Demand for a brand new IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Bihar, India

To: Hon. President of India

April 17, 2005

Subject: Demand for a new IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Bihar

Hon. President,

Sir, while addressing a summit on April 04, 2005 organised by Microsoft in New Delhi, you said that India would have five more IITs within a few years. That would take the number of IITs -- famous for churning out some of the finest IT professionals and entrepreneurs to 12. Following is the link of the news item published in a national daily -

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1068758.cms

It gives an opportunity to renew our demand for a new IIT in Bihar which has been neglected in the domain of higher education by Govts. Since independence despite it has a very glorious history in the field of education. Bihar has been a seat of learning since time immemorial. The State had the world class universities like Nalanda and Vikramshila that were drawing students even from neighbouring countries. But current Bihar has not a single Central University. In fact it has very less number of any central entity.


Why Bihar needs and deserves an IIT ?

1) After the independence in 1947, a large number of academic institutions were established at many places in the country by the central government. Most such institutions meant for the "Eastern region" went to the state of West Bengal that is smaller than Bihar in all respects. IIT KGP, IIM Calcutta, ISI Calcutta, Viswa Bharati, Bose Institute and a host of other academies are verifiable examples. All this happened at a time when Bihar was known as the best-administered state.

2) Good academic institutions do not just lift educational standards of a state but also lift its morale, and lend it a status and an image that are imperative for the growth of a community.

3) Delhi alone has 4 Central universities including IIT.

4) North-Eastern region alone has five central universities and an IIT while Bihar has not even one. (The collective population of the North-Eastern states is about half of the population of Bihar. Similarly, size of Delhi is about one-tenth that of Bihar.

5) Having an IIT will certainly NOT automatically make Biharis more intelligent. Biharis are selected in good number in IITs every year. So, it is NOT a bias for Bihari students. It may help poor students.

6) IIT is NOT about engineering only, it is about research in almost all fields. Govt. is planning to start even humanities subjects in IITs. So it will hugely help bring back Bihari intellectuals/researchers/teachers close to thier home. By nature, Biharis are home-sick, so if they(researchers etc.) get an opportunity to have a facility like IIT in Bihar, many will return back. Attracting and retaining talents will ultimately benefit Bihari society.

7) Being close to home, Bihar's intellectuals will better understand the real issues of Bihar. They may suggest about solutions also. They may act as advisory group for Bihar Govt. All IITs do help their local govt.

8) They may come out with local solution to local problems. But, that is possible only when researchers stay close to local issues.

9) Bihar's other engineering colleges lack good teachers (especially in the field of computer science, IT sector in India needs huge number of skilled human resources). With a close by IIT, other engineering colleges may get visiting faculty from a nearby IIT.

10) Biharis are taking admission in large numbers in pvt. engineering colleges in South and West India. With availabilty of M.Tech and research students in a local IIT, Bihar may get into this pvt. engineering college concept. This will immediately help low - middle class family grils who can't afford to go to that far because of social and financial constraints.

11) It will change image of Bihar. Newspapers and media have projected only very bad image (which is vastly disproportionate to the reality, read any official, un-official, international report on crime).
Many outsiders will come to Bihar and this will create awareness about this historically vibrant place and thus it will strengthen the integrity of the nation.

12) Ever since the creation of Jharkhand, Bihar has been insisting on an IIT in the state pointing out that all major technical institutes had gone to Jharkhand. The request of then Chief Minister Rabri Devi to the Union minister for human resource development Murli Manohar Joshi was virtually turned down.

13) Hopes for an IIT in Bihar had increased at the CoBIT- 2001 meet held in January this year, when a then member of the Planning Commission N K Singh announced the setting up of an IIT in Bihar.

14) Establishing a new IIT requires major political decision. For example, IIT-Gauhati was established as per the agreement of the All Assam Students Union with Rajiv Gandhi to call off the Assam agitation. IIT-Roorkee was established after the creation of the Uttaranchal state as part of the deal.

15) During his famous visit to Bihar by Rail in May 2003, our Hon. President met 10 vice-chancellors of 10 Bihar universities in his special salon in his way from Harnaut Patna. They demanded setting up of an IIT in the state and giving central university status to the Patna University. There was consensus among the VCs that Bihar needed more technical and professional educational institute.

16) The first IIT in the country was supposed to be open in Sindri and then govt. had acquired 700 acres of land for that perpose.
But somehow first IIT went to Kharagapur.
And we had to content with BIT Sindri. That BIT Sindri gave many faculties to IITs in nation during their formative days.

17) Bihar does have some good places which have good locational advantage. One such place is Gaya. Thanks to Bodh Gaya, it is well reachable place as it is well connected through Rail network and even through Air. It is going to have a functional international airport in near future. It has a military base so it has a Central School. It has other good schools also, like famous Nazareth Academy. This historical place is suited for IIT. There may be other place in Bihar suitable for IIT.



In the light of above facts, Hon. President is requested to look into the issue and order the concerned department HRD for setting up a new IIT in Bihar.