Mumbai’s IIT Seeks New York Campus
Around the same time that India’s cabinet gave a first green light to a draft bill that would allow foreign universities to set up shop in the country, another discussion also kicked off: for the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay to open an applied science campus in New York City.
Almost a year on, while the foreign universities bill is still waiting to be tabled in Parliament, talks between Mumbai’s IIT and the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) are making some progress. Last December, IIT-B received a formal invite to submit a proposal to open a branch in New York, according to Devang V. Khakhar, the institute’s director.
“We have been discussing this initiative since almost a year now and NYCEDC sent us a formal invite, signed by Mayor Bloomberg, a couple of months ago,” Mr. Khakhar said.
In December, New York’s economic development body announced plans to develop an engineering and applied science research campus in the city and invited educational institutions from around the world to express their interest. Schools which haven’t been invited by the NYCEDC are also eligible. It wasn’t immediately clear how many other institutions had expressed their interest in the project and how likely IIT-B is to clinch the deal.
I think it is VERY LIKELY that IIT-B will clinch the deal. Does anyone watch “The Big Bang Theory”?
Also, according to several sources including this article, another IIT, the one in Chennai, had already come to the attention of New Yorkers last year when three of its students won the “NYC Next Idea Award 2009-2010” for coming up with an innovative system to store energy in the city.