Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, an IIT alumnus himself, today kicked up a controversy, claiming the faculty of the premier IITs and IIMs are “not world class” but only “excellent”, because of the quality of students. “There is hardly any worthwhile research from our IITs. The faculty in the IIT is not world class. It is the students in IITs who are world class. So, the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) are excellent because of the quality of students, not because of quality of research or faculty,” Ramesh told reporters.
On his ministry’s decision to have a joint venture with Reliance Industries Limited to set up a National Centre for Marine Biodiversity in Jamnagar, he said the decision was taken as a world-class research centre cannot be built in a “governmental set-up” and can never attract young people.
