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An Eye for Excellence RECENTLY, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) were in the headlines for several days owing to the hunger strike by its teachers who felt that the recent pay hike in their pay structure was not in tune with their capabilities. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s equally interesting comments regarding meritocracy versus gerontocracy, autonomy versus paytonomy, and hunger for knowledge versus hunger strike for fatter pay packets have been raising interesting and curious debates about these elite institutions.
Professor E.C. Subbarao who taught at IIT, Kanpur, or IITK for about 20 years, acted as first departmental head of metallurgical engineering, first dean of faculties, and first honorary fellowship awardee is the author of the book. He faithfully chronicles the history of the institute right from its genesis, to infancy, to the turbulent years ultimately stopping at the vision about its future. In this journey of the institute from 1959 onwards, we get to know about what are the ingredients of a world-class institute, what kind of vision, relentless hard work, integrity, merit and solidarity is needed to build such an institute from scratch. Who would not be proud of students of the likes of N.R. Narayana Murthy, Satyendra Dubey and Anil Aggarwal? Who would not be transformed by the touch of such stalwart teachers as C.N.R. Rao, Vijay Stokes, Dipankar Chakravorty and others who came from different corners of India to create in Kanpur an oasis of excellence? Through this book we come to know of several selfless individuals, whose commitments laid the sound foundation of the institute, laying down traditions of excellence and creating an unparalleled academic ambience. The book painstakingly collects information and digs up forgotten anecdotes, charts alumnis’ career paths, records the achievements of the faculty, provides a graph of the institute’s pursuit for excellence in a comprehensive way. We not only know about the institute but also several interesting nitty-gritty about several peripheral yet significant aspects of the Kanpur campus. The book can be a helpful manual for academic administrators who wish to bring excellence to their colleges or universities. Specially, founder-director, Dr P.K. Kelkar’s mild but firm creative innovations, methods of recruiting faculty, delegating duties and motivating people to work as if on a mission are some traits that our academic administrators can well emulate. Crisp numbers, relevant statistics, information given in 25 tables help the reader to get direct impact in a simple and effective way. Well-defined chapters, self-explanatory titles, simple headings and sub-headings facilitate an easy read. The last chapter gives thoughtful tips and advice on some challenges and their solution. The author writes in a simple and unhindered flow and soon wins the trust of the reader earning credibility for his words. One wishes the author had included some more photographs or even a photo-essay to give the reader a glimpse of how things have changed throughout the years. The back cover of the book presents a picture of girl students in the corridors of the institute. However, we find no mention of girls in the institute either as students or as teachers. A mention of when girl students started entering the institute and what changes did they bring in could have been interesting. Whatever the book might be detached presentation it is not. Quite obviously and also quite naturally it is an offering of love instead of an impartial account of 50 years of IIT, Kanpur. In a chapter titled Eclipse, the author candidly acknowledges to a tumultuous period through which the institute passed when excellence could not be maintained. However, through careful wording and without taking many names, the author outlines some incidents of a labour unrest transferring most of the blame of the downfall of the institute on to the unskilled support staff and their mishandling by the chairman, Board of Governors. It seems a little far-fetched to link the disturbance created by non-teaching lower staff to slipping of the institute from academic preeminence. Otherwise, the book is successful in its attempt to provide an overview of IITK and in unraveling the core values that were followed by its administrators, faculty, students and staff to set it on the exalted pedestal where it stands today.
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What
could be so special about an IIT which is lacking in other lesser
educational institutions? Why are IITs given special treatment? What
autonomy are they trying to protect? We get answers to these questions
through this book while giving us a peek into the saga of the best
among the IITs—IIT, Kanpur, as it celebrates 50 years of its
establishment.