About IIT Kharagpur:

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur is the first IIT and was established in 1951. Kharagpur is situated less than 75 miles south-west of Kolkata, India. The twin towers of IIT Kharagpur are the landmarks of India's struggle for freedom and urge for the future development as a technologically self-reliant country: the vision for

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FRONTLINE ESSAY



The IIT Story: Issues and Concerns

KANTA MURALI

The IITs have consistently performed as institutions of world-class excellence in an otherwise mediocre higher educational system. IIT products have fared brilliantly in advanced sectors of the global economy, but has India benefited anywhere near enough? An issues focus and a look at the future.

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU could not have imagined that the `golden jubilee' of India's finest academic institution, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), which he was instrumental in founding, would be celebrated in the Silicon Valley. Through the IITs, India's first Prime Minister had hoped to create a highly educated technological force that would provide vital inputs for the massive dams, power plants and industrial ventures he wanted to build. It would help ensure that the country was self-reliant in the realm of science and technology. Nehru could not also have anticipated the tremendous global reach that `brand IIT' has come to acquire.

PARTH SANYAL



IIT Kharagpur, the first in the IIT system, was established in 1950 on the site of the Hijli Detention Camp.

On January 17 and 18, 2003, IIT alumni based in different continents, including a high profile cast from the world of technology and management, converged on northern California to mark the golden jubilee of IIT Kharagpur, the first in the IIT system. Delivering the keynote speech on the first day of the event, IIT50, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates described the IITs as "an incredible institution'' with a worldwide impact. He added that "the computer industry has benefited greatly from the tradition of the IITs.'' Speaking of "outrageous dreams about how computers will improve life twenty years from now,'' he predicted that the IIT would contribute "more than its share of this.'' United States Ambassador to India, Robert D.Blackwill, Stanford University President, John Hennessy, and superstar alumni were among the other speakers at IIT50. India's Minister for Human Resource Development, Murli Manohar Joshi, scheduled to be a keynote speaker on the second day, could not come and sent a message extolling the IITs.

PARTH SANYAL



An inscription at the IIT, containing an excerpt from Jawarlal Nehru's speech on the occassion of the institute's first convocation in 1956.

It is symbolic as well as ironic that the IITs' largest ever event was held in Silicon Valley, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the IIT system.

Actually, the golden jubilee of the first IIT had been observed in Kharagpur in 2001-2002. The alumni in the U.S., however, decided to celebrate IIT50 in a big way, hoping the event would further leverage the reputation of the institution.

PARTH SANYAL



A high-speed grinder machine at IIT Kharagpur.

There is little doubt that the IITs have been islands of undergraduate excellence, even when measured against the highest international standards, in an otherwise mediocre higher educational system. Their rigorous standards and state-of-the-art curriculum have moulded some of the best minds in India into some of the most prominent executives, managers, entrepreneurs and inventors in the world. Few undergraduate institutions anywhere can claim such staggering success for their graduates. However, the shortcomings of the IIT system — the big migration of IIT graduates abroad, the severe under-representation of women, the Scheduled Castes (S.C.s) and the Scheduled Tribes (S.T.s), and the failure of a large number of IIT B.Tech. graduates to pursue careers in their areas of specialisation — cannot be overlooked. The coming together of the seven IITs to celebrate IIT50 is an appropriate occasion for a balanced evaluation of the role these institutions have played in independent India.

I. Background of the IITs

The idea of the IITs took shape in 1946, when a 22-member official committee headed by N.R. Sarkar submitted a report on the development of higher technical institutions to the government. The Sarkar Committee recommended the creation of four higher technical institutions of international standard, one each in the north, south, east and west, modelled possibly along the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In May 1950, the first in the series was established in Kharagpur at the site of the Hijli Detention Camp, where the British had incarcerated political prisoners; the institution was named the "Indian Institute of Technology'' before its formal inauguration on August 18, 1951.

Nehru, an enthusiast and patron of science, was clear that science and technology had a prominent role to play in modernising India and meeting the needs of its growing population. He envisioned that the IIT system would over time "provide scientists and technologists of the highest calibre who would engage in research, design and development to help building the nation towards self-reliance in her technological needs." Addressing IIT Kharagpur' s first convocation in 1956, Nehru observed: "Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands this fine monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to be symbolic of changes that are coming to India."

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