Bharat Rakshak

Bade wrote:Palakkad should become the industrial hub not an educational hub and leverage connections across the border with TN.

SaiK wrote:+1 there.. they can also do a reverse knowledge transfer from various DRDO and ISRO retirees or part timers. another great addition would be the propulsion lab at mahendragiri, TN (IISST- where our cryo was built/tested).

considering that as deep forest areas, why would not palakkad be more town?

SS Murthy, former VC, Central University of Karnataka, and professor (retd), IIT Delhi

The announcement of an IIT for Karnataka has brought cheer, especially among those interested in quality higher education in the state. As director of NIT Surathkal, I'd organized a seminar in Bengaluru in 2004 where there was unanimous endorsement of the need for an IIT to produce global quality manpower for economic growth. But its location is crucial for it to quickly grow as an international brand expected of an IIT. The factors that matter must be academic, primarily those that attract best faculty and students. Bengaluru is clearly the best place on all counts. The best IITs are those located in places like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai. Even established ones such as Kharagpur, Kanpur and Roorkee are facing connectivity problems, causing faculty attrition and throwing up difficulties in hosting international events.

New IITs located in state capitals like Guwahati, Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar and Patna are developing fast when compared with those in Jodhpur and Indore. The worst of the lot are Ropar and Mandi, which lack air connectivity. Ropar is not attracting faculty though it is a two-hour drive from Chandigarh airport. Although established six years ago, its electrical engineering department has just eight faculty members. The preferable location must be within a two-hour drive from an international airport and no two IITs must be there within 200-km distance. The potential sites near Bengaluru International Airport are Chikkaballapur, Kanakapura, Tumakuru and Ramanagaram.

The proposed IITs in Tirupati and Palakkad are further away from the city. Although Mysuru and Davanagere may be considered, they are not likely to attract good faculty and they lack industry-interface options. Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi and Karwar are ruled out since Goa IIT will be close by. Similarly, Raichur-Kalaburagi belt too is unsuitable as Hyderabad IIT is closeby. Raichur has the disadvantage of poor connectivity and infrastructure. Attracting qualified faculty in these places will be a Herculean task. The watchword of any IIT is excellence. This includes faculty, students, infrastructure, space and location. Faculty befitting IITs are a rare commodity. Their other demands like jobs for spouses, children's education and good healthcare cannot be met in remote locations. Bengaluru has the largest number of scientific and technical manpower. There are over 50 retired IISc and IIT professors of global repute in Bengaluru. They will be happy to be academically associated with an IIT in Bengaluru and make it grow fast. IIT Bengaluru will have the potential to be among the best in its league within five years. If located elsewhere, it may take more than 20 years to compete with others. Karnataka must leverage this advantage. To start with, the IIT can be run from IISc or even UVCE campus as early as in July 2015.

The difficulty in finding a 500-acre land parcel near Bengaluru is often cited as an inhibiting factor. With so much land available for real estate, it is surprising we don't have space for an IIT. Local Industries will be happy to donate liberally and may even be ready to purchase the plot through their CSR resources. Setting up an IIT is not a poverty-alleviation programme. Remote places need good ITIs to produce skilled manpower. An IIT is not a monument but a live centre of learning inhabited by the best brains of the country. A remote location chosen on political considerations may push away quality faculty and students. The result: Taxpayers' thousands of crores of rupees will go down the drain.

By S Sadagopan

There are many contenders for locating the IIT sanctioned for Karnataka. Understandably, political leaders would like the institute to be in their constituency; political parties and policy planners would prefer locating it in a backward region so that it leads to economic growth. Then there are secondary issues, like the availability of a large piece of land (500+ acres) and water, connectivity and infrastructure.

While these issues are important, it is far more important to address the core issue -- it's often said that institution building is as easy as 1-2-3: Attract and retain first-rate faculty members; attract and retain first-rate students and create a physical and intellectual place where the first-rate people perform at their best.

Faculty members are the most important resource of any academic institution. They are chosen out of individuals who've had exemplary academic performance, studied in some of the finest institutions and are committed to research-led education (create and disseminate knowledge). In today's world, academic salaries are much lower than industry salaries; yet the academic freedom a faculty member enjoys in IIT, coupled with an opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds, continues to attract faculty members to IITs.

But faculty members have some minimal requirements:

Professional interaction with fellow academics from other institutions and corporations and opportunities to attend international conferences.

Social infrastructure: Opportunities for spouses who may want a job other than what an IIT can offer; schooling options for children; access to healthcare, particularly for parents.

Physical infrastructure: Connectivity (both national and international), quality power, Internet and access to skilled technicians who can run labs.

Students are as important, if not more, part of any academic institution. Part of the very high brand value of an IIT is the phenomenally successful contribution by the alumni — award-winning scientists and technologists, amazing researchers and teachers, creators of highly successful products and patents, founders of billion-dollar companies to activists and chief ministers. The education they get from acclaimed teachers, an intensely competitive environment to demonstrate their learning through projects and publications prepare them to make a huge difference to the world they enter after IIT education; that is what makes an IITian walk tall. Their requirements are similar too.

Professional interaction with companies/R&D institutions where they can test out their ideas through projects, job opportunities and opportunities to attend/organize conferences.

Social infrastructure: Opportunity for sports, social and other extra-curricular activities and access to healthcare.

Physical infrastructure: Connectivity, quality power and Internet

Given this background, Bengaluru undoubtedly is the No 1 choice for the new IIT. It offers opportunities for professional interaction for faculty and students, and has perhaps the best social and physical infrastructure, barring traffic snarls!

Of course, there are constraints like land; in the year 2015, we have to think different; mighty MIT has only 168 acres; Singapore Management University took three small pieces of land nearby, connected them via an underground passage, and there are many City universities (RMIT for example). Land is much less of an issue; if the issues mentioned earlier are not addressed, the new IIT would suffer. The disadvantage that IIT Kanpur and Kharagpur (of the old IITs) and Mandi and Ropar (of the new IITs) suffer today, and the relative advantage that IIT Bombay and Madras (of the old IITs) and Hyderabad and Gandhinagar (of the new IITs) enjoy today, are too glaring to ignore. Circa 2015: MIT celebrates 150 years on February 20, 2015; with 1021 professors and 11,319 students MIT counts 74 Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and faculty Circa 2165: IIT Bengaluru perhaps is the one institution that can claim similar numbers.

Is not the choice obvious?

(The writer is director, IIIT-Bangalore, and has taught at IIT-Kanpur and IIM-Bangalore)

TIMES VIEW

While it's time to cheer Karnataka's own IIT, we must ensure there's no tug-of-war over an institute of higher learning. Politicians may want to use an IIT to correct regional imbalances to please their constituents, but they ought to look at it in a practical manner and locate it in a place where its students get the best deal.Bengaluru and its surroundings have it all -land, connectivity, links to industry, ability to attract the best faculty. Nevertheless, our netas should consult educationists and domain experts before taking a final decision on the location without politicizing the issue.

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The land acquisition process is already on at Pudussery West village in Palakkad with the Union Human Resource Development Ministry issuing an order sanctioning the IIT.

The plan is to acquire 500 acres adjacent to the Kanjikode industrial cluster for setting up the permanent campus.

A task force had been formed under a special tahsildar for land acquisition. Now the process of identifying boundaries is going on.

The government has stated that there will be no delay in fund allocation.

Though 500 acres had been identified in the locality, an expert team deputed by the Centre had found 100 acres unfit for construction because of the rocky terrain.

As per the revised plan, 100 acres on the eastern part of the village would be acquired paying market rate.

Only 20 families needed to be rehabilitated.

The compensation for land acquisition, estimated at Rs.150 crore, would be met by the State government and the land handed over to the Union Ministry