Ramesh takes on IIMs, IITs

[1]

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, an IIT alumni himself, on Monday kicked up a controversy claiming the faculty of the premier IITs and IIMs are “not world class” but said these institutions are “excellent” because of the quality of students.

Ramesh also said there was hardly any worthwhile research from the country's Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), who are ranked among the prestigious universities in the world.

“There is hardly any worthwhile research from our IITs. The faculty in the IIT is not world class. It is the students in IITs who are world class. So the IITs and IIMs (Indian Institute of Management are excellent because of the quality of students not because of quality of research or faculty,” Ramesh told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

The outspoken minister is an alumni of IIT Mumbai from where he obtained his B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering 1975.

On his Ministry's decision to have a joint venture with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) to set up a National Centre for Marine Biodiversity in Jamnagar, he said it was taken as a world class research centre cannot be built in a “Governmental set up” and can never attract young people.

Asked whether there was any conflict of interest in collaborating with Reliance, the Minister said, “Life is one large conflict of interest.”

“We cannot build a world class research centre in a Governmental set up. Let us understand our experience in the last 60 years. Government research institutions can never attract young talent. So we want to think differently. We have to think differently, how we are going to organise our research institutions.”