thats an obvious answer, I am doing my masters here in the US, did my BE from univ of Pune, there are very few IIT seats, that does not mean there are very few engineers capable of IIT standards. Not only that, India has yet to establish itself as a good academic institution. Why do people like us come to the US. Its not just the money, its not jus about coming to the US, its about better standards too, and having more IIT's is definitely needed.
The IIT's we have right now are world class institution....more the better.
Yes, we need a lot more schools with IIT quality. If its initiated by IIT group with more IITs, its good. I wish all the universities and colleges become IITs in India which will make every one who goes to school learn something.
A look at the cross-section of students in IIT gives has two distinct category of people (1) Those who are in CS/Elec and are preparing to fly to USA by the next flight for so-called "research" (Am not contesting the fact that there are amzingly wonderful researchers who happen to be IITians) (2)Those who are not in these two elite departments and are willing to take any cheap software job anywhere than to look into their own discipline.
In my opinion, to say that IITs have produced brains is a lot misleading. Infact a better statement is: "People who come out of IITs are smart and itelligent BECAUSE they have cleared the JEE. BUT, that *does not* imply that students not from IITs are less smart or intelligent".
Probably the most prevalent misconception about IITs is that they create genius people. A look at the selection system for the IITs - the formidable JEE exam is good enough to justify that the students who step in IIT are already extra-ordinary academically. Its a simple statistical fact that the bunch of students who stand in top 5% of such a tough competition are ought to work wonders. Infact the way educational system of IITs (IIT Bombay to be particular, is no different than the teaching system in any standard JEE-coaching class).
So to say that IITs do play a role in creating genius just because these people are successful later in their career is false reasoning. Infact, a look at the profile of IITians who have graduated in recent years and the kind of work they are involved with suggest the quality of people comng out of IITs has been on a decline. Infact, to give an example even the presitigious IIT Bombay couldn't save itself from the adverse effects of the IT-boom and the catastrophe that followed. The blind craze of software, lacking proper insight, continues to be as fervent as in any other regional college.
We do not need that. We can make more money if we provide that many extra medical schools. Engineering is saturated and lot of competetion. But medical visitors to India will raise the level of standard for people in India as it will generate more money which we can put in manufacturing and high tech jobs.
IIT is considered a very exclusive brand of people aroudn the world and its evident that the world recognizes these institutions a deadly combination of the likes of MIT, Princeton and Havard!
IIT is also famous for its "tough" competitive entrance exam and increasing the intake would force the administration to change the degree of difficulty in order to keep up with the intake of students that they wish to have. Already the no. being increased to 7 has shown its effects on the entrance exam standard and increasing it to 12 will be have an even more degrading effect.
I think instead of only increasing the number of IIT's the govt. should instead upgrade the facilities on offer to the present IITs. IIT will be a major hub for world class research if presented with the right funds which needs to be channelized. Unlike the universities in the US, IIT's are grossly underfunded and the lack of this clearly has a telling effect in the kind of research that goes on in the 2 countries.
Its not the number of IIT that will improve the technological prowess of the country but the kind of work thats being done at them. If 7 cannot do the job for you then neither can 12!
Sure, we need more IITs. But, we do not need someone to simply rename an institution and say, here is another IIT. That is making a mockery of the IITs. What we need is other institutions being brought up to the similar level as IIT. And that includes infrastucture improvements, faculty improvements and most importantly, improvement in quality of students. If the higher ranked students continue to select the existing IITs over the other ones, the other institutes will remain sub-standard, no matter what we do.
What we are seeing right now is somebody trying to play a game with the education system in India for political gains. It is really stupid and worthless to say that we will have five more IITs when the 2 new IITs from last 5 years (Roorkee and Guahati) are not yet up to the same level as others.
living in a country of shortages, we have come to believe that less is beautiful. what makes one think that a country of 1 billion people has only a couple of thousand very bright students or professors. for eg. u.s. has over 3000 universities, 95 % of which are better equipped and produce better research than iits. these universities are the leading reason for hundreds of thousands of graduates who get the best education in the world.
increasing the number of iits will take away the exclusivity of a few who carry the iit chip. it will decrease their importance because now they will come across more who have graduated from iit. but it will be good for the country because more students will graduate from institutions with better facilties. for out country it is not exclusivity that should matter but the possibility of better education for more and more students.
