IIT research moan at top

The President and the Prime Minister today rued the poor research output at the IITs and the National Institutes of Technology, both echoing what academics have long described as a historical neglect.

At a conference of NIT directors, Pranab Mukherjee and Manmohan Singh also voiced dissatisfaction over the global rankings of Indian institutions.

Figures show the number of researchers for every million people in the country is just 119, way behind countries like China and the US.

“There is need to emphasise research and innovation in NITs. Out of the total student strength of 71,000 in NITs, there are only 4,000 PhD students. In IITs, there are only around 3,000 PhD students in the total student strength of 60,000…. NITs must evolve clear strategies to encourage research and development, which then leads on to innovation and patents,” Mukherjee said.

Singh voiced the same concern, saying India’s research output in science and technology accounted for a mere 3.5 per cent of scientific publications in the world in 2010, three years after China’s contribution to the global pool was an impressive 21 per cent.

In patent applications, too, Indians trailed in 2010. Singh said the number of applications by Indians was 0.3 per cent of those filed globally, while the country’s share of R&D investment was 2.2 per cent, lower than China’s 9.2 per cent and America’s 32.4 per cent.

The poor research output at Indian institutions appears to have contributed to their world university rankings by international agencies like Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds.

This year, IIT Delhi ranked 222 in the QS ranking, the highest for any Indian institution, while Panjab University ranked between 226 and 250, the highest for an Indian institute, in the Times Higher Education ranking. The NITs did not figure at all. “It is not difficult to see where our institutions stand today vis-à-vis the best in the world,” the President said.

Former NIT Delhi director Sandeep Sancheti said the NITs, earlier known as Regional Engineering Colleges, focused on teaching for over four decades. “The IITs shifted focus to research earlier. The NITs gave importance to research in the last five to 10 years.”