PERFORMANCE REVIEW
 

2.1 The Establishment of the IITs

The IITs were set up by an Act of Parliament with a specific declaration that these are our "Institutes of National Importance," They were conceived to act as leaders in technology innovation, train the necessary manpower and promote generally the state-of-art of Technology in the country. Their role was to enhance the country's techno-economic strength and technological self-reliance. Our terms of reference enjoined upon us to critically evaluate the extent to which the IITs achieved this objective and suggest future lines of development.

We examined the recommendations contained in the interim report of the Sarkar Committee, which can be regarded as the origin of the IITs. It envisaged establishment of these institutions to meet the anticipated requirements of the post-war (1939-45) industrial development in respect of higher technical personnel. The report of the Sarkar Committee clearly points out that these higher technical institutions now known as IITs, were expected to be the centres of excellence like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, and at the same time evolve and conduct programmes relevant to meet the anticipated requirements of the country.

In our view, these goals are valid even today. It is, however, necessary within these goals, from time to time to specify priorities with which IITs should be concerned. At the early stage of their establishment the IITs emphasised training of manpower particularly at the undergraduate level to match the standards of quality elsewhere in the world as their goal. Some of the IIT faculty still feel that they need not proceed any further and, their goals are solely confined to teaching and research programmes. However, this view is not shared by many who see the need for adding other dimensions to their activities. We noted that the early visionaries anticipated clearly that IITs should remain selective, be financed adequately, and from time to time, have their priorities spelt out within the overall direction of growth that was envisioned and anticipated. In doing so whatever was necessary, be it manpower training or research output, or biasing their research to the needs of the industry, or application of Science and Technology to rural situations, all were well within the scope and goals of the IITs originally set.

At the time of establishment of the IITs there were a number of well established engineering colleges and universities. India had a record of good Technical Education system and some of the institutions like Roorkee University, Bengal Engineering College, Jadavpur University, Banaras Hindu University, Poona Engineering College, Guindy Engineering College and the Indian Institute of Science, to name a few, enjoyed a high reputation. Still a deliberate decision was taken at that time not to adopt any one of these existing institutions as an IIT, but to establish IITs, de-novo. This single important decision seems to have been based on the premise that the new IITs needed to develop their own specific culture for promoting excellence. We feel that this basic premise continue to be valid even today.

The IIT Act provides for periodical review. IIT Kharagpur which was the first one to be established was reviewed for the first time in 1959 by a Committee under the chairmanship of Sir Willis Jackson. All the IITs were reviewed by separate and independent Review Committees during 1971-73. Ours is the first common Review Committee set up to look into the entire IIT structure as a whole rather than each IIT independently. Such a unique opportunity gave us the freedom to examine the paths adopted by each of the IITs, their success stories and their areas of weakness. We were asked to evaluate the existing position and indicate directions of growth of the IIT system. The purpose of this Review Committee is, therefore, different from the earlier ones, in that, we were not to go specifically through the work of each IIT, let alone each department or centre in every IIT. Ours is a comprehensive academic review of the IIT system as a whole. The result of our review is expected to serve as an input for directions in which IITs should grow.

IITs have gained, over a number of years, a reputation as institutions of excellence in India. Many in this country and many from abroad were of the clear opinion that these are the best institutions in the country

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and needed further support for promoting their work. Such a success came about because, as a policy, support was continuously given by the Government of India providing them more liberal (liberal under the circumstances, though IITs have felt that the plan funds are small and larger input was necessary to make the infrastructure adequate and contemporary) funds in a favoured manner. We noted that it was a deliberate policy from the time of setting up of them to treat the IITs as "special" and to fund them liberally with higher expectation of excellence in their achievement, performance and commitment to the Nation. IITs met the expectation by evolving a unique system by which they got the best of Indian students for their undergraduate courses. The IITs were able to review periodically their courses of study and method of evaluation with a view to bring out the best from the students who could pursue studies at their own pace. At the same time the IITs were also able to introduce modern concepts in technology as and when they evolved without a long lapse of time. IITs got the best of faculty and most of the IITs were reasonably equipped. It follows that it is no longer possible to have more such institutions financed on such a scale so liberally. Therefore, it is desirable wherever possible to finance other technical institutions that are doing good work, through Technical Education Plan Schemes.

2.2Contribution and Impact of IITs

Our remit requires us to review the present progress of the Institutes of Technology in fulfilment of their broad objectives as centres of advanced studies and research in Science, Engineering and Technology; to examine how far the Institutes have interacted with other Technical Institutes with particular reference to courses of study, programmes of research and faculty development and to assess the overall impact of the Institutes on the training of high grade engineers for the technological development of the country. We noted that the strength of the IITs is known by the quality and calibre of their undergraduate students, who are acknowledged, as well-trained and accepted easily, by most in India and abroad. A major reason for this success is the selection of students through a rigorous competitive process which is popular among the students in India. The total output of all undergraduates from all IITs upto 1984 comes to 26,677 (Table 2.2A and Figure 2.2(I)). Quantitatively as well as qualitatively, IITs' contribution to the requirement of technical manpower has been significant.

The employers of engineering graduates in India are of the opinion that the detailed programme of B.Tech. generally meets the needs of the industry. The students who went abroad have also done extremely well. Experts from abroad have very favourably commented on the analytical capabilities of the IIT graduates. IIT alumni abroad have said that after the type of training and academic exposures they have received, the challenges posed to them in the newer institutions are relatively simple to meet. Consequently, the reputation of IITs at home and abroad appears to be well-established. This is no mean achievement in the course of two decades and credit is due to IITs on this score.

The IITs have also contributed their share in upgrading the quality of Engineering Education in the country, through QIP (Quality Improvement Programme) and FIP (Faculty Improvement Programme) (Tables 2.2B, 2.2C and Figures 2.2(II), 2.2(III)).

A number of faculty of our Technical Institutions have received intensive programme of training including exposure to the techniques of modern teaching methods. Some of them are trained, as a part of these programmes, for their Ph.D., while some others are given training in the development and planning of the laboratories. All these programmes are carried out by the IITs within their own resources.

IITs have also helped laboratory planning in selected engineering institutions under the Institutional Network scheme since 1970, by planning their core facilities (Table 2.2D).

IITs have helped these institutions in drawing up relevant laboratory manuals, and generally improved experiments in the laboratory. Such efforts of the IITs cannot be measured specifically in terms of graduates and postgraduates. But they all go to enhance qualitatively the general level of engineering education in the country. We feel, therefore, that merely dividing the total cost incurred by an IIT by the number of graduates or postgraduates produced, without taking into account such valuable extension work done by them is fallacious, because the extra amount so spent is judiciously used by them also to enhance the quality of training imparted by other institutions. IITs have interacted well with other technical

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institutions with specific reference to their courses of study, and programmes of faculty development.

Their research activities have increased manifold. There are a number of centres of research where identified S&T areas are being developed. If these centres of excellence were not established, the country would have been far less prepared for self-reliance than it is today. This is one of the strengths they have achieved during the last few years. It is to these institutions which many industries in the country now approach, though in a limited manner, for solutions to their problems. It is to these institutions that many S&T Departments have approached for expertise and sponsored research. It is again these institutions that conduct a large number of postgraduate programmes. We would, therefore, like to record that IITs have well fulfilled some of their major objectives such as development of first-rate B.Tech graduates, upgradation of engineering education in the country, contribution to research programmes and undertaking a leadership role which was envisaged for them.

2.3 Shortfalls

The very achievements of the IITs raised expectations in many quarters for greater commitment and better results in some areas. It should be recognised that if there are shortfalls in performance of these institutions, these have to be viewed against the perception of higher expectations and not necessarily in the context of what was achievable within the given resources and the environment in which the IITs functioned. Attention has to be paid in the coming years to cover these lacunae.

(a) Their undergraduate programmes have tended to become stereotyped although when they started, there was a great deal of flexibility. Departments in the IITs now increasingly work in water-tight compartments. They are the main operational units on the academic side. They are the ones who should constantly review their academic programmes, requirements of their laboratory and courses and generally promote the academic progress of the pupils. If the IITs' courses become increasingly rigid, they will cease to reflect a true response to live problems. There is a felt need to have greater flexibility in the course structure such as would permit the students to take a number of elective courses (specially in the last two years) thereby enriching both variety and depth of the output of their students. Such flexibility is essential if an IIT graduate is to be aware of and alive to the changing situation in the technological scene.

The way the practicals are conducted in the IITs is another source of disappointment, in that they are becoming stereotyped verification of data and not experimentation. At present, they do not encourage young minds exploring or enquiring into the process or even arouse their curiosity. The student, thus, is becoming more and more a technician arranging experiments to demonstrate and not becoming a young scientist imbibed with a zeal for discovery. It is far more important at this stage to sharpen this edge of curiosity if the students are to grow into scientists and technologists of the future-the purpose for which the IITs were established.

(b) The total research output of IITs and the quality of research carried out have not reached the levels expected of them. Even the number of professional awards, earned by the IIT faculty in recognition of their research work is getting fewer and fewer. This is in contrast to the earlier years when IIT faculties were recognised as leaders of research. A number of the alumni who migrated abroad have stated that an important reason for their going abroad is the realisation, even as they were in their undergraduate courses, of the fact that while their teachers produce a large number of research papers, they are not well known; their teachers are not recognised research leaders and their papers are not quoted internationally as often as it should be. There is truth in this, and the level of research needs to be considerably raised.

(c) IITs in the earlier years were well known for experimental research. Over the last few years their emphasis on experimental research has dwindled. There seems to be a tendency to avoid experimental work and instead take up a number of routine projects which are statistically more impressive. It would have made a difference if, for example, they had taken up a few projects on instrumentation, and used their infrastructure to develop a number of scientific and technical instruments. It is important that design and fabrication of sophisticated instruments either as a part of Master's projects or Ph.D programmes, is given priority over routine items.

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(d) Though these are Institutes of Technology there are relatively few doctorates in technology. Ph.Ds are awarded equally in science-based and engineering-based subjects but few have earned a doctorate in technology. The number of students taking up a research project or projects in applied technology either for their thesis or for project work are very few. Achievement of high degree of technological competence and self-reliance implied the presence in the system of adequate number of doctorate level persons in technology. This is conspicuous by its absence amongst the IIT graduates.

(e) Their contact with the industry is few and far between. Neither are they able to advise the industry how their technologies can be improved in a cost effective manner nor are they able to provide any technological break-through for adoption by the industry. Indian industry uses the facilities in the IITs peripherally either for testing or for measurement or for few simple projects of not great consequence. There is no substantial technological fallout from the projects undertaken by the IITs or from the results flowing from their research. The IITs have to make a significant departure from the present state and make distinct contributions to our national R&D scene.

(f) The IIT faculties as a community appeared to have an ambivalent attitude to the application of Science and Technology in rural areas. Some even felt that it could not be their area of concern as they had very little to contribute. Application of Science and Technology solutions to rural problems can be as exciting as they are in an industrial situation or in pure research area, and the results could benefit far greater number of people. It is important that IITs must increase their sensitivity to the problem of their environment and relate their activities more and more to indigenous problems with a view to obtain solutions through the application of technology.

(g) The cream of the IIT graduates are not available for service in the country. Many take up jobs in developed countries, and even those who remain do not take up challenging engineering and technological jobs, but prefer to go for managerial positions, where higher monetary rewards are available but jobs which bear no relation to their basic IIT training. This is a more complex problem to which IITs may at best can find only partial solutions.

(h) Some IIT students were also expected to be entreprenuers and job generators but there are not many of them. A conscious move to encourage entrepreneurship and prepare undergraduates for it, is part of the IITs' future task.

(i) It has been sensed that the training imparted and examples provided by the IIT system are such that almost all students develop an ambition to go abroad. Teachers invariably prefer spending their sabbatical leave abroad in preference to better opportunities and challenging jobs in the industry in India or in other engineering colleges or in other R&D sectors. Even in their syllabi, examples and illustrations are rarely related to Indian situations. Thus, the IIT value system does not motivate the students to be committed to work in the country which has invested so much on their training.

(j) Lastly, a number of organisational lacunae are noticeable which need attention, such as:

-Absence of clear-cut personnel policies and a disproportionate number of non-academic supporting staff.

-Absence of any system of training and retraining of the employees.

-Raising non-plan expenditure.

-Administration appears to be one of the weakest links in terms of structure and regulations. Most of the people who are in administration including the Deans are not trained or have experience in management. In the circumstances, the administrative system tends to be one of crisis management and the administrative apparatus is perceived more as an over-riding hindrance than a supportive subsystem to the mainstream of academic activities.

-Even though their B.Tech. programme is considered to be good, not many of the graduates join the M.Tech. programmes nor aspire to faculty positions. Qualitatively the output of their M.Tech. programmes, according to the IITs themselves, is not as good as that of their B.Tech. programmes.