Some truths about IITians

On Internet, I get to read a lot of criticism about the IITians in general. I thought I would write down some truths which are generally ignored.

It is said that IITs produce people who all go to US/Europe and serve the foreign countries and corporations. A detailed survey on this issue (officially released by PM of India during PAN IIT 2008 meet) has shown that about 66% of all IIT graduates actually stay back in India only. Only 30 something percent of IIT pass-outs move on to foreign countries. The recent liberalization has helped create a lot of opportunities in India itself and more and more IITians are actually staying back in India and helping build the future of India (including myself).

Prof Kalaam once said: IITians should not be employment seekers, they should be employment generators. I see so many of my seniors, batch mates, juniors running their own companies and generating so many jobs for the society. In existing organizations, IITians have contributed towards the growth of organizations by their efforts.

Some say that IITs have never produced a Nobel prize winner. It should be noted that Nobel prizes are primarily given in areas of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Economics, and Peace. I would like to explain here the difference between science and technology. Basic sciences are focused on the discovery of the general principles which describe how things work. Technology is focused on applying these general principles into building things which are useful for mankind. IITs (Indian institutes of Technology) are focused on imparting the knowledge of technology rather than basic sciences. IITians have been at the fore-front of leading technology development all across the world. But for most of the part, their work is not directly qualified for Nobel prizes. It doesn't mean that any IITian would never get a Nobel Prize. This essentially means that Nobel prize should not be the criteria of judging the contribution of IIT system towards the society.

I don't say that all of us are great, or we have done enough for what we are worth, but any criticism should be well founded and based on proper facts. In any large group of people (there are roughly about 200, 000 IITians), you will find a wide variety of individuals with different capabilities, opinions, ideas, attitudes. The overall judgement of the whole group should not be based on a few individuals, but should take a wider perspective.

I am sure as a brand, we have done well over the years and our future looks bright. And one thing more. Our alumni network (PAN IIT) is probably one of the most active alumni networks all over the world.