{"slug": "iit-kharagpur-unveils-rs-1000-crore-ai-and-deep-tech-roadmap-for-next-75-years", "title": "IIT Kharagpur Unveils Rs 1,000 Crore AI and Deep Tech Roadmap for Next 75 Years", "summary": "IIT Kharagpur unveiled a Rs 1,000-crore infrastructure overhaul and a five-pillar roadmap for its next 75 years, placing AI and deep tech at the core, during its Platinum Jubilee celebrations on August 20, 2026. Director Suman Chakraborty said the campus must evolve to support the next phase of growth. The plan includes an Innovation-Centric PhD programme, seven new AI-focused centres, and a Rs 43.38-crore SETU Wellness Centre.", "body_md": "**August 20, 2026**, (Inside AI) — **IIT Kharagpur** has unveiled a **Rs 1,000-crore** infrastructure overhaul and a five-pillar roadmap to redefine its next **75 years**, placing **AI**, deep tech, and new PhD pathways at the core of its strategy.\n\nThe announcement came Wednesday during the institute's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Director **Suman Chakraborty** said the campus must evolve to support the next phase of growth, according to a statement.\n\nThe roadmap rests on five pillars: people first, **Education 5.0**, innovation and enterprise, frontier convergence in healthcare and affordable deep tech, and infrastructure with the campus as a living laboratory.\n\nThis is not a cosmetic refresh. The plan targets systemic change in how India's oldest IIT trains researchers, commercializes technology, and integrates AI across disciplines.\n\n## PhD pipelines now flow through patents and startups\n\nIIT Kharagpur announced an **Innovation-Centric PhD** programme and the **IIT Kharagpur-Arc180 Innovation Fellows to PhD** pathway. Both aim to connect research directly to intellectual property, startups, venture creation, and industry.\n\nThis marks a departure from the traditional thesis-only doctorate. Candidates may now move through innovation fellowships before formal PhD enrollment, a model that mirrors how **Stanford** and **MIT** have blurred lines between lab research and company formation.\n\nThe institute also highlighted the selection of **216 faculty members** and recruitment of **123 employees**. More than **300 postdoctoral fellows** are expected on campus within six months.\n\nNew research support structures include the **Research Excellence Support Bank**, **Faculty Research Launch Credit**, and **Staff Development Fund**. These are designed to reduce administrative friction for early-stage investigators.\n\n## AI centres multiply, but coordination questions remain\n\nIIT Kharagpur named seven new centres or initiatives. They include the **Centre of Excellence for AI in Education and Skilling for Next Generation Entrepreneurship**, **CATER** (Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence Technology for Education, Research and Knowledge Systems), and the **Centre of Excellence for Future-Ready AI Infrastructure**.\n\nOther centres focus on quantitative genomic analytics, applied theranostics, and AI-enabled geological and mining systems. The **Imagination Laboratory** was also announced, though its scope was not detailed.\n\nThe proliferation of AI centres raises a practical question: will they operate as separate silos or share compute, data, and faculty? IIT Kharagpur did not specify a central coordination mechanism in its statement.\n\nHistorically, Indian institutes have struggled with fragmented AI efforts. **IIT Bombay** and **IISc Bangalore** faced similar coordination challenges when building multiple domain-specific AI labs in the late 2010s.\n\nOn student wellbeing, the institute proposed a **Rs 43.38-crore** **SETU Wellness Centre** spanning **5,345 square metres**. It will be supported by the **SETU app**, round-the-clock psychiatric care, faculty mentors, and hall-level wellness volunteers.\n\nAcademic flexibility is also expanding. IIT Kharagpur plans an **Intra-IIT Student Mobility Grid**, double majors, and new admission pathways through **ScOpE** and **Sports Excellence**. The **KRITI** initiative will give school students early exposure to frontier laboratories.\n\nInternational partnerships include a first dual-award PhD cohort with the **University of Manchester** and a dual doctorate initiative with the **University of Bordeaux**. Strategic outreach centres are planned in **Houston** and **Dubai**.\n\nOnline programmes include **Data Science in Bangla** and an initiative aimed at empowering **one lakh women** across sectors. An **Outreach Course Network** will involve partnerships with more than **200 colleges**.\n\nThe infrastructure overhaul will create new residential, academic, research, wellness, and student activity spaces. No completion timeline was provided for the full campus modernization.\n\nThe dual doctorate with Bordeaux is notable. France has been aggressive in courting Indian STEM talent through joint degrees, and this fits a broader pattern of European universities seeking deeper ties with Indian technical institutes.\n\nIIT Kharagpur's bet is clear: the next 75 years will be won through AI-enabled research, faster PhD-to-startup pipelines, and infrastructure that treats the campus itself as a testbed for innovation.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/iit-kharagpur-unveils-rs-1000-crore-ai-and-deep-tech-roadmap-for-next-75-years", "canonical_source": "https://insideai.news/news/ai-in-business/iit-kharagpur-unveils-rs-1000-crore-ai-and-deep-tech-roadmap-for-next-75-years/8278/", "published_at": "2026-08-20 07:15:48+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-08-20 07:43:03.110164+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-policy", "ai-research", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["IIT Kharagpur", "Suman Chakraborty", "University of Manchester", "University of Bordeaux", "SETU Wellness Centre", "Imagination Laboratory"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/iit-kharagpur-unveils-rs-1000-crore-ai-and-deep-tech-roadmap-for-next-75-years", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/iit-kharagpur-unveils-rs-1000-crore-ai-and-deep-tech-roadmap-for-next-75-years.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/iit-kharagpur-unveils-rs-1000-crore-ai-and-deep-tech-roadmap-for-next-75-years.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/iit-kharagpur-unveils-rs-1000-crore-ai-and-deep-tech-roadmap-for-next-75-years.jsonld"}}