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Vajpayee announces setting up of five new IITs
Thursday, 02 October 2003, 19:30 IST
KANPUR: Though he did not specify where these new IITs would be set up, Vajpayee said: "We will upgrade some existing engineering colleges as IITs in different parts of the country."
Vajpayee was speaking at the opening of a new Biological Sciences and Bio-engineering Complex at the IIT here. Union Minister for Disinvestment Arun Shourie also attended the event.
Justifying the need for "quality institutions", Vajpayee said the need for such institutions had risen because of growing global competition.
Emphasising that the world's best institutions were recognised on the basis of their capacity to create "new knowledge", Vajpayee said: "The ability to translate this knowledge into new socially useful and commercially viable applications is the key yardstick to measure success."
He felt each IIT must assess its research performance against this criterion and take appropriate steps for improvement.
Vajpayee noted that India's population had more than doubled since the five original IITs were set up in Kanpur, Delhi, Powai (near Mumbai), Kharagpur (near Kolkata) and Chennai.
There are now seven IITs, with the addition of the institutes at Guwahati and Roorkee.
Bill Gates, the world's richest man, has termed the IITs and its alumni a "treasure of top rate intellectual resource."
Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., said the IITs are "an incredible institution that has really changed the world and has the potential to do even more in the years ahead."
Vajpayee emphasised the need for greater research. "In fact, teachers are required to devote more time to research so that we can improve our quality of graduates and produce high-tech manpower," he said.
In his 20-minute address, Vajpayee appealed to IIT alumni "to contribute generously towards the creation of new IITs".
Disinvestment Minister Shourie narrated how he had managed to get a hackneyed rule altered so that he could devote his constituency fund to one particular project -- the Biological Sciences and Bio-engineering Complex at Kanpur's IIT.
"Thanks to the government's decision to relax the ceiling on spending one's entire constituency development fund on a single project, I could transfer as much as 
120 million to this project," he said.
Every MP is entitled to a fund of 20 million for the development of his constituency.
Highlighting the unique aspects of the new complex, he said: "The material used in the building is totally maintenance-free.
"The tiles used on the roof will reflect 85 percent of sunlight back to the sky. A tunnel has been constructed four metres below the ground to provide a special duct to allow the free flow of air and maintain a constant temperature of 24 degrees inside the building at all times of the day."
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav praised Shourie for his special gesture. "I wish all public representatives were brought here to see how fruitfully one's constituency development fund could be used," he said amidst cheers.
Source: IANS
120 million to this project," he said.
Every MP is entitled to a fund of 20 million for the development of his constituency.
Highlighting the unique aspects of the new complex, he said: "The material used in the building is totally maintenance-free.
"The tiles used on the roof will reflect 85 percent of sunlight back to the sky. A tunnel has been constructed four metres below the ground to provide a special duct to allow the free flow of air and maintain a constant temperature of 24 degrees inside the building at all times of the day."
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav praised Shourie for his special gesture. "I wish all public representatives were brought here to see how fruitfully one's constituency development fund could be used," he said amidst cheers.
Source: IANS