Ram's Cafe

I have often wondered - what has been the real benefit of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT's) to the Indian society in general. There is no question that the IIT' s represent the best of the Indian technical education - their students are among the brightest and the best in the world (yes, the world!). What is often forgotten is that the IIT's have consumed ENORMOUS resources - in terms of land, infrastructure, funding, and most of all, near-complete autonomy to run their own affairs. While no one should grudge the autonomy of an educational institution, when viewed in the context of state funding, it would be interesting and illuminating to do a thorough assessment of how much the IIT's have given back to Indian society in general. I am not talking about the mere 'brain drain' - but more importantly, how many of the technologies or products have been implemented in India to solve Indian problems and meet Indian demands? OK, we have the software companies now - but again, it seems that we are beating our drums a bit prematurely. We seem to be celebrating small improvements here and there, rather than looking objectively at all the missed opportunities for innovation and improvement.

OK, back to my point, what are we likely to find if one adds up all the inputs that have gone into the setting up and running of all the IIT's to date? Starting with the land, buildings, libraries, laboratories, computing facilities, other amenities to make life comfortable inside the IIT's (they are almost a separate world unto themselves), etc. What is the real-estate value of the land today? If someone were to set up another educational institution with EXACTLY the same kind of infrastructure as, say, the Madras IIT has, how much would it cost? I'm pretty sure we are going to end up with some phenomenal numbers. If you put these numbers in the overal financial context, that is, spending these kinds of money when India as a whole was still lurching along miserably, we can begin to get an idea of how much resources have been sucked into the setting up and running of these unquestionably elite institutions.

There is no question that India needed these 'centres of excellence', despite whatever resource constraints we might have had for other needs in the society. But the question is, WHAT EXACTLY have we gained from setting up these centres of excellence? I'm tired of hearing some lame excuses that are touted as 'benefits' of IIT'S. Some of them are so ridiculous - such as the IIT's having helped build the brand image of India - that I will not even go into them. Can we stick to the fundamentals?

I am not sure who in India is in a position to take up this 'accounting' activity - I am not talking about a 'cost-benefit' analysis - I am simply looking at it as a 'Return-on-Investement' exercise.

If it turns out that the Indian society hasn't really got much out spending such sums, then the least I would expect from the 'anti-reservation' gang is to just shut up and get on with whatever they were doing otherwise.

I was prompted to write this after coming across these lines in " Elitist agenda" by V. Venkatesan in the 'Frontline', Jun. 03-16, 2006:

The resistance of the IITs and the IIMs to the proposed quota has brought to the fore the question whether the Indian state should continue to subsidise these elite institutions, most of whose students seek a career abroad.

This, in my opinion, is a wrong question to ask. Why? For argument's sake, if the IIT's say, 'OK, we can manage our financial affairs ourselves through tuition fees and sponsorhips', then what? That is why I consider an R-O-I assessment as more relevant.