2 The Institute

Keywords

IIT Bombay history, IITB governance, Senate, Board of Governors, Director IITB, Dean Faculty Affairs

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were established on the recommendation of a Committee headed by Sir Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, a businessman, educationist, industrialist and public figure. The Committee had recommended the establishment of institutes of national importance to be set up in different regions of India. The first of the IITs was set up in Kharagpur in 1950 at a site in Hijli village which used to be a British-era detention camp.

Four more IITs followed in quick succession. IIT Bombay (officially ‘Indian Institute of Technology Bombay’) was established in 1958, followed by those at Madras (1959), Kanpur (1959) and Delhi (1961). Though the names of the cities Bombay and Madras were later changed respectively to Mumbai and Chennai, the Institutes at these two places retain the original names. Thus our institute is IIT Bombay. IIT Bombay celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2008 and Diamond Jubilee in 2018.

In 1994, a sixth IIT was established in Guwahati, Assam. Seven years later, in the year 2001, one of the oldest engineering colleges of the country situated in Roorkee, Uttarakhand, was given the status of an IIT in its 150\(^{\text{th}}\) anniversary year. The Government of India decided to open eight more IITs from the academic year 2008-2009. These are located in Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Gandhinagar (Gujarat), Hyderabad (Telengana), Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Mandi (Himachal Pradesh), Patna (Bihar), Ropar (Punjab) and Jodhpur (Rajasthan). In 2012, the Institute of Technology of Banaras Hindu University at Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) was conferred the status of an IIT. Then, in 2015-2016, a few more IITs were set up in Tirupati, Goa, Palakkad, Bhilai, Dharwad and Jammu; at the same time, the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand) was converted to IIT Dhanbad, making a total of 23, as of 2021.

2.1 Who’s who

There are two statutory documents that stipulate the way the Institute is to be run. The first one is The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, passed by the Indian Parliament. The act stipulates that the IITs are institutions of national importance and prescribes the broad framework of their governance. The second one is the Statutes of I.I.T. Bombay, which gives the detailed rules of governance.

2.1.1 The Visitor

Formally, the President of India is officially the chief of the IITs; (s)he is called the Visitor of the Institutes. In reality, the Institute does not deal directly with the Visitor, but routes all paperwork requiring their approval through the Ministry of Education (MoE).

2.1.2 The IIT Council

At the very top of all the IITs’ administration is the IIT Council. The Chairperson of the Council is the Minister of Education, which is the central ministry under which our Institute belongs to. The Council is an organization with a large (ex-officio) members, e.g. the Chairpersons and the Directors of all IITs, Chairperson and Director of IISc, Bangalore, Director General of CSIR, Chairperson UGC and a few nominated members.

2.1.3 The Board of Governors

Each IIT has its own Board of Governors (BOG), the highest governing body of the Institute, which meets, at least four times a year. Almost all major policy decisions have to be approved by the Board. For instance, all appointments, major purchases, constructions etc. require approval and authorization of the Board. The meetings of the Board are generally held once in three months. The Chairperson of the Board approves urgent items that cannot wait for the next Board Meeting; these are approved post facto by the BOG.

The Board has 11 members. In addition to the Chairperson (appointed by MoE) and the Director of the Institute, who are ex officio members of the Board, one nominee from each of the governments of the states Maharashtra, Goa and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, which comprise the zone in which the Institute is situated, are members of the Board. There are four members, having special knowledge or practical experience in respect of education, engineering or science, nominated by the IIT Council to the Board. The remaining two members are nominees of the Senate of IIT Bombay. These members are, in practice, recommended by the Senate Nominations Committee. The Registrar of the Institute is the ex officio Secretary of the Board of Governors.

Two crucial Institute committees, namely the Finance Committee and the Building and Works Committee report to the Board. Any proposal, which requires major fund allocation is generally routed through the Finance Committee that acts as the watchdog of the Institute funds. The Financial Advisor to MoE is a member of the Finance Committee. The Building and Works Committee is responsible for all the major construction projects in the Institute and has the power to make recommendations related to these.

2.1.4 The Senate

The Senate is the highest academic body of the Institute, which approves courses of study, frames rules of academic programmes, conducts evaluations and finally recommends the award of degrees to the Board of Governors. For example, any new academic programme or change to an existing one have to be first proposed by the Department/other academic unit to the programme committees (UGPC/PGPC) of the Senate where it is discussed and approved, possibly with revisions, for final presentation to the Senate for approval. Likewise, evaluation committees (UGAPEC/PGAPEC) of the Senate formally scrutinize academic performance evaluated by the individual instructors or boards of examiners, before it is presented to the Senate for approval.

All (full) Professors of the Institute are ex officio members of the Senate. It also has some rotating members from the non-professorial faculty, student representatives and a few members from outside the Institute. The Registrar of the Institute is the Secretary of the Senate.

2.1.5 Who’s who at the Institute

The Director is the “head” of the Institute and runs the Institute as per the policies decided by the Board. The Director is appointed by the Government of India and usually has a tenure of five years, which may be extended until (s)he reaches the age of superannuation (70 years).

The Director is helped in the administration by a committee of Deputy Directors and Deans (listed here). At the time of writing, there are two Deputy Directors, Deputy Director (ART) and Deputy Director (Finance, Infrastructure and Administration, or FIA), one of whom serves as Acting Director whenever the Director is away. The powers vested in the Director have been delegated by the Board, up to certain limits, to various Deans in the interest of smooth administration. There are ten (10) Deans. They are as follows:

The Dean (Faculty Affairs, FA) The Dean (FA) is responsible for conducting faculty recruitment, hiring Institute postdoctoral fellows, appraisals and recommending special leaves of absence in consultation with the relevant academic unit. Similarly, the Dean (FA) Office might interface with the offices of other Deans on other matters pertaining to faculty welfare.
The Dean (Alumni Corporate Relations, ACR) looks after relations with alumni, and coordinates donations received from alumni, corporate and philanthropic sources (more details). There is also a Development Office under the Dean (ACR) which catalyses the alumni relations and funding.
Dean (Research and Development, R&D) leads a large office called the Industrial Research and Consultancy Center (IRCC) to take care of sponsored projects and consultancy matters as well as filing patents. There is an Associate Dean (R&D) who assists the Dean (R&D) to discharge his/her responsibilities. Later sections of this handbook will provide more detail on a few R&D related topics.
The Dean (Academic Programmes, AP) leads the Academic Office, which is the repository of all records connected with academic performance of students. The Dean (AP) also presides over the undergraduate and postgraduate programme committees (UGPC and PGPC) of the Institute which processes all academic proposals received from academic units such as Departments, Schools and Centres. The Dean (AP) is assisted in his/her work by an Associate Dean (AP). Later sections of this handbook will provide more detail on a few topics related to Academic Programmes.
The Dean (Infrastructure, Planning and Support, IPS) looks after all matters connected with creation of new civil infrastructure and maintenance of the existing civil infrastructure and all related facilities, such as roads, electricity and water supply (more details). (S)he is also responsible for all estate related matters, including allotment of accommodation. As such, the Dean (IPS) leads four offices: the Estate Office, which is responsible for civil infrastructure maintenance, the Electrical Maintenance Division, which is responsible for power supply and electrical maintenance (including air conditioners), the Design Cell, which is responsible for interior design and renovation and the Public Health Office. Associate Dean-I (IPS) and Associate Dean-II (IPS) assist the Dean in discharging these responsibilities. Associate Dean - I (IPS) focuses on civil infrastructure maintenance, while Associate Dean -II (IPS) focuses on power supply and electrical maintenance including air-conditioners. Associate Dean - II (IPS) also serves as the Chairperson, Accommodation Allotment Committee (AAC); that is, (s)he is directly responsible for housing related matters. A later section of this handbook will provide more detail on this. The post of Associate Dean - III (IPS) has also been proposed and is awaiting approval as of mid-2021.
The Dean (International Relations, IR) promotes and administers international linkages (see International Relations Office). The Institute has a very large number of MoUs with many foreign and national institutions, including for joint/dual degree programmes. All foreign students in the Institute are required to report to the IR office for all their interactions with the Institute. The IR office also co-ordinates visits to the Institute by foreign nationals, whether for conferences or other types of academic exchanges, including Visiting faculty. This office also runs foreign language courses for the campus community.
The Dean (Students Affairs, SA) is responsible for student activities and welfare (more details), other than academic matters (which are dealt with by the Dean (AP)). These include hostel, sports and cultural affairs. The Dean (SA) also chairs the Disciplinary Action Committee (DAC) to look into infringement of disciplinary rules applicable to the students. The Dean (SA) is assisted in their duties by an Associate Dean.
The Dean (Administrative Affairs, AA) deals with broad policy issues relating to administration, such as the management of staff manpower, continuous planning and reworking of administrative workflows and automation of administrative procedures.
The Dean (Strategy) is in charge of planning and strategizing across all areas that IIT Bombay works on, or may desire to work on, in future. The Dean is also the Convenor of the Institute Strategic Planning Committee (ISPC), and manages a data cell that is tasked with the collection, collation and analysis of data required for strategy decisions.
The Dean (Educational Outreach, EO) is in charge of all educational outreach activities of the Institute, covering (i) the executive education of working professionals and university graduates, (ii) university level outreach for college/university students, and (iii) outreach aimed at school students. EO is an umbrella organization bringing together multiple units that have existed in IIT Bombay (such as, CEP, CDEEP and NPTEL), working in different facets of educational outreach activities.

The Registrar is officially the custodian of all records and funds received by the Institute. (S)he signs the cheques issued by the Institute and all payments payable to the Institute are paid to the Registrar, IIT Bombay. (S)he is also the Member-Secretary of the Senate and the Secretary of the Board of Governors. (S)he is also the Head of the administration.

2.2 Academic Units & their administration

The broad disciplines in which IIT Bombay has its teaching and research activities are those of Engineering, Science, Humanities & Social Sciences, Management, Design, Educational Technology, Entrepreneurship and Policy (more details). Academic programmes in these areas are hosted in 34 academic units.

Broadly speaking:

A ‘Department’ is a unit that offers a whole range of academic programmes ranging from undergraduate to doctoral degrees.
A ‘Centre’ hosts only postgraduate and research programmes.
Interdisciplinary programmes (IDPs) are nucleated by faculty coming together from different disciplines to define a common research agenda and over time, as the activities take a definite shape and build up enough strength, IDPs may be converted to Centres.
Schools are set up in targeted areas, with significant funding from external sources.
In addition, there are service centres such as the Computer Centre, which do not host any academic or research programmes.

The up-to-date list of academic and support units at IIT Bombay is available here.

2.2.1 Academic Units

Below is a list of departments, centres, schools and other academic units.

Departments

Schools

Centres offering Academic Degrees

In addition to the above, the IITB-Monash Research Academy (Section 8 Company), National Centre for Mathematics (NCM) and Centre for Liberal Education (CLE) are also involved in academic activities and support.

The academic units mentioned above are headed, usually by a faculty member of the unit itself and usually of the rank of Professor in the role of the Head. The Head of an academic unit has a term of three years. All paperwork and online approvals from the academic unit are routed through the Head. This includes nearly all official applications going from a faculty member to the Institute.

The Head of an academic unit functions with the aid of several committees.

The largest and most important of these is the faculty itself, which meets at least once every semester for a Faculty Meeting (DFM), and takes major decisions of broad impact.
The Departmental Policy Committee (DPC) meets at least twice every semester and has the responsibility of framing policy on matters of interest to the Department. The DPC has the important role of ensuring continuity in broad policy directions and is an elected body with representation of all constituent cadres and groups of faculty in the department.
The Departmental Undergraduate Programme Committee (DUGC) and the Departmental Postgraduate Programme Committee (DPGC) to decide on matters related to respective academic programmes and issues pertaining to students therein.
The Department Post-doctoral Committee looks into matters concerning the Institute Post-Doctoral Scholars associated with the academic units.

The deliberations of these committees, in the form of minutes, is communicated to concerned functionaries in the central administration, who are updated of the issues of the faculty in the academic unit.

2.2.2 Centres providing research and support facilities

These Centres host a large number of sophisticated equipment and advanced facilities for carrying out R&D activities at IIT Bombay. The following are the research facilities at IIT Bombay:

Centre for Sophisticated Instruments and Facilities (CSIF)
Centre of Excellence in Steel Technology(CoEST)
Centre of Excellence in Critical Minerals, Metals and Materials (CoE-CMMM)
Centre of Excellence in Oil, Gas and Energy (CoE-OGE)
DRDO-Industry-Academia Centre of Excellence (DIA-CoE)
Centre of Excellence in Quantum Information, Computing, Science and Technology (CoE-QuICST)
Geospatial Information Science and Engineering
National Centre of Excellence in Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (NCoE-CCUS)
National Centre of Excellence in Technology for Internal Security (NCETIS)
National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education (NCPRE)
Wadhwani Hub and Wadhwani Innovation and Translation Centre (WITC)
Biomedical Engineering and Technology Incubation Centre (BETiC)
Tata Centre for Technology and Design (TCTD)
Technocraft Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence (TCAAI)
Photovoltaics Technology and Innovation Centre (PoTIC)
Water Innovation Centre: Technology, Research and Education (WICTRE)
Sunita Sanghi Centre of Ageing and Neurodegenerative Diseases (SCAN)
Centre of Excellence on Membrane Technologies for Desalination, Brine Management, and Water Recycling

2.2.2.1 Centre for Sophisticated Instruments and Facilities (CSIF)

CSIF runs the Institute’s central research facilities, including SAIF, from the SAIF building. CRNTS has been subsumed into it. It gives all IITB users open access, through Drona, to about 180 research instruments, and it runs an interdisciplinary PhD programme, CReST. Contact: head.csif@iitb.ac.in or office.csif@iitb.ac.in.

Using the facilities. instruments.iitb.ac.in lists the facilities by group, such as spectroscopy and microscopy, and links to each facility’s page. Submit usage requests and book slots on Drona. Availability, training sessions and calls for student Teaching Assistants for the instruments are announced on faculty-notices.

CReST PhD programme. Through Collaborative Research on Science and Technology (CReST), faculty can recruit PhD students for interdisciplinary projects that depend on CSIF’s instruments. CSIF calls for topics on faculty-notices. Under the rules in the latest call:

Each topic needs a Guide and a Co-guide from two different academic units, and the Guide must state the Co-guide’s contribution.
A faculty member can float one topic as PI in the TA/FA/SW/SF/IS/CT/EX categories and submit at most two topics as PI or Co-PI. TAP/PS topics have no numerical limit.
A Guide or Co-guide allotted a TA-category student is not allotted another for three years.
Admitted students do TA duty in CSIF whatever their financial support. Externally registered students who do not live on campus and full-time Institute staff are exempt.

Funding for central facilities. The Research Infrastructure Funding Committee (RIFC) invites proposals to buy, upgrade or repair high-end equipment in the central facilities, with priority for upgrades, repairs and high-value replacement parts. A new central facility must serve the wider campus, and needs DPC approval from three departments. Proposals go through the HoD to the CSIF office. Definitions and guidelines are on the RIFC page.

Industry liaison and Startup incubation

In addition, while not academic units, the following units help liaise with industry and promoting startups based on research done at IIT Bombay:

Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for start-up incubation support
Research Park for engagement with companies on campus