Gramer IIT

The programme

One live problem. One mission.

Gramer IIT is a faculty-led, time-bound programme. IIT Kharagpur, with students, local communities and panchayats, takes up a few real technological problems from villages and small towns — studies each, builds an affordable solution, field-tests it, and hands it to a named adopter, normally within 100 days.

These are rapid field technology missions: assessment, prototyping, field validation and transfer all happen inside one focused effort rather than across years, ending with documentation, user training and a clear path to adoption. The programme complements the Institute’s other outreach and technology-transfer channels.

One live problem. One faculty-led mission. One hundred days. One working transfer.

Eligibility

Who may propose and participate

1. 1.

   Proposals come from IIT Kharagpur faculty. Every mission is led by a named faculty member of the Institute, who submits the proposal and carries it through to transfer.

2. 2.

   Problems come from anyone. Villages, gram panchayats, municipalities, schools, health centres, cooperatives, self-help groups, artisans and farmers may all bring a problem forward — with a clear user, a measurable need and a named adopter.

3. 3.

   Field sites: Eastern India first, open nationally. The pilot concentrates on accessible parts of Eastern India, but a site anywhere in the country is eligible.

4. 4.

   Students join as Field Fellows. Open to all IIT Kharagpur students.

Operating model

How problems are received and routed

Problems come two ways: identified proactively, or invited from the communities and local institutions that face them — each with a clear user, need and adopter. Every problem is then routed.

Every 100-day mission has

• —A named IIT Kharagpur faculty mission leader
• —A small multidisciplinary faculty and student team
• —A defined budget and a measurable performance target

Mission cycle

Four stages, one hundred days

All stages, documentation included, are completed within the hundred days. A Technology Clinic follows the same sequence over 7–15 days.

1. 01

   Field verification & specification

   Verify the problem, set the baseline, write the technical spec.

2. 02

   Design, fabrication & lab testing

   Design, build and test the solution under lab conditions.

3. 03

   Field installation & evaluation

   Install it in the field. Evaluate it. Revise it against real user experience.

4. 04

   Field Viva & transfer

   Transfer the technology. Users judge it at a Field Viva: whether it works, whether it is affordable, and whether it can be run and maintained on their own. A working demonstration alone does not count as complete.

Documentation

The Technology Passport

Every mission produces a Technology Passport — the record that makes a solution trustworthy, maintainable and portable. It is completed within the hundred days, not after them. Promising solutions are later tested at a second site before being called scalable.

• — Design drawings and bill of materials
• — Fabrication, installation and operating procedures
• — Capital, operating and maintenance costs
• — Performance and safety results
• — User and maintenance instructions in the local language
• — Limitations and appropriate conditions of use
• — Details of the trained operator or local fabricator
• — Field record — photographs, video and visit notes
• — Applicable intellectual-property and technology-transfer arrangements

Fellowships & support

Who carries the mission

Two paid roles carry a mission between them — an IIT Kharagpur fellow who stays with it from campus to field, and a fellow who belongs to the place itself.

A fellow’s contribution is logged and documented through the mission and assessed at its close — but the ultimate test is the one the mission itself faces: whether the technology was delivered, and whether it works in the hands of the people who now own it.

Each mission also covers project consumables, materials, fabrication and prototyping; field expenses and travel for Field Fellows; and faculty field expenses and travel — under applicable IIT Kharagpur and Government of India financial rules.

Key dates

The first cycle

There is no single deadline. Proposals are reviewed as they arrive, and only a limited number of projects will be supported this cycle.

Application & selection

Rolling review

Proposals are sent for review as they arrive. A limited number of projects will be supported.

1. 01

   Preliminary verification

   The problem is checked for importance, scope and technical tractability, and against the conditions set out in the problem bank.

2. 02

   Gramer Committee

   Reviews the proposal on merit and feasibility, and makes its recommendation.

3. 03

   KRITI Advisory Committee

   Takes the final decision and sanctions the mission.

4. 04

   Award and start

   The route is assigned and the hundred-day clock begins.

Culmination

The Gramer IIT Conclave

Once the cycle’s missions have closed and their documentation is in, the programme gathers for the Gramer IIT Conclave.

Expected outcomes

What the pilot should demonstrate

• ✓ Rapid resolution of significant local technological problems
• ✓ Meaningful faculty and student engagement with field realities
• ✓ Affordable, tested and locally maintainable technologies
• ✓ Formal transfer to panchayats, public institutions, community organisations or local enterprises
• ✓ Systematic documentation of successful and unsuccessful interventions
• ✓ Identification of technologies suitable for extended research or wider dissemination