I received this email from Dr. PM Prasad who was my professor in Metallurgy when I was graduating from ITBHU - 1979.
"Thank you for your kind words. Once again I appreciate the efforts being made to get our beloved institute renamed as an IIT. The brand name is much more important than funding. In our application we must also focus on the injustice implied in the contemporory happenings in the country such as UoRoorkee was made an IIT, ISM-Dhanbad [a very small institute with limted mandate] was made a full fledged Central University at par with IITs, numerous RECs were made NITs. None of them is comparable to IT-BHU in its unparallelled contributions to HRD in engineering and technology during the past 80 years. Where were the IITs? Who manned the major Industries till recently?.
Information that may be incorporated in support of the case for making IT-BHU to an IIT is ILLUSTRATIVED below [I am aware that a lot of it is already there in the current aplication]; neverthless whatever is missing can be added / modified.
(i) Its origin and national character [established and nurtured by Indian funding and indigenous talent, NOT through massive central government funding and very substantial foreign inputs, unlike the IITs and RECs].
(ii) Degree courses pioneered over 80 years ago [first- ever degree programs in the country in mining engineering, , metallurgical engineering, ceramic engineering and pharmay and the then unique degree ... electrical plus mechanical engineering].
(iii) Balanced syllabi [theory versus practice / practicals], due emphasis on design & fabrication, innovation and practical training in industries during summer vacation(s).
(iv) Excellent research output [ranked third in the country among engineering institutions including IISc], average number of publications one/ teacher / year which is a very good record.
(v) About 15 conferences, seminars and workshps organized every year [during the 8th and 9th plans 50 per plan period], again an excellent record ; several proceedings and a few books published.
(vi) Recognition by the UGC as Centre of Advanced Study (CAS) & Special Assistance Programme (SAP) Departments [4 CAS & 2 SAP] and COSIST too ; an enviable and unique record. Metallurgical Engg Department is among first to be so recognized in the entire country.
(vii) Multifarious performance indices and achievements despite nuerous constraints (and neglect after IITs were established by the Central Government particularly during the past 20-30 yeras).
(viii) Recognitions to Faculty [many national awards, fellowships of prestigeous professional societies, medals, best paper prizes, certificates of merit etc, [over 50 every 5 years].
(ix) Numerous laurels won by students in inter institutional competitions including cultural, engineering models exhibitions, best paper contests ...; contributions humanitarian causes like donations to 'kargyl martyrs fund' & 'gujarat earth quake relief'.
(x) Large number of externally funded research projects, industrial interaction and services to industries, external cash flow [vis - a - vis UGC's plan grant] was estimated to be over 3 during the 8 & 9th plans.
(xi) Demand for its graduates, excellent placement record [eg., over 100% for B.Techs and 50% M.Techs incampus interviews in the year 2000-01] etc.
(xii) Faculty in great demand for expert services in the country and to head prestigeous institutions / committees all over the country.
(xiii) Large out put of graduates ... about 22,000 B.Techs, over 3000 M.Techs, a large number of Ph.Ds. In the service of the nation since 1923.
(xiv) Unmatched contributions in the fields of 'traditional / hard core engineering'; engineer entreprenuers in all sectors .. own industries especially small & medium ones.
(xv) Creditable overall track record in diverse sectors; excellent rating of outside agencies e.g., surveys by India Today [B.Tech program rated within top 10] and 'Current Science' [research output ranked 3rd in the country among engineering institutions].
(xvi) Distingushed alumni [unusually large number], the list reads like a 'who is who dirctory';
(xvii) Nurtured and provided an enviably large number of top class leaders in all sectors, teaching, research, industry, administration, technology development and management, entreprenuership (establishing own industries), defence, nuclear energy, aerospace, materials management, HRD, S & T and so on for over 75 years.
Comments from the alumni :
Posted by BV Rao at November 29, 2003 01:58 AM
Please also mention that since 1971 the admissions to all the branches for B.Tech courses and for all the seats was based on the rankings of IIT JEE. In order to pursue the course of their interest students have chosen IT-BHU. They were eligible and could have obtained seat in B.Tech some of the IIT had they not been particular of engineering branch or place.
Posted by K.D.Krishnanand at January 29, 2004 03:01 PM
Permit me to post a few remarks on the excellence of IT.
I am from the class of 72: Metallurgical Engineering. Let me vouch for all that my Guru( Prof. P.M. Prasad)says in his article. Its only when I went abroad for post graduate education did I perceive the fact that the kind of education that IT imparts is unparalleled. Let me be partial here to the Dept. of Metallurgy & point out that I for one am ever grateful for the kind of care and attention that was showered on us by our teachers: Dr. Anantharaman, Dr. Rama Rao, Dr. P.M Prasad, Dr. Ranganathan, Dr. Ramachandra Rao are just a few who come readily to my mind! Not only were these world class researchers but they were endowed with great teaching skills; a very rare combination.They shared with their students not only what was then popular in the academia, but all that was current & the latest in the world of materials research.
I have since have had my fair share of visits to the best of academic institutions all over the western world & am very proud to say: IT, BHU- You are the BEST!
Posted by KrishnaMurty(mech-90) at February 17, 2004 07:04 AM
I am just curious as to whether the petition to upgrade IT-BHU to IIT has been submitted to the HRD ministry. I keep seeing the no. of signatures go up on that petition and I wonder if the organisers of the petition risk submitting it after the 5 new IITs are decided (it's fine if one of them is IT-BHU!!!). Does anyone have any information on this??
Posted by Arvind Gupta at February 19, 2004 01:09 AM
Dear Krishnamurty, I was one of the persons who had organised the online petition and we have already taken a list of the people of have signed up and submitted to the necessary people. We know the list keeps growing and that is good, so that next time we submit the petition to some other department we will have even a better list to accompany the petition.
Things are looking very positive and that is all I can say from my perspective.
Thanks,
Arvind Gupta
EcE 1992