Director, Dayalbagh Educational Institute

Prof. Kalra was appointed as the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology, Rajasthan in May 2009. As Director, in a short period of just over one year, Prof. Kalra has managed to differentiate IIT Rajasthan from the other IITs. He has a good grasp of the state of higher technical education today and clear vision of how it should be taken forward. At IIT Rajasthan, Prof. Kalra proposes to implement an inter-disciplinary model of education, with a strong focus on entrepreneurship to solve real-life societal problems.

A strong believer in the value of international exchange programs, Prof. Kalra has worked tirelessly over the last one year to build relationships with top-notch educational institutions in France, Canada, USA and other nations

Under the leadership of Prof. Kalra, IIT Rajasthan is developing a new campus in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. This is being designed as a truly integrated green campus with a target of zero net energy, net water and zero net waste. A high capacity Solar power plant is also being built on campus with a mix of different technologies and this plant will be used for research and development, training and consulting purposes through a National Center for Solar Energy Technologies. As part of this effort, a complete Smart Grid will also cover the campus

IIT Rajasthan, under Prof. Kalra’s guidance, has already announced the setting up of three Center’s of Excellence, one each in the areas of ICT in Health, Energy and Water.

Prof. Kalra holds a BSc in engineering from Dayalbagh Educational Institute, MTech from IIT Kanpur, and PhD from the University of Manitoba, Canada.