IITs must act as catalyst to boost technical education: Sibal

Updated on: Thursday, August 13, 2009

New Delhi: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal today said the country's premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) must focus on quality research and act as a catalyst to boost technical education in India.

At IIT-Delhi's convocation ceremony, the minister said: "The great challenge before the IITs is to act as a catalyst in the growth of quality technical education in the country.

"This is not only necessary for the economic growth of the country but also for the IITs to make the transition as creator of knowledge. Without a large base of well educated undergraduates in the country it is difficult to imagine any significant growth in research output from these institutions, he said.

He, however, said that not enough qualified teachers is a "missing link" in the growth story.

"Significant effort is required to reach out and train faculty, in both teaching and research, in other institutions as well. Here existing IITs have a major role to play," he said.

While expressing happiness at nearly 30 percent annual growth in sponsored research as well as PhD enrollment, Sibal said "there is still a long road ahead, if the intent is to compete with the best globally".

The minister emphasised that while, for long, new technologies were creating products that were targeted to primarily improve the quality of life in developed societies, the last decade has shown that science and technology can create products and services which can impact even the poorest communities.

This, coupled with the well known demographic changes taking place, has created enormous research opportunities for scientists and engineers who are now very "close to the future market", he said.

During the convocation ceremony, 1,419 students of IIT Delhi were awarded graduate and post-graduate degrees, as were 181 PhD scholars - a 23 percent increase from last year.

IITs must act as catalyst to boost technical education: Sibal

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