By 2025, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur will have a fully functional 500-bed capacity hospital in its campus along with a medical school that will bring in engineering and technical education in medical sciences.
Professor Sandeep Verma, professor-in charge of Gangwal School of Medical Sciences and Technology at IIT Kanpur and professor in IIT-K’s chemistry department, says the work began last year on all fronts, including the academic and research components. They are coming up with international collaborations to “create the right footprints in reimagining medical education where we would like to bring in engineering and technical education in medical sciences,” he said.
According to Professor Verma, various IITs and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have been contemplating having hospitals inside their campuses for several years now, and he hopes they announce their developments soon.
The hospital at IIT-K will have 450 beds for patient care and 50 for cancer care. “In all, 500 beds will be aligned with major national missions like National Health Mission and Ayushman Bharat.” The hospital will be named after IIT Kanpur alumnus Yadupati Singhania, the late former managing director of JK Cement that funded the hospital.
The Yadupati Singhania Super Specialty Hospital will be one of the three main components of the Gangwal School of Medical Sciences and Technology, which received Rs 100-crore funding from IndiGo co-founder Rakesh Gangwal in 2022. The other two facilities include academics, focusing on research, innovation and entrepreneurship with super-specialty post-graduate medical programmes and R&D Centers of Excellence (CoE) that will serve as a major hub for MedTech innovation in futuristic medicine.
The entire project is being funded by philanthropists, IIT-K alumni, and corporates.