“Harvard No. 1, IITs not in top 100” screams the headlines in DNA.On further reading, I found that IIT Bombay (due apologies to Raj Thackeray :-P) is ranked at 163 and IIT Delhi is ranked at 181. And what’s more, the Dragon beats the Tiger here too, compared to India’s two universities in Top 200 universities worldwide, China has 6.
It got me thinking, the more I analysed as to the possible reasons why one of the world’s, if not the most, difficult university to get in (based on number of applicants:admitted students ratio) is not even in the Top 100 and the reason is that it has been beaten because of the amazing infrastructure and research that has happens in other Universities. Look at the top 10, Harvard, Cambridge, Yale and so on and you know that the research emphasis is phenomenal and this is where IITs will continue to fail, if they continue to operate as they do now.
Every year, the Government spends enormous amount of the Indian taxpayers money to subsidize education in IITs, but what has the taxpayer got in return. Yes, IITians are at one of the biggest places in the world, have achieved many things, but the fact is a majority of them did it abroad. Maybe, that’s why we get so excited when an Indian origin scientist wins the Nobel Prize. The fact remains is that the entire IIT system is in serious need of reform.
I mean, it’s all fine that IIT professors go on a strike to protest for salaries because the students that they teach ending up earning multiple times more when they start their careers! I am also ok with Kapil Sibbal providing them the ‘flexibility’ in deciding what they want to do.
IITs have always been autonomous institutions but have they been made accountable. Like all Govt. expenditure, the expense on subsidizing a student at IIT is not accountable.
I mean, tell me one major thing that has come out of IITs that has helped India in its grass roots? Tell me one.
As per wikipedia, “The IITs were created to train scientists and engineers, with the aim of developing a skilled workforce to support the economic and social development of India after independence in 1947.” Trust me, even on that front pre-emergence of the IT sector, IITs failed as the brain drain rate was phenomenally high. A stint in IIT was a sure shot ticket to the US/UK in those days. Since 1953, around 25,000 IITians have settled in the US.
I am not saying that many havent stayed back, they have and have gone on to achieve many things like N R Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, Rajendra Pawar of NIIT. But, the list of those who have gone abroad and achieved a lot more is even longer.
IITs havent been able to solve any of India’s economics or social problems by investing into research that makes sense for India. Have IITs helped India in its various infrastructural problems that exist. Yes, I know for a few cases you do need the political will to do it.
Compare that with universities in the US, the Internet was a University research project and look how the world is so much better because of it and I have not yet began to scratch the surface. We are so called damn good at IT right, let’s see an indigenous Operating System customized for India, the Chinese do it based on the Linux kernel, but you, the so called doyens of the Indian Technical Education cannot. Give me a break!!
As an Indian and a taxpayer I ask you, how can you justify the amount that the Government spends on subsidizing the education at IITs when we could use more of that money in Rural India to eradicate rural illiteracy.
People have argued against brain drain, saying that they made India proud, well pride of what. Of having leeched onto your nation’s scarce resources to go abroad and then contribute so little. I know many will rise to the defense by saying IIT do a lot of charity activity, but what’s the use of such charity.
Nandan Nilekani donated money to his alma mater to build a hostel, I would have preferred if he had donated that towards research at IIT.
I am of the opinion, that IITs should stop getting funding, their corpus is pretty good enough for their funding requirements, but rather the Government should focus on funding research at IITs that are of national importance and be a last funder of sort that too only bridge financing for infrastructural needs if the IITs fail to raise enough funds from its alumni.
Another thing is that IITs have a great B.Tech program but they are not really known for their Masters and Ph.D program and this is because the quality of these programs is based on the quality and level of research that gets conducted in universities abroad. If you really want to be acknowledged as a world leading institution than do things that will make you a world leading institution.
A 2001 UN Human Development Report estimated that India’s yearly loss due to migration of software professionals majority of them IITians to be at USD 2 Billion. But, to be fair to IITians, they are the ones who created this whole ‘Indian IT’ brandwagon as before that Indian IT companies were rarely taken seriously.
Many supporters of the current IIT system have said that IITians have contributed a lot to India by way of Forex remittance back home. Well, to all those, sorry to burst your bubble, but a study has shown that compared to skilled Chinese emigrants, Indian skilled emigrants generally tend to send less forex back home, one of the reasons attributed to China attracting 10x FDI inflows is on the back of Chinese emigrants remittances as per a Financial Times report in 2003.
Net net, Indian taxpayers are the losers of the current IIT system and keeping in line with the ‘austerity’ measures that have been put in place by our wise leader in power (upto the reader to determine who is the real leader here :-P), I believe even the IITs should be reformed.
What do you think?
I don’t like the IITs for one reason: elitism. As long as IITs are given preferential treatment, there will always be 2 (or 3 if you count the RECs) tiers in engineering education. Education should also be shaped by competitive forces; it isn’t good for one set of institutions to always remain pre-eminent.
There’s no reason why a regular university (eg. University of Mumbai) cannot have a program that is just as highly rated as IIT. All that’s lacking is the money, the teaching talent and the infrastructure. There are plenty of students who are of IIT calibre but don’t get in because of a bad day on the day of the JEE.
I also think that the other universities should seriously try and catch up with the IITs. Respect is good; giving up pre-eminent status to one institution without even trying is harmful.
I think India has done very well with the IITs – the graduates are certainly employable both in India and abroad. They could get more funding via their alumni. The IITs are a credit to India.
You are absolutely right… I in fact bumped into your article after a google search titled, “why so little research is done in india”. At least there is ‘some’ research done in the engineering fields. I study the social sciences and it is very sad that almost ‘NO’ research is done in my field of work. When in fact, social sciences research should be the first step to solve all our social and economic problems. Very sad indeed
Especially when we have an economist for a prime minister 
I should probably do a research project on why so little research is done in India!
Could not have put it better myself, and I thought I was passionate on this topic! Indian taxpayers have the right to question the accountability (or lack thereof) of the subsidization of IIT education. I feel that instead of causing reform in IIT, we should cut off the funding, and make it a lot easier to open and run private colleges in India. In Bombay (middle finger to Raj Thackeray!), there are so many private colleges, but they are owned by plutocrats for who else can subvert the rules, appease the mafia, and set up a university?
Ideally, Indian government should not be involved in baccalaureate education at all except for the bare minimum. Let private colleges open easily, and they will do some great stuff. Any organization, when large enough, becomes sluggish. The government is the best example of that. India should concentrate on making many good engineers, instead of a handful of brilliant ones.
Interesting blog on IITs ~ http://www.venkateshsridhar.co.....for-india/
thIS blog was like hittin nail in the head, it should come as headlines in National Newspapers, so that people ignorant of IIT’s zero-achievement & having a big pic abt it would come to know the reality, & the hype it created in India, esp for a school goin child like me yrs back wouldn,t have happened. Also i wouldn’t have felt very bad in not clearing the IIT Mains, after all, i m fighting with a 5 lakh population……& the research over there is poor. IIT’s hold their superiority only in conducting entrance examinations ONLY.
Tha fact ppl write IIT entrance at +2 is for fat salary packages & passport for US……..1.NOT FOR CONTINUING RESEARCH or 2. contributing to the country, …. at least we can leave the latter(2.), but the former(1.) is most impt.
IT’S VERY IMPT. THAT EVERY CHILD IN INDIA(esp +2 KIDS) STUDY THIS ARTICLE & GET A BIGGER PIC, instead of having a closed mind & worrying for not makin to the IITs
Well, I have a slightly different opinion about this issue you’ve raised, and by far the nail hasn’t dug deep enough into the coffin.
Firstly, de-subsidising IIT education is a very bad idea, considering that the step was taken for the thousands of poor, backward and down-trodden students who have the brilliance and deserve to uplift themselves and their families given an opportunity to quality education and training. The best case is of Alok in Chetan Bhagat’s famous novel “5-point someone”, and besides hundreds of such students are awarded scholarships by the IIT’s themselves to further reduce their expenses.
The existence of IIT’s themselves gives them a much required hope and a guarantee to a secure future; and if there’s a need for something it is to build more such institutes which can give those millions of under-facilitated students to come up and use their talents, and I’m not talking of more IIT’s or engineering colleges, let there be more science, arts and commerce colleges which can maintain high-standards and ensure quality.
And to think that denying IIT’s the elitism they deserve and deliberately reducing them to other private colleges’ levels will help the nation in any way is just childish….come on!! we live in a globalized country now, those IIT alumni you accuse of brain drain will fly off to USA and UK universities after their higher secondary itself. Thats hardly going to help the nation.
If we are concerned about brain drain and all that stuff, we must understand that its simple economics of demand and supply and prices. Its wrong to expect all of them to build opportunities here rather than use an already existing one somewhere else…and though we need more people like Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani etc. who choose to do so, we must understand that the underlying problem causing brain drain, low research outputs are much more basic and they make vicious circle of many more challenges.
But one point, which I do agree upon is the absence of any substantial research from these elite institutes, but then again IIT’s have always been engineering institutes catering to the industry, and this I do agree should be reformed, but the methods mentioned are not at all helpful.
Please Note that my post is not a dig at IITians but primarily at IITs as an institution.
Yes i believe it and yeah IITians have done “something” but not MUCH.. SO net is a loss rather than a profit..
I cudnt get into an IIT because i had no coaching for 1 year and yeah competing against lakhs,majority of them from KOTa, Delhi’z coachings, is not really easy..
DEy say IIT is a mind game,But do you think a guy with brains can compete with d one studying for 15-18 hours..?
And also MAyb we can prevent them from going abroad by just allowing them for studies rather than jobs..