From the Director’s Desk
I am pleased to extend my greetings to students and their parents as well as colleagues near and far. IIT Bhilai was established on 7 August 2016. We are located in Chhattisgarh, the rice bowl of India, in a state rich in natural resources as well as cultural memory and heritage. Our campus is at the outskirts of Bhilai, a growth engine which is a rare blend of tradition and modernity: a melting pot where communities from diverse backgrounds have found home and have been contributing towards nation-building in myriad ways. We are proud to represent a city and a state which is progressive, inventive, and transformational.
Our foundational vision as an institute is to be a centre for excellence in teaching and research in the allied fields of engineering, science, and liberal arts. Our aim is to pursue socially relevant, research-driven undergraduate and graduate education, which would foster entrepreneurship, technological leadership, and responsible citizenship. We intend for our students to become active participants in the holistic and sustainable growth of our nation. To this end, we are committed to providing a safe and conducive teaching-learning environment for our students so that they may pursue their dreams and reach their full potential. This is in keeping with the broader vision of the NEP 2020 as well.
We have grown tremendously over the past few years. The institute now offers BTech in six disciplines, MTech in 11 disciplines, MSc in three disciplines, and PhD in 13 disciplines. From our very inception we have been working towards attracting more female students to our campus, and as of date 22% of our student body is comprised of female students. Our student intake has been steadily rising with every academic year, as have the placement percentages—which stands at approximately 86% as of the previous placement season—and the average annual CTC offered to our graduating students. Many of these have gone on to establish successful start-up ventures, while others have opted for higher studies in prestigious universities across the world.
Our growing pool of talented faculty have been working with dedication and rigour to create greater avenues for research. We were adjudged 81st in the latest NIRF rankings, which was our very first attempt. Under the aegis of the IIT Bhilai Innovation and Technology Foundation (IBITF), our faculty and students have been actively investigating investment opportunities and platforms. IBITF supports our objective for socially-relevant technological solutions in sectors like AgriTech, HealthTech, EdTech, and FinTech, prime amongst which are Divyang ATM and μNEEDsulin. This is only the beginning of a much longer journey, which will witness more robust industry-academia collaboration through development of coordinated research groups and research parks.
The future holds many exciting possibilities for us as a young institute raring to mark its place in the world of teaching and research. Our campus is designed with a philosophy which prioritises existing natural elements and afforestation and emphasises on energy efficiency, and has been operationalised on the principles of sustainable water and waste management. As you walk through the campus, you will realise that we have worked our utmost to create multiple avenues for interaction and mingling in an attempt to build a healthy campus culture premised on mutual respect, support, and camaraderie. While the campus construction project has won multiple accolades such as the GRIHA Award, British Safety Council Award, and the NSCI Safety Award from stakeholders in industry and government alike, what we value the most is the people, the community of students, faculty, and staff, whose hunger for knowledge and commitment to work makes every day an inspiring and enriching experience for all of us.
Prof Rajiv Prakash Director, IIT Bhilai