How IITs have remained relevant today?

Today, we live in digital society - our personal, social and work life – all confined in digital surrounding - an irreversible phenomenon. Post internet, speed at which technology-led changes are enriching our experience, have not happened in past 200 years. Challenges we face today, therefore, are more intertwined with the technology assorts.

Available options are now crystal clear. Connected world is not going spare anyday without throwing surprises. Wisdom lies in spotting opportunity in the astounding rise of digital economy, whose spill over effect is beyond anyone’s imagination. 

Market is shifting. Predictions indicate USA and China are leading the digital economy growth. USA and EU will drive the ICT innovation, while China and India would emerge largest manufacturing and consumer base making an important part of global ICT supply chain. It is prudent to formulate academic and international strategy keeping these facts in mind. Academic portfolios have to be refreshed to remain relevant else face obsolescence. USP lies in designing technology leadership programs of all variety and format. 

International diversity brings compounded impact. A multi-cultural environment is most suited for academic pursuits. In addition, having a diverse range of programs in portfolio and global scale of operation - will help Indian universities/ institutions emerge an impactful entity. 

What kind of research? - That strengthen trustworthy digital living.

Technology feeds Management, which in turn feeds Technology. Who is better equipped to deal with such a situation? Obviously-IITs.

They are better positioned, today, to respond to changing needs than any other institution, as they have expertise of technology anyway. They are much closer and capable to play a bigger role in realizing ambitious national goal, making corporations ready for industry 4.0, leveraging digital economy, push start-up movement and feed into national programs. Stand-alone institutions, particularly B-Schools, have no future and will become irrelevant soon if they don’t re-orient to the changing needs –including IIMs.

How IITs could developed such an edge? 

Since past 20 years, IITs have been continuously and very sensibly diversifying into areas such as humanities, Social sciences, Law, Bio & Medical, Public Policy, Management and Economics etc. while retaining their ‘technology’ as core character. This ensured they remain most relevant. A non-technology discipline (eg.MBA) is rightly complimented by the existing academic unit viz. Computer Science, Communications & Smart Technologies, AI & Robotics, and Mathematics, Manufacturing and Industrial Engineering. These are not possible in stand-alone B-School settings. NiRF ranking in management also speaks the increasing value proposition that an IIT MBA brings over the others. Undergraduate program has also been significantly reformed to offer students variety of choices - beyond technology. 

In a way, they are more ready, to claim a multi-disciplinary campus than any other institution in the country – which has been vigorously pushed in the National Education Policy (NEP-2020). There should be no ambiguity that ‘Technology’ has to be central to a multi-disciplinary set up. Here, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is the most apt example to explain this. MIT has a School of Architecture and Planning, a School of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, and a Sloan School of Management apart from School of Engineering. Interestingly MIT is ranked number one globally in ‘Technology’ and ‘Social Science’ both.

Conclusion – A vibrant research culture provides an overall edge!

Most of the Indian universities are severely lacking in character that is attributed to an impactful multi-disciplinary research university. This can only be compensated by a strong push to diversify vertically and horizontally both. A clear and immediate opportunity is launch contemporary undergraduate and post graduate programs into new areas (Informatics, Public Health, Public Policy, Urban Planning and Diplomacy etc.). They will certainly have wider spread and help acquire multi-disciplinary character in due course.