Engineering and Technology education has been continuously making significant strides of progress ever since it found a special place in the Indian higher education ecosystem. Today, while numerous institutes across the country are offering Engineering and technological programmes, KCG College of Technology, a unit of Hindustan Group of Institutions, in addition to imparting Engineering excellence focuses on developing the overall personality of the students. 

With immense pride and admiration, The Knowledge Review caught up with the Director and CEO of the Hindustan Group of Institutions, Dr Anand Jacob Verghese, to trace the institution’s pathway to success. 

Genesis of the College  

KCG College of Technology founded in 1998 by Dr KCG Verghese, is a Christian minority institution affiliated to Anna University, Chennai, approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi and accredited by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with A+ Grade The campus is beautifully placed in a lush green stretch of 50 acre land with a built-up area of 4 lakh sq. feet at Karapakkam, which is about 10 km from Adyar on the Old Mahabalipuram Road (Rajiv Gandhi Salai), the IT corridor of Chennai. 

Back in the 1960s, the Founder Chairman, Dr KCG Verghese, felt the need for an institution that offers nonformal technical education to the youth of this country and set up the Hindustan Engineering Training Centre (HETC) in Chennai. Born in an ordinary middle-class family in Kerala, Dr KCG Verghese succeeded against all odds through his hard work and rose to as one of the top-ranking educationists. He was an engineer by profession, and his ambition to become a pioneer in promoting technical education in our country resulted in establishing the Hindustan Group of Institutions in 1996. 

Today, the Hindustan Group has unified several institutions under the Founder’s vision of imparting quality education in the fields of Aviation, Engineering, Applied sciences, and Management. KCG Tech is a unique institution under the group with an ideal infrastructure and commitment to promoting quality teaching-learning, making Hindustan Group a force to reckon with within the education industry. KCG Tech strives towards realising the vision of the founder chairman Dr KCG Verghese, “To Make Every Man a Success and No Man a Failure.” 

Value Construct- the KCG Tech Way  

KCG College of Technology aspires to become a globally recognised centre of Excellence for Science, Technology and Engineering education, committed to quality teaching, learning and research while ensuring every student a unique educational experience which will promote leadership, job creation, social commitment and service to nation-building. 

KCG Tech aims to disseminate knowledge in a rigorous and intellectually stimulating environment by:  

• Facilitating socially responsive research, innovation and entrepreneurship. 
•  Fostering holistic development and professional competency. 
•  Nurturing the virtue of service and an ethical value system in the young minds. 

It is committed to its vision and mission of adhering to the highest standards of ethical values and moral principles to achieve excellence. The institute also believes in working in collaborative groups and making every staff and student have a sense of belonging to build relations with their stakeholders through honesty and trust. 

Stellar Leadership: Dr Anand Jacob Verghese 

Dr Anand Jacob Verghese, Director and CEO of the Hindustan Group of Institutions based in Chennai, has completed BS in Engineering Management from the American International University, London in 1993 and MBA from Huron University, London, in the subsequent year. Recognising his contribution to research and development, he was conferred Honorary Doctorate by the world-renowned Dongguk University, Seoul, South Korea. 

After the sudden demise of the founder Dr KCG Verghese in 2006, Dr Anand Jacob Verghese formally took charge of the administration of Hindustan Group of Institutions, under the guidance of the Chairperson, Dr Elizabeth Verghese. Since then, he has been actively involved in the overall administration and development activities of the Group of Institutions and instrumental in gaining prominent position among the institutions, providing technical training and education. 

Under his leadership, UGC granted Hindustan College of Engineering the University status in 2008. Since then, keeping pace with the advancement in global industries, non-conventional and integrated programmes in engineering and technical education have been introduced. The group has also established three international schools in Chennai providing access to primary education. 

Dr Anand Jacob Verghese aims to develop significant international alliances for academic and research collaboration for the benefit of students. With a specific thrust towards enabling research and innovation, he has been instrumental in forging several significant collaborative agreements with reputed research-led educational institutions worldwide to provide students with global exposure and learning opportunities. 

With the motto of ‘Transforming pedagogies and technology’, Dr Anand Jacob Verghese’s views reflect the need for every student and teacher to be updated with modern trends to climb the ladder of success. He encourages the teachers of his institutions to adopt and adapt teaching methods and tools that promote student engagement in and beyond classroom. 

Dr Anand Jacob Verghese has been recognised for his contribution to Indian education and has been awarded with numerous titles. Some of them are mentioned below: 

• ‘Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi Makkal Thalaivar Moopanar Award’ from Mr.G.K. Vasan, Hon’ble Minister for Statistics & Programme Implementation, Govt. of India.  
• ‘Edupreneur Award’ from the Times Group for his exemplary commitment and impactful positive contribution to education in Tamil Nadu. 
• ‘Aviation Edupreneur’ Award during the National Science Day Celebration at the Russian Centre of Culture & Science. 
• ‘IET Ratna Award’, the highest award from IET, Chennai Local Network, for his commendable contributions in the field of Engineering Education. 

• MGR Ratna Award for his contribution towards fulfilling the vision of Dr MG Ramachandran, the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. 
• Vice- President, Aeronautical Society of India.  
• Area President- India Area, Y’s Men International. 

The Transcendence of KCG 

Engineering colleges, in general focus more on enabling students to achieve ranks and enhance their pass percentage, while KCG College of Technology proves different by focusing on imparting holistic education, which would create engineering leaders for the future. 

KCG College of Technology has a clear and far-sighted vision and adopts strategies that help learners to keep up with the changing times. The top leadership of KCG Tech believes that investing in youth is investing in future and therefore the college works towards producing quality engineers meeting industry requirements and global standards.  

It invites experts from industries, institutions, notable alumni from India and abroad to conduct workshops and give lectures in seminars, webinars and conferences and enable students to up skill themselves. It hosts project competitions like Hackathon, Ideathon and innovation challenge to encourage students carry out engineering projects addressing societal problems.  

The Office of International Affairs of the college in stills confidence in students motivates and guides them to approach foreign universities for higher education, take up internships and carry out research projects. It is worth mentioning that KCG College of Technology is the only engineering college in Tamil Nadu with a dedicated and exclusive office to look after International Affairs on their campus. 

Through Higher Education Cell, the faculty guides students willing to pursue higher education in India and abroad in their preparation for IELTS, TOEFL, GMAT, GRE and GATE. The Office of Students Affairs provides guidance and support for student wellbeing and the full-time student counsellor helps and guides students with personal and academic challenges. 

The 15 clubs (7 technical clubs and 8 non-technical clubs) that are currently active on campus hone the skills and knowledge of the students enabling them to participate in the competitions conducted by the college and other institutions/ organisations. The NSS, NCC, Rotaract Club, Toastmasters Club, Engineers without Borders, IEDC cultivate the spirit of service, leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship among students. We have a Centre for Transformational Leadership (CTL) to create strong, realistic and visionary leaders. 

While speaking about the efficiency and this visionary outlook, Dr Anand Jacob Verghese asserts, “We prepare our young learners to become job creators than job seekers. We inculcate the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship through Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cells (i-cell and e-cell). We are the first college, under Anna University, to launch Government-funded Technology Business Incubator (TBI).” 

The college has also signed MoU with foreign universities and organisations facilitating exchange programmes, research opportunities, and conducting foreign language classes like German, Korean, and Russian. 

The institute encourages its current students and its alumni to pursue entrepreneurship. The management has approved a pre-seed grant of Rs.10 lakhs for alumni start-ups. Recently it organised ‘Pitch Fest- Lift Off 21’ in which a total of seven teams, two student teams from final year and five alumni teams, presented their business ideas. 

The institute maintains a good rapport with the core companies and IT products/services. It has signed MoUs with more than 70 industries to improve placement opportunities for the students. 

The college also has 14 Centers of Excellence (COE) as Industry-Institute partnership initiatives. Industry-Institute interaction of this kind helps to identify the gaps in the curriculum offered by the affiliating university, design an industry-linked curriculum accordingly and deliver content beyond the curriculum. 

Awards and Accreditations 

• Accredited with a score of A+ by NAAC. 
• Four Programmes (CSE, ECE, IT, MECH) accredited by NBA. 
• Ranked in the band of 201-250 by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF 2021). 
• Ranked in Band Excellent by ARIIA (ATAL Ranking of Institution on Innovation Achievements) 2021. 

• Top 10 Indian applicants for Patents from Industries and Universities by Intellectual Property India. 
• KCG- Team Vikranti was the winner of AICTE Lilavati Award 2022 for Women Empowerment under the sub theme Self Defence. 
• AICTE- Chhatra Vishwakarma Award- second runner up and a cash award – for the student team, Marvellous Maniacs, for the project “Safety Taser- Gender Responsive Mechanism to Combat Domestic Violence.” 
• Awarded Best PALS Partner Institute 2022. 
• “Legacy of Women Leaders and Women of Impact Award 2021” by IIT Madras Alumni Association to Dr. Annie Jacob, Director-KCG College of Technology. Dr Annie Jacob was also recognized as one of the Femina Icons of the South 2021-2022 by Femina Magazine. 

• KCG-EEE & KCG –Civil are the winners of the AICTE-CII award for the Industry Linked Institutes 2020.  
• KCG-Electronics and Allied category won AICTE-CII award for the best Industry Linked Institutes 2019. 
• KCG was the Hatrick winner of AICTE-MHRD Smart India Hackathon (2017, 18 and 19). 
• Ranked 11th in the India’s Digital Index Award, 19th in the India’s Top T Schools and 22nd in the India’s Employability Index by Data Quest 2022. 
• Ranked in the category of AAA+ among the India’s Best Engineering Colleges by Career’s 360 in 2022. 

• 62 Anna University Ranks since 2015. 
• Most Innovative Technology College in Tamil Nadu by Top Gallant Media 2021. 
• Selected by MIC/AICTE as a centre to host, Toycathon, an event conducted by Govt. of India to promote indigenous toy industry. We were one of the 7 centers that had the privilege of hosting an interactive session with the Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi ji. 
• The Emerging College for Fashion Technology studies by Fashion Business Awards 2021. 
• Ranked 51 across India and positioned in the A5 Band: Institution of Academic Excellence by OBE Ranking 2021. 

• Awarded the Indian Achiever’s award 2021 for Excellence in Education by the Indian Achiever’s Forum. 
• Best in Industry-Academia Interface 2021 in 7th Global Education and Skill Summit Leadership Award. 
• Ranked No. 1 amongst the Anna University Affiliated Non-Autonomous Colleges (Tamil Nadu) In India Today Ranking 2021. 
• Ranked 13th in Chennai based on Highest Placements in top MNCs by Aspiring Minds 2021. 

Outlook for the future 

While speaking about the college’s enthusiastic future plans, Dr Anand Jacob Verghese informs, “The College is planning to introduce unconventional courses that are yet to become popular, systematising further the scheme of assessment and evaluation, collaborating with foreign universities, and introducing one-or two-semester-abroad programmes.” He strongly advocated blended learning to online and face-to-face learning and said, “The learning outcome in a hybrid classroom has been the highest.” “It is very important to discover how to learn using all available communication channels and choose the ones that best suit learning.”