Background
MITRA, Chittaranjan was born on February 13, 1926 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. Son of late Iswar Chandra Mitra and of late Sova (nee Bose) Mitra.
MITRA, Chittaranjan was born on February 13, 1926 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. Son of late Iswar Chandra Mitra and of late Sova (nee Bose) Mitra.
Born in 1926 in Allahabad in the erstwhile United Provinces of British India, C.R. Mitra studied at Allahabad University, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, did his Masters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then acquired a Doctorate in Engineering Science from Columbia University, New New York
He played a pivotal role in the transformation of the Institute from a local engineering college to a reputed university. Returning to India in the 1960s, Mitra first became the director of the Harcourt Butler Technological Institute. In 1969, he was offered the position of director of Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani by Ghanshyam Das Birla.
At this time, the institute was undergoing major changes under the leadership of a committee of experts from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is credited with increasing the pace of those reforms, as well as for constituting a "practice school" program of industry internship "far more ambitious than anything Massachusetts Institute of Technology had done, as a requirement for all faculty and students".
To address the human resource development needs of the Indian industry and the financial challenge of running higher degree programs at Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, in the year 1979, he pioneered the Work Integrated Learning Programs, which provided education and training to employees of Indian Industries. Today, these programs have an enrollment of about 17,000 students throughout India and are responsible for earning two thirds of the revenue of the Institute.
Mitra was responsible for introducing innovative educational philosophies which made the educational system at Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani unique, including broad-based, multi-disciplinary approach, semester long course based curricula, practice school, industry-academia collaboration, choosing electives and many other features which were firsts in Indian higher education. He was widely respected by the students who affectionately referred to him as Dynamic Diro (Director)
In 1989, he was invited by National Institute of Information Technology to be their education advisor.
He was responsible for introducing the "GNIIT" program that would become the flagship offering of the Institute.
Under his advisory, National Institute of Information Technology rose as one of the leading Information Technology education providers in India. Mitra died on 27 August 2008.
Corporation Visiting Committee in Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States of America, Steering Committee United World Colls, and Institute Baccalaureat Office, London, United Kingdom, World Council and General Body and member.
Married Sandhya Ghosh in 1951.