Plea to Induct the Most Deserving Engineering Institutions as IITs and Strengthen the IIT Brand

As you are aware, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has recognised that Indias capacity of world-class engineering education has not kept up to its 21st century needs and that a few non-IIT institutions are near par with the IITs in the quality of their students, faculty and education but have fallen behind on infrastructure.

In response, the ministry astutely revived the late Prime Minister Pandit Nehrus visionary concept of creating new, second-to-none institutions. The ministrys well planned and efficiently executed process, whereby independent academics have diligently evaluated leading engineering institutions for upgrade and subsequent conversion of the most qualifying ones into IITs, deserves everyones support.

KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES

There is a broad consensus that the 21st century increasingly looks to Indias brightest and the best educated for engineering and management innovation. Therefore, the challenge before India is to increase its capacity for world-class engineering education beyond that of the original five IITs and at the same quality its best-known engineering brand, IIT, stands for globally.

The Chinese Premier during his visit to India last year was quick to recognize the value of IITs and declared that China will have 100 IIT-like institutions in the next few years. The N. R. Sarkar Committee that planned the creation of IITs foresaw this situation five decades ago when it recommended 10\% of the countrys engineers should be IIT educated. Although the recent creation of a new IIT in Guwahati, conversion of the University of Roorkee into an IIT and addition of more seats in existing IITs has helped meet the demand to some extent, its still a long way to go.

MOST DESERVING INSTITUTIONS

The S.K. Joshi Committee, appointed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, has methodically reviewed several dozen institutions and short-listed seven leading institutions for potential IIT conversion. It has identified specific infrastructure upgrades at each of the seven IIT-track institutions that the ministry will fund and evaluate on an on-going basis. Only the ones that qualify the most stringent acceptance criteria, not necessarily all seven, will in the end become IIT(s).

For over three decades, IT-BHU, one of the seven, has been admitting students of the same IIT calibre through the IIT-JEE admission system and has recruited faculty for an IIT-pattern curriculum. Substantial portions of the IIT faculties are alumni of the IIT-track institutions IT-BHU and BEC. Some of the seven institutions, funded much less than an IIT, already rank near par some of the IITs, especially the two newest ones.

THE IIT BRAND

It is commonly accepted that global educational brands take decades to create. They also require continuous innovation to increase their perceived value and the widest exposure to remain valuable. The creation of six new IITs after the formation of the first at Kharagpur in 1950 did not dilute the IIT brand. If anything, it made the brand stronger with increased global visibility and by maintaining the highest standards across all IITs. This is not unusual. One of the best-known global educational brands, the publicly funded University of California system, has ten campuses and three national laboratories created over several decades, each distinguishing itself while contributing to the mother brand. Having multiple campuses under the same brand and similar academic practices is known to foster competition and augment their combined research output.

Thousands of crores in Indian taxpayer money have gone into the making of the IITs. Naturally, it is the representative governments prerogative to leverage and grow the IIT brand in the nations best interest. Induction of Indias pre-eminent and most qualifying engineering institutions will strengthen the IIT brand, not dilute it. It will give the country deserving returns on past public investments in the selected institutions and the IIT brand.

Unfortunately, a misinformed and misleading campaign is afoot which suggests that the Government of India has set out to dilute the IIT brand and lower the quality of the IIT education. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We humbly submit that the no-new-IITs campaign is based on the misplaced notion that only five or seven institutes in India can produce world-class engineers under the IIT brand regardless of the countrys economic and population growth.

AN APPEAL

We appeal to you to continue the farsighted, well-planned and on-going process to strengthen the IIT brand by inducting the most deserving institutions as IITs, without letting misguided interests to derail it.

Just as India remembers Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for the foresight in creating the original IITs five decades ago, it will remember the current government for the bold and courageous decision of creating new IITs from the most deserving institutions.

On Behalf of Alumni, Students, Faculty, and Well Wishers of IT-BHU, Varanasi
Petition Created By:

Yogesh Upadhyaya, President, ITBHU.org (B.Tech. IT-BHU 1977)
Sanjay Dani, Secretary, ITBHU.org (B.Tech. IT-BHU 1987)
Arvind Gupta, Director, ITBHU.org (B.Tech. IT-BHU 1992)


Copies To:
The Honourable President of India
Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson, UPA
Dr. Karan Singh, Member of the Parliament, ex-Chancellor BHU
Shri Rahul Gandhi, Member of the Parliament