A former IIT director on Friday slammed the central government's domination in the functioning of the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), saying the premier educational establishments are now "dictated" by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry.
"Earlier they were much more independent in their functioning. Now the independence and autonomy is gone and everything is dictated by the ministry," Amitabha Ghosh, former IIT-Kharagpur director said here.
Ghosh served as the institute's director from 1997 to 2002.
He described it as "ridiculous" that even the advertisement for joint entrance examinations 2017, bore the stamp of the ministry control.
"I was horrified to see one advertisement about JEE 2017... it is ridiculous. They are under Parliament," he observed.
He was delivering the first public lecture organised by Chevening Alumni India (Kolkata Chapter). It was organised by the British Deputy High Commission in Kolkata and IIEST, Shibpur along with Chevening Alumni India.
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Ghosh talked about "Re-examining Newton's Laws: Amazing Cosmological Consequences'.
He lamented that youngsters were more inclined towards "exotic subjects" like dark matter rather than fine-tuning their fundamental knowledge.
--IANS
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