Kotak Mahindra Bank & IIT Kanpur Launch School of Sustainability

New Delhi, Dec 14 (PTI) Kotak Mahindra Bank on Thursday said it has partnered with IIT Kanpur to establish a fully integrated School of Sustainability as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.

To address the challenge of global warming, Kotak Mahindra Bank is funding IIT Kanpur through its CSR programme to establish this school to promote pedigree education, research, and outreach.

Kotak and IITK believe that this School is poised to offer thought leadership solutions towards sustainability actions and prepare future generations to lead the cause of sustainable development, the bank's chairman Prakash Apte said here.

The school will bring together departments and centres of excellence at IITK to provide an enabling environment for collaborative research across multiple facets of sustainability, he added.

Kotak School of Sustainability will have dedicated centres of excellence, covering different aspects like clean energy, environment, ecology, circular economy, climate finance, sustainable societies and policy, he said.

Talking about the funding, Kotak Mahindra Bank Whole-time Director Shanti Ekambaram said the bank has earmarked Rs 200 crore for this project and Rs 70 crore has been allocated for the first year.

The school will be led by tenured professors and leading industry experts from
across the globe. It is placed to run both undergraduate and postgraduate academic and skill-building programmes on different themes of sustainability.

Entry of students in the undergraduate courses for the school would be through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE).

The school will be housed in a green building on IITK's main campus that will be platinum-rated with net-zero practices on energy, water, and waste.

"The Kotak School of Sustainability marks our commitment to contribute to growing India's skilled workforce towards achieving the goal of long-term sustainable development, including its net-zero target by 2070," she said, adding this project will focus on enhancing home-grown capabilities to address sustainable development.

Ashish Garg, Professor-in-Charge of the School, said the school aims to
excel in sustainability education, research and innovation, technology development, entrepreneurship, and outreach.

The key to the development of holistic end-to-end technology solutions for sustainable development will be the school's emphasis on synergistic integration of different aspects of sustainability for greater educational, scientific, technological, environmental and social impact, Garg said.