Country made a big mistake: IIT Director

Keeping research institutions separate from educational ones was a big mistake on the part of India over the years, said R K Shevgaonkar, Director, IIT Delhi, here on Friday. He was delivering the inaugural keynote address at the 14th National Conference on Technological Trends (NCTT-2013) being held at College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET).

Talking on the lack of a research-based economy in India, Shevgaonkar said: “By segregating research from academics and setting up separate institutions for research, we have given an indirect message that research is only meant for a few.” By not incorporating research into academics, we have taken away a big chunk from the resource pool, he added.

“There is also this notion in academic institutions among teachers as well that ‘research is not my cup of tea,’” he said. “No one really has a clear idea what research is and a large number of people shy away thinking they’re incapable of it.”

Perhaps it is because of this reason that there are not enough research papers and innovations coming out, said Shevgaonkar, who himself has to his credit over 150 papers published in international journals and conferences, apart from two books.

“Around 50 years ago, India and China produced almost the same number of research papers, but now the latter comes out with four times as much our own,” he said. “All over India, only around 3,000 PhDs are produced a year, when this number should be 12-15,000.”

Talking about the kind of research that ought to be done, Shevgaonkar said that not all research has to be that which answers fundamental questions and requires in-depth subject knowledge. “There should be research that brings out innovation, that which can be of use to people,” he said. “Today, we do research that ‘can’ be done and not what ‘needs’ to be done.”

These days, 80 per cent of the world is working to solve problems of the top 20 per cent, who don’t actually have problems, Shevgaonkar added.

Research and innovation in the future, he said, must become interdisciplinary and researchers, especially in engineering, must ask themselves what they can learn from nature, which is energy-efficient and uses resources optimally.

Shevgaonkar is the first of nine speakers to give a keynote lecture in this conference. Over 270 papers will be presented at the two-day event.

Also present at the inaugural session were J Letha, Director of Technical Education, Kerala (DTE); S Sheela, CET Principal; Jiji C V, NCTT organising secretary and S Shabu, Dean, PG Studies, CET.