If the govt thinks that by changing the name to IIT will automatically increase quality, then it may be going in the wrong direction.If the new IITs are not able to match the old IITs standards, then just the name IIT will not raise eyebrows but only the IITs with words like Bombay ,Delhi ,Kanpur and Madras.One can think of UC berkely and UC Riverside as an analogy.UC doesn't mean anything.
it is true that as india progress more and more of iitians are needed but solution to the problem cannot be upgradation of rec to iit. plz undersrtand that iit are class apart, and the standards that iit has achieved are very difficult to attain. it is very unlikely that any of the rec in the near future would be able to attain same standards of quality and performance as iits.
the upgradation wud leed to nothing but lowering of standards of iit and loss of god will earned by iits along the years. it is better to create new iits.
More IITs are needed for India's technological competitiveness - especially vis-a-vis other Asian countries like China, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, etc., which are already far ahead of India in terms of per-capita income and FDI, foreign-trade, etc., which are directly correlated to the technological sophistication of the nation's industry, specially in today's globalized knowledge-based scenario. The intake of the existing IITs also should be drastically increased to the levels of MIT & UC-Berkeley in USA, by constructing multi-storied hostels to accomodate more students in the current campuses, etc. with global infrastructure, facilities like telephones, high-speed broadband Internet connections in every hostel room (like in IIT-Kharagpur now), more faculty and expanded research and collaboration with industry.
IITs are IITs because of 3 reasons :- 1) Quality of Students 2) Quality of Faculty 3) Quality of Infrastructure
In a nation of a 100 crore people certainly there are more than the current 4000 odd students who deserve to be in IITs. However of concern to me is the number of quality faculty which can power the increased number of IITs. As it is there is dearth of professors in the current IITs and the govt is now going in for incentive schemes to retain the best IIT brains for teaching purposes. As far as the infrastructure is concerned, its going to be a mammoth task creating 5-6 more IITs considering that the budget of each IIT averages around 50-60 crores per annum. Moreover, it takes time to build up quality eduactional institutions and even the credentials of IIT Roorkee and IIT Guwahati are questionable vis-a-vis the BIG-5. So by an large we DO NEED more IITs, but it will take time for them to come up to the level of the BIG-5. However each IIT can ADOPT a few RECs near it and groom them and gradually they can be upgraded to IITs.
Yes we do need more IIT's... But the standerd has to be maintain same for all.. since, just declairing few REC's as IIT's does not make any improvement in standerd of tech. education.
No more IITs please. Let the intake be increased if there is a necessity. Let IITs be allowed to expand their operations (institutions or reseach facilities) beyond their campuses as long as the quality is maintained. Let the IITs' moto be 'quality and not quantity'. NITs or any other institution may be given the status of an IIT if their performance is at par with the IITs. Let them strive to achieve that. Don't gift them the IIT status. Let the funds be spent on better facilities at the IITs and NITs and then encourage them to become self sufficient and grow on their own.
The question is, why don't other colleges produce people of the IIT calibre, what is so special about the air/water of IIT. What is lacking in the syllabus of other universities?
I vehemently oppose any assertion that only people who score well in their IIT-JEE have potential to come up in life as good Engineers. Our country has aspired to create equality in people, and not create exclusivness. Hence instead of having 7 or 12 IITs to be proud of, we should have all Engineering colleges or atleast as many as possible to be proud of.
Hence I believe that access to an institute based on one exam, and not the cumilative record of achivements, should not decide one's career.
There is no harm in increasing the number of IIT's but increasing by elevating the status of REC's(now NIT's)is a debatable issue.The quality of any technical institute is influenced by a number of parameters namely,the student quality,the infrastucture and above all,the faculty.Whereas the NIT's are reasonably fine regarding the first two parameters,the same can not be said about the faculty and the corresponding value-addition.The infrastructure can be improved,the intake quality(already good)will be further improved by the quality of the entrance examination(JEE)the students will be required to take but the existing faculty just can not be dispensed with before its retirement.So the students will have to do with an abysmally low quality of instruction & intellectually dead/stagnant faculty for quite a few years to follow and this is the greatest danger.How many books and quality publications can our NIT Professors boast of?How many of them are abreast with the latest happenings in their field(?)?It would be much better if the govt starts a number of IIT's,not by elevating the status of existing instts but as brand new seats of learning.No pt starting from scrap(pun intended)!
