Every IIT could adopt a slum or cluster of villages, with development levels that are lower than the national average. The adopted area could then become a development laboratory. And to implement socio-economic programmes in the development lab s IITs could draw on the talents and financial support of their alumni. This would be their guru dakshina, suggests Prof.Kalyan Singhal, an IIT-Bombay alumnus.
Other suggestions: 1) Cost of IIT undergraduate eductaion should be treated as student loans; and, on graduation, a percentage of their earnings should go towards repayment of loans.
2) IITs could however waive loan repayment in the case of students who choose to do post-graduate work leading to Ph.D. Pursuit of intergrated solutions to the problems of villages and slums should provide ideas for fresh areas of research.
3) To promote, what Prof. Singhal calls, a culture of innovation, every engineering and polytechnic student could be asked to undertake intensive interviews with atleast two low-income families. Based on their findings the students could propose ways to raise socio-economic well- being of these families.
According to Prof.Sighal, such engagementof undergraduate students with society would create a vibrant learning environment and help them become better engineers, reserachers, managers and entrepreneurs. The professor has more on this in The Hindu edit-page article - Towards a renaissance of the IITs. Writer can be contacted at ksinghal@ubalt.edu
Filed under: Alumni, Development, IIT
I so agree..