after reading the article on the new iits i cannot but help notice the fact that all the colleges are from the eastern belt and one from south india . why is it that when bengal produces the least amount of successful students in the iit jee exam that it needs three iits ? there is no iit in west except for powai and north and east both have two iits each and 2 more in the making ? why this injustice to gujuarat ,maharashtra ,rajasthan and mp ? can any one answer my questions ?? tarun chugh
RE:injustice towards western regions in higher education
by ashish sinha on Aug 24, 2005 09:02 AM Permalink
My dear friend.. how does this location of IIT matter to you. What will you do even if you have an IIT in your backyard.
Every candidate has a fair chance of getting into it based on his merit... so where does this geographical location matter ??
I hoe u r not talking about train ticket fares !!!! r u ??
cm'on yaar ... in todays world of faast travel.. do distances really matter !
THis will start the down fall of the present IITs. Merely naming new colleges as IIT will not help. Is it so hard to understand? IIT is what it is today because of the students - who qualify a gruelling exam like JEE. Increasing no. would allow the quality of student getting in decrease... which would spoil whatever reputation they have earned till now.
Well one thing I am sure of is this: it would be the march of the IITs to oblivion and obscurity. The aura and exclusivity attached to the original IITs will be no more....in fact people still refer to the original five.
If the government is really serious about improving the lot of the other engineering colleges, it could still go on with the proposed funding on the lines of the vision 2015 document they've come up with. Better restrict the use of the IIT logo.
How could the government think of elevating such colleges to the IIT level. I mean look at it- IIT Guwahati was created quite some years back, and still it has failed to match up to standards of the other IITs. Instead of creating other IITs ,which would in all probability be used by the respective state governments for deriving political mileage , shouldn't the government direct their commitment towards bringing IIT Guwahati on par with other IITs? Lets also look at the choice of the institutes. Majority of the institutes considered do not even muster the kind of industrial reputation as NITs do, let alone the IITs. Also majority of the institutes are plagued with student union politicking. Just recall what happened in Jadavpur University. It is to be noted that none of the IITs have ever faced problems related to such baseless politicking. Could this be possible in these institutes, majority of which are under state governments which actively encourage politics And what with this thing that admissions would be through AIEEE? One of the biggest repertoire of an IITian is that he has cleared the IIT-JEE examination. You take that away, then you dont deserved to be called an IITian.
Dear Sir, The conversion of a few old colleges and institutions into new IITs is not a healthy idea. It is because this colleges are having their own culture, administrative and academic set up. The faculty and supporting staffs are obsessed with their way of managing the academic curriculum and less recieptive to changes and flexibility that is required for IIT set up. The faculties of these instituions are not that updated and geared up to accept the challanges of research, consulting, and other scientific and technological innovations. After all no one can expect them to change overnight and deliver. It will be only beneficial to a few individuals who are working in the said institutions in different capacities. The basic important parameters to be considered in IITs should be faculty and laboratory or instructional infrastructure, which are either old, outdated or of sub standard in those colleges.The faculty is also not well updated of latest knowledge and happenings in thier respective fields except a few ones. That is an exception than a rule. Hence it is always a better idea to start new ones for a healthy academic and research culture.
The intent of the government is well appreciated. It is time to build newer institutions of international repute. But these cannot be done by terming them IITs. the IITs are what they are because of the efforts from faculty and studenst over four decades. Terming 10 new intitutions as IIT will only dilute teh IIT brand. Fund them and help these new institutions to become international standard ones. they will attain their own brand value in time. By tagging them as IIT- you are only diluting the brand equity of existing IIT and giving brand equity too easily and freely.
Do not try to clone brands. They will never work.. Build brands - several of them each on its own merit and efforts to become timeless as IITs.
This efforts in its present form is typical short sighted approach expected though.
I'm not sure how the entire process of converting a college into an IIT will be executed. But I hope that they are not going to be given an IIT status first, and then enhance and develop the environment and infrastructure.
I think that a few colleges should be handpicked, and their facilities should be enhanced from the perspective of converting it into an IIT. Even if all the colleges upgrade themselves to the same level, there are several subjective factors like students preferences, faculty standards, location, access to transportation, etc which will make some places more or less favourable.
The important thing is to make the process gradual, rather than sudden or quick.
Whatever be the timeline and process followed, a college should not be given an IIT status before it has the facilities of an IIT level institution. It would be ridiculous if the IIT status is granted first, and then the institution is upgraded to that level.
Since NIT, Surathkal was one among the first choice of colleges selected during the NDA rule to get the status of IIT, it should be considered for an IIT status at the time of deciding which colleges will get the IIT tag. Please do consider this request of mine.
We have served the nation long enough
by Koustuv Debnath, BESU on Sep 08, 2005 10:37 AM Permalink
Established in 1856, Bengal Engineering and Science University (BESU) has served the nation around 150 years. When the first IIT was set up in Kgp. the proposal went for upgrading BESU to an IIT. However, the then CM of Bengal thought of setting up another premier institute in the state instead of compromising on just having BESU (already a premier in the country). IIT Kgp was set up in the model of BESU. BESU has a ongoing contribution towards the nations development in science and technology. Just look into the profile of faculty members of IITK and IITKGP. I am sure BESU graduates out number any other institute in the country among IIT faculty members. These are people just a few examples. Please make a detailed study before you comment other wise you just make a fool of yourself.
It's a good news that 4 to 5 colleges are getting IIT status and few are getting INI(Institute of National Importance)stature like NITIE, Mumbai.
This article is really nice to read, but there is a small mistake which can be negligible, but i thought why there should be any mistake in such a nice article. So this is a small attempt to rectify it for correct information sharing with all readers.
Here NITIE is stated as National institute for training in Industrial engineering, whereas it stands for National Institute for Industrial Engineering.
Future IITs
by Prabal K Choudhury on Aug 28, 2005 02:21 AM Permalink
Jadavpur University to become IIT ? the people who love to boycott exam., beat professors and go frequently on strikes. the university where students are promoted with no attendance in classes and failure in six papers out of nine. if JU is converted into IIT that will be the first naxalite IIT in the country. P K Choudhury Toronto Canada
RE:Admission through AIEEE
by yogesh upadhyay on Aug 24, 2005 08:07 PM Permalink
Dear Mr. Partha Sarathy:
My reply is as follows:
In order to impart a national character to student body, government has asked six colleges to take students through AIEEE, the national level exam. The colleges will start admitting a minimum of 50% (100%, if they prefer) of students through AIEEE from next year. Once a college becomes an IIT, it will switch over to IIT-JEE for 100% of the intake. Thus AIEEE is just a stop-gap exam till a college is converted into an IIT.
Any college that can not be converted into an IIT will be designated as INI. Then it will continue admitting students through AIEEE at the same original (50% to 100%) quota. The non-IITs (IT-BHU and Indian School of Mines) will continue taking students through IIT-JEE, irrespective whether they become IITs or not.
It is the govt. decision to grant admission through AIEEE before a college becomes an IIT and through IIT-JEE after it becomes an IIT.
RE:About NITIE...
by Partha sarathy on Aug 24, 2005 08:29 AM Permalink
Dear Dr Yogesh If you say that add the line "Once they become IITs they can join IIT JEE", then you have to also say that delete the line "All the six colleges were asked to take at least 50 per cent of the students from the All Indian Engineering Entrance Exam." from the article. There is an inherent contradiction in the whole concept and the contents of the article With regards Partha Sarathy
RE:About NITIE...
by Sourav on Nov 03, 2005 12:43 AM Permalink
I agree that only JU deserves to be iit. BE College has far more political activism than JU, and standards in JU are far better. WBJEE and IITJEE are two exams styled on different syllabi. So u can not say that one is inferior than the other. JU students also have equal calibre as IIT students. Moreover, JU is the only university among the 7 to receive 5-star status from UGC. Let me tell you, I have studied in IIT-KGP (95) and I can say that bunking of classes is IIT is a very common phenomenon, especially in IIT-KGP.
Thanks for catching the error. There are some typos, errors and omissions in the article, which I want to clarify as follows:
a) NITIE should be National Institute of Industrial Engineering, as you have correctly stated. (I used the old name of NITIE, when it was established.)
b)In the opening para, the statement should be "this was a second meeting in 3 months" (the first meeting was on May 3 and second on July 27.)
c) Also in the opening para, the statement should be "Union ministry of Human Resource Development".
d) Under Students' quality, the following statement should be added:
All the six colleges shall be able to recruit students through IIT-JEE, once they become IITs."
