Kapil Sibal stands up for IIT, IIM

Ahmadabad, May 26: Kapil Sibal, Union minister for human resource development (HRD), on Thursday, May 26, stood up for the faculties of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), saying that research has suffered since government largely focused on undergraduate courses.

"The IITs and IIMs are excellent because of the quality of students not because of quality of research or faculty," said Sibal, when questioned at a press conference on the remarks made by Jairam Ramesh.
"The country spends only eight billion dollars for research, while United States spends 250 billion dollar and China also spends over 50 billion dollars on research. Research was not the focus areas when it came to IITs and IIMs. Even postgraduate courses were out of focus at these institutions," he said.

"When there was not enough spending for research, how can the faculty be held responsible," Sibal questioned. Despite less spending, the country still tops the world when it comes to the quality of the research done by these IITs and IIMs faculties, he said, adding, "Even with limited resources and money, we have had tremendous output in research."

"I want five to seven Indian institutes to figure in list of the world-class institutions. We are now going in for education reforms and the focus is now shifted to postgraduate courses in these institutions and simultaneously more focus will be on research," said the Minister adding that the Union Minister is planning a change in the governance structure of IIMs and IITs.

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