On Saturday, BITS Pilani announced that it had received a $1.2 million (Rs 10 Crore) commitment from Rakesh Kapoor, one of the institution's alumni. The donated amount will be utilized to fund the composition of a state-of-the-art Centre of Innovation.

The 40,000 sq. ft. facility will contain innovative laboratories in technology and hardware and co-working spaces. The innovation centre will also be home to the (PIEDS)- Pilani Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Society, the business incubator of BITS Pilani.

The announcement arrives on the back of the newly announced BITS innovation and start-up policy of 2022, which authorizes students and faculty to take up to a year off to initiate their own ventures.

The contributor, Rakesh Kapoor, was the Global CEO of Reckitt Benckiser from 2011-2019.