IITs - Islands of high learning

Government of India established IITs in various parts of country with huge investments and gave autonomy for framing the academic plans and research fields. The idea behind forming such centres of excellence in knowledge and research was its intended diffusion in surrounding area.

Instead of funding all colleges and universities, which will require huge funds, government had planned to invest at IIT focal points with sizable funds so that they can become centers of knowledge dissemination.

I was fortunate to get PhD at IIT Kanpur, which changed my life and capability to do research. My selection for PhD by my guide was  due to our work in Sangli with sugar industries which he wanted to take to UP. I was attracted by his research in Water filtration and Dr. Subba Rao also advised me to become expert in Water treatment which was lacking in our consultancy.

I could convince my guide and got the topic of my choice. As my guide was very much concerned with development of local area, he gave me field project of augmenting Kanpur Water Works. The interaction with people working there and my stay as a family for three years in IIT gave me full knowledge of IIT culture,  which I would not have learned while doing service in Sangli.

If we take stock of the situation since my time ie from 1975, I found that majority of  graduates from IITs joined MNCs and Govt administrative jobs and very few started their own businesses. The local community  where these IITs are located remained devoid of getting the fruits of research and development facilities, except getting some low level labor employment.

IITs have really achieved great heights in research and innovation of products and processes, but by and far they remained aloof from the neighborhood community and the students passing out from these IITs preferred to go to advanced countries for their future career.  The faculty also confined there work generally to academic research fields.

The industries and businesses in those regions also depended on local colleges and universities for their research and development needs. The reason for such lack of communication was language barrier as major research in IITs was in English medium and local community was using regional native language for all communications. Moreover, the students and faculty were not from that community creating a sense of aloofness and separation.

The students in colleges and universities came from local community and could solve problems of industry and society. As a result, the students from colleges and universities could become entrepreneurs in the region they knew thoroughly and contributed to growth and development of India. But these colleges always remained devoid of suitable financial assistance from government.

In an effort to have overall improvement of education sector, it is high time that the IITs are made main effective focal centers in true and effective sense. Dnyandeep Foundation wishes to encourage knowledge transmission through regional languages  through development of internet and multimedia resources and building a strong network of Indian professionals who could get high quality education from IITs  and organizations who are committed  to work for growth and welfare of local social and business sectors.