1 i firmly believe that establishing more few more IIT's will help India
Progress.
Every student has an urge to join IIT, let them have it.
there will be more vacancies, more scope, more students can pursue their
graduation from IIT's.

Posted by: kaur

2 Yes, it is of great concern if you start a venture but not able to maintain! But
where AICTE could allow 100s of engineering colleges in a year, 6nos of IITs in
a year is not at all astonishing affair!! Let us hope that they could be managed
well as per proper plan and standard.. Now this statement seems "It only happens
because destined to happen!! "
People should able to know before admission process starts! We came to know
about it from media earlier how such persons at the apex level are ignorant.
This is personal opinion only.

Posted by: Prof.Srikant Das

3 The idea of opening opening eight IITs in one year is dumb and hare-brained.
Don't they see how the first five were opened? Step-by-step, one at a time.
Agreed that politician have no brains but what has happened to other IIT
directors? Why did they not protest? Man Mohan Singh is an academician, what has
happened to his intellect?
It's sad.

Posted by: Obaid Qadri

4 Yes, i am fully satisfied with Mr. Rao's point of disatifaction. Because over
the past decades students compete their level to crack for already existing
leading IITs. Eminent and renowned technical education hub. opening of more may
lead to downfall of competitions. It may even lead to engagement of more wealth
without farther increment of employment sector. It would be much better to
provide the equivalent status and opportunities to existing NITs and AIEEE
raqnked colleges. Bacause the point not to increase number of colleges but to
boost the educational procedure and exposure Hi-Tech environment and needs of
students reffering to our country.Bacuse much developments need to be done make
present system more developed in economic way. " INCREASE VERSITILITY NOT
AREA".

Posted by: Tamal Goswami

5 instead of opening so many new IITs old institutes which have been in
collaboration withh JEE for the past many years should be considered for an IIT
status like ITBHU, ISM Dhanbad, etc. instead of opening so many new ones. This
saves the cost of setting up new infrastructure and even gives the environment
needed for an IITian.

Posted by: anugrah agrawal

6 IITs have earned its name over years, these are certainly good institutes, true,
but many are blindly attaching little too much importance on the brand ‘IIT’.

There are certainly some good engineers form IITs but there are many other good
engineers from other institutes as well. It may not be necessary to name a good
engineering college as ‘IIT’, it could be any other if the education imparted
is of value. I opine that there are many other engineering institutes that are
equally good if not better at least in certain aspects and streams.
In fact, all these institutes, famous like IIT or not so famous, must look into
the aspects of teaching things which are required or are more practical. There
is lot of scope of improvement. If our engineers were so good, why most of the
TVs, Fridges etc. etc. are of foreign origin? Why a country which was not so
developed 60 years back, today has flooded our market with their cars – whereas
our Indian companies that were producing cars for 60 years are on the verge of
disaster? Is there some lacunae in our education system?
New institutes must make fresh start and ponder on these points and improve,
rather going under the shadows of some institutes and follow their footsteps.
We require students who truly want to become good engineers (not run after this
due to any craze), have the aptitude and the right attitude. Only securing some
‘marks’ in some stereotyped testing system may not be enough. And teachers are
required who can groom them for the requirement.
To be proud that most IITians are working abroad, does not seem to me of any
importance for our country. And why spend government money for such purposes?

Posted by: Basanta

7 This is a reflection of the way we deal with issues in India to find structural,
big ticket or technology solutions. We never look at process solutions. We are
also victims of our own obsession with elitism. There was a centre page article
in the Express some weeks back from an expert arguing for elitism. But elitist
solutions take our attention away fromt he larger issue of quality in all that
we do, which needs to be addressed. For example, why is it that we do not do
simple things to enhance quality of delivery in existing government schools, but
set up Navodaya schools? Likewise, why cant there be a program to upgrade all
the NITs to IIT status, through systematic quality improvement programs? After
all the NIT in a place like Trichy is almost there. The same thing could be
said for other NITs. Such an approach could also address the political need to
show that you are giving attention to all regions of the country.
Unless people like us, who have received the benefit of good education and are
fortunate to hold responsible positions and lead a good life push for process
solutions in all areas of our life, our 'leaders' will sell us half baked
solutions like more IITs, more Navodayas and more IIMs, using our hard earned
money.

Posted by: V S Gurumani

8 Just to look at it rationally - People are not against opening up of new IITs.
The way this needs to be executed needs far more better planning, more debates
and isses should be thrown in the open.

Today the primary issue is that we do not just have quality faculties and with
the news of shortage of these faculties in other insititues, what is the plan to
have great professionals in place? We need to stablize with the current ones,
have a clear plan and then go ahead open as many as you want!
Why only 6, why no open 16!! The crux of the matter is not looked into and
solution not devised, so be it 3 or 6, the issues are going to be more in
numbers.

Those were the days Engineering had some respect, but with mushrooming
insutities (many of them so ill-equpped) the quality of engineers passing out
has detoriated and the brand name too. Now it's IITs turn.

Having gone ahead with this, i think there needs to be a strong team to
implement the success of it, and people with clear accountability (including the
PM) in order to make this initiative successful.

Posted by: Shyam

9 I completely agree with Mr. Rao. It is a very bad idea to start new IITs..The
existing IITs have lot of problems which are yet to be resolved.
It took 50 years to make this brand name and soon with in 5 years the brand name
vanishes...

A senior professor at IIT Madras said "The quality of general category students
is diminishing year by year ". I have seen this degradation in quality observing
3 batches at IIT Madras.

Instead of giving reservations and increasing the seats and starting new IITs, I
feel starting good quality primary schools in India is must.

If this situation continues, no body will come back from foreign countries (IIT
Alumni) to teach at IITs.

A professor in IIT will be happy to take good students who are interested to
work under him and not the perks he get every month.

3 years back my professor had a large group of 14 students working under him
with enthu...now there are 2 students under him.

Please suggest the way to attract people as new faculty members to IITs ?

Posted by: Durga

10 So Mr PM and Mr Arjun Singh has new agenda of harming the country. This is
going to spoil the image and status of IIT.
Thank God they are not able to open new Cambridge university.

Posted by: Anuradha

11 The need of hour is to have good engineering institutes. Just naming some
institute as IIT is not going to make it counted in chain of good colleges. We
are enforcing the myth that IIT is just brand, by opening more and more
institute with same name. Instead we can select some really good engineering
colleges and try to improve them to world class level. Money and brand are not
only factors to make great institution. Come to IIT, u will learn what is it
takes to make great institute .

Posted by: kedar

12 Well... I do agree with Prof.CNRs comments.... I think his concern relates more
to the dearth of physical and intellectual infra-structure. He is not against
opening up of new IITs. His only concern is with the dilution of quality in
opening up of 6 new IITs all at once. We all know why 6 more IITs were opened
up(accomodation of OBC candidates)... I have already heard about the mess(I dont
even want to talk about it!!!) in current IITs starting this year(as if IITs
like Kharagpur already didn't have enough problems!!!).... Just wish that our
government was more responsible :(

All said n done, CNRs comments have come too late...

-Mithun

Posted by: Mithun

13 It is really quite surprising MrCNR being a senior scientist adviser to PMO not
knowing about 6more new IITS already in operation from this academic year.
Myself being a mechanical engineer ,i always beleved because of IIT brand
value,we Indians are revered a lot all over the world.All sucessful Ex-IITians
have proved their enterpeneaurial skill.I will request MrRao instead of finding
fault of the system must join an IIT(New) as fault.If we are not part of
solution of a system then we are part of the problem.
So,MrRao do something and we are populous country and lure the inteligent people
to PHD and join as a faculty in any of the IITS.

S.K.DAS,Bhubaneswar

Posted by: Swaraj

14 Adding more IITs does not 'dilute' quality. The challenge is to find more
teaching talent, I am sure there are students to teach in such a populous
country. Five or seven IITs producing about 3000 engineering graduates is way
too small. Now that we know that the structure of graduate education in
engineering that works (somewhat well), a la, IITs, it is natural to want to
scale it up.

CNR is a well-intentioned scientist but policy making is not where he has shown
any talent or accomplishments. The administrative talent in India working with
the policy/law makers is at least as competent in this task. If he is
complaining about political demagogy then he should say so directly. Instead of
undercutting and promoting cynicism, he needs to play a constructive role and do
the job.

Posted by: Rajesh Gupta

15 It is very easy to get emotional in these issues. It is naive to believe that
politics should not play a role in education policy making. Dr. Rao could not
have gotten where he is without understanding this. Couple of important points.


1. More IITs do not dilute the goodness of IIT education. We have several
thousand smart kids graduating per year in India.
2. Was IIT education best in class when India first started? Did it not get
better over time? We have to start somewhere.
3. People like Dr. Rao must anticipate politics, influence policy making and
follow up to ensure these decisions result in fruits. This is an opportunity to
show what he can do about this.

Posted by: prasad

16 I think Dr. Rao is right. May be you guys must create public opinion against
people like Mr. Arjun Singh who have been playing with the future of the
youngsters. IITians who are the pride of India will soon loose their
significance. Politicians in general should be stopped from meddling with the
education system, /institutes.

Posted by: Timir

17 I agree with Mr. Prasad, It is really strange to note that how aloof Dr. Rao is
from in affairs he is paid for. The process was on from more than a year now and
he slept all that time, even if this is due to the fault of his supporting
staff, still blame goes to him only. It is good to be honest and speak TRUTH and
FACTS but it does not absolve you of your duty.

Posted by: Gyanendra

18 I have lot of respect for senior scientists and technologists. But I do not
understand couple of things. First, as PM's scientific advisor it is Dr. Rao's
job to know and pre-emptively influence the decision making. If he could not
influence, he is failing at his job. Second, once the decision is made, he
should be figuring out ways to implement the decision in the best possible
manner or get out of the way. I feel instead he is simply whining.

Posted by: prasad

19 Premier scientists have always come out of india. So, did premier doctors, and
so did world reknowned management gurus. Tell me one great lawyer well versed in
the legals systems of the different parts of the world, and how legal systems
there contributed the current development in different parts of the world. I see
it as one of core causes for a lot of problems in India. The legal system in
India is pretty archiac and over burdened. Without the help of a good legal
system, it ends up as a chaos that India is even if you have nobel laureates
springing up every once in a while. You can see it in various developments that
spring up but end up not adding enough to the quality of life of one and all in
the end.

Posted by: Surya Satyavolu

20 Dr. CNR (former head of IISc) is a senior scientist from our country and an
authority in his field. He is well known for speaking FACTS and TRUTH upfront on
many occasions involving scientific and academic matters.

Starting this many IITs will end up in a situation where the country will have a
bunch of "sexed up" IITs while diluting the REAL IITs.

It is rather scary the way Cong party (Sonia and Singh duo) and a bunch of
other politicians are nudging the country, goofing up on most matters.

Posted by: IITian

21 While, I am form IIT, I seriously wish I was a lawyer. But, I was not aware of
good law schools while I was in my 11th-12th. There is a desperate need for good
law schools in India. There are many doctors and engineers but, still problems
exist in India because there is no clear enforcement of law through civilized
means. Mind you lawyers add their own value to society and deserve their
rightful place in it. I do not understand why problems like the ones in Singur
are not being resolved through public interest litigations. I believe lack of
quality legal education is one of the core causes. It is stark contrast to the
society in US where I live. While I am from IIT, I strongly believe I am able to
add value and reap benefits, because of the developed system here.

Posted by: Surya Satyavolu

22 I completely agree with the comments of CNR Rao. Those who feel IITs are not
premier institutes, should support him for not opening it. Those who feel IITs
are not premier engineering institutes, should not allow opening another IITs.
Why new engineering colleges are not called Orissa / Bihar / Punjab Institute of
Technology / Engineering.
Neither Prime Minister nor Minister of HR nor anyone else is addressing the
fundamental problem of population explosion and lack of job opportunities. Will
opening additional IITs or any college provide more employment to Indians or
benefit other countries? Does India have lack of engineers? Can India offer job
to all the engineers being produced by engineering colleges in India?

Posted by: Amuya Gurtu

23 "IITs are premier engineering colleges of the country"
This one statement is so deep! I have run into around 50 IIT-ians, in the
professional world, who would do lousy work but will expect the world to not
only tolerate but reward their behavior simply because 'IITs are premier
engineering colleges of the country'.

Posted by: Ram Kumar

24 First of all, it's totally arrogant that even the Scientific Advisor of the PM
had been kept in the dark reg. this issue. This proves beyond doubt that,
there's no serious discussions about some serious issues and it's simply thrust
upon from the top, which's too dangerous in a democratic country.

PM and the Sonia's family might've dreamt about more IITs, but we need to think
about this seriously !

How many quality lecturers and professors do we have to support these new IITs ?
I already read the news that, even existing IITs are struggling with the
shortage of quality faculty and roping in the retired professors and adjusting
with the existing ones, moving them around.

Govt. can invest huge chunk of money in building the infrastructure and
state-of-art lab facility, but where would it go for the faculty ?

Are our brighter and brightest minds interested in becoming the faculty
memebers, at this IT world that pays multi-folds of what IITs will pay ?

Come on Mr.PM, you may be a brilliant economist, but you're a poor
administrator; VERY POOR.

Posted by: Muthukumar

25 Hi, I think this great idea must also have came from our very own Gandhi Family
to add another Feather in there Cap. Congress has thought that this would make
them favourite among the youth and this will happen as we all know the youth of
this country sees what they want to see i.e. everything looks good. We never try
to understand what is happening in this world where we live and why. Our world
doesn't work just on Brand Names else why not come up with 50 St. Stephens and
50 IIM's it was the Quality which matters. Where are 20 AIIMS. Our country
doesn't have schools to cater to 30% children those who work in mills and don't
have food to eat. Making 7 IIT's would cost as much as making atleast 700
Primary Schools with Teachers. Why don't we just divulge the issues to the point
which we want to make. We won't be requiring reservation in next 10 years if the
Government has done so. Each budget announces X (Huge) amount for child
welfare/schools etc. where are they. In the pockets of certain ministers or
beurocrats who's families have got there underground cities built-up for the
future mishaps. Why don't we use our brains and our hands which can make a lot
of difference. I would like to make a point over here that "We should look for
the Successes but first consider what Failures we would face". I am least
concerned about the Quality of the Professionals who would be graduating from
IIT's or whichever place rather concerned about what is the future of this
country if it is divided into two for some there are opportunities and for some
it is just living for the heck of it.
Thanks to our Nations intelligent youth who is much involved in there own small
world and waiting for some change to happen that to expecting from beurocrats.

Posted by: rarora

26 I agree with the previous comments. I am also surprised that the scientific
advisor for the for the Prime Minister was not in the loop, as this decision was
being taken. also as to how he found this out at thi slate hour, while this
issue has been in the news for a while.

When there were only 5 IIT's, they were considered premier institutions. I don't
know about the 13 that supposedly are functioning now. The six more announced
are six more too many.

Has there been any demonstrated need for churning out more engineering graduates
each year? Even if that is the case, which i don;t think it is, neither they all
have to come out of IIT's, nor it is possible to sprout IIT's at anybody's whim.
An IIT that is not properly planned, funded, staffed, equipped is just another
Engineering College, of which there are a dime a dozen in any half-decent city
in the country, and some in the country side.

I hope that the Prime Minister, who is himself an alumnus of a premier world
famous instituion, the MIT, will take the necessary steps to put a halt to this
half-baked idea, without regard to the political consequences.

Posted by: Krishna Pillalamarri

27 As an IITian who graduated in the 70s, I am concerned about the Quality control
of the education in these new IITs. The IIT name has become synonymous with
undergraduate education of a very high quality. I have heard concerns about
replacing teachers, who are retiring , in the original 5 IITs. How are teachers
of the highest caliber going to be recruited in the new IITs? MIT and CalTech,
for example maintain their brands by strict standards in recruitment of teachers
and students. One also does not see a "MIT" in every state in the USA.. I feel
it is a mistake to dilute a brand that took decades to establish, in the name of
Politics.

Posted by: Sreeram