Ministry of Jal Shakti (Water Resources) is responsible for laying down policy guidelines and programmes for the development and regulation of country's water resources. It looks into the planning, policy formulation, coordination and guidance in the water resources sector. Its primary function is to provide technical guidance, scrutiny, clearance and monitoring of the irrigation, flood control and multi-purpose projects (major/medium).
The Ministry of Jal Shakti instituted Sir M. Visvesvaraya Chair in the honor of the famous architecture and Bharat Ratna Awardee, Sir M. Visvesvaraya. The aim of this faculty chair is to carry out studies on water resources with special emphasis on the assessment of the effect of climate change on it, and adaptation strategies in respect of planning, design and management of water resource systems of India in general and the Ganga basin in particular.
Prof. Sachchida Nand Tripathi, Department of Civil Engineering with Joint appointment in Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering, research interests are Aerosol Science and Technology, Low-Cost Sensors for Air Quality Monitoring, Air pollution source identification in near real-time, Aerosol-Land Use-Rainfall-Climate coupling, Large-Scale Chamber Aerosol Experiments for Reactor Safety. He has multiple awards and recognitions including Fellow, Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany (2021-2022), J C Bose National Fellow, awarded by SERB, Department of Science & Technology (2021-26), Arjun Dev Joneja Faculty Chair, IIT-Kanpur (2021-24), Elected Fellow, Indian National Science Academy (2020), UP Ratna Award, Government of Uttar Pradesh (2018), Distinguished Alumnus Award, Banaras Hindu University (2015), Infosys Prize 20123, Elected Fellow, The National Academy of Sciences, India (2015) and many more. After graduating in Civil Engineering from IIT Kanpur, he did M.Tech from MNIT-Allahabad in 1995 and PhD from University of Reading in 2000.
Prof. Sameer Khandekar, Department of Mechanical Engineering, specializes in the area of Thermal Fluid Engineering Sciences. He has authored the book Innovation, Incubation & Entrepreneurship: Case Studies from IIT Kanpur (2017, Springer). Prof. Khandekar is the recipient of the prestigious P. K. Kelkar Research Fellowship from IIT Kanpur (October 2009 - September 2012); Prof. K. N. Seetharamu Young Researcher Medal and Prize from the Indian Heat and Mass Transfer Society (2010); George Grover Young Scientist Medal from International Heat Pipe Committee (2007); Young Scientist Award by the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India (2005).
