US entrepreneur couple donates $1 million to IIT BHU

An American entrepreneur has donated one million dollars to IIT BHU in honour of his father, who is an alumnus of IIT-BHU in Varanasi of Uttar Pradesh.

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh): IIT BHU Foundation, a non-profit association of alumni, announced on Monday that the foundation has received a generous gift of US $1million from an entrepreneur Desh Deshpande and his wife Jaishree Deshpande residing in Boston. IIT- BHU decided to name its library after Desh Deshpande's father Srinivas Deshpande. He is a graduate of the 1948 batch of this institute. A programme in this regard will be organised on June 24 and it will be streamed online.

Desh Deshpande said, "A chance meeting Dr Godbole, Principal of BHU, inspired my father to study in this university and this university changed his life and that of our family. We hope that this humble gift will have an impact on the lives of hundreds of people in the future." Arun Tripathi, President of IIT BHU Foundation said, "We are grateful to Deshpande and his wife Jayshree for the gift. This gift is very important for the Foundation." Foundation Director Prof Pramod Kumar Jain also thanked him. "The achievements of distinguished alumni that inspire faculty and staff to train the technology leaders of the future. We take great pleasure in naming the library in his honour since Shreenivas Deshpande is our alumnus."

Dean (Resource & Alumni) Prof Rajiv Srivastava expressed his gratitude for the generous donation. Srinivas Deshpande was born on March 2, 1925. He worked in the public sector for 31 years after passing his first-class B Sc in Industrial Chemistry in 1948. He retired from the Karnataka government in 1980 as Joint Labour Commissioner. Later, he took over the responsibility of President of Chinmaya Mission in Hubli.