August - 2008 issue > In Focus

By si Team

In a move that drew bouquets and brickbats from across the country, IIT Bombay (IIT-B) Director Ashok Misra, quit the post he held for eight years to join Intellectual Ventures, a private company based at Bellevue, U.S.

Many feel that Misra, a brilliant professor who made several research and development contributions to the country, should not have left India at this moment, while Misra thinks it is right time to take such a decision. “It is time to do something new, which is different from the teaching and research I have done all my life. And also, nobody may be interested in hiring me later,” he says with a smile.

His tenure at IIT-B was marked with frequent controversies. Most of them hovered around the matter of increased interference by the Human Resource Development ministry in the working of institutions of higher learning.

An outspoken Misra refers to these interferences saying, “I am more than capable of dealing with issues like these. When the ministry decided to introduce the Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota in the IITs, I let my opinion be known. But once the ministry decided on the quota, I implemented it. We have not had to compromise on the caliber of the students. Let’s see what happens about the 27 percent reservation.”

A few months back, Misra was handed the responsibility of mentoring the new IITs in Gujarat and Indore, Madhya Pradesh. But he wrote to the HRD ministry that the Indore project could be taken up only next year. This project now will have to be designated to a new person.

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