New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras has launched the ‘Women Leading IITM’ (WLI) course to promote women leadership in science and technology. The institute said the course will make yearly grants to accelerate women technologists’ careers.
The inaugural grants are being issued on Monday, March 8, to celebrate International Women’s Day.
According to the IIT Madras, it is planning to raise the USD 1 million endowment by the 2021 end to provide annual grants to back programmes taken by women students, faculty and researchers, reported NDTV.
“The ‘Women Leading IITM’ is a well-thought-out initiative by IIT Madras, with support from IITM Foundation, to nurture, develop and support women talent at IITM. This programme will definitely help the women talent of IIT Madras to excel in their fields and come out as S&T leaders,” Dean (Planning) at IIT Madras Prof. Ligy Philip was quoted as saying by NDTV.
One of the goals of the ‘Women Leading IITM’ programme is to increase the women faculty percentage in assistant professorships from 15 per cent (current) to 20 per cent.
According to IIT Madras Director Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, the course will be a “powerful catalyst” to reduce hurdles faced by women students, faculty and staff at IIT Madras and help them achieve full potentials.
“While women have been a minority at IITM, but there have been many exemplary leaders among them over the years. The alumni of IITM felt that we could help our alma mater by putting in place a series of grants that honour promising leaders among students, staff, and faculty and catalyze programmes that help women thrive at IITM. What better time to do it than on International Women’s Day!,” Board Member of the IIT Madras Foundation, Rohini Chakravarthy said.
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