Sibal disagrees with Ramesh, praises faculties of IIT and IIM

Human Resources and Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday disagreed with his ministerial colleague Jairam Ramesh’s remarks on IITs and IIMs, saying the faculties of these institutions are “world class”.

He said if the IITs have not gained the critical mass to change the global scientific discourse, it is because of the “ecosystem” and not because of the faculties.

“Twenty-five per cent of the IIT faculty are students of IITs who have done B Tech. Surely, the 25 per cent students who are world class must be world class faculty,” he told reporters here in reference to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh’s remarks that the faculties of IITs and IIMs were not world class.

Without taking Ramesh’s name, Sibal said he was entitled to make his comments. “The comment made by him must be seen in the light of the general view within the community that the calibre of contributions by the scientific community does not really match world standards,” he said.

He said the premier institutes in the country rank among the top 50 in the global index, with IIT Bombay placed at No 21, IIT Delhi at 24, IIT Kanpur at 37 and IIT Madras at 39. In terms of publication, too, he said, the rate was 15 to 17 per cent in the IITs, as against the global rate of four per cent.

However, noting that IITs have not gained that critical mass to change the global scientific discourse, he said, “It has something to do with the ecosystem.”

“If the US spends $250 billion on research, India spends $8 billion. You cannot create that critical mass. That’s not because of faculty,” he said.

Sibal felt the discourses on these premier institutes should be based on “evidence and not on perceptions”.

He said while IITs were meant to produce B Tech graduates initially, there was a gradual realisation that they should also go for path breaking research, produce more M Tech students.

He said the ministry was already embarking on the reforms process including initiation of “enormous” changes in the administrative structure within the IIT system which would allow the faculty to do the kind of critical mass research and empower the scientific community.

“In 7-10 years, our R&D institutions will have gained that global eminence for which they could not have been faulted in the past,” he said, adding most of solutions for research are going to emerge from India even for management in the coming years. He said the government was adding more institutions to the system and noted that “shift of research is taking place looking at Indian problems and solutions which will be global”.