In defence of the IITs: An insider's view

The Environment Minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, created a flutter with his candid statement that not IITs, but their students, are world-class. He added that experience of 60 years shows that the government set-up cannot produce world-class research institutes. Supporting his colleague at the time, the Education Minister, Mr Kapil Sibal, said IITs would be world-class, had they figured in the list of top 100 universities of the world.

As the anti-IIT decibel level rises by the day, it may be useful to take a closer look at the institution, and put certain facts in perspective.

Going by data in the Web site www.topuniversities.com , IITs are not in the top 100. The list is dominated by the US (29), followed by the UK (17); China has two entries.

The same Web site gives world rankings for Engineering and Technology. In this, all five older IITs make it to the Top 100 — IIT-B (47th rank), IIT-D (52), IIT-K (63), IIT-M (68), and IIT-KGP (90). India is close to Germany's six ranks and is on a par with Japan and China.

This vindicates the academic standing of IITs as it is engineering for which they were started and for which they are famous the world over. IITs were mandated to be engineering schools, and not universities such as Harvard or Stanford.

Mr Jairam Ramesh's other observation that private partnership will enhance research is intriguing. That the private sector in India has till date hardly produced a world-class product through research, be it hardware or software, stands testimony to this fact.

Knowledge dissemination

Apart from their rankings which confirm their academic standing, what are the contributions of IITs to India in the spheres of education, industry and nation-building?

Many may not be aware of the programmes of IITs to help engineering education. Several initiatives, including Quality Improvement Programmes for university teachers, winter and summer schools, and user-oriented programmes have been pursued with passion and enthusiasm by IIT faculty for the last two decades.

One such programme, NPTEL, started four years ago, has resulted in the largest collection of educational videos in the world: 4,932 lectures, of 50 minutes each, are available on YouTube. With 69,000 subscribers, the total hits for these lectures are a whopping 44.7 million! One comment posted on the Internet by a user summarises it all: “IITs not only teach Indians, but the whole world.” The third largest number of hits, after India and the UK, are from Pakistan. Knowledge diplomacy, it seems, is a more powerful binding force than cricket diplomacy!

IITs have been criticised for not helping Indian industry, not developing technologies, not carrying out cutting-edge research and indulging in largely theoretical research. These criticisms must be analysed in totality.

Universities in the West were started centuries ago. In Europe, Oxford University and University of Paris were established in the 12{+t}{+h} century. They were seats of knowledge much before knowledge became commercialised. During the feverish pace of the Industrial Revolution, innovations and technology preceded scientific explanations. Steel was made much before the thermodynamics of steel-making was understood. Even at that time, innovations did not happen at the universities. Universities were busy catching up with the science behind the technologies.

Then came a time when further progress in engineering and technology could happen only with firm scientific foundation. Industries naturally turned towards universities, mainly for manpower and, to a lesser extent, for research and development.

Wright Brothers ran a printing press, Henry Ford was not a university professor, nor did Ibuka, the father of Sony Corporation, incubate his company within a university. Many of these giants relied on research for their growth and used universities for it. After all, industry–institute collaboration can sustain only out of necessity, not compulsion.

The Indian situation was different. IITs were born along with Indian industry. Collaborative ventures with established international companies obviated the need for industry to pursue research. Hence, IITs were never on the radar screens of industry for their research needs till the 1990s, when the economy opened up.

Research initiatives

Many realised, rightly, that technologies cannot be developed at educational institutes.

Technology needs a much larger canvas, encapsulating manufacturing, testing procedures, quality standardisations, and so on.

Research is only one part of technology development and, for obvious reasons, universities can work only on this segment. Indian industry only now understands the importance of long-term research and the need to enhance the science part of technology.

IITs, once the biggest exporters of brains from India, have witnessed a steady decline in the number of their students going abroad.

Today, a mere 15 per cent of their students go abroad. Many prefer India-based industry for the opportunities it provides.

This beginning has to be taken to the next logical level, with more sponsored research from the industry. This is reflected in the research-based consultancy charts of IITs. In my Department (IIT-M's Department of Engineering Design), JK Tyres, Tivitron, Caterpillar and AutoDesk have set up Centres of Excellence, while Ashok Leyland and Bosch have sponsored the entire department building. In a globalised world, the industry is not restricted by geographical boundaries. Yet, going by past performance, IITs are sure to rise to the occasion.

Not fully tapped

What is the contribution of the IITs to policies, nation-building, socially relevant work, and so on? Ironically, it is Mr Jairam Ramesh's own Ministry that included IITs as part of the “Clean the Ganga” project!

It is well known that IITs have been actively involved in projects of national priority in space and Defence research. IIT professors have been part of the Prime Minister's scientific advisory panel, national knowledge network and many other panels and committees, but it has never been the tradition in India to seek serious academic inputs in drafting engineering and technology policies. This needs to change. The Government has to look at IITs as a national resource, a large talent pool and use them for national growth.

It is unfair to state that IITs have not delivered. Maybe more needs to be done. But one must understand the psyche of researchers. They are like artists, though one uses the left-brain and the other the right. Give them the recognition they deserve, and see the effect!

(The author is Professor, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras.)