IIT Madras has announced its highest round of funding yet, as the institute announced a “record-breaking” ₹513.38 crore in funds secured from alumni, corporate enterprises and other donors in FY-24. The amount is 135% higher than the institute’s funding last fiscal, which stood at ₹231.1 crore.
A release from IIT Madras said that the funds secured would be used to advance technological research, development, and deploy technology already built by the institute. Part of the funds, IIT said, would also be used to support student scholarships and infrastructural needs of the institute.
“We set a target of ₹300 crore, and we’ve worked very hard along with the IIT Madras Alumni Charitable Trust, to have crossed to ₹500-crore mark,” said Prof V Kamakoti, Director at IIT Madras, in a chat with CNBC-TV18, “People give us money because they trust us, and our alumni have confidence that we will deploy these funds towards the purpose that they have contributed for.”
Incidentally, IIT Madras’ ₹500 crore fund may well be the highest any institute has secured in funding in a fiscal. However, at the time of the announcement, other IITs were yet to release their funding for FY-24.
For context: in December, IIT Bombay announced that its Class of 1998 had contributed ₹57 crore by way of donations to the institute. Of the ₹513 crore in funding secured by IIT Madras, ₹367 crore was coughed up by alumni of the institute – 282% higher than last year’s contribution.
Incidentally, the institute’s CSR team raised ₹95.53 crore, an increase 11.2% from last year’s fund-raise, while philanthropic grants this year amounted to ₹116.8 crore. In all, 48 donors (16 individual alumni and 32 corporate partners) contributed over ₹1 crore per contributor to the institute. “We had Walmart, FedEx and many other PSUs contribute this year towards pathbreaking projects in the field of brain research, MSMEs, logistics and health sciences,” said Kamakoti.
IIT Madras’ funding has seen a stupendous year-n-year rise since FY-21, when it rang in ₹100.76 crore in funds. the following fiscal saw the number rise to ₹131.12 crore before the institute raised ₹231.1 crore last fiscal. The premier institute has also announced ₹717 crore in pledges, expected to materialise over the next two years.
At present, IIT Madras has several key projects supported by its alumni network and corporate partners, including the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI, Jaisri and Venkat Wind Energy Center, the Walmart Centre for Tech Excellence, the FedEx Centre for Sustainable Supply Chains.
Original News Link
https://www.cnbctv18.com/india/iit-madras-raises-historic-funding-of-rs-513-crore-for-fy-24-contributors-include-fedex-walmart-19408590.htm
