IIMs and IITs underused: Veerappa Moily

Updated on: Monday, November 22, 2010

Union Minister for Law and Justice Veerappa Moily on Sunday said that Indian Institutes of Management and Technology were “underused and caged” and they had to be set free.

Delivering his address during the Sixth Convocation of SRM University in Kattankulathur, Mr. Moily said they must be set free to provide opportunities to a larger number of students who had till now been restricted.

He said only when equal opportunities and access were given to the weak on par with the stronger sections, hidden talent would emerge and help in broadening the talent base and felicitating diversity.

“The growth of higher educational institutions with requisite faculty and infrastructure support has not kept pace with the growth of enrolments and even less in relation to the apparent and latent demand,” Mr. Moily said.

Elaborating, he said that as per the current admission process, students scoring below 99.6 per cent could not get into IIMs or IITs. He recalled that till the 93{+r}{+d} Amendment to the Constitution was passed, expansion of these institutions was just limited to 1 per cent and five years since the amendment, expansion had increased to 45 per cent of the population today.

“This kind of isolationist approach in the ‘so called institutions of excellence' is unknown in the history of human resource in the country,” Mr. Moily remarked.

Widening mismatch

He also pointed out that there was a widening gap and mismatch between education and employment and the education system was producing job seekers on such a large scale that it had assumed monstrous proportions. “The percentage of unemployed youth getting jobs, which was 9.9 per cent in 1971 had reduced to 4.3 in 1998 and today, it must be much lower,” the Union Minister said. He also called for an end to the practice of universities adding programmes to generate funds.

“The recent tendency by most universities to add programmes with the aim of generating more funds must stop and there is a need to revamp the entire university system and define the size, scope and operation very clearly. Universities in India need to be made more universal if they are to flourish,” Mr. Moily added.

He also handed over certificates and medals to top rankers.

Mr. Moily, also handed over honorary degree of Doctor of Science to C.N.R. Rao, Chairman, Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister and honorary degree of Doctor of Literature to N. Chandrasekaran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Tata Consultancy Services, on the occasion.

Divayans Mahansari of B.Tech Compuer Science and Engineering received the Corporation Bank's Gold Medal for the best outgoing student.

T.R. Pachamuthu, Chancellor, presided. P.Sathyanarayanan, Vice-Chancellor, welcomed the gathering and presented the annual report. A total of 5,155 students from 89 disciplines received graduate, post graduate and diploma certificates and 5 people received doctorates on the occasion.

IIMs and IITs underused: Veerappa Moily

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