October 03, 2003
Prime Minister's IIT Announcement and ITBHU.org Strategy
Sanjay Dani CSE @ 02:55 PM
Dear Fellow Alumni,
As most of you know by now, the IITization issue assumes urgency with the Indian Prime Minister's announcement at an IIT Kanpur function to set up five more IITs by upgrading existing institutes:
Unless explicitly told otherwise through official, public announcements, we will assume that inclusion of ITBHU for IIT conversion is not a given. The ITBHU.org board has decided upon the following strategy.
This strategy can succeed only with active support from all of you!. We invite you to contact the author if you have zero or one-degree of separation contacts with the following bodies to be enlisted. Your comments and ideas are also welcome.
- The PanIIT organization has obviously established itself with the best possible connections of any alumni organizations in the decision-making circles in India. We will directly engage them to be on our side, especially as their beloved brand is at stake depending on which institutions may join the ranks of their alma mater as IITs. Our efforts will be lobby the PanIIT board to endorse ITBHU, particulary on the strength of the thirty years of JEE association and having followed the IIT educational system internally. We would like ITBHU to be the first institute PanIIT recommends the GoI for conversion into an IIT.
- The Vice Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University, in the larger national interest pursuant to the Prime Minister's announced vision for the highest caliber technological education in the country, endorses the Institute of Technology as the institute to be converted into an IIT.
- Malaviya Mission is a politically connected organization with participation of ex BHU Vice Chancellors. We lobby the mission to endorse that the nation's pioneering technological institute, as envisioned by the founder Mahamana Madan Mohan Malaviya, be designated as one of the Indian Institutes of Technology for a larger national cause.
- Constitute a private mailing list of all Government of India Civil Services officers who are ITBHU alumni. This key asset of all alumni will work with ITBHU.org to identify specific lobbying points and follow the entire decision-making process until it is final.
- Join hands with any other alumni gatherings that are dedicated to this cause.
Comments from the alumni :
i recently came across this interesting correspondence.I see several points worth debating and highlighting-
1.Will BHU agree for it to be separate autonomus institute?Can it be outside BHU atall? Roorkee did not face this issue so bacame the first one to be recognised as IIT.
2. One state one IIT is not the issue here.if I remember in our batch there was just 1-2 student from varanasi and rest from all over country.infact UP itself had small contigent.it does not matter where iit is located when admisssion is on all india basis.
3.in our time itbhu and iit kgp had max no of engg deptts ,a sign of institute keeping up with time.Bhuit had both minmat from 20's and eloctronics from 70's.i think our electronics deptt will also be among oldest in country.
4.someone in comments mentioned that we have produced largest no of research papers.that is worth quantifying and highlighting.how?
5.other factor worh pointing out is that making itbhu a iit will cause least disturbance in a state.when an rec is converted into iit ,it loses 50%reservation for the state.while older students will be indirect beneficiaries of iit name given to a rec, new prospective students from state will become aggrieved.it is an important consideration if a rec such as kurukshetra is considered.i personally have soft corner for rec kur where i was selected on the basis of rank in puc exam of punjab univ in 1974 though i went to itbhu.
happy new year to all.
sp shukla
p.s.if anyone from 1977 batch is reading it,do you know where abouts of gs shukla?mech engg. he i believe went to NASA for some time.thanks
Posted by SP SHUKLA at January 1, 2004 04:55 AM
Dear All
Hi!
I am Stuti Kumar Agrawal, a 2003 batch pass-out from the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), BHU. I came across a very interesting article by well known journalist Dina Nath Mishra, which i am posting for your reading!
I am a regular visitor to most of the BHU realted sites and thus this message from me!
Since the IITization issue of IT-BHU is on its peak, this article also finds much relevance for us.
Hope you will also like it!
With wishes to all of you on Deepawali!
Yours
Stuti
-----------------------------------------------------------
Courtesy: The Pioneer, Frankly Yours, February 9, 2003
Recently, IIT alumni from around the world gathered at San Jose in California to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of IIT, their alma mater. The event was truly historic and stupendous.
The emphatic acknowledgement of the contribution of Indian scientists and technologists was underlined at this momentous congregation. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates described IIT as "a world-class institute", and opined that the "computer industry has been benefited greatly from the traditions of the IITs".
US ambassador to New Delhi, Robert Blackwill, described IIT graduates as a reputed global brand and India's "hottest" export to the world. He said, "If indeed we can think of India today as a technological force in the world, a rising great power and a strategic partner of US, that vision is owned greatly to the contribution that the IIT has made towards the Indian scientific and technological achievements during the last 50 years".
The most widely watched news programme in the US, CBS' 60 minutes, told its 1 crore viewers that "IIT may be the most important university you have never heard of". Dramatising it, co-host Leslie Stahl commented, "The US imports oil from Saudi Arabia, cars from Japan, TVs from Korea and whiskey from Scotland. So what do we import from India? We import people, really smart people."
A fancy new equation is being branded around the US: IIT=Harvard+MIT+ Princeton. Stahl points out, "Put Harvard, MIT and Princeton together, and you begin to get an idea of the status of this school in India." The programme pointed out that gaining admission to the IIT was more difficult than getting into the best of the ivy league schools in the US.
Jeff Bezos of MNC Amazon described IIT as a "world treasure". Reverence for alma mater emanates from gratitude for Guru. During IIT 50 celebrations, the IIT Kharagpur alumni have pledged to raise $200 million to help institute maintain its "cutting edge" profile.
Vinod Khosla, who was described as "the most powered venture capitalist on earth" by Forbes magazine donated Rs 25 crore ($ 5 million) to his alma mater IIT Delhi. Avinash, who is an Advisory Director at Goldman Sachs in New York, donated Rs 5 crore ($ 1 million) to IIT Mumbai. Many other prominent IIT alumni have similarly contributed funds and other assistance to IIT.
Slowly and gradually, it seems that India has started emerging as Vishwaguru, the position it held earlier. India is developing its capacity to retain its talents on home turf.
After observing the institutions of education and research par excellence at Manipal in August 1994, I wrote a piece 'Emerging Nalandas'. Nalanda was the first residential university on the globe having 2,000 teachers and 10,000 students. It was a cradle of ancient Hindu mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, philosophy and theology. The courses taught at the university also included the study of Buddhism and its branches, the Vedic texts, logic, grammar and medicine.
Many Greek, Chinese and Persian students studied there. Nothing remains of this great ancient university now except the ruins. Ruthless Muslims invaders destroyed this centre of learning. The destruction of monasteries and slaughter of monks did not satisfy them. They burnt the Nalanda University library that housed lakhs of Granths and manuscripts.
India's terminated journey of civilisation and education had gradually started crawling under the aegis of colonial power. The first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had a vision regarding the role of science and technology in shaping the destiny of the nation. He had drawn the blue print of higher education focussing on science and technology.
The IITs were started in 1950s and 1960s. Subsequently, the IITs at Kharagpur, Kanpur, Roorkee, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Guwahati sprouted Indian talents, so did the other institutes of higher learning, including IIMs and AIIMS. But the Indian economy could not absorb the talents produced by these institutions. That is why, the brain drain started. Nevertheless, the scientists, technologists, doctors and management experts who migrated to US and other countries made their mark in their respective fields.
In the agricultural era, the concept of wealth was focussed on land, cattle and natural resources. In the industrial era, the focus of the wealth was on capital, land, labour and entrepreneurship. Now the paradigm shift is visible. In the Information society, the twin technology of information and communication has changed the concept of wealth altogether. Uses of knowledge society, knowledge economy, knowledge company, knowledge workers have suddenly surfaced in the capitalist world.
Already there is realisation all over the world that India is emerging as a super brainpower.
India may not have contributed to the Industrial revolution, but its contribution to the Information revolution has been acclaimed.
Posted by Stuti Kumar Agrawal at October 19, 2003 09:48 AM
It is different angle in the article below. They are setting up a committee to select 5. This is the chance for us.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=234954
Hope everyone who sees this has signed the petition.
Thanks,
Sumeet
Posted by Sumeet Arora at October 15, 2003 10:09 PM
Yogesh,
Please constitute and lead a group to lobby the UP houses of legislators and the UP government. You have the mandate.
At the risk of sounding a bit up-front, there are no unlimited resources and committees waiting to implement comments here. The fact is there has been _very little_ support coming from the community for the specific help the author has asked of everyone. Lobbying takes contacts and resources! Please turn up your own contacts, send them to the author and exhort your immediate friends to do the same!!
It is time for every alumnus/a to include an action item and volunteer for it along with their comment. Discussion and dissent are good but assuming there are people waiting to implement any comment one makes is not productive! It is time to get cracking!!
Thanks to those few who have offered specific help privately!
PS. With regards to the regionality and requirement of state backing, may we request the commenters to do research and quote authoritatively from the excepts out of any relevant act?
Posted by editor at October 11, 2003 10:52 PM
Missing Link:
I am referring to comments by Aaakash Sahai and others:
1) The real stumbling block towards our goal for converting our alma-mater into IIT-V is the political backing by state government. Can we not find a single influential MLA who can introduce a debate in UP state assembly to support our cause? As I have repeatedly said, IIT Act requires that a proposal for IIT should come from the respective state government. Union ministry will then take appropiate action (in consultation with IIT board) and will introduce a motion in parliament to officially establish an IIT. Without state government involvement, our petition will not be even recognized.
2) Look at the competition ahead, as per various news media reports:
a) Andhra pradesh assembly has already passed a resolution demanding an IIT. Chief Minister has even threatened to dissociate from central NDA government, if the demand is not met. Most probably, they will be the first to get an IIT.
b) Kerala state assembly has debated the issue, and offered for total funding of IIT with money from ex-patriates. Election is approaching in the state, and they will also have an IIT, since they lack any major central educational istitute (apart from IIM, Kozicode).
c) Bihar state has already contacted Union Ministry with an request for an IIT. This economically backward state is likely to get an IIT.
d) PM has promised an IIT to Madhya pradesh during an election speech.
e) Karnataka and Rajasthan state governments are also planning to approach central govt.for the same issue.
f) There is no news anywhere about itbhu or UP state demand.
c) Regarding IIT act of one instutute per state, it is a not an issue. When the first IIT was established at Khadagpur by an all-Bengali committee, subsequent committee members feared that second institute may also be established in the same eastern zone. Hence one IIT per zone rule was drafted. Later on, when IIT-Kanpur was established swiftly, other members feared that large and influential UP state may establish second institute without announcement, hence a new rule of one IIT per state was drafted. This rule can also be changed easily, since a large state such as UP can have more than one IIT.
d)In sum, either IIT issue shall be debated in UP state assembly, or state government should put forward demand to Union Ministry. Our PM is from UP state and when UP speaks, the nation listens. Without state government involvement, I fear that unknown engineering institute in a remote corner of country may be elevated to an IIT status, and we shall be left behind. In that case, even students within the state will prefer to go to NIT, Allahabad, rather than coming to itbhu.
e) I hope that our action committee is approaching state legislature also. HRD Ministry has to come out with a powerful reason to deny the demand put forward by UP state government. As regarding IIT board view, they strongly supported demand for IIT status for our institute in 1972-73.
Yogesh Upadhyaya Chemical Engineering 1977.
Posted by yogesh upadhyaya at October 11, 2003 01:26 PM
Hi ,
this is a great effort going on.. some views that i want to put up -
1. We had some IIT Directors from our institute and might be we have some there right now too, they can be of help in being in the representative to facilitate our mission in becoming IIT. they would be the ones who might be consulted in the evaluation process and rest of the stuff.
2. Also we have high profile CEOs / MD , for instance Punjab National Banks CEO/MD Mr. S.S.Kohli can really put pressure on those politicians and affect the decision making process.
regds
udayan
Posted by udayan singh at October 10, 2003 05:30 AM
Hi,
I think these articles will give you some idea of the competition.
http://www.iitb.ac.in/~insight/issues/new/vol4iss2/iit_bec.htm
According to this Bihar College of Engineering is also in the fray. Two new IITs might be established in Chandigarh and Dharwad.
http://www.educationtimes.com/infocus/26anchor.htm
HRD minister Mr. Murali Manohar Joshi has gone on record stating that new IITs will be established in Allahabad and Gwalior.
http://www.blonnet.com/2003/02/07/stories/2003020700070800.htm
Great article describing evolution of IITs from Kharagpur to Roorkee. According to this, sixteen state governments have sought central help to set up new IITs.
It seems IT-BHU is not even in the consideration set. Guess, we need to knock on the right doors and make ourselves heard.
Thanks
Avnish
ECE 98
Posted by Avnish at October 10, 2003 01:42 AM
hi,
Are we sure that IIT act allows only one IIT in one state or a region. Since Roorkee got it (though it lies in Uttaranchal),I doubt that there is any such limitation . We need a solid confirmation on this info because if this is true, then we have to get the act modified before the list is finalized.And we all know how difficult will it be to get the act changed ...
Can someone confirm this?
Posted by sandeep at October 9, 2003 04:27 PM
Well said Akash. Regionality does not make any sense.
What you put forth are simlply logical statements. Unfortunately, our politicians do not understand logic, they understand vote-bank. Whatever makes the vote-bank feel better -- regardless of the realities -- works for them.
That said, we can not just give up. There are some, very few, logical minds in the adminstration that we can try to approach. Our only other hope is the PanIIT board -- wonder how much influence they would have in choosing a new IIT.
Wishing all of us good luck in this !
Posted by Rajneesh CSE'95 at October 8, 2003 09:04 PM
We need to lobby for a legislative change to the act that prevents more than one institute within a state or region to be granted the status of IIT. When the law was enacted the political situation was very different - we have come a long way since then. Given the very nature of JEE as a national examination, open to all the qualified indian citizens, concentration of IITs in a geographical region does not imply that only the students from that particular region would be able to avail the facilities, or would have any advantage, whatsoever, as far as admission to the IITs is concerned.
IIT is not an industry where concentration of IITs in a particular region would cause an inequal flow of tax dollars to the local economy, or create huge local job opportunities, thereby depriving other regions from such revenue streams or opportunities. The graduates from IITs, irrespective of their location, travel to all four corners of the country and even world to search for the best opportunity where their talents can be best utilized.
So, we need to question and debate the "regionality" clause in the IIT act. As long as the law exist, it will be used against ITBHU and other institutes of high caliber from getting the autonomy, brand and status they truly deserve.
We need to emphasize that great institutions take time to build; you cannot create a new IIT in a region and just by branding elevate their status. ITBHU has a long history of academic excellence and its graduates have excelled academically and professionally in various fields. Adding such an institute to the IIT brand shall be a welcome news for the rest of the institutes that carry the IIT brand.
India is a country of billion people. The IIT and IIM concepts have been proven to work. The move by our visionary leader, honorable PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, to extend this model to other institutes such that a larger talent pool has access to this excellent education is a really welcome move.
ITBHU, without the IIT status, has been providing quality technical education for many many years. The autonomy, the resources and the branding that comes with the IIT-ification would only help it do a better job of it.
We must take this opportunity very seriously to put a concerted effort to influence the legislative bodies to grant ITBHU the IIT status.
Thanks.
Posted by Aakash Sahai CSE88 at October 8, 2003 08:33 PM
I am sure there must be a way to get access to this report from our professors or Director !
Posted by Rajneesh CSE'95 at October 6, 2003 10:01
Hey guys,
Here are my too cents :
-We have to view it as a pure Sales and Marketing job i.e. we have to 'sell' IT BHU effectively to the decision makers. Doing this we need to consider the fundamentals in sellong :
-Sell as high as possible and as wide as possible.
-Do not ignore the competition. You might not like to hear this but I am sure other Institutes like Pilani, IISc would have also started the process.
-Sell your strengths. Just saying that the Institute has been associated with JEE will not help. If that was the case we should have gone ahead of Roorkee. our strengths are :
-Infrastructure
-Alumni profile. Unfortunately IT BHU alumni have kept a very low profile, have not networked well and even those who have done well professionally have not highlighted their association with BHU.
Finally, I would once again like to reiterate that if we do not get it this time, the Institute will keep on going downhill from that point onwards. We might be disaasociated from JEE (even if we are not, the entry level All India Rank will be 3000), we will not be an REC, we might just become another languishing faculty of BHU.
Ajay Sharma
Posted by Ajay Sharma at October 6, 2003 07:59 AM
Hi,
I do not agree with the view that IT-BHU has less chance for getting renamed as IIT becuase UP already has one . Earlier the need for renaming was not felt beacuse it was considered an Institute in leauge with IIT and IISc. In recent past, there has been an attempt to separate the identity of IITs . Therefore it becomes much more important that IT-BHU is renamed as IIT. This will enable much larger flow of fund from Ministry of HRD , along with other benefits to the institute as well as alumnae. It will ensure that IT with its reach history and great contribution in the field of technology, nationally as well as internationally , is far better equipped to serve the nation and society. Lately there has been realisation in IT fraternity about the urgency of renaming it IIT and bringing it directly under Ministry of HRD (till now it has been under UGC through BHU). It is beleived that Ministry of HRD has put autonomy as a pre condition ,to start with, for further action in IITization process. It is understood that BHU has granted autonomy to IT ( details will be posted later) and thus paved the way . Further appropraite actions need to be taken to speed up the IITization process. I am delighted to see the very enthusiastic response from IT alumnae . We need to associate more and more alumnae for this noble cause. We will post further development in this direction very shortly.
-Shailesh Tiwari
CSE 87
Posted by Shailesh Tiwari at October 6, 2003 03:47 AM
We also need to find out, what if any, timeline has been laid out to make these five IITs. If we know that they are only going to do it over next 2 -7 years, our strategy will be different than if we know that they are going to start evaluating colleges to convert to IITs say six months down the road. A right insertion point for our efforts is important for an effective impact.
Posted by Rajneesh CSE'95 at October 5, 2003 02:57 AM
This needs to be worked with the assumption that IT-BHU will not be in the list due to it being in the university system plus UP state has one already. These 5 may well be some NITs.
It needs a strong push from the forums mentioned in the post (panIIT, Alumni, BHU, UP Government, Central government,Poorvanchal MPs).
Thanks,
Sumeet
Posted by Sumeet Arora EcE 95 at October 4, 2003 02:26 PM
It's about 50 years of after the formation of IIT's, GOI has planned for biggest addition in it.
"Now it's our turn, we cannot wait for next 50 years".
-pankaj
Posted by pankaj at October 4, 2003 10:10 AM