IIT Delhi professor M Jagdeesh Kumar is set to be the next Vice Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Kumar’s name has been cleared by President Pranab Mukherjee from a panel of four names that were forwarded to him by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, officials said.
A professor of electrical engineering at IIT Delhi, Kumar said his priorities after taking over as the JNU VC would be to strengthen collaboration between institutions, streamline the recruitment process and interact with students to see how the research output can be improved.
He said institutions like IIT Delhi and JNU are close to each other but there is a need for more cross-collaboration in various areas than is actually happening.
Asked about reports that he attended an RSS-linked event, Kumar said,
I am an academician and have no formal association with any organisation.
He added that he attended the event as it was about science and organised at IIT-Delhi.
The event was organised by RSS-linked body Vijnana Bharati.
The term of JNU’s current VC Professor Sudhir Kumar Sopory will end by January 27.
The President, as Visitor of all central universities, selected Kumar’s nomination from a panel of four eminent names including scientist VS Chauhan, coordinator of the National Centre of Applied Human Genetics, JNU, RNK Bamezai and Ramakrishna Ramaswamy of the department of physical sciences, JNU.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)