IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal donates Rs 100 cr to IIT Kanpur

IIT Kanpur alumnus and co-founder of budget carrier IndiGo, Rakesh Gangwal, has made a personal donation of Rs 100 crore to support the School of Medical Sciences and Technology at his alma mater. The development was confirmed by IIT Kanpur Director Abhay Karandikar in a series of tweets.

“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 this event, Gangwal signed a pact with IIT Kanpur to set up a school of Medical Sciences and Technology on the IIT Kanpur campus. He also donated Rs 100 crore for the purpose. The IndiGo co-founder will also join the Advisory Board of the school.

Gangwal was quoted as saying by news agency PTI, “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.”

This school will be completed in two phases. Phase 1 will include setting up a 500-bed super-specialty hospital, academic block, residential/hostel and service block with a total built-up area of around 8, 10,000 sq ft. It will also involve setting up Centers of Excellence (CoE) for pursuing R&D activities in futuristic medicine and is tentatively planned to be completed over 3-5 years.

Phase-2 is planned to be completed in 7-10 years and will see the hospital capacity to grow to 1,000 beds. It will also involve expanding clinical departments/centres, research areas, the inclusion of paramedical disciplines, alternative medicine, hospital management, sports medicine and public health programmes.

Karandikar thanked Gangwal for his contribution and said, “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.”

Gangwal’s wife Shobha and his daughter Parul were also present during the event along with 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.

Other prominent Mumbai and Pune-based alumni who joined include Hemant Jalan who had contributed Rs 18 crore for the school, Pradeep Goyal, Arun Seth, Pravin Bhagwat, Deepak Raj, Shyamendra Narain and Gautam Khanna.

(With agency inputs)