History of Indian Institutes of Technology

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The History of Indian Institutes of Technology refers to the history of the seven IITs namely IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, and IIT Roorkee. It is a collection of events and developments that had a bearing on their past and will affect their future.

Contents

[edit] Pre independence developments

The concept of the IITs originated even before India gained independence in 1947. After the end of the Second World War and before India got independence, Sir Ardeshir Dalal from the Viceroy's Executive Council foresaw that the future prosperity of India would depend not so much on capital as on technology. He, therefore, proposed the setting up of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. To man those laboratories, he persuaded the US government to offer hundreds of doctoral fellowships under the Technology Cooperation Mission (TCM) programme. However realizing that such steps can't help in the long run for the development of India after it gains independence, he conceptualized institutes that would train such work-force in the country itself. This is believed to be the first conceptualization of IITs. Unfortunately he didn't live to see the IITs being born.

[edit] Developments leading to the first IIT

Dr Humayun Kabir encouraged Dr B. C. Roy, the Chief Minister of West Bengal to work on Sir Ardeshir's proposal for an IIT. It is also possible that Sir J. C. Ghosh, the then Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, prompted him to do so. In 1946, Dr Kabir along with Sir Jogendra Singh of the Viceroy's Executive Council (Department of Education, Health and Agriculture) set up a committee to prepare a proposal, and made Sir Nalini Ranjan Sarkar the chairman. The Sarkar Committee was taking too much time, but Dr Roy did not wait for the Committee to finalise its report and started working on the interim draft itself. The 22 member committee (in its interim draft) recommended the establishment of Higher Technical Institutions in the Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern regions of the country. Possibly on the lines of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA), these institutes were recommended to have a number of secondary institutions affiliated to them. The draft also urged the speedy establishment of all the four institutions with the ones in the East and the West to be started immediately. The committee also felt that such institutes should not only produce undergraduates but should be engaged in research — producing research workers and technical teachers as well. The standard of the graduates was recommended to be at par with those from elite institutions abroad. They felt that the proportion of undergraduates and postgraduate students should be 2:1.

L. S. Chandrakant and Biman Sen in the Education Ministry played significant role in producing a blueprint for a truly autonomous educational institution. Sir J. C. Ghosh (later to be the first Director of IIT Kharagpur) ensured liberal provisions of the IIT Act allowing the IITs to work free from nitpicking interference from the babudom. It is largely because of the IIT Act that IIT directors were granted authority superseding even some parts of the government. On the ground Bengal had the highest concentration of engineering industries, the Committee suggested that an IIT may be set up in that state. This encouraged Dr. Roy. to use that fragment of a report in order to persuade Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to push through a special Act to establish an IIT in Bengal.

Jawaharlal Nehru laying foundation stone of IIT Kharagpur
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Jawaharlal Nehru laying foundation stone of IIT Kharagpur

With the recommendations of the Sarkar committee in view and on the basis of blueprint made by L. S. Chandrakant, Biman Sen, and J. C. Ghosh, the first Indian Institute of Technology was born in May, 1950 at the site of Hijli Detention Camp in Kharagpur, a town in eastern India. Initially the IIT started functioning from 5, Esplanade East, Calcutta[ (now Kolkata) and shifted to Hijli in September, 1950 when J.C. Ghosh offered the place as a readymade place for the IIT. The present name 'Indian Institute of Technology' was adopted before the formal inauguration of the Institute on August 18, 1951, by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. On 15 September 1956, the Parliament of India passed an act known as the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur) Act declaring it as an Institute of National Importance. Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, in the first convocation address of IIT Kharagpur in 1956, said:

   
History of Indian Institutes of Technology

Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine monument of India, representing India's urges, India's future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India."[1]
   
History of Indian Institutes of Technology

[edit] The next four IITs

To counter the criticisms of setting up IIT in West Bengal, the draft report suggested that a second IIT may be located in the Western Region to serve the process industries concentrated there. It also added that a third IIT should be considered for the North to promote the vast irrigation potential of the Gangetic basin. Not willing to leave South out (and to make it politically correct), the draft report hinted that a fourth one might be considered for the South too. However, it offered no specific economic justification for the same.

When the pressure started building up to set up IIT in the West, Jawaharlal Nehru seeked Soviet assistance in order to set up the institute in Mumbai. Krishna Menon (the then Defence Minister) and closest to the Russians, got Brig Bose appointed the first Director of IIT Bombay when it got established in Powai in 1958. As a fallout of the prevailing Cold War, the Americans offered to help to set up yet another IIT. The way the Sarcar Committee had suggested, it was established in the North as IIT Kanpur (in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh) in 1959. Dr Kelkar was the first Director of the institute.

At that time, the Germans had run up large trade surpluses, and they were persuaded to support an IIT in the South. The Germans had initially decided on Bangalore as the location but when they visited Madras, C. Subramaniam, the Education Minister, took them round the Governor's estate with frolicking deer roaming among hundreds of venerable banyan trees, and offered the space across the table. The visiting German team was considerably impressed by it and Madras got the fourth IIT in 1959 itself as IIT Madras.

R. N. Dogra the Chief Engineer of Chandigarh persuaded Prof M. S. Thacker, then Member of the Planning Commission to set up an IIT at Delhi on the ground that the country was divided into five regions, and all but the North had an IIT each. It was done on the basis of the logic that Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh constituted the Central Region. Hence, officially, Kanpur was located in the Central Region, not the North. This led to the establishment of IIT Delhi in 1961. The Indian Institutes of Technology Act was suitably amended to reflect the addition of new IITs.[2]

[edit] Establisment of IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee

After the establishment of IIT in Delhi, there was a long gap in any notable development in the history of IITs. However in the beginning of the 1990s, widespread student agitations in Assam led to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi prominsing another IIT in Assam. Rajiv Gandhi agreed to it on the spot considering it a minor request although eventually it cost over Rs 1,500 crore. The IIT Guwahati campus started functioning in 1994. In the beginning of the 21st century, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi (the Education Minister of India) conceded a plea from the allegedly neglected University of Roorkee to be converted into an IIT, making IIT Roorkee the seventh and latest IIT in 2001.

[edit] Recent developments

Over the past few years, there have been a lot of developments towards setting up of new IITs.[3]. The process has been continuing for a while as IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee are considered to be new generation IITs. However these were implemented on case basis, unlike the new plans that propose setting up of as many as 5 new IITs. On 2003-10-01, the then Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced that there are plans to set up more IITs 'by upgrading existing academic institutions that have the necessary promise and potential'.[3] Subsequent developments led to the formation of S K Joshi Committee in November 2003 to guide the selection of the five institutions to be the five new IITs.

Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) is a candidate to become an IIT.
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Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) is a candidate to become an IIT.

After the University of Roorkee was transformed to an IIT, northern India had three IITs (IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur and IIT Roorkee) while the south had only one (IIT Madras). As per the initial recommendations of the Sarkar Committee, it was decided that any more IITs created should be spread throughout the country. When the government expressed its willingness to correct this regional imbalance, a number of states started demanding IITs. However, the Indian government laid strict guidelines for institutions aspiring to be IITs.[4] The institutes have to ensure the following things (though not limited to them) in order to be eligible to become an IIT:

  1. All the vacancies for faculties need to be filled.
  2. They should be granted autonomy (for those that don't have it already).
  3. The departments need to be rationalized (i.e. restructured on the basis of demand in the economy).
  4. Good student quality is to be ensured (by admitting at least 50% of students through AIEEE).
  5. The quality of education and assessment (examinations) should be improved up to the standard of present IITs.
  6. More attention needs to be paid on research work.

Consequently the committee finalized upon the following seven colleges:[5]

[edit] Criticisms of the expansion process

A section of society and academia has criticized the move to set up new IITs.[6] The most notable argument is that it will lead to dilution of the IIT brand. It is argued that IITs as of now are admitting far more students than their capacity. Furthermore, since a lot of worth of IITians is generated at their point of entry (by getting selected into the JEE), increasing the intake would mean recruiting less intelligent students. They argue that instead of making them IITs, they should be made into National Institutes of Technology or Hindustan Institute of Technology to preserve the identity of current IITs.[6] The other notable argument is that there is already a faculty shortage in most IITs. India produces only about 400 engineering doctorates per year and a majority of them opt for lucrative industrial and research positions. Though a few foreign-qualified doctorate holding professionals available, but they tend to settle in private institutes, as IITs don't compensate their faculty enough as compared to private institutes.

[edit] See also

     The Indian Institutes of Technology     
IIT Kharagpur • IIT Bombay • IIT Kanpur • IIT Madras • IIT Delhi • IIT Guwahati • IIT Roorkee • Schools of Management • RGSOIPL, IIT Kharagpur   
History of IITs • Joint Entrance Examinations • Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering • Policy of Reservation • Alumni • Culture • Performing Arts Festival • Illumination and Rangoli • Cognizance • Shaastra • Techkriti • Spring Fest • Antaragni • Alcheringa • Saarang
More on IITs • National Institutes of Technology • Indian Institutes of Management • Indian Institute of Science • LAOTSE • NPTEL • The IITians

[edit] References

  1. ^ IIT Kharagpur's History on IIT Kharagpur's Website. URL accessed on 5 April 2006.
  2. ^ Indian Institute of Technology Act, 1961 on IIT Bombay's Website. URL accessed on 2006-04-10.
  3. ^ a b The making of new IITson Rediff.com URL accessed on 2006-04-10.
  4. ^ The march of the new IITs on Rediff.com. URL accessed on 2006-04-10.
  5. ^ New IITs: A long journey ahead on Rediff.com. URL accessed on 2006-04-10.
  6. ^ a b Plea to Preserve the IIT Brand and Build Complementary Brands to Serve India on PetitionOnline.com. URL accessed on 2006-04-10.
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