M Jagdeesh Kumar set to be new JNU Vice Chancellor

New Delhi, Jan 21: IIT Delhi professor M Jagdeesh Kumar is set to be the next Vice Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Kumar's name has been cleared by President Pranab Mukherjee from a panel of four names that were forwarded to him by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, officials said.

A professor of electrical engineering at IIT Delhi, Kumar said his priorities after taking over as the JNU VC would be to strengthen collaboration between institutions, streamline recruitment process and interact with students to see how the research output can be improved.

He said institutions like IIT Delhi and JNU are close to each other but there is need for more cross-collaboration in various areas than is actually happening.

Asked about reports that he attended an RSS linked event, Kumar said, "I am an academician and have no formal association with any organisation", adding that he attended the event as it was about science and organised at IIT-Delhi.

The event was organised by RSS linked body Vijnana Bharati. The term of JNU's current VC Professor Sudhir Kumar Sopory will end by January 27.

The President, as Visitor of all central universities, selected Kumar's nomination from a panel of four eminent names including scientist V S Chauhan, coordinator of the National Centre of Applied Human Genetics, JNU, R N K Bamezai and Ramakrishna Ramaswamy of the department of physical sciences, JNU, it is learnt.

PTI