Indigo Co-founder Rakesh Gangwal committed to contribute Rs 100 crore to support School of Medical Sciences and Technology at IIT Kanpur. Gangwal was an alumnus of IIT Kanpur.
Conveying the message, IIT Kanpur Director Abhay Karandikar tweeted, "Here is big news from IIT Kanpur. In an extraordinary gesture, our alumnus Mr Rakesh Gangwal, Co-Founder of IndiGo airlines has made one of the largest personal donations with a 100 crore contribution focused on supporting the School of Medical Sciences and Technology at IIT Kanpur." Gangwal, a 1975 graduate from IIT Kanpur will soon join the advisory board of the upcoming school.
The school will be completed in two phases. Phase I of the project will include setting up a 500-bed super-speciality hospital, academic block, residential/hostel, and service block with a total built-up area of approximately 8,10,000 sq ft. Phase I will also include setting up Centers of Excellence (CoE) for pursuing R&D activities in futuristic medicine. This phase is tentatively planned to be completed over the next 3-5 years.
The Phase II of the project, which is planned to be completed in 7-10 years, will see the hospital capacity grow to 1,000 beds, expanding clinical departments/centres, research areas, the inclusion of paramedical disciplines, alternative medicine, hospital management, sports medicine, and public health programmes. The school is envisioned in line with IIT Kanpur's endeavour to bring about a paradigm shift by merging medical research and technological innovations in the country, according to a release. "We are extremely grateful for the generous contribution of Rakesh Gangwal.
The proposed medical school will play an important role in driving IIT Kanpur's innovations in medical research and technology and catapult India into the global league of institutions that are converging medical sciences and technology to benefit humankind," Abhay Karandikar, Director of IIT Kanpur, said.
- With PTI Inputs