Yes, there is defnitely a need for more IITs. India has to invest more into its human potentail before it emerges as a sper power. This should have been done much earlier. Education and technical superiority will put the country in a commanding position on the bargain tables. Any nation which holds the key to advanced science and technology holds a superior position in trade and political bargains.
IITs have been rated among the finest world class institutions. The highly competitive entrance for the IITs brings for the most talented of the country. If there are more IITs more of this talent can be nurtured. India can then in another 25years be far superior nation putting to work its best minds.
We already have 7 IITs and I don't see the need for any more at this point.
We got Roorke and Guwahati in recent years and can wait sometime to build a new one.
There a few problems with 're-upgrading' of some of the recently 'upgraded' NIT's.
1. It would require a considerable effort to upgrade the infrastructure to bring them up to the level of IIT's.
2. The faculty at these NIT's were recruited mostly locally and had lesser stringent standards of appointment than IIT's. Certainly a Ph.D from MIT or Harvard would choose to work in the industry/IIT rather than NIT.
3. There is also the concern that the faculty at the NIT's will not be able to maintain the standards expected at IIT's.
4. The most crucial problem here is that of admissions to NIT's.
For instance Suratkal is upgraded to IIT and NIT Jamshedpur is not.
Then obviously students from Bihar/Jharkhand or as a matter of fact any other state will not have quota in an NIT in Karnataka.
Then they will ask as to why we should admit students from Karnataka under the quota system when there is no reciprocal benefit.
5. Upgrading NIT's to IIT or down grading them to state college is also not the solution.
I wish to point out if we have the adequate infrastructure, the faculty, and the resources for the more number of IITs.
The primary thing in any educational institute is the faculty. Recently UoR was upgraded to IIT Roorkee. I am an alumnus of the premier institute. Citing this example, we don't have sufficient top of the line faculty in many depts of roorkee. Similar case exists for other IITs.
Recently in Nov 2002 on its convocation, the Union HRD Minister Mr MM Joshi, pointed out how many of our IITs manage to get papers published in reputed journals like IEEE. HOw many number of papers are contributed by these IITs. IIT means INDIAN institute of technology. They represent INDIA to the world in education.
With the recent spurge in IT sector, the whole world looks to India to fulfil the growing need of qualified professionals. If the education quality degrades in IITs, then what are we contributing.
As an alumnus of IITD i am very concerned.. I feel bad when the government wants to use IIT as a brand name. Enhancing the facilities at other engg colleges is good but let them create their own brand name.the IIT brand name has been established by the hardwork of its professors and the talent pool that it has managed to attract over the years. Therefore a slight reduction in quality of graduates from other engg colleges branded as IIT will hamper the image of the existing IITs. The hardwork of the last 5 decades will be lost.The increase in batch sizes at the existing IITs have already hampered the quality of education, there are not enough hostels..the labs are not being maintained, there is severe shortage of computer and library facilities, the cancellation of grants on the logic of brain drain has already forced iit's to raise its fees drastically, inhibiting the underprivileged but competent student to study at iit.
I strongly agree with one of my professors who said " Its better to have Brain Drain, Than to have Brain in drain". The govt is responsible for not providing the IItians with good research facilities and forcing them to go to US.Tag of IIT will not produce IITian
Well we definitely need more IITians but not more IIT's. Its not the right thing to be doing. Am sure the government will NOT be able to upgrade the REC's and these are just poll tactics.
The purpose for which the first 5 IITs were started are yet to be realized,forget about it getting fulfiled. The people who have to realize this are busy thinking about green cards++.Unless something is enforced I don't think India can reap the benefits from the so-called creams of the student society.On an average, let us say India spends about Rs.5 lakhs per student of IIT.U know what is the poverty line as set by the gov?! For a family of 5 a monthly salary of around Rs.1875(From the book: The great Indian dream) is enough for it to be above Poverty line.Can u believe it and can u realize what is Rs.1875 for a family of 5 means?? and u know 350 million ppl are below this line now!It is like 4 out of every 10 Indian is BPL.And out of these, 300 million go to sleep hungry everyday!This is no joke.Plz read the book 'The great Indian dream', authored by Malay & Arindam Chaudhuris(I assure ur blood will boil min.10 times as u read).U will know urself what India needs at this moment.
I didn't forget the contribution made by a few exceptional IITians,sacrificing so many things including even the monetary benefits for the cause of uplifting India.Gr8 ppl are always gr8.I salute u all.
I think our politicians need to hire a marketing guru before they decide to take such decisions.
A brand which has its exclusivity remains so ONLY if it is limited. Granted that country needs more engineers but changing the names of institutes to IIT and giving everyone a Stamp, will erode the long cherished image that IITs have created over time.
What will branding these already existing RECs bring to them? Would any of us have chosen to go to an REC over BITS Pilani? or even DCE?
The only thing this exercise can bring is some more votes for Mr. Vajpyee in the northen belt. Would love to hear what others have to add.
Having more institutes of the calibre of IITs is a good idea in itself. However, naming institutes as IITs is probably not going to do the trick. Universities and technological institutes all over the world build a reputation based on their performance over the years in teaching and research and also the performance of the alumni. The name then carries some meaning.
