Directors of IIT Delhi, Mumbai, Kanpur visit Kargil Interact with students to know about establishment of engineering college in Kargil, explore fellowship opportunities for students of Ladakh in various IITs

KARGIL, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021: A high-level team comprising of the Directors of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur which is on a 2 day visit to Kargil District to look for the feasibility for establishment of engineering college and explore fellowship opportunities for the students of Ladakh in various IITs interacted with the students of various educational institutions at Auditorium Hall and Government Degree College Kargil here today.
Professor V Ramgopal Rao Director IIT Delhi, Professor Abhay Karandikar Director IIT Kanpur, Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri Director IIT Bombay, Professor M Balakrishnan Computer Science and Engineering IIT Delhi, Chief Education Officer (CEO) Kargil Nazir Ahmad Wani, Vice Principal Government Degree College (GDC) Kargil Dr Javid Naqi, General Manager, District Industries Centre, Kargil Iftikhar Naseem, Principals of various government higher secondary schools besides other concerned officers and large number of students were present on the occasion.
Professor V Ramgopal Rao, Director IIT Delhi said that Lieutenant Governor Ladakh R K Mathur during his recent visit to IIT Delhi discussed about the establishment of engineering college in Kargil. He stated that the purpose of the visit of the team is to know the ground reality about the feasibility for establishment of engineering college in the district and to assess the interest of the students about engineering field.
Professor M Balakrishnan, Computer Science and Engineering IIT Delhi spoke about challenges being faced by students in remote areas and stressed the students to go outside for study to gain exposure and more opportunities.
While responding to the questions of the students, Professor Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director IIT Bombay said that engineers are to make life easy. He also spoke about different branches of engineering and career prospects therein.
Professor Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur while interacting with the students enlightened them about engineering stream. He also spoke about Annual Fellowship Programme in IITs, incubation and innovation programme and internship with the IITs for the students of Ladakh.
Meanwhile, an interaction session also held during which the students asked the Directors about the various aspects related to engineering field.
Later, the team of Directors also visited Government Degree College Kargil, where the Vice Principal apprised them about the overall functioning and different courses being imparted at the college. He said that about 2000 students are presently enrolled in the college while 30 permanent and 23 contractual teaching assistants are rendering their teaching services in the college.
The team interacted with the students of Government Degree College Kargil and Government Polytechnic College Kargil and informed them about various aspects of fellowship component, adding they also solicited feedback about their interest for fellowship programmes.
Earlier, the Chief Education Officer, Kargil apprised the team of Directors about the enrollment of school students in the district. He said that 32000 students are studying in various schools in the district out of which 3000 students are pursuing their studies in the science stream.
The CEO also said that there are at present 22 government and 2 private higher secondary schools functioning in the district. He also expressed gratitude to the team of Directors for visiting Kargil to seek feedback from the students for establishment of engineering college in the district.
Pertinently, the IITs are partnering with the Department of Higher Education Ladakh to review various aspects of technical education to increase opportunities for the youth of Ladakh on employment and entrepreneurship. The partnership is aimed to explore ways to promote innovation and entrepreneurship focused on the local ecosystem, skill development for enhancing employment opportunities, enhancing the quality of education for increasing higher education opportunities and also for setting up a quality engineering institution in Ladakh.
The visit of the high level team is an outcome of a series of meetings held by the LG Ladakh, R K Mathur and the Secretary, Higher education, Ladakh Padma Angmo with the Directors of the three IITs during the past two months.
An ‘Expression of Interest’ which will be finalized based on the outcome of the various meetings with the stakeholders, is expected to be signed between the Consortium of IITs and Department of Higher Education Ladakh in presence of the Lt Governor of Ladakh on September 22. The detailed action plan with timelines will be further drawn up based on the signed EoI.