Damodar Acharya

Damodar Acharya is an Indian engineer and educationist. He served as the director of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur from July 2007 to 30 June 2012. The government nominated Prof Acharya as a director on the central board of the Reserve Bank of India in October 2012.

Career

Professor Damodar Acharya received his Ph.D. (in 1975) and M.Tech. in IE & OR (in 1972) degrees from IIT Kharagpur, and B.Sc.(Engineering) degree in Mechanical Engineering with distinction (in 1970) from NIT Rourkela. Professor Acharya has about 32 years of diversified experience - twenty seven years of teaching and research experience at IIT Kharagpur, and five years of experience in academic administration as Vice-Chancellor, Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Rourkela, and as Chairman of the All India Council of Technical Education.

Recognition

• The Chief Minister of Odisha conferred him with the Think Odisha Leadership Award in 2010, jointly with the former Vice-Chancellor of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, Baidyanath Misra, for their contributions in the field of education.

Controversies

1. In 2011, CBI made Damodar Acharya an accused in the scam involving AICTE for which Acharya served as chairperson from May 2005 to June 2007. Acharya was the chairperson of AICTE when approval to many existing technical institutions was granted. Acharya overruled the expert committee which recommended reduction of approved strength for Padmavathy College of Engineering (PCE) due to shortage of faculty at the institute and granted extension of approval to the College on a status quo basis.
2. He was forced to resign from the post of Director of IIT Kharagpur amidst student protests which followed the death of a third year electrical engineering student Rohit Kumar due to alleged medical negligence in the campus hospital in 2009. But he rejoined the institute after charges against him were cleared.