Nanjangud G Viswanath Swabhanu Leadership Chair
The Nanjangud G Viswanath Swabhanu Leadership Chair at IITM proposes to identify and recognize current resident IITM faculty, regardless of age or rank, who have a unique strategic plan and an implementable vision to quickly propel the institute towards earning its rightful place among the world’s most impactful engineering schools of the 21st century, while focusing on the areas of national security, healthcare, artificial intelligence, workforce development, research innovation and commercialization and promoting upward societal mobility or equivalent efforts.
In Sanskrit, " स्वभानुsvabhānu " means "self-luminous" or "radiant with one's own light". This connotation has provided a strong motivational drive for the donor, Professor Amrutur Anilkumar as he made his way through his career. Swabhanu House was his maternal ancestral home in Nanjangud, Karnataka and Swabhanu Store was the hardware store run by his maternal uncle Nanjangud G Viswanath, in whose memory the benefactor has established the Named Chair at his alma mater IIT Madras. The late Mr. N.G. Viswanath, BSc. B.L. was trained as a lawyer but chose to shine as a hardware store owner in Nanjangud. Most importantly, his major motivational advice while the benefactor was growing up was to work towards unique India-centric solutions that promotes the welfare of the society.
The NGV Swabhanu Chair was inaugurated at IITM on March 8th 2026.
The first occupant of the Nanjangud G Viswanath Swabhanu Leadership Chair is Professor Prabhu Rajagopal: Director in Charge IITM Zanzibar Campus
Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal is a Mechanical Engineer with expertise in Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). With over 30 funded projects, 200 technical articles, 33 granted IPs, he is widely recognized for his pioneering work on waveguide ultrasonics and robotics for digital transformation in the industrial (energy and mobility) and social (water, health and sanitation) contexts. He is recipient of the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize awarded by the Government of India ( 2024) and is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.