IIT's are no doubt centres of technical excellence. But the decision to increase the number of IIT's won't serve any purpose. Instead of opening up more IIT's govt should instead focus on upgradation of the existing ones. I myself being an IITian know the condition in our labs, we have been working with equipments which are as old as the IIT itself. On one hand our govt don't have funds to support the IIT's which are already there and on other hand it plans to open up 5 more.
Rather then makingor converting other institute to REC's. Institute like UDCT( university institute of chemical Technology ), primier institute in chemical engineering, should be considered for making iit. So by doing so you dont really dilute the charm of iit label.
How many MIT's does the US have ? With IIT's making big news, the government seems to be on an overdrive creating more IIT's labouring itself under the notion that more IITs would mean more brighter Indians abroad who would in turn contribute to the country's success. To add insult to injury why denigrate good technical instituions that have an independent existence and do not need the IIT tag.
At the end if I was just wondering what if we extend this a bit further and start naming every politican in this country Mahatama Gandhi, Nehru or Patel and give him the status of the father of the nation. Wow...seems exciting at the outset !!!!
I am presently studying in IIT Kharagpur and i think no more IITs should be opened as that would certainly
spoil the meaning of what really an IIT is.It will become easily accesible by a lot of students.Excessing of such institutions will ruin its importance not only in India rather abroad too.There are already a lot of seats in IITs and if anyone really wishes and deserves to be in IIT he will certainly be there,no matter how less are the seats.
So i think that the neither the seats should be increased nor more IITs should be opened atleast within coming 5 years.
I dont think that just be naming the Regional colleges as IITs will have any effect on the quality of students coming there and hence graduating from these institutes.
What make IITs stand apart is its entrance procedure called the JEE through which hardly 3 thousands students are selected.
By increasing the number of IITs would just devalue the existing IITs a bit.
But yes if the governemnt can ensure the large amount of costs that will have to be incurred to develop the infrastructure then it might be possible that over the years the new IITs can come off age and be anywhere near the existing IITs.
