IIT INTAKE UP BY 10,000 IN FIVE
YEARS
BASIC
RESEARCH SHOULD BE INTEGRAL TO IIT - Dr. JOSHI
The student intake
in IITs has gone up by nearly 10,000 in the last five years. From
14,906 in 1997-98, it has increased to 24,828 in 2002-03. The
substantial increase has taken place in post-graduate education
and research. This was disclosed by the Minister of Human Resource
Development, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi while chairing a meeting
of the Council of IITs here yesterday.
Dr. Joshi also said
that there has been a near five-fold increase in grants to IITs.
From Rs.51.75 crore in 1997-98, it went upto Rs.224.75 crore during
2002-03. Non-plan funding also more than doubled from Rs.172.76
crore to Rs.449.02 crore during the period. Out of non-plan funding
about 30 per cent went towards research giving it higher weightage.
Laying emphasis on
basic research Dr. Joshi told the Council that fundamental science
should become integral to IIT curriculum. Without basic research
we cannot be masters of technology. Hence, the IITs should develop
a culture for fundamental research which is core to the development
of science and evolvement of technology. For this, the IITs should
have more interaction with the Industry. There has to be a better
synergy between the two, he said.
Expressing dissatisfaction
over both the quality and quantity of research papers produced
by IITs, Dr. Joshi called for fixing a norm for both quality and
quantity. The research papers published by IITs over the years
have remained not only stagnant but also suffered in quality.
The Minister was also not happy about IITs lagging behind in patent
filing. He said technical research must result in patents, as
a natural corollary. If it is not so, it means the research is
not focussed and will not be contributing to commercialisation
of the technology. The IITs research and development of technologies,
must be relevant to our requirements, Dr. Joshi added.
The meeting was attended
among others by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government
of India, Dr. R. Chidambaram; DG, CSIR, Dr. R.A.Mashelkar; Chairman,
AICTE, Dr. Natarajan; UGC Vice Chairman, Prof. Nigavekar and Secretary,
Ministry of Information Technology, Shri K.K.Jaswal.
