Campus Communication

Updates from the Office of the Registrar, Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

Issue 2, 2019

Convocation and Mr. Azim Premji’s visit
This year, IISc’s convocation was held on September 12 at the JN Tata auditorium. The Chief Guest was Mr. Azim Premji, Founder Chairman, Wipro Limited, and the Guest of Honour was Mr. A. S. Kiran Kumar, Vikram Sarabhai Professor and former Chairman, ISRO; former Secretary, DOS and Member, IISc Council. In his convocation address, Mr. Premji highlighted IISc’s contribution to the birth of Wipro’s Information Technology business, and the enduring association between IISc and Wipro. He also stressed on the fundamental values that are critical for a good institution such as integrity, empathy and equity. He exhorted the students to uphold these values, and be exemplars for what good institutions can do for the society and the country. At the convocation, 883 students received their degrees, and 63 students received medals for meritorious performance.

New Chemical Sciences building
A new building for the Division of Chemical Sciences has been built at IISc at a contract value of Rs. 4860 lakhs. The building is a framed structure with ground + 3 floors (19 m height), and a total built-up area of 25,559 sq. m. (2.75 lakh sq. ft.). The building accommodates 40 laboratories, 13 common instrument rooms, 10 chemical storage rooms, 44 faculty rooms and 25 visiting faculty rooms, apart from two 100-seater class rooms and four 40-seater class rooms. It also houses a 250-seater auditorium, space for offices/Chairs of three departments (IPC, OC and SSCU), workshops, a glass blowing unit and training labs. The building has two passenger lifts and two freight lifts. It is equipped with a firefighting system, water recycling units for labs (HVAC) along with sump with overhead tanks to cater to the water supply needs. An ETP for treating chemical waste is also being established. The building was inaugurated by the Director, IISc, on 29.07.2019.

Strengthening the administration
IISc has inducted 12 new officers to strengthen the administration and support services at the Institute. These officers were sent for a two-week “Leadership Essentials” training programme to IIM Kozhikode. The broad areas covered in the training sessions were interpersonal effectiveness, managing and leading high-performance teams, customer-centric management, design thinking, stress management, RTI & PoSH Acts, etc. As a part of the training, the team made benchmark visits to Cochin Shipyard Limited, a PSU, to understand modern management practices that transformed organisations.

Placement of the 66kV line underground
Work is being undertaken to convert the existing overhead supply line segment of the 66 kV RMV-IISc line to a 630 sq. mm. underground cable. The segment of 1200 m that is being changed is inside the IISc premises and runs from the Ramaiah gate to the existing 66/11kV IISc consumer station. The underground cable will eliminate the frequent power outages due to tree foliage touching the overhead line. The 630 sq. mm. cabling will also ensure that the maximum drawing capacity would be more than doubled from its current levels; this is being done keeping in view the proposed expansion plans at the Institute. The project is funded by the Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) and executed in coordination with the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL). The cost of the project is Rs. 7.99 crores. Currently, the progress of the project is 75% and the date of completion is December 15, 2019.