Presidential plain-speaking

Somebody had to say it loud and clear, and who better than President Abdul Kalam: it is high time that our country’s famed Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), nurtured into learning centres of global excellence on tax payers’ money, made a more substantial contribution to nation-building.

President Kalam was addressing the largest ever gathering of IIT alumni —  4,000 IIT-ians from 20 countries had converged in the city for a global conference — and he took the opportunity to deliver a few home truths that IIT-ians will do well to ponder over, and one hopes, act upon.  

The crux of the President’s message was simple: The IITs have done a great job, but, the direct benefit to the nation in terms of knowledge products and Intellectual Property
“is rather minimal.”

Today, the IITs are at a crossroads. Their infrastructure is struggling to keep pace with the expansion in the number of seats, as is their faculty strength — they need to hire some 1,200-1500 faculty members in the next three years. The President did not miss the irony of the situation, where the institutions mandated to produce the best minds in the country are increasingly unable to attract the best faculty today.

Thanks to the hyper-exclusivity of the institutes, they fail to reach out to many potential “Ramanujams and Einsteins” of the nation who may not have the wherewithal to clear the extremely competitive entrance exams. And the loss, of course, is entirely the nation’s. Here too, it is important to note that there is nothing wrong with this exclusivity if it promotes the spirit of excellence; but his call that the spirit of the IITs must touch other institutes is a worthy message.

The President, himself a scientist, should know what can be done and he has offered some solutions. But over the years, IITs have produced high quality students who are fully capable of coming out with innovative ideas for not only bolstering their alma mater but contributing to India’s growth. This very meet goes beyond being an old alumni reunion.

The IITs cannot live and work in a bubble. They need to have a connection with their larger social context. Many of them are in powerful positions, as innovators, managers and entreprenuers. President Kalam will no doubt have left them with some thoughts not only about how to take Brand IIT forward, but also about contributing even more to India’s development.