Mushrooming IITs " Necessity or Just Politics?

It's raining IITs and the latest one on the anvil is this 18th one opened in Palakkad, Kerala, few days back...

Addition of an institution has always been considered as an indicator of growth and government orientations towards the education. However after delivering 18th child, no one exudes vibrant joy that they might have experienced in their 1st or 2nd kid.

Indian Institute of Technology, the name itself reverberate an image of those superlative intelligence, cut above the class, beyond normal league genius crammers/geeks and to put it simply, the creamiest of the layer of the PUC fraternity, who make parents, relatives and eventually whole city proud; by simply cracking the IIT entrance.

When the gates of first IIT (Kharagpur) were opened in 1950, the key players JC, Biman and Humayun showed enough jurisprudence by getting IIT Act to eliminate Govt. Intervention. Subsequently in autonomous mode, 4 more IITs opened the shutters. From time immemorial, these five IITs have been pillars denoting a symbol of dedication, hardship and patience clubbed with perseverance and was beckoned as hallmark of engineering.

However, this doesn't seem to be the case any longer as the quality of education that they imparted until now is at threshold of getting diluted with this sudden drizzling of IITs all across the country. All thanks to this political clout that infiltrated the IIT Act and are calling the cards now

Just one question...Do we really need these many IITs?? I mean what kind of talent we are trying to churn out from setting up a new IIT everywhere. Apparently, it's legacy will be over soon as every nook and corner will have one branch running and every second guy will be an ex IITan.

Ever imagined the cost that goes into building a new IIT? It's a modest 1750 Cr plus the operational expenditure, all coming out from none other than the state exchequer, our own pocket. But the thought that concerns me more is the source of talent to teach and maintain teaching standard. I bet it will never be the same again as even in exiting IITs, a whopping 38% faculty posts are still vacant

Don't you think it will be wise if they plan to adopt existing and ailing govt. colleges and try to upgrade them instead of adulterating the existing system? Why do we need politics and this burgeoning and subsequent downfall? Are these outgrowths need based or just some political commitment to enrich their respective city/states? Is IIM also heading for the same fate? Who is next?

The questions are unanswered and the fate of these new proliferations undecided...!!