From the year 2000, a few professors of the institute in varied capacities had begun traversing onto some of the known or lesser known pathways of Indian Knowledge Systems - allied or as a complementary endeavour to their parent discipline or perhaps as an exploration in search of an alternative knowledge cosmology.

These cumulative efforts were instrumental for the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), Government of India, in awarding a significant grant to IIT Kharagpur for a pioneering initiative - “SandHI - Scientific Approach to Networking & Designing of Heritage Interfaces” - roofing four layers of projects namely 1. deep science exploratory projects 2. deep ecology and inter-disciplinary culture studies projects 3. deep exploratory projects and 4. Creative economy regeneration projects. SandHI was envisioned as a distinctive headway in creating a 'people-centric' platform to realize its vision. The idea and operational framework of 'SandHI ' emanated from the convergence of four concerns drawn from an ancient realization as evident in the tradition of 'Śruti' (realized or omniscient web of knowledge systems) in India.