IIT-Delhi, which has used monetary contributions from alumni in the past for specific causes such as scholarships and infrastructure, now plans to go the ‘Harvard way’ by creating an Alumni Endowment Account.
The decision comes in the wake of being declared as the Institute of Eminence on July 9, 2018 and also in the pursuit to become a world-class institute.
The institute has commenced work to build the Alumni Endowment Account, in which the money is stored and remains unspent up to a certain value. The procedure includes the launch of a drive, along with the recruitment of fund managers and putting in place a dedicated team for work.
V Ramgopal Rao, Director of IIT Delhi, told News 18, “Endowment is similar to how it happens in Harvard University, where billions of dollars contributed as endowment is not spent. Instead, it is used to generate interest in new initiatives.”
While the ultimate target has been set at one billion dollars, right now, IIT Delhi has set a preliminary target of generating Rs 1,000 crore of corpus fund through alumni endowment. Dean of Alumni Affairs Sanjeev Sanghi said, “The plan is to start with creating a corpus fund of 1000 crore through alumni endowment and use it for the purpose of endowment only – which means to use the interest or earnings from it.”
The aim of this model is to give the institute more freedom and initiate new centres or research projects. A committee formed by the director along with some alumni members will take decisions on how the income will be used.
On an estimate, IIT Delhi aims to spend around Rs 2,500 crore that includes the grant of Institute of Eminence of Rs 1,000 crore given by the HRD ministry for enhancing its research facilities, physical infrastructure and expanding its outreach in the next five years.
This will be supplemented with Internal Revenue Generation, mainly through research and development grants and other mechanisms. The Alumni Endowment Account in this regard, is going to be an important step to achieve these results.
In 2017-18, the total value of research grants generated was 415 crore, a value which has grown consistently over the last few years. In the coming five years, IIT Delhi expects the research grants to go up by 20% each year, generating approximately Rs 800 crore per year.
IIT-Delhi has also urged its alumni to remember their alma mater at the time of signing their will.
Ramesh Kapur, the owner of a civil engineering company in Wisconsin, USA and an alumnus of the 1968 batch has written off one million dollars in his will to IIT Delhi. Besides that, he has also pledged to provide a sum of Rs 2.4 crore for scholarships.
Amarjit Bakshi, the owner of a construction company in Central Avenue, has pledged Rs 10 crore to his alma mate. Known to have already donated Rs 1 crore to the institute, he will be giving the remaining sum of Rs 9 crore in the coming nine years.
Retired banker Arun Duggal has also given some funds to IIT Delhi, to undertake projects on air pollution. “I have been concerned about Delhi pollution, and I know that IIT Delhi has tremendous talent and potential for researches in this area,” said Duggal.
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