Poor Infrastruture at new IITs creating problems for students

Plagued by poor infrastructure and faculty shortage, the eight new IITs in the country are struggling to meet the deadline for moving into fully operational campuses.

WHEN the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur admitted its first batch of students in August 1951, classes were held in a World War era detention camp and the administrative office was located in the Bomber Command used by the US Air Force during the war days. Half a century later, the fate of eight new IITs set up in 2008 across the country is no better. All of them are operating out of rented buildings, makeshift camps and campuses of other polytechnics or engineering colleges.

None of them are likely to meet the deadline of June 2013 set for moving into fully operational campuses. The first batch of students, set to pass out from new IITs this year, would have no real experience of life in an IIT campus.

“ We dont have enough classrooms in the building and different batches have to be accommodated in the same class,” said Hima Varsha, a first year B Tech ( Computer Engineering) student at IIT Hyderabad.

However, she said, laboratories are comfortable with all modern equipments. Since August 2008, IIT- H has been functioning from a temporary campus located at Yeddumailaram village in Medak district. “ We cannot say it is a very spacious campus or we have excellent infrastructure. It is just enough for us to manage classes. Sometimes we are compelled to run classes on evenings and also on Saturdays to accommodate all the lectures,” admits Dr F A Khan, academic dean of the institute.
In other cities, students and faculty members have to shuttle between two locations. The IIT in Bhubanewsar is operating from two temporary campuses in the city — IIT Kharagpur Extension Centre in Samantpuri and Toshali Bhavan. THE Ministry of Human Resources Development has recently been pulled by the parliamentary committee on higher education for delays in construction of permanent campuses. The ministry says land allotted for eight IITs has been handed over to them. The master plan is ready and architects have been finalised for building permanent campus by IITs at Hyderabad, Patna, Bhubaneswar, Mandi and Indore, while construction is in progress at Ropar and Jodhpur. “ All the IITs have been advised to put in place a mechanism for rigorous monitoring of the project”, the ministry has said.

" We are planning to start construction of the permanent campus very soon. By June 2014, some part of the campus will be ready and we would be able to start shifting from the temporary campus as well," said Ashwini Kumar, Professor In- Charge for Planning and Resources at IIT Gandhinagar, which is currently operating from the building of Vishwakarma Government Engineering College ( VGEC) in Ahmedabad.
While funding has not been a major hurdle for new IITs, part of the delay is due to political reasons.

IIT Jodhpur is a case in point. Ever since an IIT for Rajasthan— and not for Jodhpur – was sanctioned by the central government in July 2007, the issue of the city where it should be established became a political- shuttlecock among politicians. Meanwhile, the first academic session of the new IIT was started in 2008 at the IIT Kanpur campus with 109 undergraduate students in three streams including computer science, mechanical and electrical engineering. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot finally took a decision in favour of Jodhpur — his home town — on the basis of recommendations of a committee set up by him. In late 2009, the centre granted final approval for Jodhpur and the IIT shifted from Kanpur to a transit campus at MBM College in Jodhpur. FACULTY shortage is another issue that new IITs are grappling with. 

Each of the new IITs was sanctioned 30 faculty posts every year for the first three years. By this criterion, all the IITs should have at least 90 faculty members. But even in the fifth year of their operation, none of them have reached this level except Hyderabad which claims to have 100 faculty members.

The numbers in other IITs are — Patna ( 63), Jodhpur ( 55), Patna ( 55), Gandhi Nagar ( 75), Bhubaneshwar ( 79), Mandi ( 35) and Indore ( 38). Considering the fact that these IITs are not only offering B Tech in various streams but also M Tech and Ph D, faculty position is definitely precarious. However, the situation is different in some centres where the number of students is low. “ 

Though faculty shortage is an obvious handicap generally, we have a teacher- student ratio of 1: 10 since there are 570 students in the institute” pointed out Dr Vivek Vijay, spokesperson of IIT Jodhpur.

Even the older IITs are also facing faculty shortages. “ The faculty position needs to be improved if we want to attain academic excellence globally.

Currently the total number of faculty is about 575- 600 and the number of total students is about 10,000. The current faculty- student ratio is 1: 18 which we want to bring down to 1: 10 in next two years,” said B. K Mathur, dean ( administration and coordination) at IIT Kharagpur.

Source: mailtoday.in

New record: IIM-Ranchi marked 100% placement

This season of placements at Indian Institute of Management witnessed some exceptional numbers. After IIM-A beat the market blues in the placement season now its time for IIM-C to continue the legacy. Economic slowdown not withstanding, the slot zero of Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C)'s final placement process saw finance and consulting majors recruiting students from the campus. As it comes to close IIM-Ranchi has once again topped in terms of placements. The institute has become the first B-school to wrap up its final placements in the group of newly established IIMs in the country.

The committee members who organized the placement at Indian Institute of Management left no stone unturned and have finally found suitable job offers for the large-sized batch comprising 154 candidates from leading companies in the field of marketing, HR, operations and analytics.

The officials of IIM-R placement cell, claims that it has become the 1st IIM among those which have been recently established to get cent percent placements.

"The batch of 154 management trainees was 2.5 times bigger than the previous batch. IIM-R has faired well in the final placements with job offers for students from 65 domestic and international companies, in addition to 34 new companies in the list," said Sunny Sumanshu of the placement cell.

Officials in the placement committee said, "Among the B-school graduates from the new IIMs, IIM-R students have received the highest stipend, which is close to Rs 1.70 lakh in the domestic market, while the average stipend is Rs 52, 000."

Among the top global and Indian firms, which came for recruitmets this month, are HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Societe Generale, ICICI, Yes Bank, Kotak Mahindra, ING Vysya, First Rand Bank, Fullerton Securities, Unicon Securities, and IL&FS from the finance domain, whereas from HR the recruiters included Michael Page, RPG, Beckton Dickinson, UB Spirits, Heidrick and Struggles, ABC consultants, HT Media, Mizuho Securities, Maruti, Godfrey Phillips, Escorts, WWF, Berger Paints, IL&FS, Globe capital and Stanton Chase. KPMG offered live projects to 6 students of the PGDHRM batch.

Apart from several MNC banks visiting the campus, the IIM students will also be working for a boutique investment banking firm based in Mumbai.

The official added, "A manufacturer of snowmobiles, ATV and neighbourhood electric vehicles based in the US recruited exclusively from IIM-R. A major international sports retailer and manufacturer also offered marketing projects to our students. Niche profiles offered in the domain were Sports Management, International Marketing, Brand Management, Retail Management and e-commerce."

He even claimed that with an objective of becoming a leading institute in the field of business analytics, IIM-R signed an MoU with IBM for setting up a business analytics lab.

The institute also organized the first business analytics conclave, which witnessed participation from companies including AT Kearney, Capitol One, HP, IBM, HSBC Analytics and Fiserv. The recruiters who participated were PwC, Hewlett Packard, IBM, KPMG, Index Advisory, DataWise and IL&FS.

The final placements for the newbie IIM-R has surpassed expectations with record placements in such a short span of time.


Source: TOI

Kota - The Epicentre of Coaching in Competitive Exam Season

There are roughly 1.5 lakh young boys and girls that are presently studying in one or the other coaching institutes in the city. As per the official website of Kota, there exists 129 big and small coaching institutes in this city in Hadauti region of Rajasthan. They teach basically for joint engineering entrance tests — IIT- JEE (JEE Main+ Advance)/ AIEEE (JEE Main) — and pre- medical tests.

What V. K. Bansal, founder of Bansal classes and now its chairmancum- managing director, started as tuition classes in 1981 has now become the famous Bansal Classes Pvt Ltd. Following Bansal’s footsteps, several coaching institutes have mushroomed in Kota and it forms a major part of the ` 20,000 crore coaching industry in India.

Most of the premier coaching institutes have their new campuses in Kota’s Indraprasth Industrial Area developed by the Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation ( RIICO), the state enterprise for industrial promotion.

Several electronic units sold out their industrial sheds to coaching institutes and the the industrial area has promptly changed into a commercial one.

Cut- throat competition A student has to pay as much as ` 1 lakh tuition fee and an equal amount on lodging and boarding, Anonymous said. It makes the coaching market of Kota worth ` 300 crore. As such, unlike traditional tuition centres, top institutes not only look, behave and have a corporate approach but are engaged in cut- throat competition. Latest to join the market is Eduwave launched by three Jain- brothers who were the faculty members at Bansal Classes.

The corporate character is also attracting big investment companies. Equity broker and financial services group CLSA and Milestone Religare, which have their headquarters in Hong Kong, have reportedly invested ` 100 crore and ` 60 crore respectively in Resonance Eduventures.

Franklin Templeton and Nadathur Group, owned by N. S. Raghavan of Infosys, have invested ` 50 crore and ` 54 crore respectively in the rival Career Point.

“ This unhealthy competition has had its negative impact on the students as they lose faith in the system of education that Kota was known for. Students don’t know when their teacher will shift to another institute,” Bansal said. In some cases bright students, too are stolen by rival institutes by offering financial allurement in the form of scholarships and even cash, he added.

The annual pay package of a teacher ranges between ` 15 lakh to ` 50 lakh and may go up to ` 2 crore in the case of a star teacher, Jain said.

“ It is in this background that getting an opportunity to teach in an institute has become a status symbol even for those employed in government schools,” social activist Brijesh Vijayvargia said.

The mushrooming of coaching institutes has not only given an economic boost with several hostels and paying guest accommodations coming up in the vicinity of the institutes but has also placed Kota in a prominent place on India’s academic map.

Source: Mailtoday.in