New Delhi, July 5: Students in two Indian Institutes of Technology are about to be taught new lessons on giving less thought to fame and fortune and more to a nation struggling to retain its best educated for itself.

Using a cocktail of science and spirituality, undergraduates at IITs in Delhi and Kanpur will be counselled to convince them to shun fat pay packets and quick fame and, instead, dedicate themselves to tasks of “nation building”.

Through the process, faculty members hope to “morally educate” students to eradicate another malaise — students increasingly bunking classes.

The first beneficiaries — or victims, as some might see it — will be the undergraduates entering the IITs this year.

“It is natural that the best educated get the best opportunities. Only if one trains the young mind to think beyond short-term goals, can one stop them from running behind the market like a chicken without its neck,” IIT Kanpur’s Sanjay Dhande told The Telegraph.

The gurus dipensing the moral gyan will include faculty members and “spiritual” resource persons from outside — the Ramakrishna Mission has agreed to participate in the project.

Although students will not be graded on how they respond — or their attendance — during the sessions, a stern look by a preaching faculty member is likely to unsettle students who study in other classes under the teacher.

The IITs, though, dismiss such concerns. “Students increasingly have a skewed notion of success. They join the IITs not to study engineering, but to make quick money. We have to change that,” says R.R. Gaur, the head of the mechanical engineering department at IIT Delhi and the brain behind the project.

It is an open secret that despite the large subsidies the IITs receive, most students choose to move away from a future as engineers after graduation — many opting for multinational consultancy firms.

The lack of genuine interest in their subject makes many bunk classes, IIT administrators say.

IIT Madras, though, is clearly not excited. “The biggest problem IIT students face is stress. This programme, and the worry that not responding well could affect your grades indirectly, will add to the stress,” an administrator there said.

Gaur, however, claims the “spiritual” nature of the counselling will help destress students.

The programme will start with a two-day workshop on July 28-29, where all fresh undergrads will be “made to realise their responsibility towards the nation”. Subsequently, students will have to undergo week-long sessions once every two months, Gaur says.