IITs should be catalysts of growth, says Kapil Sibal

He also urged the prestigious technical schools to share their faculty and also launch public utility programmes which could be used across the country with the help of technology.
“The main challenges confronting the country are poverty, diseases and environment pollution and these should also form focal points of research,” he said.
The IITs should act as catalysts in growth of quality technical education in the country, Sibal added.

Addressing the Convocation of IIT-Delhi the minister said despite growth in number of technical institutions, the number of quality graduates was not adequate to transform India into a knowledge economy. “The reason is availability of quality faculty,” he said.
“The IITs should become centres of quality research.
The IITs can play a major mentoring role in creating quality faculty,” he said adding that these technical institutes should be able to compete with the world class institutes in terms of research."

More research
He said the IITs had been able to attract and retain quality faculty because of “other attractions” and their “commitment” to the IIT system.
The minister also called for more research activities and said for long scientists and technologists in the developing world were disadvantaged because of “distance from the market.” "

The minister also conferred Distinguished Alumni Award on Sharad Malik and K Ananth Krishnan.