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)!
