up to the boundaries. In fact, under an official survey by a government agency, wall markers were set up to define the boundaries of the Institute for the first time.

      The building that housed the Hijli Jail and became the birthplace of IIT, had reached an extremely dilapidated state. I felt inspired by its unique architecture and beauty among the campus buildings. I had been warned of its being infested with snakes and not step inside. But I ignored these as I was bitten by my inquisitive nature as a physicist and I even climbed up all the way to the top once as a part of my routine morning walks. I literally cried when I saw this fine and historic monument in such a sad state. I became determined to renovate it despite having no funds for this purpose. I persuaded the Employees’ Union, the Thrift Society and other occupants there to vacate and shift their offices elsewhere in designated places and enable the building to be renovated for housing a Museum of Science and Technology, name after Nehru. After initial refusal, the Ministry relented and reimbursed IIT towards Rs 40 Lakhs spent on this renovation.  When it was lit at night, this magnificent building housing the Nehru Museum as well as other offices, and the adjacent former jail cells which were used by the British to intern our freedom fighters it shown brilliantly as a  national heritage monument. Mischief mongers used some newspapers to make allegations of the building being damaged by me. Many among the public who saw the renovated building first hand were moved to tears. I accepted their request and renamed the building as “SHAHEED BHAVAN.”

      The Academic reforms were hotly and thoroughly debated in various fora. Numerous hours spent on lively discussion were not uncommon in the Institute Senate. Whether it was assessment of teaching and teachers, or the setting up of the Vinod Gupta School of Management, or the new integrated course of Biotechnology, to the merger of centers with departments, or renaming or rearranging of departments, or major revisions in the UG & PG curricula, they demanded thorough and critical exchanges. To the credit of the entire concerned faculty, any concept perceived useful was adopted in due course.

      Every major initiative was a battle by itself. Being determined to see every initiative fructify within my tenure, I always placed myself in the firing line. In some cases, the times taken by the projects were unduly long.  But I never gave up. It took four years to convince the West Bengal government and its Chief Minister to permit us to create a replacement state road along the boundary and exchange it for the state road that bisected the campus. Three years it took for the two million dollar donation of alumnus Vinod Gupta to materialize formally and then with two years of construction the building for the Management school came up and it stands as a landmark until today. It took three years to acquire a plot of land in Salt Lake City, near Kolkata, evict a dairy there and construct our Extension Center-cum-Guest House there. But exceptionally, it took only a few months to get our proposal approved for setting-up a virtual group at Bhubaneswar, by the Chief Minister of Odisha. Both the money and land for the concerned building were transferred immediately after that. This was also the case with the donations of Rs 3 crore, thanks to the generosity of Mr and MrsArjunMalhotra (our distinguished alumnus) and it led to the setting up of the G S  Sanyal School of Telecommunication.

INFRASTRUCTURAL FACILITIES CREATED or EXPANDED

·        Campus Ring Road

·        33 KVA Sub Station

·        Shopping Complex (near Old Petrol Pump) and IIT Market

·        Multistoried Apartments (100+)

·        Vocational Training Institute

·        Annex of KendriyaVidyalaya

·        Guest House Annex

·        Continuing Education Centre

·        Community Center

·        Salt Lake Extension Center

·        Indira Gandhi Hostel

·        Hostel for MBM Students (now Ashutosh Mukherjee Hostel)

·        International Students Hostel

·        Hall Management Center

·        Nehru Museum of Science and Technology

·        Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Park

·        Annex of Materials Science Centre

·        Rural Development Centre

·        Center for Educational Technology

·        Center of Biotechnology

·        Building of the Computer Science and Engineering department

·        Prof SR Sen Gupta Foundation Laboratory

·        Vinod Gupta School of Management

·        Building for Aquaculture Center

·        Building for Regional Remote Sensing

·        Building housing Technology Cafeteria and SBI Extension Office.

·        Building for Library extension with an Electronic Library

·        Telephone Exchange/Service expanded as a Telecom Centre.

·        Office Complex for National Examinations, like JEE/GATE

·        Complex  for Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy

·        Technology Foundation for Alumni Outreach and Interaction

·        Extension Centre at Bhubaneswar

·        Micro-science Laboratory

·        G S Sanyal School of Telecommunication

·        IIT- BREF-BIOTEK Centre

THE NEW TEMPO

Being result oriented it became clear to me that I must complete my full term of five years to see my dreams fulfilled. At the end of my first term, I was offered good position in Delhi and Varanasi. But I had fallen in love with KGP. It did not take long for MrMody and others in the Government of India to persuade me to accept another term of five years. A management Guru in our Board of Governors had advised me to quit when you are at the peak of achievements. But, selfishness overtook me and I could not think of leaving KGP in the middle of its resurgence. Warm and supportive relations with the alumni, the creation of the largest corpus fund among IITs, Science & Technology Entrepreneur’s Park, Joint Ventures  with industry and state governments, Technology Development Missions etc.began or taken further ahead in the next five years became my contributions which were unique for India. This KGP attracted the attention of academics the world over. Its old glory was conspicuous once again and it had become a symbol of a new dynamism in the educational sector.

 

FAREWELL

I had come to KGP in awe. But I fell in love. Bigamy is what my wife grew to being reconciled with. She stood by me forever giving spiritual strength, steady like a rock. She also could not help becoming an integral part of the whole KGP family. To preserve my sanity through academic work, I established a Micro-Science laboratory with the help of several dedicated colleagues and research scholars. We were amply rewarded with national awards for the work done in this unique facility. Whatever had been achieved at KGP, it was due to the tremendous commitment and dedication of numerous people, faculty and staff members, and not in the least, the ambitious students. We are in gratitude to  them all. Beyond physical and academic facilities, the KGP community at large seemed full of pride, patent in the vibrancy and festivity of all community functions and campus activities. But as all good things come to an end, the long decade also became history fast. The time to bid farewell had arrived.

 

                                                                        K. L. Chopra    

                                                            Director, IIT, Kharagpur

1987-1997

 

 

******************************************************************************