Alumni Meet

IIT remained dream institution for generations and will continue to remain so. The conviction is there - for being a part of UG fraternity, research students and member of the faculty. Of course, all the stake holders need to work hard showing unity of thought, words and action. Alumni is a great strength for IIT Kharagpur. Besides their financial help, the experience they share with younger IITians are valuable.

Giving Back

Had it not clashed with NSS time slot, I would have attended the morning function of the alumni meet on 7th Jan. (SAT). I had the responsibility of visiting three villages where three new program officers are taking charge of respective NSS units. I set off at 9:30 AM from home and could return only at 1:15 PM. In one of these villages, the poorest under Gopali Gram Panchayat, we had an interesting experience. We met a proud father who was not exactly complaining about her daughter. The daughter, Asha works as a house-maid in IIT Kharagpur campus. She spends whatever she can save over a period of time for the poorest of the poor in the village. Soon we met Asha who came back from campus to take lunch at village home. She shyly showed us one roofing she sponsored recently for one family which costs her Rs. 4000 (the mud wall was okay, the house is in the first picture with Asha, Program Officer and NSS students in front, beside the children jostling without going to schools - right to education??). She showed one more house in dilapidated condition which she is taking up now (the left one in second picture). These straw roofs lasts for a year or so. The asbestos roofing is more permanent but costs Rs. 15000 and is beyond her capacity or the time frame required is beyond the urgency of the situation. 

Meeting Point

Later in the day, as a part of Alumni Meet, I was revisiting what Asha is doing for her village. Somewhere, we can compare that with our alumni giving back to alma mater. One is higher in relative term and the other is higher in absolute term. Can there be a meeting point somewhere? Few weeks back, I was discussing something similar with the lead student volunteer of this alumni meet. He was an NSS volunteer and we often shared our dreams, visions. A small contribution from our alumni or CSR money of corporate sector can contribute in a big way in relative terms. Having educated by Asha, I myself wonder why I am not contributing Rs. 15,000 a year to have roof for one family in our neighbourhood. Asha says that the whole house including mud walls, bamboo etc. costs Rs. 30,000. NSS, IIT Kharagpur works in 15 villages within 5-6 KM radius of our campus. There are about 15 primary school or sarva shiksha kendra (SSK). Fifteen water filter, each costing Rs. 2000 (approx.) amounts to Rs. 30,000 and can be a big differentiator. The other project could be painting / whitewashing these schools or developing infrastructures so that children feel like coming to school and reduce the drop out rate. We now have a very good rapport with local administration - from SDO, Panchayet Pradhan to village youth and the ground for taking up such activity is prepared!

Panel Discussion

I try to attend panel discussions held in the campus where there are guest speakers. This is to get idea and learn what others who care, are thinking. There were two panel discussions scheduled on 7th Jan. (SAT) afternoon as a part of alumni meet. I missed the first discussion on the 'Future of IIT' as I had to attend a parallel meeting that started at 3:30 PM and was on a dream project of IIT Kharagpur. The second topic of the panel discussion was little specific, on 'Safety in work place' - perhaps triggered by recent loss of lives due to fire at AMRI hospital. I was amazed to listen to the entire range of issues that are associated with safety and we, generally speaking, are so much ignorant of it. One speaker referred to one calculation which shows cost of life in India is only Rs. 12,000. No wonder, we can afford not to take note of it and consider expenditures related to safety is not value accretive! There is a need to educate ourselves and all of us need to work together to create awareness on this count.

Farewell 2011

Good-bye 2011 ... Welcome 2012!

Wish the new year ushers in happiness, peace and prosperity to one and all! My apology if I am not able to reach out individually to all with whom I enjoy a relationship laced with love, care and share.

Earth's revolution

Crossing 40, one perhaps goes into down count mode. With 10-20 years remaining in which health might cooperate, we perhaps try to make every year count. We try to align ourselves more with things that are near and dear to us. We try to get a sense of satisfaction that the life has been a meaningful, worthy pursuit - the goal reached or not. Here comes the question. What has been the goal? Was there any goal for myself? Or was it always living a life on others' terms? Something like Brownian Motion, colliding with one thought now and next with another, leaving a zero net displacement at the end! As Earth completes one revolution around the Sun, it is time to take a look at what our thoughts and deeds revolved around in the year gone by. As it revolved in the orbit, spiraling up, our work may have yielded few milestones. Time to feel proud of it and look for more in the coming year. If something is missed due to slackness, time to take a resolve to remove them in the new year. The more important of course is to take note of what is there at the centre of our revolution, what is the fulcrum. Is it a desire to emerge as a better human being?

Feeling Nostalgic

Looking back at 2011, find a lot of room to improve in the coming year as far as slackness is concerned. I think that I can work even harder. Yes, there are too many responsibilities to give time to. Still, a better time and work management can bring out more. However, I am satisfied on one count. I have learnt to respect people more during the year, specially my young students. Be it my research students, or students in my UG classes, or N.S.S. students; I was simply humbled to see their character strength - the last semester specially was very enlightening. Thanks to all, my students. The strict, rigid personality you encountered day to day and tolerated :-) wants to thank all of you from the bottom of the heart for gifting a wonderful 2011, to which I feel like attached to. Attached is an image from our 25th Dec. Vizag tour. Gadadhar, not yet Sri Ramakrishna, the world renowned teacher who could not spell 'education' properly leaving native village for Dakshineshwar. (This exhibition is on Ramakrishna Beach of Vizag at the other side of the Beach Road. This is the best of such exhibitions I have seen so far.)

One has to move on. Hope, the 2012 batch of students will be similarly generous, if not more.  

Garbeta College Visit

The will and wish of many prevailed. The 5 day year end Vizag family tour followed high fever of daughter. There was an invitation to address N.S.S. volunteers of Garbeta College on 30th Dec. afternoon. My 9 year old daughter who usually prefers mother's company to enjoy her freedom to the fullest, wants me always to be with her when ill. The organizer's thankfully swapped two afternoon programs and mine was rescheduled on 31st Dec., the farewell day of 2011. By that time, the fever came down. We four (myself, Rajat - faculty of IIT Kharagpur and NSS program officer, Sahidullah - senior PhD student and Mr. Prabodh Kumar Sasmal - President, Kharagpur Vivekananda Yuva Mahamandal) set off at 11:15 A.M.  We reached Garbeta college, 65 KM from our campus at about 1:15 PM. We stayed there till 4 PM.

N.S.S. Special Camp at Garbeta College

Dr. Sushil Ghosh, PhD from IIT Kharagpur and now a faculty member at Garbeta College, looking after NSS activities there organized the special 7 day long training camp. About 120 students participated. The pre-lunch session used to be physical work. The post lunch session was on various trainings (e.g. first aid, fire) and talks from invited speakers. On the 2nd day of the camp, Swami Sunishthananda, Principal, Midnapore Ramakrishna Mission School had an inspiring discourse. I heard Swamiji before addressing young audience. One has to listen spell bound when he talks. In my one hour address, I stressed on (i) challenges of modern society (ii) what is social service - self awareness before making others aware (iii) internal and external discipline (iv) self-confidence and believe in the power of the good (v) need to reach career milestones, not for flaunting ego but to be able to serve more (vi) importance of balanced development of Heart (to feel), Head (to think a solution) and Hand (to implement, not outsourcing all the time) (vii) the power of organization (viii) establishing network among NSS units - shared email address with all and requested to follow up. Rajat shared his unit's experience at NSS, IIT Kharagpur with campers. This followed an half-an-hour Q & A session. Finally, it  was time to end the session. We are not too much used to college students touching feet at IIT environment. But this is a common practice in a small town college of 3700 students but with broadband connection, catering to many, many villages in the neighbourhood. As is said, our nation lives in the villages. I was embarrassed a lot when students started asking for autographs.

We paid a short 10 minute visit to a place called Gangani in our return trip. This was one KM from Garbeta college and had a beautiful landscape.

V.S.R.C. Hall Day

This too was scheduled on 31st Dec. evening. VSRC houses project students with separate blocks for boys, girls and married couples. The project students of our lab. invited our family in this evening celebration. We discussed at home. Though the daughter is on recovery mode, it appeared that it would be ambitious to attend it. Hence we decided to give it a miss.

Having returned from Garbeta College at 6:30 PM, I was preparing a project proposal to mail to sponsor and the phone of one project student from VSRC came. "Sir, the program has started. We are waiting for you." There was a need to procure something from the market and I made a detour to VSRC to spend half-an-hour with the students. The cultural program was on. Since I had limited time, visited rooms of our lab. students on their invitation, had sweets and photographs there. They are kind enough not to force me for the dinner. The new block of VSRC meant for girls looked contemporary and beautiful. The old ones for boys looked depressing, perhaps needs a fresh coat of whitewash. The girls of course argued that they take more care of their apartments so that they look good. Among the boys, Isr... beat everybody by several notch in maintaining the room. Among the girls, the ones of Resh... and Debapr... were very nicely arranged. Neer.. disappointed me in the sense that his room had pic.s of only Lord Shiva and Swami Vivekananda :-) He is a regular in Wednesday Bhagavad-Gita class here and I was expecting more such pics there. In comparison, Resh.. had a greater much greater company of gods and goddesses in her room!!! Wished everyone Happy New Year in advance and left VSRC at 8:30 PM.

Gods and Goddesses

I leave it entirely to personal choice whether one believes in gods and goddesses. To me what Vivekananda said, "Be good and do good. That is the whole of religion." or "Religion is the manifestation of divinity already in a person." are sufficient. If worship of one form or the other or no form at all, helps one to have meditative mind, do self-analysis and strike a balance in life and not becoming superstitious or fanatic, it can be considered as a great device. If there is a better device, let one go for that.

Few weeks back was traveling by car with Akash on steering wheel. Akash, a young boy, works in a car rental agency and we got his service on several occasions before. That day my mother was there in the car. She noticed that there were pictures of Goddess Kali of Dakshineshwar, Sri Ramakrishna, Ma Sarada in the car. Also, Akash stopped the car at one small road side temple, bowed and threw a coin. To this Akash said, "I never looked at images of Gods and Goddesses or cared about them at younger age. My father used to say that a day might come when I would bow to even road side stones. Now into the profession of car driving, those words have come true." Our faith in gods and goddesses, unless originated from family values or deeper discourses, is proportional to uncertainty faced in life. A regular salaried employee with a guaranteed monthly income, in general, starts the daily chore much differently from a shop-keeper as far as their engagements with gods and goddesses are concerned. Even an otherwise non-believer turns believer when in duress. Does it help? The prayer may help in generating more energy, strength, wisdom which is already in us, not coming from outside. It may help to focus, concentrate. Our mind has great power. Our senses which are oriented outwards, defocusses it and we do not usually feel the power within.

No Smoking

Suraj was the driver in last Kolkata visit. This was the 2nd time I traveled with him. He had to abandon study at Class VIII due to sudden demise of father and started career as a helper of a truck. He takes all care for his sister who is on the verge of completing college education. Suraj wants to study further. Reading is no problem for him but he finds it difficult to write. We discussed if he can use waiting hours at parking to practise writing. That day, he had to park the vehicle at Sector-V, IT hub for some time. I had a discussion for an upcoming research lab. at IIT Khaargpur to be sponsored by the one of the largest Indian MNC in IT sector. In return journey, we stopped at Sher-i-Punjab at Kolaghat for tea. I asked Suraj how he liked Sector-V as it was his first visit. That place is giving employment to lakhs of people and looks so vibrant! Suraj gave an unapproving look at me and said, "What you say is fine but girls working there smoke." I said that there might have been stress in the office work and may be smoking gives some relief. As such everyone now is trying to quit smoking due health concern. Suraj did not look convinced. He said, "The girls were coming in large groups to that shop, close to where I parked the vehicle. Not one or two, all of them were smoking and they did not look stressed. Can so many of them be stressed simultaneously?"

It perhaps was not just a social taboo or gender / class discrimination or cultural shock he was referring to. Perhaps the brother in Suraj was worried about the future of his college going sister aspiring for a job.


New Year Resolution

Let us try sincerely in this new year to come out of the habits that weaken us as an individual or as a nation and embrace the habits that make us strong.

Vizag Tour

My daughter (Brishti) had only 6 day long Christmas leave. We left Kharagpur on 22nd Dec. evening. The 5 day tour was all fun. The scenic beauty is unparallel - the hills merging themselves into the sea, the likes of 'Dolphin Nose'. Brishti spent everyday no less than half-an hour in the sea. Even on 27th evening, before we were set to depart. And it was no surprise that fever came few hours before we were set to board train. That apart every single thing was enjoyable. The hill top film studio, Kailash Giri amusement park, the zoo, submarine, museum - besides the various beaches. I scored a numero uno in some funky sense. Never ever got into sea anytime during the tour, not even the toes got wet! Much did my daughter and her excellency (6th pic from bottom, right side of the frame at Titanic Point of Kaliash Giri)) tried, always found a way out! Two of my pics at film studio is also there - one in OC's chair of the filmy police station (not related to texts where they appear)!!!


Professional Life

This is life as usual like any IIT faculty member. Interacting with students, technical staffs, colleagues, sponsors, collaborators. Trying to reduce no. of sponsored projects to remain focussed. Have had enough to develop a very, very decent lab. infrastructure. Just trying to get funds for existing students and being choosy about new projects. Not renewing projects with two sponsors who supported us for long. Our sincere thanks to them. Shall remain available to them whenever there is any specific need from their side. Shall work with a new sponsor (one Govt. research lab. delivering technology to field) who finds a very good match with our technology portfolio. Shall continue with a physcian sponsored project due to its special nature even if the project value is not high and there is manpower constraint. Seldom we find such a commitment from an individual, a medical expert. Two more interdisciplinary (inter- Dept. projects), One-Two new industry funded collaborative projects - and my hands are full. Cannot take any more. Moreover, would like to finish the book project asap. This is a commitment for long. Admin. responsibility is increasing and cannot help there too. This is what is lined up in 2012, as far as I can see. 

I must say one thing here. The industries with whom we interacted and FICCI have been quite appreciative of our work. This inspires us a lot. On 21st Dec., there was a video shoot in our lab. by media people for an upcoming documentary. There was a dfference this time. In several places, I had to walk from a distance towards the camera. It was difficult for me to give a serious look at my face and there had to be few retakes.

India vs. Bharat

Observations to come later ... occupied with grade preparation ... DND notice pasted all over ...

Times of India reports on 07.12.2011

TIME TO THINK

Income inequality doubles in India in 20 yrs

TIMES INSIGHT GROUP

New Delhi: Inequality in earnings has doubled in India over the last two decades, making it the worst performer on this count of all emerging economies. The top 10% of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10%, up from a ratio of six in the 1990s.
    Moreover, wages are not smoothly spread out even through the middle of the distribution. The top 10% of earners make almost five times more than the median 10%, but this median 10% makes just 0.4 times more than the bottom 10%.
    “The main driver has been an increase in wage inequality between regular wage earners ie contractual employees hired over a period of time,” says the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in a new report on inequality in the developed world and emerging economies. “By contrast, inequality in the casual wage sector — workers employed on a day-today basis — has remained more stable,” the report says.
    South Africa is the only emerging economy with worse earnings inequality, but it has halved this number since the last decade. “The combination of marked spatial divides, persistently high shares of informal sector jobs and disparities in access to education accounts for much of the widespread variation in earnings from work in the EEs,” the report says.
    Wage inequality has driven more general income inequality in the country.
India has got more unequal over the last two decades — India’s Gini coefficient, the official measure of income inequality, has gone from 0.32 to 0.38, with 0 being the ideal score. In the early 1990s, income inequality in India was close to that of developed countries; however its performance on inequality has diverged greatly since then, bringing it closer to China on inequality than the developed world.
    There is evidence of growing concentration of wealth among the elite. The consumption of the top 20% of households grew at almost 3% per year in the 2000s as compared to 2% in the 1990s, while the growth in consumption of the bottom 20% of households remained unchanged at 1% per year.
    In comparison, the income of the bottom 20% of households in China grew at double the rate in the 2000s as compared to the 1990s, while the increase for the top 20% of households was much slower. In Brazil, household incomes have been growing faster among the poorest households than among the richest for the last two decades.
    Of all the emerging economies, India has by far the highest proportion of informal employment, by any national or international measure. “In India… informal employment includes a disproportionate number of women, homebased workers, street sellers and workers subcontracted by firms in the formal sector,” the OECD report says.
    India spends less than 5% of its GDP on social protection schemes as compared to Brazil’s more than 15%. Its tax revenue as a proportion of GDP is under 20% — the lowest of all emerging economies, and just half that of developed countries.

Yours sincerely

Dear student,

Welcome to our research group. Hope, this association will be mutually beneficial. You will learn from the group. We shall also learn from you.

The beginning of a research career starts with placing right questions that comes from a probing mind. In the initial phase, you will mostly contribute to the group by asking questions, looking beyond obvious - mostly 'why's and 'why not's. There is no question that can be called 'silly'. An inquisitive mind filled with innocence looks at the world with bewilderment, like a child - amused, excited, - a child having untiring zeal, indomitable spirit to ask endless questions. In the pursuit of knowledge which is infinite, we all are like a child and should possess such a quality. You will learn from the group, skill set we have already acquired. But you have to make it your own by not taking them as blackbox and asking relevant questions.

I was waiting for this day for your induction to the team. There could have been a better start had you performed better in the test. It is not easy for somebody to come back to academics after so many years and getting only few weeks to prepare with a completely different type of project responsibility to attend to in parallel. You had been brave to appear for the test with such a short preparation. Have faith in yourself. Your P.I. (who talked to me earlier) is very much satisfied with your contribution to the project. Feel proud of what you achieved in such a short stay at IIT Kharagpur. You will definitely earn what you deserve.

As far as reaching life's milestones, my little experience is that life gives opportunity. Our job is to remain prepared and make the most of opportunities when it come. The preparation is in our hand. It is not always possible to create opportunities ourselves. We are entitled to feel bad if we do not exert ourselves enough in the preparatory phase and let go an opportunity. You have worked hard since you joined and your responsibility ends there. There is no reason to feel bad. Take the feedback from the test - written and interview in right spirit and work on it. It is important to maintain a positive attitude and prepare oneself for the next opportunity. It will come.

Be strong. Vivekananda says, "Strength is life, weakness is death." "Life is short. The vanities of the world are transient. They only live who live for others. The rest are more dead than alive." The milestones achieved in life are not for self or are vanity stuffs to flaunt about. It is owning up of more responsibility, telling people that I am to deliver more (not from a point of ego, true education never does that), they should expect more responsibility to be shouldered by me, they should make me aware if I am failing in my duty vis-a-vis capacity I possess. Reaching milestones are important as that gives us more capacity to serve. Let us hope and pray that each of us can raise ourselves to achieve more not just for self but for the society at large which in a nation like us constitutes of millions of underprivileged.

Let us find sometime tomorrow and discuss how you may chart next part of the journey. Allow me to end this longish welcome message with one of my favourite Lord Buddha quote, "Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."


We all know that "Lives of great men all remind us that we can make our lives sublime." I may suggest at least 5-10 minutes of study of lives of great men and women in everyday's routine. My own experience is that I have found Vivekananda quotes from "Call to the Nation" (Link) or his letters to young disciples like Alasinga (One Link), Nivedita (One link) very inspiring.

Welcome again and cheers!

Yours sincerely,
 
GS

P.S. The older one grows, the more one starts giving sermons!!! And I am not getting younger day by day. Pls. get used to that as you join this group :-)

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali to all! Wish I could send individual mails or cards to all I know, that includes who remembered and sent greetings cards but left no email id / phone no./full address. Perhaps, a post on this blog is the only way to reach out to all and say, "Thanks".

Diwali in IIT Kharagpur is unmatched with its Illumination and Rangoli. I find that this post (Link) from a student captures it beautifully.

It was wonderful to meet faculty colleagues and students yesterday evening while moving from one pandal to another with family and exchange greetings on the way. I must say that the IIT campuses are unparalleled and IIT Kharagpur campus is perhaps the best on human quotient.

Silenced

Three months back, there was a conversation with a mother (stationed abroad on an assignment) on google, me not knowing the tragedy that occurred recently. She was referring to the Arthur Ashe quote in the section 'A friend in need' of a previous post (Link) in the chat. Suddenly I realized that the 10 year old son was no more. The physicians tried their best but it was one of those rare diseases. Tears knew no bound when the mother said that she wished but could not be my student and wanted to bring the son to me someday. Wish I can rise to the expectation of parents / guardians / students and be worthy enough to be called a teacher. Let me share the talk (Link) that comes to my mind whenever such a discourse arises. The link may not open in some browsers.

Steve Jobs Quote

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

Digging Deep

What we see in the surface is not what one is but what one wants to show. "If hard work is what pays then the donkey would have been the king of a forest and not lion." I placed the quote before a class of 100 students. The class said that they do not agree with it. I told, "I am not asking if you agree or not. What do you think of the person who writes this in his public portrayal?" May appear that he is in control of himself, very strong and knows what he is doing. An expert in psychology may say. With 284 facebook friend, his other public note was, "hell is d new hanging adda, when nobody is wid me." Wonder any of his friend could see it and make out what he has in his mind. An IIT final year with no backlog, no apparent reason to develop such a distaste of life at this age! And IIT Kharagpur was again news for a student who bade adieu to life.  Requested all to share with us (teachers, elders) issues they face. May be the experience of the struggle each of us go through help one another. My experience can be found in a previous post (Link). What does great teachers like Vivekananda say? He asks the youth to be strong and exhorts (Link1, Link2, Link3) in his call to the nation "Go from village to village, do good to humanity and to the world at large. . …… ‘When death is certain, it is better to die for a good cause.’"

Student Welfare Group

Jumped on a Student Welfare Group, IIT Kharagpur under Dean, SA website (Link) which is recently launched. Had a conversation with one of the content developer who worked in NSS last year. He was one of the lead volunteer and thus we got acquainted. A very good effort from IIT Kharagpur students. I also liked the shoutbox of scholars avenue blog (Link).  Let all stake holders of IIT system come and work together to see that every flower blooms.

And there was light

It was wonderful to read in the newspaper that students of one High School did not buy new dress materials in this Durga Puja and urged their parents to donate the money for costly treatment of a needy classmate. The other day television news showed friends coming together to make a pandal which looks like 'Academy of Fine Arts' of Kolkata. There the paintings of one club member who is a rickshaw puller by profession and painter by passion are displayed. The rickshaw puller painter does not have money to exhibit his work in Academy of Fine Arts at Kolkata. The friends decided to create one for him in the locality.

Real vs. virtual friend  I often worry about the abundance of virtual friends in recent times. These days we prefer to converse on chat with my next door neighbour than taking a walk together. May be the virtual platform helps the shy to unshackle themselves in the beginning. But a real friend is the one which never goes off-line.  I remember the Chanakya Shloka we memorized in our Sanskrit class of Class VIII. "Utsabe byasane chaiba durbhikkhe rashtrabiplabe / Rajadware, Shashmane Cha Jasthishthati Sa Bandhaba." A weak translation would be : He is a friend who is with you in fun, in famine, in revolution, in front of the king, in crematorium. It is not just fun which gets shared but more challenging situations such as those. The English adage says : A friend in need is a friend indeed. Let us hope to get one, let us be one.

Directors Speak

The Diamond Jubilee convocation function had a very interesting panel discussions on 22nd August, 2011 morning at Netaji Auditorium. We had former IIT Kharagpur Directors Padmashree Prof. K. L. Chopra and Prof. Amitabha Ghosh; current Directors of IIT Bhubaneshwar, IIT Ropar, IIT Indore and Prof. P. Chakraborty from IIT Kanpur. Prof. M. S. Swaminathan of TIME magazine fame, member of Planning Commission and National Advisory Council also graced the panel. What followed is a feast of thoughts, an introspection on 60 years of IIT system and the way ahead. I could not locate any report on this and hence presenting here what I could take as running notes.

Prof. Chopra initiates the discussion by saying that we are supposed to be think-tanks. We may have been so for UG studies. But emphasis is too much on UG studies. Integrated M.Tech., PhD should be preferred. To shift from teaching based to learning based i.e. outcome based, learning how to learn. He emphasized on breaking barriers among Departments, reducing no. of credits to be cleared by students. He gave example of MIT where 130 credits are enough (compared to IIT's 175) and 30% of this is constituted by core subjects and students enjoy a lot of flexibility in selecting subjects. He expects new IITs to show new way and does not like the idea of being mentored by older IITs (as it hinders new thinking). He wishes to see DST change how it functions.

Prof. Amitabha Ghosh was the next speaker. He stressed on importance of planning and preparing the country to be at centre stage of 3rd industrial revolution. He talked about revamping curriculum at least in a few IITs and opening the door of IITs to world students (at least MTech and PhD) on its way to become world institutes.

Prof. M. K. Surappa, Director, IIT Ropar spoke next. He explained the challenges in setting up of  a new institute. He emphasized on quality focus. All IITs together have 6000 publications a year with citation index 5-6. MIT publishes 4000 a year but citation index is 20. He worried about languishing university system and if IITs can help them, NITs to get good students for research. He talked about creation of new knowledge that will be put in application over next 20 years; in areas like waste management, water, energy, healthcare etc.

Prof. M. Chakraborty, Director, IIT Bhubaneshwar talked about issues faced by a head of a new IIT. He mentioned how his IIT is unique in offering interdisciplinary exposure to students, to strike  balance between domain knowledge and broad area. Every final year project must have supervisors from two different departments.

Director, Indore explained the present infrastructure situation at his IIT and challenges faced. He told that it is easier for newer IITs to adopt a change. In his IIT, a student has to undergo six month's industry / shopfloor experience.

Prof. Partha Chakraborty of IIT Kanpur said that IIT education should make one socially aware, become a good citizen, contribute to nation building - becoming broad based. Research environment should be there in the country. Many smaller universities feed Stanford. This should hold for IITs too.

Prof. Swaminathan spoke last in the first round. He said that the 60 years of IIT was not only the time to celebrate but also to introspect where we had gone wrong. He talked about reducing food spoilage, environmental impact of new technology, helping nationwide poverty alleviation programs like MGNAREGA with technology. He said that it is better to look for individuals and build institutions around that individual.

Then it was a kind of open house.

Prof. Chopra observed how MIT focused on infrastructure in first 75 years, industry in second 75 years and planning (health, global) in third 75 years but there are no such things for IITs. More than the money, the power of mind holds key. How could C. V. Raman, S. N. Bose, Meghnad Saha perform with junk equipments!

Prof. Ghosh narrated one anecdote where a young faculty wanted to leave IIT for a foreign university not for money or comfort, but for poor quality of research students he was getting. He said that even a mediocre US university get bright students from India, China. He wondered how US universities would perform if foreign students are not there. Prof. Chopra observed that the IIT students go out for money as well as lack of inspiration from IIT teacher. Prof. Ghosh said that the prestige in our country increases i one goes outside the country or publishes work in foreign journals.

Prof. M. Chakraborty brought the topic of collaboration among faculty members. He said that the competitors can be collaborators and it is worthwhile to work in a group. There were a lot of questions from the audience. The discussion came to an abrupt end when the hard time cut-off was reached. But it was great experience to listen to these experienced people and get educated.

Rejoinder:

Prof. K. L. Chopra's interview as published in IIT Kharagpur's student mouth piece 'Scholars Avenue' (Link) leaves more food for thought. Excerpts from the interview as appeared in the link is pasted below.

There are presently 3,500 private technical colleges and 350 private universities to do the job of producing over 93% of the engineering graduates in India. It is wiser then to concentrate on quality rather than increase the number and intake of IITs which will not significantly change the overall percentage of graduating engineering manpower for the country. The magnified numbers today have become a burden on the existing IITs. Just imagine herding 4 students in one room in the hostel.

As for educating a class full of two hundred students, even Feynman, the great physicist, the great actor, declared his efforts at Caltech a failure. “It is the inspiration from the teacher that makes you a scientist or an engineer,” and this, KL Chopra says, cannot happen unless there is an eye-to-eye contact and direct interaction between the teacher and the student. The IITs were supposed to be the think-tanks of the country, but he believes the kind of reforms being incorporated is converting them to regular universities.


“The vision of education in IITs was to create knowledge, which is more important than dissemination. Also, the focus needs to be on translational research,” says KL Chopra. It isn’t that people in the IIT system aren’t competent, but there is nobody accounting for the deliverance of knowledge in a country whose economy is heavily dependent on science and technology. He believes this is a form of intellectual corruption: a condition where no questions are asked. “Fortunately the government did not know what was going on with the IT industry and thus it flourished very well.”

We learned that India is a signatory to the Washington Accord, a document with benchmarks for education quality. The IITs come under its purview and will have to be judged sometime, an evaluation KL Chopra says they will not necessarily pass. While IITans have hitherto enjoyed global mobility, foreign organizations now realize that given the bulk of students, a spectrum is bound to exist. While he believes a transition to a system involving thorough evaluation is going to be difficult for students as well as teachers, that is what the world today demands. It is not what is taught that is important, but whether and what students have learned, and whether they have learned to learn.

Listening To

This was 18th August, 2011 Foundation Day lecture at Netaji Auditorium by Mr. Sandipan Chakravortty, our alumnus and M.D. of a TATA enterprise. I tried with our alumni office who in turn made a contact with Mr. Chakravortty. But as it appeared this was an extempore and he did not carry any written material that can be mailed. Therefore, I present here what I could scribble in the invitation card that I carried to the auditorium.

Mr. Chakravortty told the students, "As IITians, first brand yourself as human being. Being IITians, you are different from others. You are inspirational leader with a backbone of integrity." He talked about wide spread corruption and felt proud when he said that there are "no IITians in this space and IITians hold head high."

He continued on what Industry wants from an young engineer, a being who is physically and mentally healthy; has good domain knowledge; good communication ability, believes in team work, integrity, by nature ambitious, dynamic, innovative. He observed that we grow up as individuals in school. However, the IIT life teaches team work.

Next, he said, "You must have spiritual feelings." By this he meant listening to the call of conscience. He differentiated 'good' and 'great' by this yard stick. Good people are efficient. Great people are efficient and listen to the call of conscience.

He warned if 'lust of knowledge' is replaced by 'lust of money' among IIT students. He feels hurt when media highlights highest salary received by an IIT student from campus placement as a scoring point of one IIT over another. Finally, he said that TATA enterprises are highest tax payers and do not do accounting tricks to reduce tax burden. The guiding philosophy of J. R. D. Tata "is not to look at profits but how much tax that has been paid. Paying tax is a matter of pride."