Treatise 2010

The International Thought Challenge

Instituting more IITs and IIMs is the ideal boost to corporate India

Posted by Team Manfest On January - 9 - 2010

Introduction

India is poised to become a knowledge economy and an information society. The country for long been associated with mystic saints, malaria and snake charmers is increasingly being seen as an economic powerhouse.  Indian corporate class and technical institutes such as IITs and IIMs are the principle levers of such a change in world’s attitudes towards India. The topic raises a pertinent question at a time when corporate India is traversing boundaries at a never before seen pace. Nehru, the architect of India’s modern temples exhorts his countrymen on the occasion of India’s independence, “The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?”.[1] The same exhortation needs to be made to our corporates and the country at large in regards to the opening of more IITs and IIMs.

When faced by a problem we generally have the tendency to look for quick fix solutions without taking into account the long term effects. Such seems to be the case with the institution of more IITs and IIMs. Setting up of more IITs and IIMs may seem to be the answer to problems of corporate India. After all the alumni of these institutes have a proven track record of being the best in business. But advocates of such a policy forget the fact that an institute is not only about walls and laboratories. It needs to develop into an ecosystem which provides the students with opportunities for knowledge absorption as well as knowledge creation. Sadly the fundamentals seem to be missing with the proposed IITs and IIMs. The article looks at various factors to present an objective analysis of the scenario.

Shortage of Faculty

The principle actors in any educational institution are its students and teachers. In case of IITs and IIMs the second actor has become a scarce commodity. The approved faculty to student ratio in these institutions is 1:9 but almost all of them have exceeded the ratio. 9 centrally funded technical institutions, which include the prestigious IITs and IIMs, are currently short of more than 3,000 faculty members or about one-third of the sanctioned strength.[2] The political class’s misguided zeal of instituting more IITs and IIMs before addressing the issue of shortage in quality faculty seems to be a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.

Shortage of Skilled Labour

“Availability of skilled labour is a critical input for all firms and hence corporate India has an enormous self interest in the functioning of the education sector.”[3] Amit Mitra, secretary general FICCI opines,  “the quality of new graduates is a critical issue that needs to be addressed”.[4] They are short of skill on many fronts. The employability of such people is a big problem. So instead of hankering just after the IITs the time seems ripe to look towards options such as opening up more vocational colleges which can take care of this shortage. Vocational education needs to be given a boost to tide over the crisis of skill shortage on such a humongous scale which will definitely be a shot in the arm to India’s corporate sector.

Going further, if we chart the growth of Corporate India, the dawn of light was seen with the liberalization and ushering of reforms consequently. India’s success story got a big momentum with the services sector revolution. But the drivers of growth were the large pool of talent in India most of whom were not from IIT or IIMs. Take the example of the software industry; there success is owed mostly to the code-writing foot soldiers not majorly supplied by the IITs.

Importance of Research

Any economy in the long run can remain competitive only if it has the capability to foster innovation at a regular pace. Research forms the backbone of such innovations. Corporate India cannot wish to be the sweatshop of the world for all times to come. Philippines and China are breathing down are neck in having a share in the outsourcing pie. To move to the next level of economic development huge investments needs to be made for research purposes.

It is a well established fact that basic sciences are a precursor to path-breaking research in the field of applied sciences and technology. The obsession with engineering and management disciplines has led to an exodus of students from the basic science field. Enrolment rate has fallen from 30% to 20% in the recent decade.[5]

The research scenario is dismal. Just to quote some figures “In terms of sheer numbers, in 2007 China had 1,423,000 researchers, second internationally to the United States, which had almost 1,571,000. India by comparison had 154,800. India spends a tiny fraction of its budget on research which reveals the gross inadequacy in India’s commitment to research, considering our scientists’ potential and our aspirations as a nation.”[6]. To quote another fact “Less than 2 per cent of world publications in science and technology originate out of India”.[7]

The IIT’s and IIM’s were established with the purpose of not only imparting knowledge and training but also to develop as centers of excellence for research and development. While the former objective has been much glorified, the latter leaves much to be desired. In the long run, for corporate India to emerge a formidable force in the global scenario we need technological innovations and strategic research. If we care to look around the world the most exciting research is happening on the boundaries of disciplines. Multi-disciplinarity seems to be passé. Now is the turn of inter-disciplinarity. Instead of building new IITs and IIMs we need to seriously consider turning them into universities as has been consistently suggested by academicians such as Professor Yash Pal.[8]

Taking cue from the Silicon Valley which has been the cradle for many famous companies in the world from Google, Yahoo, Bose Electronics, it is undeniable that its proximity, physically and intellectually to Harvard, MIT kept up the steady flow of young minds which enriched and cultivated the entrepreneurship and innovation. If India Inc has to replicate such a success story then the biggest boost it can possibly get is an overhaul in the research and development facilities.

Brain Drain

One of the major challenges faced by India Inc today is the retention of talent in the country. A few decades ago, the first priority of the IIT and IIM pass outs was to ensure a lucrative job abroad. About twenty five thousand IITians have settled abroad since 1953.[9] The UNDP report put the figures as high as 70% at a certain point of time to 30 % which was the prevailing figure.[10]

The government spends no less than Rs 200,000 annually on an individual student.[9] Corporate India will get a real boost if the pie expands and to expand the pie we need more number up entrepreneurs and start-ups.

Demographic Requirements

The GER (18-23 age-group) of India stands at around 11% way below China and US.[11]The demographic advantage  of India can easily turn into its disadvantage if the youth is not engaged in meaningful occupations. A vibrant business climate needs political and social stability. No business can flourish for long in face of war or insurgencies. ‘Million Mutinies’ are already brewing in India. Education is the new necessity of the masses. Corporate India cannot exploit the resources from large sections of the north east or areas lying in the Red Corridor. It is only through education that such people can be woven into the mainstream. The inevitability of collateral damage does not merit a place in today’s discourse. We need to address the problems of equity and access in education for our large masses rather than concentrating on just a chosen few. It seems more relevant to concentrate on imparting primary and secondary education coupled with employability.

Conclusion

More IITs and IIMs cannot be the answer to the woes of Indian corporates. Even in the short run the high expectations of businesses may not be sustained and the long run will only make them lose interest in Brand IIT. Substandard products out of such a system can only lead to the dilution of brand IIT, touted as “the Biggest Indian brand after Tajmahal.[12]

These institutions could turn into white elephants owing to a sustained cost but poor productivity. Coming up of new IITs and IIMs is being guided by political provenance rather than any serious debate about its necessity and the places of institution. Such decisions cannot be left to the whims and fancies of a political class engaged in serving parochial interest in the name of opening up new IITs and IIMs. Expanding capacity in the existing institutions and not expanding in numbers should be the priority now. Prepare the ground before jumping on the IIT, IIM bandwagon. Surely Corporate India would appreciate the point.

Topic 4
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11 Responses

  1. Cartoons Says:

    The hallowed portals of India as the IIT’s and IIM’s are popularly called were primarily constituted to popularize and encourage higher education in the country and provide industry ready youths to the corporate sector. Today Indian companies, engineers and managers are commended around the globe. Be it the top positions in the best companies of the world or entrepreneurship ventures Indians are truly a force to reckon with in all the arenas of the corporate world.

    Does this not imply that IIT’s and IIM’s have maybe delivered more than what was really expected from them or what the objective of initially setting them up was?

    YES… It does…

    “A whopping 50 per cent of the professionals in Chief Executive or Strategic Business Leadership roles in Indian industries hail either from the IITs or the IIMs or both, across corporations studied,” global executive search firm EMA Partners International quoted in a study.

    This study conducted in 2009 clearly exemplifies the role IIT’s and IIM’s play in the Indian corporate landscape.

    Preparing the ground before expanding in numbers is undoubtedly imperative and without a doubt the need of the hour but this does not in any way undermine the boost more IITs and IIMs can give to Corporate India. These institutes may not be flawless but they have undeniably played a big part in making India DREAM BIG and BECOME even BIGGER.

    The condition of education in our country in the present scenario is indisputably dismal. The lack of infrastructural facilities like proper schools, or of sufficiently good teaching staff; poor quality of education be it absence of vocational training or not up to industry standards; lack of political will with less spending on education and research or no understanding of the ground reality; or even doubts on the whole education system of the country, the problems are numerous. This multitude of problems calls for solutions…

    However we need solutions and resolutions which are brought to fruition only after taking stock of the existent state of affairs.

    But this in no way implies that all this development needs to be done at the cost of the best institutes of the country. The incredible difference these premium institutes have made in corporate India cannot be questioned.

    The responsibility of ensuring that a holistic change for the better takes place, lies on the shoulders of the government.

    It’s time we understand that the young generations of our country need excellent education, be it primary schools or IIT’s and IIM’s. None of the steps in their education can be eluded on the pretext of being of no great concern.

    Only then can they take the country to the zenith of success…

    Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 2:53 pm

  2. EaglesSecret Says:

    Fallacious Interpretation

    The team’s argument has a distinct motif – “Instituting more IITs and IIMs is not the ideal boost to Corporate India because the modus operandi is flawed in addition to certain pressing problems (faculty, lack of research and need for more vocational instituted et al as pointed by the defending team) with the existing IITs and IIMs”. The flaw in this premise lies in drawing a nexus between the problems and the idea (of instituting more such schools) per se and ultimately rejecting the idea wholly.

    Further the team seems to have seceded ground at the very beginning by stating that “Indian corporate class and technical institutes such as IITs and IIMs are the principle levers of such a change in world’s attitudes towards India”. If history has indeed proven the worth of these institutions, then why is instituting more of them a bad notion?

    Corporate India and its Vanguards

    India’s success story is as much about the foot soldiers as it is about the marshals who led them. An Infosys without Nandan Nilekani and Narayan Murthy, both IITians, would be simply unimaginable. As per the study among top 200 Indian companies, to understand the impact of IITs and IIMs on Indian companies, IIMs alone groomed around half of Indian CEOs, while IITs account for more than a third of the total. The unassailable IIT-IIM combo has contributed around 13 percent of India’s business leaders. India is a knowledge driven economy and is heavily dependent on the IITs and IIMs for its thought leaders and change managers.

    We cannot help but agree with the team that “to expand the (corporate) pie we need more number of entrepreneurs and start-ups”. But the team conveniently fails to acknowledge the contribution of IITians and IIM graduates in the area of entrepreneurship – be it in technology, science or management. The recent global entrepreneurship summit held in Mumbai was represented by the e-cells from the IIMs and IITs alongside those from international institutes like UC Berkeley, MIT and Stanford is a case in point.

    A Zero Sum Game?

    Vocational Education prepares learners for jobs that are based in manual or practical activities. The defence needs to explain how “vocational colleges can take care of the shortage” of skilled graduates for the knowledge economy. Yes, we do need a large pool of skilled manual labour, but that issue is completely unrelated to the academic education of IITs and IIMs. There is no reason more vocational colleges cannot come up simultaneously and why would Instituting more IITs or IIMs preclude this.

    Basic Sciences: On closer inspection

    The defending team attributes the exodus of students from the basic science field to the obsession with engineering due to the popularity of premier institutes like the IITs. The IITs themselves offer basics sciences as well as inter-disciplinary courses in Physics, Chemistry, Biosciences and Mathematics at the undergraduate and post graduate levels. Won’t instituting more of them help then?

    Brain drain – An old hat!

    That IITians and IIM graduates have looked to the US for want of greener pastures is a dated concept. With the rise of the new-age India, backed by strong domestic fundamentals, the latest buzzword is “reverse brain-drain” wherein we are seeing a flight of Indians settled abroad back to India. The major challenge faced by India Inc today is not retention of talent within the country as explicated by the team, but rather selection and retention of talent within their own companies as recruiters line up to obtain the best placement slots at the IITs and IIMs.

    Playing on our strengths

    IITs and the IIMs were envisioned to be the centres of excellence for India in the making. Today, when we have successfully built a model for attracting the most intelligent students in the country, honing their analytical skills and driving them up to a higher pedestal, it is puerile that we fear the replication of this model of transcendence to gain competitive edge for India Inc. Yes, the current IITs and IIMs have their shortcomings in the form of lack of funds and challenges in attracting quality teachers, but there is nothing fundamentally wrong with instituting new institutes and buttressing them with better hard and soft infrastructure. The Indian polity’s inadequate policies cannot deter Corporate India from taking gigantic strides. No doubt that it is important to lubricate the edges but idea per se is not flawed.

    The Tale of two Elephants

    The team blows its own turf by stating that “Expanding capacity in the existing institutions and not expanding in numbers should be the priority now”. This hurried admittance annuls their cries of “poor faculty ratio and diluting brand value”. How does enhancing capacity dispel these problems?

    It is a widely known fact that among the lakhs of students who appear for the entrance examinations, the few thousands who miss the admission are barely half a mark from making the cut. These students have an equal right to study at such quality institutes. This cannot come at the cost of enhancing the capacity given that they are currently bursting on their seams.

    Infrastructure in existing institutes is already burdened – more so with the implementation of the quota system –expanded capacity would only make it unmanageable and unsustainable in the long run. Furthermore, another way ahead for instituting more IITs, without compromising on quality issues, would be to upgrade the top notch NITs to the level of infrastructure and support facilities of the IITs. China has been contemplating setting up of hundred such IITs. If the white elephant does not wake up now, it is only time when the red dragon blows it over.

    Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 2:58 pm

  3. Gotama's Men Says:

    Our stand

    We feel that the defense concludes about the non-feasibility and unattractive of instituting more IITs and IIMs without making a relative evaluation of it among the other alternatives available for boosting corporate India, except the setting up of vocational training schools. Moreover, the defense also makes the mistake of seeing complementary action plans as substitutes competing for the same resources. Our contention, on the whole, is that the team has not covered the wide breadth of issues this topic demanded.

    Brand dilution – an over-abused term

    Brand dilution is a much abused term when talking about IITs and IIMs. What is conveniently forgotten is that each IIT and IIM commands brand equity of its own, each has an identity distinct from the others and that opening up of new IIMs/ IITs does not erode the brand equity carefully built over decades by an institute like IIM A/ IIT KGP. In a country of 1 billion people where around 30000 people, or approximately 0.002%, teach or study at the 7 established IITs; and where around 2000 people, or approximately 0.0001% of the population, teach or study at the 6 established IIMs, surely brand dilution cannot be a valid argument for preventing better infrastructural and intellectual support to a wider demography. Moreover, when it proceeds to talk about brand dilution, the defense clubs together all the IITs/IIMs under the same bracket and forgets that both the academia and the Indian industry are mature enough to understand and appreciate each of these institutes for what they are. It also conveniently forgets the efforts made by the government and its research bodies to attract a wide range of NRI professionals, many of who are products of these institutes themselves, to come back and contribute to the growth of the intelligentsia here. In fact, inability to provide enough opportunities for those who have come back on their own has been the problem in recent times. In light of all these, setting up of new IITs/IIMs seems to be a pressing need to sustain the current interest shown in Indian science by one and all.

    Vocational training – Dependence on Local know-how

    The one alternative to the establishment of newer IITs and IIMs that the defense has proposed is the establishment of more institutions providing vocational training. However, it must be noted that there is a tremendous dearth of proper training equipment and sound training professionals for this purpose. Much of engineering, instrumentation and measurement equipment are imported from abroad (data from DGET, the apex organization for employment generation through vocational training). In order to raise the standards and the capacity of the vocational training (only 5% of the Indian industrial workforce is skilled), availability of low cost indigenous equipment manufactured by local industries and transfer of technical know-how from Indian Universities are paramount. This is turn puts enormous responsibility on the engineering R&D establishment of the country, necessitating more quality engineering institutes like the IITs.

    Role of IITs and IIMs in facilitating research

    With 156 researchers per million people in India, against 4700 researchers per million people in the USA, the Indian government not only needs to increase the faculty to student ratio of these existing top institutes but also raise the ratio between the number of technical researchers and the population of the country over a vast geographic expanse. This necessitates the replication of the initiative shown by the government in the 50s and 60s when the first IITs were established. While we agree with the team in its view that research has been given a short shrift in India, we believe that a lot of problems concerning research and development pertain to a lack of commercialization of R&D. Commercialization requires high quality managerial talent, which can be provided by the IIMs. For commercialization of R&D to take place, technology institutions like IITs would have to “undertake more projects of industrial importance, with a market oriented approach”. This, in turn, makes the case for more IITs, as the current IITs won’t be relieved from their focus on undergraduate education without instituting more IITs.

    The defense points out the dearth of research in basic sciences. However, much of the basic sciences research today is actually driven by industrial, engineering and medical needs. Many of the theoretical limits set by basic science research in the last century on generation and use of energy haven’t been achieved practically by a long shot. In the past 10 years, 4 Nobel Prizes in physics were awarded to works in Photonics and Superconductors, which has direct implications for the energy sector in various countries, highlighting the shift in focus of scientific research world over. Hence, premier institutes like the IITs and IISC, which can bridge the gap between science and technology are of tremendous importance to solve many of the immediate and long term issues faced by the nation.

    From Potential to Performance

    India sends more than 120,000 students abroad every year for higher studies. Many of the PhD graduates abroad end up in either faculty positions or industrial research outside of India, mainly because of the lack of infrastructure and industrial participation in the research in India. Although the scenario has changed in the years post-liberalization, a lot of scope is still there. It’s not that the potential does not exist within those who are in India. The graduate research in IISc in Electronics and Communication is one of the best in the world and generates high quality technical output. The recent launch of the first Microsatellite by students from Anna University in Chennai (a non-IIT State government funded institution) in collaboration with ISRO speaks volumes about how much Federal financial and infrastructural support to faculty and students of engineering all over the country, raising them to the standards of IIT, can do to the morale of researchers of India.

    The Future is Complex

    One serious issue not addressed by the defense is that of research in Public health, Bio informatics and Life sciences, which are closely connected to expertise in various engineering and mathematical disciplines. The serious lack of research and know-how in these fields, especially Public Health, has huge long-term ramifications for Corporate India, in terms of quality labor and infrastructure. Such mega multidisciplinary ventures need technologically sound managerial talent, which can only be generated by more IITs and IIMs. Also, the defense devotes very little energy to understand how the increasing global role aimed at by Corporate India would require top quality home-grown managers. Surely, with a handful of IIMs, corporate India cannot shine on the global arena. Moreover, the gap between IIMs and second-level MBA institutes is so glaring that corporate India has been at the forefront in demanding more IIMs in the recent past. In light of all the above arguments, we believe that the defense has seriously overlooked the role that more IITs and IIMs can play in sustaining corporate India’s growth in the future.

    Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 3:03 pm

  4. Kurukshetra Says:

    We believe that instituting more IITs and IIMs is indeed an ideal boost for corporate India as well as the country as a whole.

    SUPPLY AND DEMAND

    More than 2.5 lakh students appeared for CAT and nearly 4 lakh students appeared for JEE hoping to get into the IIMs and IITs in 2009. Of these, only about 1-2% students actually make it to these institutions making these more selective than the best universities in the world such as Harvard, MIT, and Stanford. At the same time, the IITs and IIMs, in spite of their excellent and well earned reputation, do not really provide the quality of education equal to that of the top universities listed above (4ICU, 2009). This, prima facie, points to a serious demand-supply mismatch. Setting up more IITs and IIMs will extend greater opportunities to the students to become the kind of managers and engineers that can solve the biggest problems that corporate India faces.

    We wish to further develop our case through countering Team 4’s key arguments.

    FACULTY SHORTAGE

    The authors’ main argument against instituting new IITs and IIMs is that there is a shortage of faculty even in the existing institutions. While this might be true to an extent, it only underscores that higher effort is needed to attract faculty rather than taking this as an unsurpassable hurdle. In fact, some of the newly set up institutions have actually been able to attract quality faculty from abroad by providing options such being able to go abroad twice a year to pursue research and academics and higher freedom to work on industry consultancy assignments. For example, nearly half of the 700 faculty applications received in IIT-Gandhinagar are from NRIs teaching in premier institutions around the world (Yagnik, 2009).

    WHAT ABOUT VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS?

    Team 4 argues that it would be much more worthwhile for the government to focus on vocational education and developing other undergraduate institutions rather than setting up IITs and IIMs. They justify this by citing that the bulk of the programmers in the IT industry are from the non-premier institutions. However, setting right vocational education and other undergraduate areas which provide the bulk of the workforce needs more of appropriate regulations (rather than investments) which would involve reforming agencies such as AICTE and UGC (Yash Pal Committee, 2009), and allowing foreign investment in education. Setting up more IITs and IIMs need not and should not come in the way of these actions. Setting up IITs and IIMs with sufficient investments is needed for increasing the pool of top notch technologists and managers who can provide innovative solutions and can create jobs and wealth. We wish to remind Team 4 that the architects of India’s software revolution are people like Narayanamurthy, Kris Gopalakrishnan, and Nandan Nilekani who are in fact products of the IITs.

    “AND”, NOT “OR”

    Another argument provided by Team 4 opposing the creation of more IITs and IIMs is the need for the country to focus more on building universities where inter-disciplinary research can be performed. While we completely agree that development of science and research are fundamental necessities and creating universities are the way to go about it, it should be noted that the same press release from the Government of India on the creation of 8 new IITs and 7 new IIMs in the 11th five year plan also envisages the establishment of 14 world class Central Universities and 16 other Universities in states which currently do not have a central university during this same period (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2008).

    BRAND DILUTION – REALLY?

    Team 4 states that there would be a dilution in the brand of the IITs and IIMs if more of them are set up and cause corporate India to lose interest in them. We assume that the authors justify it on the basis that at least in the initial stages, some of these new institutions will not measure up to the standards of the existing institutions and this will lead to brand dilution. This argument implies that corporate India doesn’t know the quality of students passing out of various premier institutions and that they rely on some kind of a pan-IIM or a pan-IIT brand that is the average of all these institutions put together. This is an unfounded fear not justified by experience. Even now, if one goes by the companies and salaries offered, there is a difference across the various IITs and IIMs. Being a part of these institutions, we feel that this kind of a ‘brand dilution’ seems to be much more of a concern to students who fear that their services might become less valuable with increase in supply and those who derive a sense of self worth not on the basis of what they have done or are capable of doing but on the basis of which institute they have attended.

    WHOSE ‘WHIMS AND FANCIES’ CAN WE TRUST?

    The authors end their argument stating that decisions on setting up new institutions “cannot be left to the whims and fancies of a political class engaged in serving parochial interest”. If politicians who are accountable to the public are accused of serving only ‘parochial interest’ and can’t be entrusted with the responsibility of such decisions, then we wonder who else can take up the job. Is there some institution in the country which is more accountable to the people than the government and the politicians and can be trusted to take decisions which are in the interest of everyone? Of course, the process of taking these decisions may have flaws and there might need to be more critical discussion. It might also be true that a few states might be able to serve their own interests. But to blame the governing unit in entirety is not called for.

    CONCLUSION

    Through our above arguments, we conclude that instituting new IITs and IIMs is vital for corporate India and is an urgent and needed investment in the human capital of India.

    Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 3:07 pm

  5. Team Me, Myself & Chotu Says:

    The brain drain phenomena is dwindling

    In the recently held 97th Indian Science Congress Meet, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh categorically stated that the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon has begun to get replaced by that of ‘brain gain’. Many students from premier institutes are choosing to either pursue higher education here or take up jobs with corporate India. Also most of our leading dailies report that the ‘brain drain’ people are coming back from USA and elsewhere to settle in India. This is because with the wage differences diminishing over the years, immigration of NRIs has risen.

    Opening more IITs will speed up research

    Many people forget that all IITs and for that matter NITs also have separate departments of science. It would be foolish to say that science and technology don’t go hand in hand. Even MIT and Harvard believe in this. More IITs will obviously result in more path breaking research. And needless to say even the IIMs also are the centres of management research. Then why should we refrain from newer institutions rather than just cribbing about the sorry state of affairs.

    Shortage of skilled workforce

    According to a study conducted by KPMG, a global consultancy service firm, Indian firms are finding it hard to earn skilled workforce for their business even though they have benefits from globalization. Finance, infrastructure, human resources and engineering are the main focus areas where the shortage in acute. New IITs and IIMs will seek to address that.

    Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 3:09 pm

  6. XLent_warriors Says:

    Introduction

    The article states that instituting more IITs and IIMs is not the ideal boost to Corporate India as it will lead to brand dilution. The need for more IITs and IIMs arises in the first place because the state level colleges and private institutions are not able to match the resources and facilities given by these central institutions and correspondingly the output is of a lower quality.

    How will you bring up entrepreneurs without IIT and IIM graduates?

    The only way India can move forward is to develop people who can generate jobs through entrepreneurship. While it is true that IIT and IIM graduates move out of India for the sake of lucrative jobs, it is also true that they are the people who tend to become entrepreneurs in future technologies. We cannot expect to increase the number of start-ups and entrepreneurships in innovative fields without the expertise that is created in enlightened portals of IITs and IIMs. Such entrepreneurs will have strong ties with alumnus which will further the enrichment of innovation.

    Vocational training will create more followers not leaders

    The article advocates vocational training over creating new IITs and IIMs. One needs to remember that vocational training tends to develop people who are skilful but they do not get the exposure that they get in IITs or the managerial education that they get in IIMs. One can easily create more followers through vocational training not leaders. If we have to boost Corporate India we need more leaders who can make India excel in innovation and efficiency parameters not just the factor of production parameter. To foster innovation and efficiency, IITs and IIMs are the ideal place

    Shortage of faculty

    The problem of shortage of faculty, though a serious issue faced by top Indian institutions presently, can be handled. The article also talks about brain drain as still a current phenomenon. However, there are presently a large pool of NRIs who are have been working in good positions in the industry abroad and want to return to India after the recessionary meltdown. New institutions in our country is the best way of attracting this large resource pool, and at the same time enabling to make our institutions world class. Moreover, new institutions offer freedom to implement fresh ideas, unlike the older institutions where processes are highly mechanistic.

    Live project opportunities

    The professor-student ratio in India is low because of lack of live project opportunities in Indian Universities. The Professors need such projects to upgrade their skills so that they can share it with their students. Also it provides monetary benefits to Professors while continuing to do justice to their teaching profession. Indian students with a research bent of mind tend to go to foreign Universities to do their research because they can continue to do research in cutting edge technologies in other countries. As the article points out the level of research in India is pathetic. If Government incentivises research in various sectors, such students will stay in India and contribute to research as well as improve Professor-student ratio by becoming Professors. Nevertheless, good quality researches are more prone to arise out of IITs and IIMs than any other institution.

    Flaws in Yash Pal Committee recommendations

    The article mentions about supporting Yash Pal committee in converting the existing IITs and IIMs into full fledged universities. However, it fails to address the drawbacks of it. IITs/IIMs over a period of time have gained an international reputation, and it will be a disastrous mistake to tamper with their brand image. Moreover, each IIT/IIM has their own priorities in terms of structuring their own course contents. It would thus be infeasible for them to come under the banner of a single university. The priority of the IIMs/IITs is to scale up their intake without affecting the quality of students. This would only be possible if there are separate IITs/IIMs established at strategic locations in order to suit the industrial requirements of that region.

    New IITs and IIMs to foster research

    The article points out the dismal scenario of research in Indian institutions and the need to overhaul R&D facilities. However, the top IITs/IIMs have been in existence for a few decades. Such a long period ingrains a set of rigid goals and priorities of the institutions, which are difficult to change instantly. If India needs its institutions to gain reputation in research, it can be done more effectively by establishing new institutions, in this case more IITs/ and IIMs and allow them to be research driven.

    Power of Alumni

    Today, half of the country’s top executives are produced by the IITs and IIMs. The very presence of very successful distinguished alumni from these institutions in the corporate landscape adds value to the institution. The power of rich alumni is the greatest advantage that a student from any IIM/IIT holds. This advantage can be utilized only if new institutions are set up as IITs/IIMs rather than under any other banner.

    Equity and brand dilution considerations

    As the article suggests India needs to focus on school education for improving equity. But that does not mean we should not build new IITs and IIMs. Building more of them will not necessarily dilute the quality if careful steps as mentioned in this argument are taken care of. The expertise of IITs and IIMs can be spread to new institutions that are built and strengthen the brand equity.

    Conclusion

    Avoiding more IITs and IIMs is a myopic way to look at boosting Corporate India. The gains one will get through other means are short-term and will not be sustainable. As the article mentions it will only create foot soldiers who cannot bring prosperity in the long-term to India nor create new jobs. Only IITs and IIMs can provide the environment and resources required to create skilful individuals who can innovate and lead India towards reaching its goal of creating ideal environment to nurture entrepreneurship.

    Posted on January 13th, 2010 at 3:14 pm

  7. Prateek Mittal Says:

    First of all, I want to congratulate IIML for providing such a thought provoking platform to students.

    I definitely have a strong opinion about the role that IITs and IIMs acan play in the corporate India.

    The Opportunity Cost Analysis:

    Being an alumnus of IIT & a student of IIM, I strongly believe that that these institutions can play a big role in developing the likes of Narayan Murthi and Sanjeev Bikhchandani. But it these very institutions that have also taught me a simple decision making approach –when resources are scarce and have alternative uses, then every investment must be analyzed by examining its opportunity cost. Yes, we need more engineers but we are in greater need of more doctors. We can set up new IITs but we can also spend much lesser than that & instead give greater support to NITs and other good engineering colleges in order to make sure that they get the infrastructure like IITs.

    Before setting up more IITs or IIMs, the government needs to assess whether a new IIT will give more returns or a new medical college or a new IISc or a new JNU or a new Polytechnic that can make hundreds of unemployable youngsters at least, employable.

    Can we actually make more IITs & IIMs?

    In the words of the opposition – the flaw in the premise of the defence lies in drawing a nexus between the problems facing IITs & IIMs and the idea (of instituting more such schools) per se and ultimately rejecting the idea wholly. I do not see why the opposition is proclaiming the idea of more IITs & IIMs without testing the practical feasibility of such an idea, as has been done by the defence.

    The very fact that IITs and IIMs, are currently short of more than 3,000 faculty members is a reality which cannot be ignored and has to be kept in mind while proposing new IITs & IIMs. I urge the opposition to consider a simple logic that even if IITs & IIMs can solve all the problems of corporate India, simply opening new institutions and naming them IITs or IIMs will not solve the problem.

    Sure, the IITs & IIMs have played a positive role in the growth of our economy, but to proclaim them as the panacea for all the woes of India would be an overestimation, at best.

    Posted on January 17th, 2010 at 11:19 pm

  8. Team Manfest Says:

    IITs and IIMs have been doing well for the country and the corporates for quite some time. But it was solely due the environment that could be created at these institutes which helped them to excel. Sadly it is the same environment which will be missing in the case of new IITs and IIMs.

    Team_2 makes a charge that we drew a nexus between the idea and the problems. We consider that any idea is only as good as the output it can produce. The idea of instituting more IITs and IIMs may be good in principle but it ignores the ground realities. If the fundamental issues mentioned in our earlier article continue to persist then opening of more IITs and IIMs will do more harm than good. A well thought out strategy which takes into account our long term interests in education and not quick fixes like opening new IITs and IIMs is the need of the hour.

    Team_3 makes a very valid point that “There is nothing fundamentally wrong with instituting new institutes and buttressing them with better hard and soft infrastructure”. We can buttress them with hard infrastructure (though it is still a big problem) but what about soft infrastructure?

    As pointed out earlier, quality faculty is the biggest concern. The new IITs and IIMs are coming at places where the faculty may not be interested to live and teach. Already we have news of faculty leaving IIM Shillong for IIM Lucknow. Moreover search for new faculty in an already scarce market will lead to fears of poaching of quality faculty and a war between different IIMs and IITs itself. Gandhinagar may have received 700 applications from NRIs, but what about other IITs? Ropar IIT finds itself short of applicants to fill up the posts and has a dismal strength of 12 when 60 is the sanctioned number. Same goes for IITs of Kota and Patna.

    Brand dilution

    Team_3 says that brand dilution is an over-abused term and that individual IITs and IIMs have different levels of brand equity as perceived by the academia and corporates. Team_5 also says that corporates have different pay scales for different IITs and IIMs. Surely that is a valid point but then the idea of establishing IITs and IIMs was to develop institutes of repute at the same level. When disparities are already emerging between different IITs and IIMs then in that case will the new IITs and IIMs not have much lower brand equity than those lying at the bottom at present? If such is the case then why not give them a new name altogether?

    Team_5 charges that “we feel that this kind of a ‘brand dilution’ ……… on the basis of which institute they have attended”. Prof VN Asopa says about brand equity, “The value of an organisation is the most important characteristic that goes into generating brand equity. This value system comes by intellectual resources, not physical infrastructure.” So we are not guided by a sense of self worth on the basis of our affiliations to an institute. We are concerned about the output that will be generated as a result of not providing the ideal growth environment leading to reduction of the overall brand equity in the long run.

    Team_7 also agrees to the concern of brand dilution “IITs/IIMs over a period of time have gained an international reputation, and it will be a disastrous mistake to tamper with their brand image.” True there exists a mismatch between supply and demand as pointed out by Team_2, but should we establish half-baked and below average institutes under the aegis of a well-established umbrella to cater this mismatch?

    Basic Sciences

    IITs offer basic sciences course but is that the preferred choice by the majority? People turn towards basic sciences when they fail to get a seat in any of the engineering departments. It becomes more a case of trying to attach them with the IIT tag without any motivation to engage in research.

    The Question of Trade Offs

    Most of the teams acknowledge the importance of vocational education. Team_7 argues that vocational education will lead to creating more followers than leaders but are both of them of them not equally important? India being a developing country faces resource crunch on many fronts. Team_3 gives the argument that more vocational colleges can come up simultaneously. But where is the money to establish such institutes? Ultimately this decision is also a trade-off where we vouch more for vocational institutes than IIT/IIMs. In addition, the resources required for vocational institutes are lesser than that of an IIT/IIM. Also, the abysmal state of primary and secondary education inhibits the pool available for imparting technical education.

    Entrepreneurship: A question mark

    IIT/IIMs have contributed to the entrepreneurial endeavors but that is a slight fraction only as suggested by many. Fostering a healthy climate for mentoring and encouraging Greenfield ventures through the incubator cells of these institutes should be given priority now. New institutes without the benefit of alumni and corporate backing will not be able to cultivate entrepreneurship.

    IITs and IIMs as Universities

    The IITs need to be at the core of these universities and guide other departments in achieving higher standards in their respective fields. Rather than brand dilution as claimed by Team_7, it will be a case of IITs reaching a matured state like the world famous institutes like MIT where technology and liberal arts both produce high degree of output.

    Research in Ruins

    New IITs will take time to settle down and take up research. At present they are trying to manage somehow by starting undergraduate course. When the issue of faculty is a cause for concerns even now who will preside over research scholars? The existing institutes have not made much headway in this field. Not a single major production plant, or process used by Indian industry, has originated in the intellectual boiler rooms of the IITs. At best, they remain providers of secondary services such as evaluation of materials and assembly-line designs, mostly acquired from external sources. If such is the case with the existing ones, what to say of the new ones?

    Brain Drain

    According to a study conducted by UGC in 1994 almost 40-50% (by conservative estimates) of the students from IIT’s emigrate. The intake in 1994 was almost 1500, which comes to about 600-750 students who went abroad. Consider the situation today, the brain drain figure stands at 15-20% (by conservative estimates) while the number of seats have expanded to 5500*. The percentages might be down but the numbers are certainly not. In absolute numbers they have actually increased. It is certainly premature to say that the brain drain is reversing even though we have a number of expatriates coming back after years of work abroad.

    Whims and Fancies

    The statement is not an attempt at denigrating our political class as a whole but being objective about the state of affairs. The quibbling about IITs and IIMs among the chief ministers of different states was there for all to see. The timing of the announcement was just before the elections. Can it not be considered an act of pleasing certain constituencies at the cost of the nation? Don’t we need to be critical of such overtures of the political class?

    Conclusion

    The idea of expanding capacity rather than expanding in numbers is not the case of “hurried admittance” “or blowing our own turf” as claimed by Team_3. Such a charge makes a case for indulging in intellectual dishonesty as they refuse to acknowledge the fact that our conclusion is result of objective analysis of competing scenarios.

    C.N.R. Rao calls opening of more IITs as a “disastrous move”. “There was no proper discussion on this issue…..It took over 50 years to make IITs what they are today. After all it’s not like opening primary schools. These are institutes of excellence that have international standing. I am very upset that eight new IITs have been announced for implementation at one go.”

    Opening up of more IITs and IIMs will lead to a clutter in the same way as is the case with many of the degree churning machines better known as Deemed Universities which too mushroomed at a lightening pace. They are being described as “nothing more than shops and factories with little or no academic facilities, shoddy infrastructure and dismal faculty”. Do we want our esteemed institutes to be perceived the same way? Did it improve the quality of workforce or the education at the desired level?

    Institutes have a responsibility towards the society. Their role becomes all the more important when public money is involved. As Mandela says, “Education is the most powerful weapon that you can use to change the world.” Let us give that weapon to our masses instead of frittering away our hard earned money on such megalomaniac ventures which fail to address even the mandated issues.

    *(figures for 2006-07)

    Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 3:15 pm

  9. Arun Raghav Says:

    I think the main author of this post and most of the people who have commented before have lost track of what the topic actually: “Instituting more IITs/IIMs is the most ideal boost to CORPORATE INDIA”. So the focus should have been on what the corporate India asks for today and what is needed for that. Instead the authors have indulged in cliches about the value/power of education and brand equity. Even a simple lay man’s look at Service and Manufacturing sector growth statistics shows that there is every increasing demand for technical and managerial graduates. And to feed these industries, such institutes (well, not necessarily IITs/IIMs, but you might as well have those) are needed. The words “IITs” and “IIMs” must be taken as metaphors for institutes which can cater to these demands, in this context.

    Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 8:07 pm

  10. vaishnavi Says:

    There is a proposal put forth to set up the new iims in private-public partnership mode?.. is that feasible?.. what could be the advantages in doing so?

    Posted on February 17th, 2010 at 8:35 am

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