Impact of having an IIT/NIS in Orissa

Some may wonder how does having an IIT or NIS (National institute of Science) in Orissa helps Orissa, when the students are selected by an All India Examination.

Having an IIT or NIS nearby increases awareness among aspirants from Orissa. It increases the chances of interaction between aspiring students and IIT associated faculty and students thus demystifying IIT. An IIT professor can then easily go to a local +2 class and explain the IIT entrance methodology.
Admission to Masters and Ph.D program of an IIT has significant number of seats for industry sponsored students as well as for teachers from other colleges. Having an IIT or NIS in Bhubaneswar will thus make it very easy for lecturers in various private colleges around Bhubaneswar to pursue a Ph.D or a Masters. Now they have to go to IIT Kharagpur to do it. To do that they have to take leave from their current place of employment, which makes it harder and if they do take leave then their college suffers until they get back. As a result very few do. Thus having an IIT or NIS in Bhubaneswar will have tremendous impact in improving the quality of faculty in various colleges around Bhubaneswar, and Orissa.
In this regard, it is enlightning to browse through the alumni of the top-notch Institute of Physics in Bhubaneswar, and its impact on the faculty quality of many Orissan and Indian Instituitions and Universities.
Many companies would like to be in a location with an IIT or an NIS because that provides opportunities for their employees to pursue a higher degree, and because they can collaborate with the IIT/NIS faculty and students on cutting edge research. Thus having an IIT/NIS makes an otherwise good location a bigger attractor to companies for establishment of branch or for relocation.
Top notch universities such as Stanford University and MIT have spawned many top-notch companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Bose electronics, all in the vicinity of the university. Thus having an IIT or an NIS in a metropolitan location will increase the possibility of such university spawned high-tech companies in that location.

Because of the above, it is also important that the location of an IIT/NIS be a metropolitan area with other amenities. Otherwise the IIT/NIS will have difficulty in attracting good faculty and the other multiplier effects, as described above, is much less. In fact an IIT/NIS in a non-metropolitan area has very little impact on that area. As an IIT Kharagpur alumni, so far (Sept 2005) I did not notice IIT Kharagpur having any non-trivial impact on Kharagpur. All students after finishing leave Kharagpur. Most professors when they retire leave Kharagpur. etc. [I just read (Sept 15, 2005) some news items about the first Bio-Tech park in West Bengal to be set up near IIT Kharagpur. I hope this is a start and there is further impact of IIT KGP on Kharagpur and the surrounding areas.]

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Dated: August 20, 2005.
These are personal views of Chitta Baral. For any suggestio ns, pointers, corrections, ideas on what more to be added etc., please send me an email: chitta-aat-gmail-dot-com.