Hi all.....Though not very popular among SSC bloggers, I am following Trivandrum SSC forum from a long time, say 2 years. Now that a discussion is on whether we need an IIT in Kerala and particularly in TVM, the answer is yes and no. Before going into the details of the answer, let me bring some facts to the light.
China has atleast 100 IIT like institutions while India has a handful of them till now.
As per my observation, and reality ofcourse, many young researchers across the world and that too in best universities and institutes, are chinese people. Many young chinese students are pursuing their masters/ doctorate degress and producing world class research output.
Not far behind, Indians are the leadres in Microelectroics and IC technology research in USA. And many other fields to go on......
BUt, what does this mean to the domestic scenario???
Simply put, India should have institutes that are comparable in world standards. China has such institutes. While India have a handfull of IITs, IISc and newly formed IISERs.
Coming back, does Kerala need an IIT???? - YES. It really needs and deserves an IIT. Remember the kind of political pressure Andhra Pradesh had put on Central Govt. untill it got an IIT in Hyderabad....that too close to the Telengana region. But AP does not have an IIM till now!!!! Soon it will come.
http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/17/stor...1708350100.htm
So, now again, does TVM need an IIT???
The answer depends on many factors........
1. Already we have IIST and IISER here. both are building their own campuses in city outskirts. so atleast 25 + 25 = 50 acres gone.....
Does we have enough land, say, 40 acres to give to IIT if at all it comes????
2. Earlier, there was a proposal mooted to convert CET into an IIT. But, it was debated that, the state will loose it's premium engg. college.
3. Anyway, why not Kerala University make strides in Research on the lines of IITs???? see Anna University, AMU, BHU, DTU, BITS, VIT University etc....which are more or less on par with NITs and IITs as they make top 15 in rankings......comparitively, KU performance is dismall and see the plight of resaerch scholars in KU as per recent news articles.....bad to worse.
So, what is the answer???????
Do we want to show off that we have an IIT in TVM or do we really want to make strides in resaerch???
If the answer is former, it depends on the wishful thinking of our politicians. And if it is latter, we (the students and researchers in general and, faculty and administration of the above mentioned institutes in TVM need to take up the task....). In this case, we can carveout a brand name for KU like IITs in future and we can be proud of expariate NRKs who make a mark in S&T world wide......
Also, it is a welcome move to create a nanotechnology research park n TVM which can be used by universities and research institutes in and around TVM......this situation is same as Singapore where NUS and NTU uses fabrication labs of private companies to do research......bcoz space is a constraint here too.....
, SO, WHY NOT FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE????