The 1998 graduating class of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay) has donated a sum of Rs 57 crore to their alma mater as a contribution to the silver jubilee reunion celebrations.
An X (previously known as Twitter) user, stated that this marks the largest total donation from a single graduating class. This endowment surpasses the previous record of Rs 41 crore set by the Class of 1971 during their golden jubilee celebration.
Over 200 alumni, including Anupam Banerjee, MD of Vector Capital; Apoorv Saxena, managing director of Silver Lake; Dileep George, AI researcher at Google Deepmind; Mohan Lakahmraju, CEO of Great Learning; Manu Varma, SVP of Colopast; Sundar Iyer, seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneur; Sandeep Joshi, co-founder and CEO of Indovance; Shailendra Singh, managing director of Peak XV; and Srikant Shetty, chief growth officer, Americas, HCL, have made significant contributions.
“The funds raised by the Class of 1998 will help the Institute support key academic projects and the research landscape at IIT Bombay. They include Project Evergreen, which aims to create sustainable and eco-friendly hostels for students; Makerspace labs to foster scientific and technological innovation and creativity including a new AI micro factory; and Student Aid initiatives (including Scholarships) to fuel the aspirations of the next generation of students at the Institute,” Srikanth said.
The X user also mentioned plans to establish a unique endowment fund using the earnings and to support initiatives at the Centre for Machine Intelligence and Data Minds (C-MinDS).
