Damodar Acharya

Damodar Acharya is an Indian engineer and educationist. He has been director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur^[1] since July 2007.^[2] His tenure as Director ended on 30 June 2012.^[3][4] Acharya had supported Sibal’s ministry on the proposed single engineering entrance exam.^[5][6] The government has nominated Prof Damodar Acharya as a director on the central board of the Reserve Bank of India in October 2012.^[7]

Career

Professor Damodar Acharya received his Ph.D. (in 1975) and M.Tech. in IE & OR (in 1972) degrees from IIT Kharagpur, and B.Sc.(Engineering) degree in Mechanical Engineering with distinction (in 1970) from NIT Rourkela. Professor Acharya has about thirty two years of diversified experience - twenty seven years of teaching and research experience at IIT Kharagpur, and five years of experience in academic administration as Vice-Chancellor, Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Rourkela, and Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi.^[8]

Controversy

CBI had made Damodar Acharya, as an accused in the scam involving the All India Council for Technical Education in 2011. Acharya was the chairperson of AICTE when approval to many existing technical institutions was granted.Acharya's involvement relates to the extension given to Padmavathy College of Engineering (PCE) for 2006-07.^[9] Acharya served as AICTE chairperson from May 2005 to June 2007.^[10] He had resigned after students' protests after death of a third year electrical engineering student due to so called medical negligence in 2009 ^[11] in IIT Kharagpur.But he rejoined the institute after all the charges alleged against him were cleared.^[12][13]

References