Rakesh Gangwal, an IIT Kanpur alumni and co-founder of budget carrier IndiGo, has offered a personal donation of Rs 100 crore to support his alma mater’s School of Medical Sciences and Technology. In a series of tweets, IIT Kanpur Director Abhay Karandikar verified the news.
“Here is big news from IIT Kanpur. In an extraordinary gesture, our alumnus 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,” Karandikar tweeted.
During the event, Gangwal signed a memorandum of understanding with IIT Kanpur to establish a Medical Sciences and Technology school on the IIT Kanpur campus. He also made a donation of Rs 100 crore to the cause. The IndiGo co-founder will also join the school’s Advisory Board.
Gangwal has been quoted as saying, “It is a privilege to be associated with such a noble endeavour with my alma mater. I am proud to see that the institution that has produced thousands of leaders across various sectors is now paving the way in the healthcare sector. More than ever, healthcare is intertwined with technological advances and this school will accelerate innovation in healthcare.”
The construction of this school will be done in two stages. Phase 1 will entail the construction of a 500-bed super-speciality hospital, an academic block, a residential/hostel, and a service block with a total built-up area of approximately 8, 10,000 square feet. It will also include the establishment of Centers of Excellence (CoE) for conducting R&D operations in futuristic medicine and is expected to take 3-5 years to complete.
The hospital’s capacity will be increased to 1,000 beds in Phase 2, which is expected to be finished in 7-10 years. It will also entail the expansion of clinical departments/centres, research areas, the inclusion of paramedical disciplines, alternative medicine, hospital management, sports medicine, and public health programmes, as well as the inclusion of paramedical disciplines, alternative medicine, hospital management, sports medicine, and public health programmes.
Karandikar expressed his gratitude for Gangwal’s contribution, saying, “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.”
IIT Kanpur Deputy Director Professor S Ganesh, IIT-K Development Foundation CEO Kapil Kaul, and IIT Kanpur’s Kantesh Balani (DoRA), Bishakh Bhattacharya, Manas Ghorai, Jayandharan Rao, and Amitabha Bandyopadhyay were also present at the ceremony, as were Gangwal’s wife Shobha and daughter Parul.
Hemant Jalan, who donated Rs 18 crore to the institution, Pradeep Goyal, Arun Seth, Pravin Bhagwat, Deepak Raj, Shyamendra Narain, and Gautam Khanna are among the other renowned Mumbai and Pune graduates who have joined.
