Payback: Physicist donates $150 mn to IIT

“Had people like my father not participated in the freedom struggle,the country would not have been free and the IITs would not have been set up and I would not have been what I am today,” Bhowmick told the daily on the sidelines of the programme at IIT-Kharagpur.

The research centre would aim at producing Nobel laureates in the area of Bio Informatics and Energy Science. “The total cost of the project is 300 million dollar. While our alumni Mani Bhowmick will donate half of the money,the rest will be generated by our institute. The PhDs done here would be awarded by IIT-Kharagpur,” said Acharya.

The research centre,for which the physicist has also donated 15 acres of land at Rajarhat,would be called Dr Mani Bhowmick Centre for Advance Research of IIT-Kharagpur,said IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya.

“Kolkata has produced four Nobel Laureates and it is my dream to see this research centre produce at least three more Noble laureates and bring glory to the city,” said Bhowmick.

“The research centre would take about three years time to come up,” said Acahrya.

In addition to Bhowmick,several other alumnus of the institute have pledged to donated large sums of money to IIT-KGP. Acharya said Vindo Gupta,the founder and chairman of InfoUSA Inc,who passed out of the institute in 1967,has pledged Rs 30 crore for a convention centre to attract scientists and researchers from all over the world to IIT-KGP.