Appointment of 8 IIT directors gets President Droupadi Murmu’s approval

Eight IIT directors, including two who were reappointed for a second term, have been appointed with President Droupadi Murmu's approval. IIT Bhilai Director Rajat Moona has been named as the director of IIT Gandhinagar and IIT Dharwad Director Pasumarthy Seshu has been selected as the director of IIT Goa. Directors of two other IITs have also been promoted to the top position at other IITs.

K N Satyanarayana (IIT Tirupati) and Manoj Singh Gaur are the two IIT directors who have been reappointed for a second term (IIT Jammu). IIT Madras professors Seshadri Sekhar and Shreepad Karmalkar have been named the respective directors of IIT Palakkad and IIT Bhubaneswar.

Since the end of R V Rajakumar's five-year term as director in April 2020, IIT Bhubaneswar has been without a full-time director.

Also Read: President Droupadi Murmu meets King Charles ahead of Queen’s funeral

IIT Dharwad's Director has been named as Venkayappaya R Desai from the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. IIT Bhilai's director will be Rajiv Prakash from the School of Material Science and Technology at IIT BHU.

Application requests for six of the new IITs — Dharwad, Goa, Palakkad, Jammu, Bhilai, and Tirupati — were made by the Ministry of Education (MoE) in 2021. According to the job posting that was published on October 18, the candidate should have a Ph.D. with a first class or equivalent at their previous degree, ideally in a field of engineering.

According to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, IITs are "temples" that foster a scientific mindset in students and help to create the destiny of humanity.

Watch: President Murmu pays tribute to Queen Elizabeth II in London

"IITs are not just educational institutions, they are temples to create a scientific temper and shape humanity's future. Our society has great expectations from IITs. Our IITians have to be torchbearers of growth and development," he said.

"India has a culture of giving back to society and India innovates for the betterment of society. Due to the technical strength of IIT Madras, India will be rolling out indigenous 5G by the end of 2023," added Pradhan.

(With agency inputs)