IIIT-Delhi director Ranjan Bose quits; inked MoUs with foreign orgs ‘without nod’

NEW DELHI: The director of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIIT Delhi), Ranjan Bose, has resigned after the office of the lieutenant governor (LG) questioned why he had not taken approval before signing three research and funding MoUs with foreign organisations.

The institute signed the MoUs between June 2024 and Oct 2025, after guidelines were issued by the LG to all Delhi govt-run universities, stating that the approval of the chancellor was mandatory before entering any funding agreements or MoUs.




LG VK Saxena is the chancellor of IIIT Delhi.

The institute signed MoUs with Gates Foundation for an ‘Innovation Challenge for Health Al Solutions'; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for an ‘R&D Partnership on Inclusive Public Digital Systems' and Skykraft Pvt Ltd for a project on ‘Demonstration of Collaborative PNT (Position Navigation and Timing) in LEO (Low Earth Orbit)'.

Sources said the funding promised under each of the three projects was $277,352, $1.67 million and $48,333 (per year for three years).

Bose did not respond to calls and messages seeking his response. On deputation from IIT Delhi, he completed his MS and PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. At IIT Delhi, he was the Microsoft chair professor and headed the Wireless Research Lab.

On Dec 5, a show-cause notice was issued to Bose by the Department of Training and Technical Education (TTE), asking him to explain why Saxena's consent was not taken before entering the agreements. He had noted that it was important to exercise "caution and due diligence" in such cases especially in relation to data security and prevent use of institution resources for data mining.

Directions to secure prior permission of the chancellor were communicated to universities on June 13, 2024.

The show-cause notice said Bose has "failed in his statutory duties and responsibilities" and "accepted foreign funds without the due approval and authorisation" of the chancellor.

In response to the notice, the IIIT Delhi registrar said that since the institute was "in self-sustaining mode", funding was "extremely important" so as to not "burden" other resources, while acknowledging that it had failed to seek prior approval from the chancellor "inadvertently, due to internal oversight".

In notings after the reply to the notice was received, the office of the LG said that signing MoUs "was not an isolated instance but three cases, one after the other, shows a premeditated mind to violate such directions".

In the notings, it has also been alleged that in the general council meeting on Nov 21, Saxena had asked Bose to explain why this happened, he misled the council, claiming that the institute had received funding through MEITY, Govt of India, not directly. "This turned out to be a patent falsehood and amounts to misguiding," the note states.



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