How Successful Autonomous IITs became Indian PSU's
By Ram Krishnaswamy
IIT Madras Alumnus 1970 Batch
Sydney, Australia
The first Indian Institute of Technology was founded in May 1950 at the site of the Hijli Detention Camp in Kharagpur, West Bengal. The name "Indian Institute of Technology" was adopted before the formal inauguration of the institute on 18 August 1951 by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
(Google)The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous public technical universities located across India. It is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Education, Government of India. They are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961, which has declared them as Institutes of National Importance and lays down their powers, duties, and framework for governance.[1][2] The Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 lists twenty-three institutes.[3] Each IIT is autonomous, linked to the others through a common council (IIT Council), which oversees their administration. The Minister of Education is the ex officio Chairperson of the IIT Council.[4] As of 2021, the total number of seats for undergraduate programs in all IITs is 16,234.[5]
1951 - IIT Kgp was sponsored by UNESCO,
1958 - IIT Bombay sponsored by Soviet Union
1959 - IIT Madras by West Germany,
1959 - IIT Kanpur sponsored by USA
1961 - IIT Delhi sponsored by UK
If you want to know more you just have to google history of IITs and wiki will give you the lot
IITs had the best laboratory and work shop equipment supplied by Host Countries, at least that is what I know about IIT Madras and we had German Professors Teaching us too.
Highlight of my IIT Life was spending an entire Summer vacation Assisting Prof.Gerhard Rouve with experiments in Open Channel Flow at the Hydraulics Laboratory for which I got Paid the Big sum of Rupees 50..
I'd probably say the first 20 years until 1971 were the best Years for IITs. Total autonomy, plus the best Faculty from host countries and best from all over India were lured by the highest wages for academics at that point of time plus added bonus was private accomodations on Campus for all faculty members & their families
Another Man, I will never forget is IIT Madras very first Director Prof. Sengupta a natural born leader and visionary. Boys from South India learnt to celebrate Holi on campus with the Director distributing Jelebis to each and every student who went to his home on the day. Any student could knock on his door and walk in and talk to him. Not possible today I presume as IITs have become another Babudom and Directors are DemiGods answerable only to Politicians who appoint them
IIT's were unknown in the 60's to most students. My Father thought IIT was a Central Polytechnic and refused me permission to join. There was no Hype, No Brand, and above all there were no Coaching schools in Kota. The Night before the IIT Exam my mother scolded me, as I went with my friend and watched the Cleopatra Movie at Elphinstone Theatre in Mount Road, Madras
Life on Campus was endless fun.
Faculty not much to write home about.
You had the Good the Bad and the Ugly.
It was easy to tell which lecturers or professors were good. Just by looking at the attendance. Even though attendance was compulsory at IIT Madras we had friends giving us Proxy. As seniors in 4th and 5th years we just gave attendance and slipped out of class one by one every time the lousy lecturer faced the black board.
Some Faculty members were Pathetic they were not teachers and did not know their subject matter either and these were the most dangerous and vindictive staff members who failed students indiscriminately. This Continues to this day I am told.
In 1991 HRD Minister Arjun Singh, an unhappy and disgruntled man as Sonia Gandhi did not make him PM of India did something that hurt IITs Most.
He forced RESERVATION on IITs, which to me marked the beginning of the end of IITs. Don't misunderstand me as I belong to the Backward Caste Hindu but do not believe in Caste based Reservation which is utter discrimination.
In a democracy there has to be just one form of Reservation based of Poverty Line for Economically Backward people based on total total family income irrespective of Caste, Creed or Religion Rubbish
PanIIT Brand: I know who created the PanIIT Brand and Why ?
My own Classmate Monishi Sanyal became a multimillionaire in USA as a Recruiter for MNCs virtually a Body shopping business for IIT B.Techs Graduates in USA. This is how the body shopping business worked. The IIT Engineer gets paid USD $ 25 per hour and the Recruiters contracts your services to an MNC for USD$125 an hour. For every hour you worked you got Paid $25 and the Body shopping company pocketed $100 atleast. Branding IITians would increase his business. I was at loggerheads with him for organising IIT50 in USA and I was of the Opinion IITs belonged to India and it ought to be celebrated at IIT Kgp with Indias President & PM as Chief Guests.
India had a Useless HRD Minister Murali Manohar Joshi, (who wanted astrology to be taught at IITs as a Main science subject) who flew to USA for the Golden Jubilee celebration of IITs only to realise the very last minute that Bill Gates was the Chief Guest and he as HRD Minister was to play second fiddle. He refused to come down from his Hotel Room and made his secretary read out his message. Truly sad that a HRD Minister did not have advisors of any value to guide him. Just Mathlabi "Yes Saab" Men who surround most politicians for personal gains
Irate Murali Manohar Joshi came back from USA and made a rule that all donations from IIT Alumni to Alma Mater had to go to HRD for distribution through Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan. Commonsense tells you that alumni were not stupid & interested in funding politicians. Not a penny dropped. Murli Manohar Joshi may be remembered for more things than a spate of controversial saffron appointments.
More than any thing Murali Manohar Joshi ended IITs Autonomy for good by personally choosing and appointing IIT Directors all Upper Caste Hindus Starting with Prof Anant of IIT Madras. Out went Merit and in came Hindu Caste System into IITs.
First few decades IITs sourced the best minds in the country with high IQ through a basic written exam.
In 2006, this written exam has been replaced by a flawed Multiple Choice exam which has spawned Coaching schools in Kota where teachers earn over a crore each year. Education in India got commercialised and became a money spinner with a Corrupt AICTE giving bogus accreditations to organisations with no premises or faculty
Thanks to HRD Minister Kapil Sibal he changed to entire JEE exam system made it a bigger money spinner
There are suggestions that Kapil Sibal had direct links to these coaching schools along with many IIT Directors up North.
There are rumours that Entrance exam papers get leaked out selectively to some JEE Coaching School for mega bucks every year
Biggest Joke was Smiriti Irani being made HRD Minister, a two bit actress who did not get past her first year in open Uni course become HRD Minister was a Joke.
Comedian Jhonny Walker would have been a better choice
I could not believe Modi as PM allowed her to be in charge of EDUCATION as HRD Minister
So IITs which initially were all about picking the best available seeds and nurturing them into healthy plants, in 2021 IIT's source genetically Modified Students meaning "Nerds" who learn how to clear Multiple Choice exams through years of brainwashing. IITs Today Produce an Avial or Mixed vegetable which in turn is Fertiliser Pellets for Multi Nationals who queue up and pay salaries of Rs 2.5 crore to chosen candidates as a starting salary as it was announced by IIT Kgp a few Days ago.
Unfortunately IITs do not produce Engineers or Technologists like the early years, but mere fodder for MNCs (that too only the Top ones). Rest of the IITians in the next decade will show it was not worth the effort and will even be Uber Drivers with an IIT B.Tech Degree
I asked a hundred IIT alumni to name just "five classmates of theirs" who excelled in the Branch of Engineering they did their B Techs Degree. Not one could list five True Blue Engineer Technologists who garduated from IITs, leave alone Classmates
Parents are going broke as they sell or mortgage Properties to send children to coaching schools, children who do not succeed end up scarred for life or commit suicides and IIT Graduates who cannot find jobs are the latest committing suicides today
In 2021 IITs are like Paan Beedi shop 25 of them merely typical PSUs or Public Service Utilities, run by Public Servants sans pride or responsibility taking instructions from their Political Masters.
I don't blame the Directors. Who will stand up and oppose a Politician like HRD Minsiter who gives you the appointment to be Director of an IIT ??.
"Dogs don't bite the hands that feed. Do they ?."
Globalisation is Over for all practical purposes and this means all IITian's have to find employment in India in future. Lucky are the ones with wealthy parents who can fund their PG Courses in USA to get them out of India.
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My Appeal to PM Modi
Dear PM Modi,
Born in 1946, I am older than you and as such will talk to you like I would to my younger brother. Assuming you truly want to serve the People of India, if I were you, I would do the following to restore IITs to its Original Splendour and Glamour
- Stop appointing Tom, Dick and Harry as HRD Ministers only because they are elected MPs. Most of these MPs don't have either a Mission or a Vision. Just another set of Babus earning fat salaries from Tax payers money. Halve the MP's salaries and let us see how many will continue as MPs. Make MPs Salaries Zero and the only ones who will remain in Politics are the Neta's and you can count them with your fingers
- IITs downfall is to be blamed on all the Previous HRD Ministers Charan Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kapil Sibaal. You certainly don't want this to Continue.
- To appoint Smiriti Irani a school leaver as HRD Minister was the worst move you could have made as PM. I thought you were smarter than that.
- Imagine how many Sundar Pichais IITs & IIMs of India have Produced and they are all working for American Multinationals as India does not recognise their Potential
- Why don't you appoint Ten such established Stalwarts as a Board of Directors to advice HRD and for that Matter each and every Ministry can have an independent Board of Directors who are experts in the field hand picked by you as PM irrespective of Religion or Caste.
- Whether you like it or not Sonia Gandhi had the National advisory Committee and that was a great idea. Had you had such an advisory committee to guide the Agriculture Minister Tomar, there might never have been a Farmers Protest. Farmers did what they had to do to object to the high handedness.
- People elect Politicians to serve them not rule them. Please don't forget this.
- When you are dead & gone and no more, all that people will remember is what you achieved and what you screwed up and Mahatma Gandhi will always be a Mahatma to the Majority of Indians.
- Will you be remembered as a Mahatma? Only your actions can determine that
Now Coming to IITs:
- AUTONOMY: Restore IITs autonomy. Talented people do not want to teach in a Govt Controlled Institution ever. When there were 5 IITs the Directors Could not find Good Faculty and imagine the quality of faculty in 25 IITs in 2021. Students learning can only be as good as the teachers Knowledge & Credibility
- IIT JEE: Scrap IIT JEE as it has spawned a Money Making Industry and believe it or not JEE question papers get leaked selectively to coaching schools who bid highest. Leak is probably babus in HRD Ministry itself .
- IIT JEE Coaching schools are producing not Brilliant Minds but NERDS
- BETTER OPTION: Here is a better option for JEE Exams for you to consider as PM. Get JEE Exam Paper setters to create 5000 questions for each subject. Publish these questions and even solutions for all students to study without attending coaching schools.
- IITS are now accessible only to Children of Rich Indians who can pay for Kota Tuitions costing many many lakhs. What would you have done to join IIT if you are 17 years of age and from a Poor Family working part time selling tea?
- Kota Coaching schools are the highest form of corruption in India cloaked as a Service Industry which they are not and this was created by none other than HRD Ministers
- Now for the exam Get Some one Like Sundar Pichay (Not Nandan Nilekani please) to create a Secure software that picks questions at Random from the 5000 allocated questions for each and every student taking the exam.
- No two students will have the same questions to copy from each other.
- No Coaching school can coach for such a variable exam.
- Scrap Multiple Choice questions as it does not test intelligence and becomes guess work that even parrots can be trained to pass Multiple choice exams.
- Give the students papers for them to solve the problems manually and key in the answers. There can be only one CORRECT answer that the computer program will recognise. Allow the student to change his answers any time before the exam finishes if they want to
- The New IIT JEE Exams will eliminate all scope for bribes and corruption and cheating and results will be determined by the software programme not faculty of IIT's
- This JEE Exam can be conducted every day, five days a week throughout the year in say each and every IIT Campus. We already have 25 such IITs. say 500 Exam takers a day x 25 = 12500 a day x 250 days a year = 3,125,000 exam takers a year. If not adequate create more centres in cities based on demand at least one in each state is a Must to minimise travel expenses for the poor kids
- JEE Exam Takers to ID themselves at Exam centres with their Aadhaar card and photo ID to stop imposters taking exams fradulently for other students for money, which is happening now
- Only the best of the best will make it to IITs on their own merit and gives children from Poor Families a Fair Go, Is that not what you want ?
IITs today are taking the best seeds and making a mixed vegetable out of it killing all Creativity. In South India it is Called "Avial" may be you can call it mixed vegetable curry if you want.
IITs are in fact destroying good produce and churning out packaged food
- Allocate IITs based on students choice and Rank in IIT JEE
- Please don't make IITs Regional as it kills the Pride and Joy and scope of National Integration, something we enjoyed most on Campus.
- The same IIT Madras hostel in 2021 is like a ghetto today with students stuck in the same hostel room, 2 to a room for the term of their lives on campus. The blame falls on Not the Directors but Useless IAS Officers who get appointed as Registrars of IITs in charge of administrations. Probably a BSc Degree Holder with IAS managing IIT Campus, to me is a Joke. The Nation is full of Brilliant MBAs
BIGGEST FLAW IN IIT'S THAT NEED TO BE RECTIFIED
Allocating Branch of Engineering based on one written exam and rank and not based on Aptitude. I was forced to do Civil Engineering against my wish as that was what was available.I wanted to do Electronics but was denied by the system. By the time I got to fourth year I realised many chaps who got electronics were not interested in that field and were preparing for Management Schools. What a waste of time for Faculty who teach.
Forcing some obsolete branch of engineering for which there are no jobs in the country like metallurgy or aeronautics is meaningless
B.Tech should be made a five year degree course like it was before
After first three years of general engineering, Mathematics, statistics economics, general management, some humanities subjects etc and IITs should Offer students a DIPLOMA in Engineering and an option to quit IIT if they don't like Engineering.
My experience tells me many got in for the glamour and scope to earn well but hated studying engineering
The Dip Engg graduates should then apply for the Branch of Engineering they wish to pursue and be interviewed by faculty to establish genuine interest and aptitude. This is a Win win for everyone, students and faculty members.
FEES at IITs are exorbitant for the Poor students to afford
This can be solved in three ways
- Option 1: The Rich kids who can afford if will pay fees as required
- Option 2: Students from Poor Families ( Not Caste or Religion based). Just economically Backward student should be given interest fee loans which they will pay off after graduation. Such students cannot leave India until they have repaid their loans so they do not go overseas and default and disappear
- Option 3: This is my Favourite: allow total Exemption of fees in return for One Years National Service which is not mandatory but optional under condition they teach in Govt schools for one year for a minimum retainer say Rs 10k per months or as determined by Govt
- I just did a google search and found India has 748 districts. If GOI is to convert one existing school in each district and make IIT students teach in them so they understand what giving back to society is plus experience the pleasure of imparting knowledge to needy children who are down trodden
- If all 25000 IIT Graduates every year do one years National service Teaching in these selective schools we will have about 3O students per school in 750 selective schools. a Win Win for the nation
FACULTY
Faculty in IITs are a Unique Class of Public servants who will tell you how hard they work. If You place CCTV cameras in their office rooms and in their homes you'd find how how busy they really are. Most leave for work at 9.00am and back by 12.00noon for lunch and have a siesta at home until 3.00 pm have a cup of tea and go to office and return by 5.30pm. Yes they work very very hard on Paper. Most professors do not even correct students answer papers and make their PG students do the work
Rolling Sones gather no Moss. IIT Faculty should be compulsorily transferred between the 25 IITs every five Years. This will hopefully Improve the general standard of all 25 IITs now that they have been created.
Faculty Teaching standard evaluation. Every year all the students taught a subject by a faculty member should be assessed by their students on a 1 to 10 scale of "No Good to Excellent? and faculty scoring below 50% approval should be given the Boot as would happen in Private sector. This 360 degree feed back from students must be Mandatory to weed out dead wood. This will also ensure faculty behave better with students they teach
Each and every IIT should be linked to a foreign University in USA, UK, Canada & Australia and have exchange Programs for Faculty. This will be an eye opener for Indian Faculty who have never travelled to see how Learning can be made fun.
Yes the best years of My education was at Sydney University where Faculty members were like friends and learning was fun and teachers had oodles of Professional experience not just academics with PhD's who had never worked in their field of expertise.
How good can a metallurgy Prof be if he has not even seen a steel mill ?
I am also of the Opinion that a PhD does not make everyone a Good Teacher so a Minimum PhD to become a Faculty is something that needs to be reassessed.
Faculty need what is called Train the Trainer Courses conducted by external Professionals
It is also common knowledge that Graduates who cannot find suitable employment do PG Courses only to sit and do nothing and get paid for doing nothing besides having chai in a local tea shop and talking politics. Waste of Govt Funds. Stop Paying M.Techs allowances for studying.
Cut down PhD seats in IITs as very few have produced anything worthwhile, waste of Public Funds in My Opinion.
Faculty, like these flawed & Useless research as they get Govt funds to squander on meaningless projects
Dear Modiji, I was excited when the Corrupt Congress Govt Lost the election in 2014 and was there at Acer arena in Sydney wearing a Modiji T Shirt and Cheering you and virtually telling every one "Good Times have started for India".
In 2021 I can tell you that you have failed most Indians and allowed RSS to push their Religious agenda and Your Supporters Calling Mahatma Gandhi a Bastard is a Total Turn off for me. Most disappointed.
Remember you too will share a similar fate as at the end of the Day Truth Will Prevail and not Rhetorics.
Satyameva Jayate.
Now don't even think of Black listing me and arresting me and throwing me into Tihar jail for speaking up as it is already too late for any of that.
Modiji "DO THE RIGHT THING BY IITS NOW" and Restore the shine once more
Modiji you are the PM Of India not a Movie star. Forget your long beards looking like Tagore or a Sanyasi. Forget your Pin striped suits given by Nirav Modi Ambani and Adani etc. they don't suit you.
Be a Real Neta Like Sardar Patel the REAL IRON MAN OF INDIA. People loved him for what he was and not what he wore
Lastly Your Man Ki Baat has now become Monkey Bath. You are smart enough to talk to people so please do not read speeches written by some idiotic speech writer. Not Only that You are assuming the entire nation listens to your Man Ki Baat. South Indians Hate Hindi and it is your loss, not theirs.
Time is Running out for You and Time is of Essence Right now to right the wrongs you have done so far.
Last but not Least Modiji, the very hands that clap for you when you are in power will throw Brick bats at you once you come down.
The real People are Your CRITICS.
A clever man always listens to his critics and not his chumchas
God Speed as your Time is running out and so is mine
In a Nut shell Modiji, India has suffered for its colonial slave mentality of Obeying the masters and that means the Politicians of Independent India as depicted by the picture below
(I know this is very crude but so true. )
Modiji, See if you can reverse this process in Governance. To assume elected MPs know best is meaningless. Most MPs are unemployable in my Opinion
Here is a Potential Board of Directors for Your HRD Ministry
It is the Old Colonial Mindset that will not allow Brilliant Indian Minds succeed in India and they have to seek Greener Pastures. This is not peoples fault.
Make in India will not take off unless people have freedom from the Corrupt Babudom which still continues in India under your rule
No one knows more about how Diribhai Ambani struggled in India to become a business man. How many Indians can do what Ambani did ?
Make in India is a Meaning less dream and only ones who can make in Indias are the Big business houses like Tatas Birlas and Ambanis. Indians are not hardworking like the Chinese either for make in India to take off.
Remember HRD Minister Kapil Sibal wasted USD $ One Billion getting Faculty from IIT Jodhpur to Design Indias Cheap Computer Tablet costing UDS $35..
Academics from IITs cannot become Manufacturers as Majority of them are PhDs who have never worked in the Real Engineering and Technology Field in their Lives
Lastly if I were PM of India like you are I will scrap the Rubbish called IAS / IPS and IFS exams and Recruit Real Talent available in India. Here again some kid with a BSc Physics or Chemistry degree gets into IAS and becomes a Collector. Does it make any sense ?? Not to me.
Indian Admin Services are the same as ICS created by our British masters to serve them but renamed. Time to Change and to get rid of all the dead wood in Governance
Ram Krishnaswamy
IIT Madras Alumnus
Sydney Australia
21st Feb 2022 News:
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