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IIT alumni begin study on impact of IITs on society
By siliconindia
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Tuesday, 02 September 2008, 16:17 IST
Chennai: The IIT alumni are now setting new trends in giving back to the society. The alumni of the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have commissioned a study on the impact of the IITs in different fields. The study report, to be prepared by Zinnov, a private company, will be released during the PanIIT 2008 Global Conference scheduled to be held at the IIT Madras from December 19 to 21.
B Santhanam, Chairman, PanIIT 2008 and Managing Director, Saint Gobain Glass India said, "The IIT impact study report will be a sort of a reckoner for the government to base its policy decisions on. It will reveal the amount spent on the development of the IITs during all these years and how the country has benefited from this. This could give policy choices to the government on establishing more IITs."
According to Raj Varadarajan , a member of the organizing committee of PanIIT 2008, Zinnov is in the process of preparing a comprehensive questionnaire to be circulated to a large sample population, which will form the basis for the study on the contribution of the IITs to various fields. "This could well be a prelude to our vision to launch 'Think Tanks' on various issues ," he said.
Santhanam said that the PanIIT 2008 Global Conference, which is for the first time being organized on an IIT campus since its inception in 2003, will also seek to address the issue of 'integrating SC/ST candidates into the IIT system.'
The conference will also witness global leaders in different fields descending on the IIT Madras campus. While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to inaugurate the big event, prominent among those who will deliver keynote addresses are Renault and Nissan head honcho Carlos Ghosn, steel king Lakshmi Mittal, Rober A McDonald of Procter and Gamble, union finance minister P Chidambaram and internationally acclaimed economists Raghuram Rajan and Amartaya Sen.
PanIIT is currently working on different projects including IITians for ITIs, Indo-US collaboration for engineering education , stimulating education and enhancing development. This year's theme for the PanIIT global conference is 'Inspire , Innovate and Transform'.
