I am a student at IIT Kanpur. IIT is one of those few names in India that are comparable to if not bigger than “Brand India” itself. Every other day we read volumes in the newspapers about what this breed of graduates and postgraduates who were in one of the IIT’s or IIM’s and are changing the world. In the “SACRED” places like Silicon Valley or Times Square, having brand IIT or IIM on your CV can open the gates to success and laurels for you.
First Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had realized that to keep pace with the ever changing world of science and technology, it is necessary to collaborate closely with the outside world. Thus due to his vision five IIT’s were formed at Khadagpur, Kanpur, Delhi Bombay and Chennai with collaboration and assistance from the leading universities and intuitions from the countries like US, Germany, USSR etc. and since then many more have been added to this list.
Over the years these institutes of National Importance had evolved and grown into the centre of excellence in the field of Science and Technology. These institutes (like a factory) are now producing nearly 3000 graduates and many, many more post graduates each year.
Recently I read a report in Times of India that about 50% of successful entrepreneurs in India are the pass outs from these IIT’s and IIM’s. It surely makes me proud about the institute and being part of it. But the very next question that came to my mind was is all this actually helping India or Bharat as we Gen Y people refer to it.
We at IIT are made to live in a virtual world. Students of these elite institutes don’t have a much interaction with the local people, local Infrastructure or any other local thing or flavour of the place. I know IIT Kanpur more than any other IIT thus will quote examples of what I saw here than at any other place, even when I know that the story is more or less same at other places too.
City of Kanpur is in a sorry state but IIT Kanpur is a booming and happing place. In most of the areas of Kanpur you can actually not find even traces of road, but inside the campus you can see roads as smooth as silk. In the city, load shedding of 6-8 hours is a norm, but inside the campus, we are informed through a mail 2 days in advance about even 5 minutes of power cut. The institute which has Kanpur as an integral part of its name is simply out of bounds to the people of Kanpur. For our various festivals in campus we proudly spend about 1-1.5 crore in about 7-10 days, but we rarely think of helping the city to improve its infrastructure.
At in these colleges the students are not able to interact with the locals, they are just not aware about their issues, so when they graduate from this college they just can not relate to “AAM AADMI”. Thus for them these people are just part of infrastructure that is to be used for some time. I feel this lack of association more than affiliation with the locals is a major issue due to which India faced brain drain for so many years. Though now we are observing that more and more people are coming back to India or opting not to search for opportunities abroad, they still are far away from these people. Even the ones who are having some interactions with commoners are still interacting with the top 30-40% of the population (Mind you even the person who is at 50% line in terms of his net asset would be having at least ten thousand times less assets than any of the internet users in this country) and not with the vast majority of the nation, for whom the biggest challenge of the day is to arrange for the bread at the end of the day.
These colleges have surely produced more entrepreneurs than any other place in the country, and they are surely producing huge amount of wealth at a brisk pace. But it is the wealth only a few people earning, but what about the people who are at the bottom of the pyramid? What about the ones who were displaced from the very place which is now the centre of excellence? What about those who are not allowed to enter into these places of “National Importance”, the places which are the large giants that gallop a huge some of money that the common people paid for the nation’s development in the form of taxes?
India is surely gaining a lot from these centres of excellences in terms of the GDP growth and technological improvement. Indeed not only India but the whole world today looks at them with respect. The efforts these sharp and curious minds have made can not be equalled leave surpassing. But these gains are just restricted to India and are not getting transferred to Bharat, the poor India that still fights for the basic issues like “Roti aur Paani”.
I feel that the only radical step that is required to make India more equal and grow faster on each and every scale and not only on GDP indexes, is to make the two India’s stand face at least once in the life time. And what can be the better place for this than these great institutes. With a small interaction of about 2-3 months of the best and brightest minds of the country with these people can mark an impression on these people. And thus I hope slowly but surely they will try holding hands of BHARAT and make it walk shoulder to shoulder with India. This might reduce the speed of India’s growth a bit but then as the say it, “Rome was not built in a day”.
First Prime Minister of India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had realized that to keep pace with the ever changing world of science and technology, it is necessary to collaborate closely with the outside world. Thus due to his vision five IIT’s were formed at Khadagpur, Kanpur, Delhi Bombay and Chennai with collaboration and assistance from the leading universities and intuitions from the countries like US, Germany, USSR etc. and since then many more have been added to this list.
Over the years these institutes of National Importance had evolved and grown into the centre of excellence in the field of Science and Technology. These institutes (like a factory) are now producing nearly 3000 graduates and many, many more post graduates each year.
Recently I read a report in Times of India that about 50% of successful entrepreneurs in India are the pass outs from these IIT’s and IIM’s. It surely makes me proud about the institute and being part of it. But the very next question that came to my mind was is all this actually helping India or Bharat as we Gen Y people refer to it.
We at IIT are made to live in a virtual world. Students of these elite institutes don’t have a much interaction with the local people, local Infrastructure or any other local thing or flavour of the place. I know IIT Kanpur more than any other IIT thus will quote examples of what I saw here than at any other place, even when I know that the story is more or less same at other places too.
City of Kanpur is in a sorry state but IIT Kanpur is a booming and happing place. In most of the areas of Kanpur you can actually not find even traces of road, but inside the campus you can see roads as smooth as silk. In the city, load shedding of 6-8 hours is a norm, but inside the campus, we are informed through a mail 2 days in advance about even 5 minutes of power cut. The institute which has Kanpur as an integral part of its name is simply out of bounds to the people of Kanpur. For our various festivals in campus we proudly spend about 1-1.5 crore in about 7-10 days, but we rarely think of helping the city to improve its infrastructure.
At in these colleges the students are not able to interact with the locals, they are just not aware about their issues, so when they graduate from this college they just can not relate to “AAM AADMI”. Thus for them these people are just part of infrastructure that is to be used for some time. I feel this lack of association more than affiliation with the locals is a major issue due to which India faced brain drain for so many years. Though now we are observing that more and more people are coming back to India or opting not to search for opportunities abroad, they still are far away from these people. Even the ones who are having some interactions with commoners are still interacting with the top 30-40% of the population (Mind you even the person who is at 50% line in terms of his net asset would be having at least ten thousand times less assets than any of the internet users in this country) and not with the vast majority of the nation, for whom the biggest challenge of the day is to arrange for the bread at the end of the day.
These colleges have surely produced more entrepreneurs than any other place in the country, and they are surely producing huge amount of wealth at a brisk pace. But it is the wealth only a few people earning, but what about the people who are at the bottom of the pyramid? What about the ones who were displaced from the very place which is now the centre of excellence? What about those who are not allowed to enter into these places of “National Importance”, the places which are the large giants that gallop a huge some of money that the common people paid for the nation’s development in the form of taxes?
India is surely gaining a lot from these centres of excellences in terms of the GDP growth and technological improvement. Indeed not only India but the whole world today looks at them with respect. The efforts these sharp and curious minds have made can not be equalled leave surpassing. But these gains are just restricted to India and are not getting transferred to Bharat, the poor India that still fights for the basic issues like “Roti aur Paani”.
I feel that the only radical step that is required to make India more equal and grow faster on each and every scale and not only on GDP indexes, is to make the two India’s stand face at least once in the life time. And what can be the better place for this than these great institutes. With a small interaction of about 2-3 months of the best and brightest minds of the country with these people can mark an impression on these people. And thus I hope slowly but surely they will try holding hands of BHARAT and make it walk shoulder to shoulder with India. This might reduce the speed of India’s growth a bit but then as the say it, “Rome was not built in a day”.
4 comments:
first of all an amzing article..like i told u before u should have joined politics..this only proves that better..but really a well written article an amazing info gathering done for this
Interesting, thanks for sharing it Shashank. I have only one comment towards the last part of your piece. My understanding is that people living in 'India' do not even understand - even a bit, as to what it means to be in Bharat. For instance what do people in IITK, say your and my colleagues, understand about the people who came to the wed meeting? So first advantage of Indians trying to reach out to Bharat is that they will be able to come out of their virtual world and stand educated... Any true solution can come only only out of real learning...
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
I wish not agree on it. I over nice post. Especially the appellation attracted me to review the sound story.
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