Bihar wants an IIT. Almost everything else in Bihar is in disarray,wonder how this is going to salvage them.
To: President of India To: Hon. President of India April 17, 2005 Subject: Demand for a new IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) in Bihar Hon. President, Sir, while addressing a summit on April 04, 2005 organised byMicrosoft in New Delhi, you said that India would have five more IITswithin a few years. That would take the number of IITs -- famous forchurning out some of the finest IT professionals and entrepreneurs —to 12. Following is the link of the news item published in a nationaldaily - http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1068758.cms It gives an opportunity to renew our demand for a new IIT in Biharwhich has been neglected in the domain of higher education by Govts.Since independence despite it has a very glorious history in the fieldof education. Bihar has been a seat of learning since time immemorial.The State had the world class universities like Nalanda andVikramshila that were drawing students even from neighbouringcountries. But current Bihar has not a single Central University. Infact it has very less number of any central entity. Why Bihar needs and deserves an IIT ? 1) After the independence in 1947, a large number of academicinstitutions were established at many places in the country by thecentral government. Most such institutions meant for the "Easternregion" went to the state of West Bengal that is smaller than Bihar inall respects. IIT KGP, IIM Calcutta, ISI Calcutta, Viswa Bharati, BoseInstitute and a host of other academies are verifiable examples. Allthis happened at a time when Bihar was known as the best-administeredstate. 2) Good academic institutions do not just lift educational standardsof a state but also lift its morale, and lend it a status and an imagethat are imperative for the growth of a community. 3) Delhi alone has 4 Central universities including IIT. 4) North-Eastern region alone has five central universities and an IITwhile Bihar has not even one. (The collective population of theNorth-Eastern states is about half of the population of Bihar.Similarly, size of Delhi is about one-tenth that of Bihar. 5) Having an IIT will certainly NOT automatically make Biharis moreintelligent. Biharis are selected in good number in IITs every year.So, it is NOT a bias for Bihari students. It may help poor students. 6) IIT is NOT about engineering only, it is about research in almostall fields. Govt. is planning to start even humanities subjects inIITs. So it will hugely help bring back Bihariintellectuals/researchers/teachers close to thier home. By nature,Biharis are home-sick, so if they(researchers etc.) get an opportunityto have a facility like IIT in Bihar, many will return back.Attracting and retaining talents will ultimately benefit Biharisociety. 7) Being close to home, Bihar's intellectuals will better understandthe real issues of Bihar. They may suggest about solutions also. Theymay act as advisory group for Bihar Govt. All IITs do help their localgovt. 8) They may come out with local solution to local problems. But, thatis possible only when researchers stay close to local issues. 9) Bihar's other engineering colleges lack good teachers (especiallyin the field of computer science, IT sector in India needs huge numberof skilled human resources). With a close by IIT, other engineeringcolleges may get visiting faculty from a nearby IIT. 10) Biharis are taking admission in large numbers in pvt. engineeringcolleges in South and West India. With availabilty of M.Tech andresearch students in a local IIT, Bihar may get into this pvt.engineering college concept. This will immediately help low - middleclass family grils who can't afford to go to that far because ofsocial and financial constraints. 11) It will change image of Bihar. Newspapers and media have projectedonly very bad image (which is vastly disproportionate to the reality,read any official, un-official, international report on crime).Many outsiders will come to Bihar and this will create awareness aboutthis historically vibrant place and thus it will strengthen theintegrity of the nation. 12) Ever since the creation of Jharkhand, Bihar has been insisting onan IIT in the state pointing out that all major technical instituteshad gone to Jharkhand. The request of then Chief Minister Rabri Devito the Union minister for human resource development Murli ManoharJoshi was virtually turned down. 13) Hopes for an IIT in Bihar had increased at the CoBIT- 2001 meetheld in January this year, when a then member of the PlanningCommission N K Singh announced the setting up of an IIT in Bihar. 14) Establishing a new IIT requires major political decision. Forexample, IIT-Gauhati was established as per the agreement of the AllAssam Students Union with Rajiv Gandhi to call off the Assamagitation. IIT-Roorkee was established after the creation of theUttaranchal state as part of the deal. 15) During his famous visit to Bihar by Rail in May 2003, our Hon.President met 10 vice-chancellors of 10 Bihar universities in hisspecial salon in his way from Harnaut Patna. They demanded setting upof an IIT in the state and giving central university status to thePatna University. There was consensus among the VCs that Bihar neededmore technical and professional educational institute. 16) The first IIT in the country was supposed to be open in Sindri andthen govt. had acquired 700 acres of land for that perpose.But somehow first IIT went to Kharagapur. And we had to content with BIT Sindri. That BIT Sindri gave manyfaculties to IITs in nation during their formative days. 17) Bihar does have some good places which have good locationaladvantage. One such place is Gaya. Thanks to Bodh Gaya, it is wellreachable place as it is well connected through Rail network and eventhrough Air. It is going to have a functional international airport innear future. It has a military base so it has a Central School. It hasother good schools also, like famous Nazareth Academy. This historicalplace is suited for IIT. There may be other place in Bihar suitablefor IIT. In the light of above facts, Hon. President is requested to look intothe issue and order the concerned department HRD for setting up a newIIT in Bihar. Sincerely, _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [email protected] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam Mailing list FAQ: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
