In what comes as a first of its kind, the widow of a professor in IIT-Bombay donated a flat to the institution in his name, reports Times of India
Bengaluru: In what comes as a first of its kind, the widow of a professor in IIT-Bombay donated a flat to the institution in his name, reports Times of India.
Nina Kar, 82 years of age, widow of professor Subir Kar had passed away in 2001. The flat is in Powai. She bequeathed the property last week.
“He served IIT for so long that he always wanted to give back to the institute. When he suffered his first attack in the 1990s, he made his will bequeathing everything he belonged to the institute after my lifetime. I fully supported his decision,” she said, as per Times of India.
It is reported by the website that Kar was a researcher in fluid mechanics. He was instrumental in setting up the biomedical engineering programme at IIT-B. The institute will set up a chair in his name in the mechanical engineering department, it added.
The couple got married in 1963 and it is noteworthy that the two are issueless. The deceased professor had joined the institute in 1962 after completing his Ph D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Nina Kar.
It is to be noted further that the couple treated the campus as their home. He retired from the institute in 1992, soon after he was awarded the professor emeritus title for exceptional contribution to the institute.
IIT-B director Subhasis Chaudhuri had this to say about the will. He said, “What they have done for the institute is sort of pathbreaking...For our institute, it is the first, and we hope many others will follow suit to help us achieve excellence”.
He added, “Professor Kar had this vision over 25 years ago when no one knew that this kind of donation could be a possibility. In the US, one who inherits the property, must give a huge chunk of the money to the government as inheritance tax. So many prefer to bequeath their property for charity, which is not the case in India. Here it is a case of philanthropy alone.”
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