Government grants Rs 11 crore to IIEST for homeopathy research

The Centre has granted Rs.11 crore to the Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur, for conducting medical research on homeopathy under the 'Ayush' project.

"With this money, we can buy instruments for our laboratory which is named after famous homeopath Dr Bhola Chakraborty," IIEST Director Prof Ajoy Kumar Roy told PTI.

"The laboratory will stress on bio-physics, bi-chemistry-based research and dedicated towards understanding science which is trusted by many," he said.

"The Ayush ministry had suggested that we name the Centre after a renowned physician who has made his state proud and hence we named it after Dr Bholanath Chakraborty," he said.

Roy said IIEST, formerly BESU, is already one of the best engineering institutes and would be among the top ten, if the faculty strength is increased.

"As per the recent MHRD (The Ministry of Human Resource Development) ranking we are above almost all IITs in the country. This is not a small thing considering fund constraints but we know that the MHRD is hard pressed with new institutes coming up," he said.

Complementing the IIEST students he said, "Our students have prepared a project on Siachen which talks about a combined international research Centre at high altitude in the border area and this can be a solution to Indo-Pak tension."

"We will present the project report to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Roy said.

Asked if IIEST is having more students from the region and if that was affecting the campus getting a pan-Indian status as is the case in science and tech institutes, he said, "The West Bengal government has urged us to have 50 per cent domicile students from the state. The rest 50 per cent can come from outside."

"We are also taking 15 students from African countries, Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal as part of the cultural exchange programme," he said.

-PTI