Gandhinagar: The 11th Leadership Conclave (LC) of the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) was held on January 07, 2022. The annual event brings together some of the most eminent leaders of industry and academia from around the world to share their expertise and help the Institute in forming effective strategies to achieve global academic excellence.
Nearly 30 eminent thinkers, industry experts, academicians, and startup mentors from Bankworld Inc, USA; KAAJ ventures, USA; University of Notre Dame; Maker Bhavan Foundation, USA; Wheels Global Foundation, USA; Johns Hopkins University; University Institute of Lisbon, (ISCTE-IUL); NASSCOM; Banaras Hindu University; IIT Kanpur; IIT Bombay; among others, joined IITGN faculty members during the Conclave. They brainstormed and discussed various topics, shared insights from their global experiences and knowledge, and recommended approaches to help IITGN maximise its potential and achieve excellence.
At the beginning of the Conclave, Prof Ashutosh Srivastava provided highlights of discussions held in the previous Leadership Conclave and how those inputs have taken shape to take forward the overall agenda of the Institute.
Prof Rajat Moona, Director, IITGN, welcomed all distinguished guests and shared the goals and aspirations of the Institute with necessary steps to achieve them. Underlining the significance of the strategic inputs received in the Leadership Conclaves every year, Prof Moona said, “The credit for the success of IITGN goes to the inputs and knowledge received from the champions of industry, academia, and entrepreneurship through this kind of Conclaves and teamwork by the faculty, students, and staff at the Institute. Our horizons have opened to think and act upon a lot of out-of-the-box ideas. These fruitful debates will lead us to address the challenges and take new initiatives to make IITGN one of the top-notch education and R&D destinations in the world.”
As the Institute and its alumni grow, it was recommended to employ newer ways to engage with alumni of IITGN spread across the world, and thereby strengthen their bonding with the Institute and different batches of alumni. The Conclave participants also suggested the Institute to go all out to scale up the startup culture and commercialisation of technology, and build connections with potential startups, incubation centres, startup mentors, and industry bodies in other states and even beyond Indian shores. With an active Research Park and incubation center, IITGN can provide the right kind of business mentorship to young entrepreneurial minds of the country. They also suggested focusing on the emerging industry sectors in Gujarat, including FinTech, Petrochemicals, Semiconductor manufacturing, and so on.
The Conclave participants echoed that IITGN is already widely recognised as a leader in educational innovations. And highlighting its achievements and initiatives through various channels is imperative to enhance the Institute’s visibility at domestic and global levels. The Institute is at the forefront of globalisation, which can be strengthened by partnering with more foreign universities particularly in the South East Asian and African regions.