Pan-IIT Alumni India, WHEELS Global Foundation and IIT Kharagpur Alumni Foundation India joined hands to conduct an event in Kolkata on January 21, 2023. The aim was to update the Kolkata based alumni of the various initiatives pursued by different groups as there were diverse activities carried out in multifarious areas in terms of ‘Giving back to the Nation’ by all these groups. The event started with Ms. Sujata Roy, Chairperson, Eastern India, WHEELS Global Foundation India, welcoming all and explaining the objective of the programme. Mr. Suresh V Shenoy, President, WHEELS Global Foundation (WGF), joined the session over zoom and addressed the audience on the purpose of WGF. Thereafter, Mr. Pankaj K Singh, Secretary, IIT Kharagpur Alumni Foundation India, provided a brief update of the projects implemented by the Foundation – the hospital bed donation project, the medical insurance project, Nehru hall upgradation project etc. Many of the alumni were already a part of these activities and many could be beneficiaries too. Mr. Kavindra Daga, President, of the Kolkata chapter of IIT Kharagpur Alumni Foundation India, greeted the audience on behalf of the local partners.

Mr. Debashish Bhattacharyya, Chairman of Pan-IIT Alumni India, updated the audience on the initiatives and activities of PanIIT. By interacting with the Directors and Deans of all the IITs, the team has identified the priority needs of the IITs where the alumni could play a role, which brought out Finances, Faculty, and Infrastructure as the primary requirements. That resulted in PanIIT getting a financial model developed, which McKinsey did pro bono. It is now under implementation at IIT Bombay, while some other IITs have shown an interest to implement it right away. PanIIT has developed its vision for the next 25 years – up to 2047, and has decided on the direction to take. They are now creating their immediate and medium term objectives and goals towards fulfilment of that vision.

Mr. Ratan Agarwal, Vice President and Board member of WHEELS Global Foundation (WGF) apprised the audience about the genesis of the Foundation. With its mission of engaging the IIT system and alumni networks to collaboratively drive technology-based solutions for clean Water, affordable Healthcare, renewable Energy, access to Education, rural Livelihoods, in a Sustainable manner, it is partnering with on-the-ground social impact entities / NGOs and helping them get to a much bigger impact scale by leveraging full power of the IIT ecosystem (technology & innovations, expertise, Corporate resources, funds) and initiating new development projects through the same ecosystem. With their focus on rural and adjacent sub-urban populations, what we call as ‘Rurban’ community in India, WGF has set a target of “Impacting 20% of Rurban India by 2030 ~ 160m people” and has successfully implemented several projects, including but not limited to, “Spring Rejuvenation in Himachal Pradesh“, “Save Farmers – Bore-Well Recharging & Regenerative Farming“, “Rural Tele-Health Centers for Quality & Affordable Medical Care“, “Newborn Nutritional Health for Fair Chances in Life“, “Teaching Information Technology to Masses for Digital Economy Jobs“, “Integrated Smart Village in Aravalli District“, “‘EcoSchools’ to Build Tomorrow’s Healthy & Environment Stewards” etc. etc.

You may reach out to Ratan at ratan@wheelsglobal.org or +1 908-770-5677 for any further queries.

The event ended with a musical performance and then a networking session among the members over coffee and snacks.

Photographs of the event are uploaded in the gallery. Click here to view them