He is probably the first alumnus to garner a second tenure as director of his alma mater. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, who was given an extension for a period of five years as the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, spoke to The Hindu on Friday on the institution’s vision for the future.
IIT-M is following diligently a strategic plan it has drawn up and is satisfied with its achievements, he said.
“We have developed a seven-year plan and we have been sticking to it. We are reviewing the progress and till now we are on target or even exceeding it. We want to be the place that students want to go to,” he said.
Top among the strategies adopted in the 2014-20 plan period was to be known as the best educational research institute in the county in all areas. The institution was ranked first in last year’s National Institutional Ranking Framework, the first such effort in the country.
The institute hoped to make significant contributions to the technology needs of the nation. It planned to nurture the unique strength of IIT in research and development leading to technologies with immediate societal value such as water, energy, housing, healthcare and education. The institute also aimed to establish two or three research centres of excellence each year, built around focus themes for which IIT M should be known globally for the national and societal impact, he said.
“The IIT-M has a preponderance to start-ups in the country,” Prof. Bhaskar says, adding that in a recent assessment of start-ups by a business news outlet, four of the five finalists were companies incubated at IIT-M Research Park. “The research park has incubated 102 companies, of which 30 have graduated into independent companies,” he said.
The new campus in Vandalur-Kelambakkam would be a satellite centre for groups of faculty to set up large research centres. While a couple of research centres are ready to take off, the institute was also expecting to set up a large centre for ports.
The institute foucssed on research and development to produce technologies with immediate societal value