IIT Kharagpur will begin a year-long celebration of its platinum jubilee on the institute’s Foundation Day scheduled for August 18 and its new director wants to use the occasion to “shore up” the institute’s perception.

Suman Chakraborty, who attended the first meeting of the institute’s board of governors held on Tuesday after being appointed director on June 19, said they were keen to work on the perception as this could help them draw bright students from the JEE-advanced.

A candidate has to clear this entrance test to study BTechs in the IITs.

“The year-long celebration provides us a perfect launching pad to showcase the strength of the institute. This year we have already started BTech programme in artificial intelligence. We are already in touch with our wider pool of the alumni, seeking suggestions on how we could improve things,” said Chakraborty.

“We are activating our students’ entrepreneurship cell. All these stories need to be told as this will improve the perception and attract top students.”

“The institute will be increasingly getting in touch with the younger alumni as they have much more innovative ideas to share because they are attached with the industry and the latest trends. We can get projects from them where our students will be interning,” Chakraborty, a Jadavpur University alumnus told The Telegraph.

“All these advantages need to be communicated to the prospective students and platinum jubilee celebrations give us a scope to start the exercise at full throttle.”

He said, being the oldest IIT, the institute has a rich depository of the alumni which he wanted to use judiciously to improve the image.

Perception has been a concern for the IIT Kharagpur over the years.

Chakraborty’s predecessor V.K.Tewari on the institute’s 71st Foundation Day on August 18, 2021, said in his address some institutions “that are below IIT Kharagpur are also superseding” the oldest IIT country in the country and “this is a cause of concern”.

If the institute does not improve its performance, “then the junior, second generation, third generation IITs will supersede us,” Tewari had said in his speech.

Tewari on the same day had introduced Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Scholarship, which covers the tuition, hostel and relocation expenses of an IIT Kharagpur student if he or she is among the top 100 on the JEE-advanced merit list.

An IIT professor said although Tewari had flagged concerns, the situation did not improve in his five-year tenure which ended in 2024.

Those who feature in the top-100 prefer to opt for IIT Bombay or Madras.

Sources on the campus said the board of governors, the highest decision making body of the institute, has given Chakraborty a free hand so he puts the IIT Kharagpur back on the growth trajectory.