Bhubaneswar, July 22: The passion for engineering as a career has tapered off while grooming of talents in the IITs has also been put on the backburner, said National Security Advisory Board member Sanjay Gobind Dhande on the sidelines of the sixth institute day of IIT-Bhubaneswar today.
“Multifaceted talents are no longer there and that is partly because of the absence of multifaceted faculty. The faculty members these days are unidirectional and focus only on publications. Education is sometimes market driven, but now, it has led to the bheja fry situation. Many students are taking their bright bhejas (brains) and frying them in money. That love for engineering has gone out of the window,” said former director of IIT-Kanpur and chief guest Dhande.
The academic stressed on the need for “IIT-like institutions” to address the growing demand for IT professionals in the country.
Expressing concern that the “NITs were not being bootstrapped to the level of IITs”, Dhande said there should be 200 to 250 quality institutions to impart undergraduate education.
“For every one lakh population, there should be an IIT-like institution for at least one student. So for a 1,200-crore population, we need many more institutes to impart professional education, be it technology, law, medicine or humanities. Quality education should be the commitment of academia to society and the state should support this,” said the chief guest, who addressed the students.
IIT-Bhubaneswar director Madhusudan Chakraborty said the country needed more employable graduates. “However, there is a brain drain of a different nature these days. Many students, after getting an engineering degree, are venturing into various fields such as MBA or finance as the pay package is often more attractive,” he said.
The sixth institute day started this morning with a plantation drive on the permanent campus at Arugul on the city outskirts. Spread over 936 acres, the campus is the largest in the state but has run into certain land acquisition hurdles.
“But, the government is taking care of that, and we plan to shift there partially by next year,” said Chakraborty.
The celebrations ended with a cultural programme. Students presented a variety of creative performances on stage, which lasted for nearly an hour.
