No need for outsourcing technology: IIT Kanpur

A new confidence was evident in the IIT-Kanpur campus that was brimming with the pride to have developed new products. SG Dhande, the institute's director, declared that the days of sourcing technology from abroad were over.

"The era when an industrialist formed a company and went abroad to sign a technology agreement to start production are a thing of the past," he said with aplomb.

During the pre-convocation press conference, he said through a unique format, industry and IIT-Kanpur, trilateral collaboration, major new products were being developed. Two centres, Samtel institute of Display Technology and Technology Mission on Railways, have already carried out research under this format.

Another centre for nano-technology, for which the institute has received Rs 20 cr grant from the Department of Science and Technology, will soon start functioning.

Many companies are involved in these projects and in one railway project, one student who helped in developing a product has gone on to establish a company himself.

However, Prof. CNR Rao, the chairman of the board of governors of the IIT-Kanpur, while stressing the need for greater intake in the IITs, said what it lacked is the Ph.D.programme.

He said that IIT-Kanpur has a faculty strength of 300 but it produces about 50 Ph.D.s a year. The number should be at least 250 a year.

Dhande said, "The present batch is being taught as per the old pattern. But from now on the number of PhD students will increase every year. In the last few years, 650 Ph.D. students have been recruited."

Rao said these days technology is being developed in smaller countries rather then in large ones like the US. Countries like Taiwan are taking a lead. There is need to set up specialised centres which will be different from centres like the IIT. These need to be a little different.

About the difficulties in recruiting new faculty, Dhande said although Kanpur is not well placed in comparison to Delhi and Bombay, and others for providing jobs to spouses one the faculty, as it does not have very many openings, but even with disability, we have managed to recruit more new faculty members then either Bombay or Delhi. We give Rs 90,000 as relocation allowance, Rs 10,00,000 for research programme.

Others are to create large number of professorial chairs, where senior scientists will be given not only higher salary, but also honour. Seven chairs have been created and the number is to go up to 20.

In the convocation 936 students will be awarded degrees.