IITians seek govt-business partnership

PanIIT, the global Indian Institute of Technology alumni body, wants the current government-controlled and funded IIT governance model to give way to a more industry collaborative approach.

The alumni board, which on Tuesday announcing the 'IITians: Empowering India' conference in Delhi during December 24-25, said that it will try and convince the Union government to allow IITs to build strong linkages with industry. ast IITian and industry bigwigs like S Gopalakrishnan, chief operating officer Infosys Technologies, Biswadip Mitra, MD Texas Instruments and B K Singhal, past chairman VSNL said they will try and convince the Union human resource and development ministry to adopt the format.

They clarified that the proposal just seeks to build on the present format and will never call for breaking IITs 'umblical chord' with the government.

To ensure that the top notch teachers stick to IITs and not move to industry, a complete relook of the model is required, they said.

This will help IITs maintain their premier position against international competition. Faculty can be retained by offering attractive compensation and this where a collaborative approach with industry will come in handy.

With a few thousand of the best technical minds reading at IITs, a model which allows the industry to use the pool for their research work should be evolved, B K Singhal said. The PanIIT forum will work towards it, besides offering faculty support.

Biswadip Mitra added that the forum will discuss methods to extend IITs' facilities and expertise to other engineering schools in the respective regions.

"IIT can be a hub for other engineering colleges in the region. This will help industry as well, as the talent mismatch between IIT products and those from other institutions can be bridged to acceptable levels."

Earlier, Pawan Kumar, chairperson, PanIIT executive council, said that around 5,000 IITians are expected to attend. The conference will have sessions on BPO, BT, future of computing, automation and 'towards a better India'.

He said a similar event is scheduled for April next in Washington. This is the third such PanIIT forum. The earlier events were held in Silicon Valley and Bangalore.