IIT Delhi to Offer Rural Internships to B.Tech Students

One of the premier engineering institutes in India, IIT Delhi is popular for its research papers, research output and innovative solutions for pressing problems in the society. With a motive to tackle some of the challenges and problems in rural areas, IIT Delhi will be offering rural internship opportunities to its B.Tech students this summer.

Director of IIT Delhi, Mr. V Ramgopal Rao pointed that students join premier institute after clearing a tough entrance examination. After joining the institutes, students focus mostly on academics, and they are not really exposed to real problems in the society, particularly rural areas. Therefore, the institution has come up with an idea of rural internships through which B.Tech students will be sent to villages to spend time with farmers. An interaction with farmers will enable the students to understand their problems. Students will also get an idea of rural governance, he added.

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Students taking part in rural internships will be allowed to find technological solutions to the rural problems.

IIT Delhi will tie-up with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as a part of their multi-disciplinary approach associated with problem-solving. The collaboration will be beneficial to technology students of the premier institutes, as they associate and work with doctors in finding out the problems faced while treating diseases. Through this initiative, students will be able to come-up with tech-based solutions.

Pointing that the innovations of IIT are not often marketed properly, Mr. Ramgopal Rao explained that IIT Delhi would soon develop systems to improve its incubation centres. The aim of the premier institute is also to promote top-class research and development through this initiative.

The incubation centres of IIT Delhi will also enable faculty and students to start-up their own companies and take products to the market. For this purpose, IIT Delhi has already launched an extension campus at Sonipat where people can work, stay and utilise the facilities of IIT Delhi. The premier institute is encouraging the faculty members to come up with their own companies.

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Mr. Ramgopal Rao further pointed that Ph.D students in India often choose faculty positions after obtaining their degree. One of the reasons for this tendency was the lack of necessary opportunities for the Ph.Ds. Most companies are reluctant to recruit Ph.Ds and these candidates are struggling to find jobs, he pointed.

IIT Delhi has also decided to launch PHD (Platform for Harnessing Deep Technologies) incubators where Ph.D scholars across the country will be offered two-year fellowship (can be extended to three years) so that the scholars will get enough time to spend in the incubation centre to convert their ideas into a start-up. IIT Delhi will provide all the necessary resources to Ph.D scholars during the fellowship term.