New Delhi [India], October 14 (ANI): The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) today launched Greater Than Us, a campaign to raise US$1 billion by March 2029, the largest fundraising campaign ever undertaken by any IIT. ₹4,155 crore, nearly half of the goal, has already been committed by alumni, donors, corporate partners, and the government, coming together to build an institution for the nation. The campaign was launched by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at Bharat Mandapam.
Rooted in more than six decades of IIT Kanpur’s legacy, Greater Than Us brings alumni, donors, industry and institutional partners together to invest in the foundational facilities and young Indians who will make the discoveries, build the technologies and start the companies a developed India will need.
Prof. Manindra Agrawal, Director, IIT Kanpur, said: "What IIT Kanpur is setting out to build is greater than any one of us. It is an investment in the young Indians who will build this country’s future. Nearly half of this goal was committed before we announced it, and that tells us donors believe in where we are going. India cannot borrow the technologies that will define its future. We have to build them. The next deep-tech companies will start in a lab, not a garage, and G-SINE will train the founders who build them. This campaign is an invitation to every alumnus, partner and friend of IIT Kanpur to help write the Institute’s next chapter. Every commitment is tied to a defined purpose, whether a school, a facility, a chair or a programme."
At the launch, IIT Kanpur signed an MoU with alumnus Rahul Gautam, who has committed ₹180 crore to establish the Gautam School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (G-SINE) at the Institute’s Noida campus. G-SINE will train a new generation of technology-driven founders and leaders for India’s high-growth sectors, including AI, cybersecurity, digital health, biotech, drones and advanced manufacturing. It will have its own full-time faculty and degree programmes and will launch in July 2027 with a flagship MBA in Technology & Entrepreneurship. Working alongside the proposed Deep Tech Hub at the Noida campus, it will give students access to frontier-technology facilities so they can build products from research, and will draw on IIT Kanpur’s incubator, SIIC, which has incubated 571 startups.
The campaign is built on three pillars: Foundation, Talent and Frontier.
Foundation, with a goal of ₹5,000 crore, will build the research and institutional infrastructure for IIT Kanpur’s next phase of growth. At its centre is a ₹524 crore Central Research Facility that will give researchers shared access to high-end equipment, including a ₹160 crore semiconductor and device processing centre with a clean room, and advanced spectroscopy and microscopy centres. A ₹200 crore High-Performance Computing facility with advanced GPUs will power research in AI and scientific simulation. On campus, four new halls of residence of 1,000 capacity each are under way, with the first expected by June 2027, alongside 96 faculty apartments and a new Centre for Mental Health & Wellbeing.
Talent, with a goal of ₹3,000 crore, will invest in exceptional students, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs, faculty and future leaders. It will fund scholarships and more doctoral fellowships, with the aim of offering financial support to every eligible student, alongside faculty chairs, young faculty fellowships and a global visiting faculty programme. IIT Kanpur has already opened new doors: market-linked faculty hiring, first used at the Gangwal School, with 150 positions planned, and admission through hackathons and olympiads. Its student entrepreneurship programme will back young founders in areas from defence and aerospace to MedTech, CleanTech and AgriTech.
Frontier connects fundamental research to translational research and real-world application across AI, quantum technologies, cybersecurity, semiconductors, drones, MedTech and sustainability, and has already crossed its ₹1,000 crore goal, with ₹1,556 crore committed. The campaign will build a Quantum Technology Centre, planned as the first in the country to bring quantum hardware and software development together in one place; a Centre of Excellence for Semiconductor Packaging to support India’s push for chip assembly and testing plants; a medical devices prototyping and testing facility, in a country that imports 80% of its high-end medical devices; and a drug discovery programme focused on cancer, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. This builds on work already in use: IIT Kanpur’s AI engine powers the government’s grievance redressal system, CPGRAMS, its cybersecurity researchers run a security operations centre at the Bhilai Steel Plant, and its faculty-led startups have built a heavy-payload logistics drone and a strike drone. (ANI)
IIT Kanpur launches ‘Greater Than Us’, largest campaign by any IIT, to raise US$1 billion; ₹4,155 crore already committed
