Chennai, 17 Oct 2026: The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) today launched Greater Than Us, a campaign to raise US$1 billion by March 2029, the largest fundraising campaign ever undertaken by any IIT. ₹4,155 crore, nearly half of the goal, has already been committed by alumni, donors, corporate partners, and govern ment, coming together to build an institution for the nation. The campaign was launched by Shri Rajnath Singh, Hon'ble Defence Minister, at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
No I I T has attempted a campaign at this scale. Rooted in more than six decades of IIT Kanpur’s legacy, Greater Than Us brings alumni, donors, indus try and institutional partners together to invest in the founda tional facilities and young Indians who will make the discoveries, build the technologies and start the companies a developed India will need.
Prof. Manindra Agrawal, Director, IIT Kanpur, said: "What IIT Kanpur is setting out to build is greater than any one of us. It is an investment in the young Indians who will build this country’s future. Nearly half of this goal was commit ted before we announ ced it, and that tells us donors believe in where we are going. India cannot borrow the technologies that will define its future. We have to build them. The next deep-tech companies will start in a lab, not a garage, and G-SINE will train the founders who build them.
This campaign is an invitation to every alumnus, partner and friend of IIT Kanpur to help write the Insti tute’s next chapter. Every commitment is tied to a defined purpose, whether a school, a facility, a chair or a programme."
At the launch, IIT Kanpur signed an MoU with alumnus Rahul Gautam, who has committed ₹180 crore to establish the Gautam School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (G-SINE) at the Institute’s Noida campus. G-SINE will train a new generation of techno logy-driven founders and leaders for India’s high-growth sectors, including AI, cyber security, digital health, biotech, drones and advanced manufac turing. It will have its own full-time faculty and degree progra mmes and will launch in July 2027 with a flagship MBA in Technology & Entre preneurship. Working alongside the proposed Deep Tech Hub at the Noida campus, it will give students access to frontier-technology facilities so they can build products from research, and will draw on IIT Kanpur’s incubator, SIIC, which has incubated 571 startups.
The campaign is built on three pillars: Foundation, Talent and Frontier.
Foundation, with a goal of ₹5,000 crore, will build the research and institutional infrastructure for IIT Kanpur’s next phase of growth. At its centre is a ₹524 crore Central Research Facility that will give researchers shared access to high-end equipment, includ ing a ₹160 crore semi conductor and device processing centre with a clean room, and advanced spectroscopy and microscopy centres. A ₹200 crore High-Performance Computing facility with advanced GPUs will power research in AI and scientific simulation.
On campus, four new halls of residence of 1,000 capacity each, are under way, with the first expected by June 2027, alongside 96 faculty apartments and a new Centre for Mental Health & Wellbeing.