>If at first you don't succeed; call it version 1.0"















"The Internet: where men are men, women are men, and children are FBI agents."















"Some things was never meant to know. For everything else, there's Google."















"unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep"  - my daily unix command list















"... one of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs." - Robert Firth















"If Python is executable pseudocode, then perl is executable line noise."















"The more I C, the less I see."

"To err is human... to really foul up requires the root password."















"After Perl everything else is just assembly language."















"If brute force doesn't solve your problems, then you aren't using enough."















"Life would be so much easier if we only had the source code."

"Unix is user-friendly. It's just very selective about who its friends are."

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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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How IITians aim to transform India



The Rediff Interview | Ashank Desai, Chairman, Mastek

 FOCUS:               

• How to build a knowledge economy in India
  
   


• How do we take out 260 million people out of poverty
  
   


• How to bring professionalism in governance
  
   


• How to improve standard of living in Indian cities
  
   


• How to learn from successful entrepreneurs
  
   


• Women achievers will hold women-specific programmes for empowerment of women.
  
   

It will be payback time for the country's most talented minds -- the stars from Indian Institutes of Technology -- when they meet for three days in Mumbai in December.  PanIIT 2006, an umbrella organization of IITians, has scheduled the annual alumni conference from December 23 to December 25.

This time a record 5,000 IITians are expected to participate in the convention, many of them from overseas.

 The mission is multipronged:

• To apply technological solutions to solve India's perennial problems; 
  
   


• Bring about professionalism in governance, and
  
   


• Encourage entrepreneurship and build global brands.
  
   

PanIIT also plans to have a permanent secretariat in India to look after the initiatives with a secretary general and a core group that will work on funding and other initiatives on nation building.

 "We don't have an ecosystem of financing and encouraging young entrepreneurs. The overall ethos in the country doesn't support entrepreneurship. We should encourage youngsters to take risks. In India, the system is against you, but in the United States at least the system does not prevent you from succeeding," says Ashank Desai, chairman, Mastek.

 Desai who is the PanIIT 2006 event chairman points out that this is an opportunity for IITians to contribute to nation building and give back to the country, which gave them valuable education.  We should come together in large numbers to 'inspire' and 'involve' others to 'transform' India," he added.

Ashank Desai elaborates how PanIIT can make a difference and help transform India in an interview with Manu A B.

What is the theme of PanIIT 2006?

This will be the largest PanIIT gathering, with about 5,000 IITians participating in the meet. The difference between this year's PanIIT event and earlier conferences is that for the first time we have carried out a study of IITians to find out what interests them.

We found that there are 3-4 things they are excited about -- finding technological solutions to solve India's problems, brand building, governance (how to bring professionalism in governance), and entrepreneurship.

There are many young IITians who are keen on entrepreneurship. President A P J Abdul Kalam also suggested that we should have a session on entrepreneurship so we decided to have a theme based on 'IIT: Inspire, Involve & Transform India.' The idea is to inspire and involve the younger generation to come forward to contribute towards nation building.







How have the earlier PanIIT events helped?

Each of the PanIIT events has been a milestone. The first one held at Silicon Valley in 2003 was attended by (Microsoft chairman) Bill Gates. The idea was to create a networking event and it turned out to be a huge success. It created awareness that IITians can come forward and do something. The need to form a global organisation got a fillip at the forum.

The second event was held at Delhi in 2004. President Kalam attended the function and pointed out what IITians should do. This led to the formation of two initiatives: a project on advanced computing and a rural transformation initiative.

How do IITians plan to give back to the country?

It's not just IITians from India, IITians from abroad will also participate in the event. This will be a forum where they can come together and debate on how they can support initiatives in India. IITians from the US and India can join hands to support projects in India. There is an interesting project going on where a group of IIT faculty is partnering with other colleges to improve the quality of education.







What would be your advice to people aspiring to join IITs?

You should have a desire to excel. The system is very demanding unless you work hard you cannot survive. You have to set yourself a very high standard.

Your IQ gets you into the IITs but you must learn social dynamics. Social skills and emotional intelligence are important. You need to find out your strengths, build your potential. There is so much to learn at the IITs. You should learn to reinvent things.

I did a project when I was at IIT, I redefined the ways of doing a particular project and the professor still remembers it .You should also have the ability to get things done.

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