The Tuesday Interview | 'India should start owning technologies to be the leader'

India has a lot of potential to be the leader in cutting-edge research due to its strong human resource and the ability to translate ideas into end products, said Prof V Kamakoti, Director, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M), adding that the country should start owning technologies by promoting innovation entrepreneurship among youngsters.

In an interview with DH’s ETB Sivapriyan, Prof Kamakoti spoke about the initiatives of the IIT-M towards skilling youngsters and professionals and promoting interdisciplinary courses, besides the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the education sector.

Edited excerpts:

In July this year, IIT-M topped the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) in the overall category for the sixth time in a row. What, in your opinion, makes the institute achieve this honour every year?

We have been working as a single unit with a lot of cohesiveness. We have a strategic plan and all of us adhere to it. The NIRF places a lot of importance on national priorities, and our strategic plan has been aligned with those priorities. For the national good, all institutions have to come together, like we say in Tamil, oor koodi ther ezhupom (it takes a village to pull a chariot).

Adherence to the national priorities with participation and dedication from our faculty and students is helping usachieve this honour, every year. The focus on holistic education, innovation, high-end research, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary courses helps IIT-M maintain its standards.

Could you please elaborate on the national priorities?

Innovation, entrepreneurship, emphasis on core tech research, focus on disciplines like civil and mechanical engineering, and increasing the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) are some of the national priorities. We must align our young population towards innovation and entrepreneurship.

India should start owning technologies and these ideas should come from youngsters. IITs account for 19,000 of the 15 lakh who pass out from engineering colleges every year. We, at least, want these people to be employers rather than employees.

We are also focussing on nudging students to develop interest towards deep core and critical andemerging technologies. Students should be ready to take up civil, mechanical, and chemical engineering disciplines, which are likely to witness a dearth of talent in the future.

The infrastructure sector will continue to witness a boom with several billion dollars being pumped into it, while batteries are becoming a fundamental building block of the world’s economy. That’s why we want students to choose disciplines like the above, rather than focussing only on IT and Computer Science.

Nations which developed over the last few decades achieved the status because they owned technology. Unless I own a technology, I can’t claim to be a leader. At IIT-M, we lay a lot of emphasis on protecting our ideas by filing for intellectual property (IP). IIT-M filed 382 patents in 2023 as part of a scheme ‘A Patent A Day’ and the number is close to 400 this year. Patent essentially means a newidea, and a new idea is born at IIT-M every day is a very big message. This makes it clear that the idea belongs to you.

The IIT-M Research Park brings industry and academia together while we now lay much emphasis on interdisciplinary programs. We need much more help in fundamental research which needs costly equipment and schemes like ANRF are helping us achieve these goals. As a higher education institute, we want to contribute our bit to achieve the target of reaching 50 per cent GER in 2035. In this pursuit, we conduct outreach programs in rural schools and stress the importance of higher education.

Why is increasing India’s GER important?

We have the largest population between 15 to 35 years of age. If we don’t increase our GER (national average is about 27 per cent at present), there is a chance of India becoming the most uneducated nation in the world in the next two or three decades. If we let that happen, it won’t be thanksgiving to all the efforts that are being taken now.

You spoke about interdisciplinary programs and industry-academia partnerships. India isemerging as a major hub for manufacturing as part of the China Plus One strategy. This needs a lot of skilled people and what is IIT-M doing to skill people in sunrise sectors?

Skilling is a very important aspect that will generate more employment not just for ourselves, but for the world. This is why IIT-M offers BS programs in data science, and electronic systems, online, that allow people above the age of 17 to pursue the courses. We have an 81-year-old man also pursuing the course. As of now, 35,000 students have enrolled for the two programs. These students don’t have to write JEE, but only an eligibility test. They get an IIT-M degree once they complete the course.

These two programs are interesting examples of our efforts to create skilled manpower. These courses have become popular because they offer multiple entries and exits which makes it easy for people to pursue them. We see a lot of students from different streams, including commerce, applying for the program. On the industry-academia connect, we have launched the SWAYAM Plus initiative to promote andencourage employability-focused, skilling courses.

Can we see more online courses from IIT-M?

There is a lot of interest among several departments at the IIT-M to offer such programs in their respective disciplines so that the inclusivity increases. We are likely to come up with two or three new online courses, possibly on drones, and math and computing.

After IIT Madras Brain Research Center released 5,132 sections of the human fetal brain,which is seen as a groundbreaking initiative, you said India should become a leader in cutting-edge and deep core research. Does India have the capability to lead the world in research?

Manpower, strong institutions, and the ability to translate ideas into end products are three things that are crucial to conducting deep-core tech research. In my opinion, India has all three. We have so many people willing to consume these technologies and all that these companies have to do is to go and sell the products. This ensures India is poised in a very strong position to undertake deep core research.

IIT-M became the first IIT in the country to set up an offshore campus in Tanzania'sZanzibar. Do you plan to launch more such campuses?

As of now, there is no such proposal from IIT-M. Other IITs might launch their campuses in other countries. The Zanzibar campus has completed admissions for the second year and is doing well academically.

How do you see Artificial Intelligence (AI) evolving in the field of education? Should we worry about AI or embrace the technology?

AI can be a teaching assistant to the students and it could help us in a big way in translation, especially in a country like India that has 22 official languages. Besides self-evaluation, AI can also become a tool for career guidance and customized learning. It can also help students make decisions and assist them write their papers using word editors.

Do you think AI will replace humans?

No, not at all. Artificial Intelligence can do a lot of tasks that are well-settled and for which there are established protocols. But AI cannot do all the things that a human is capable of. For example, it can’t express emotions. People have to understand that if AI has to replace humans, there must be a robot like the one in Enthiran (a 2010 Rajinikanth movie). Only building a robot that can understandemotions will be the tip of the iceberg for us to even start talking about human-like behaviour (in machines). Ultimately, people have to upskill themselves and not worry about AI.

IIT 5-G testbed was a success. Do we plan for 6G?

Yes, the 6G task force is getting ready and almost everyone who was part of the 5G testbed is involved in this project. We will be in a strong position when the 6G launch comes. While the whole adoption to 6G might take four to five years, we will launch the testbed once the standards are ratified. We have about 60 standards and I believe it will take about six to eight months for the standards to be ready.

The leakage of question papers earlier this year raised questions about the sanctity ofentrance tests like NEET. A committee under the IIT Kanpur chairman has submitted a report on this issue. What steps are IITs going to take to improve the JEE Advanced test?

There has never been a leak of the IIT-JEE question paper because we follow the Computer-based Test (CBT) method. CBT is a very well-established process, and there is no question of leaks due to several layers of encryption. The NEET question paper got leaked and it was probably due to some variations or problems during the transit. They (organisers of the exams) already have a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in place, and a stricter mechanism wouldessentially ensure that these leaks don’t happen in the future.

One of the complaints about the JEE advanced exam is that questions asked are of the UG standard, which encourages coaching. What do you have to say? Any changes planned?

JEE has been a tough exam. The reason is that the UG course after the student gets into an IIT is also tough. The point is that the student must be in a position to take up the syllabus as we cannot start again from school. However, the questions that are asked are only from the plus-two syllabus. If the fundamentals are very strong, the student will be able to apply them quickly and solve the problems. Coaching classes may have survived because they know how to train these kids in these things. Primarily, JEE is an examination that tests students on the fundamentals and it should be tough. Again, it is tough only if students don’t prepare. If they prepare, then it becomes easy.

After assuming charge as IIT-M Director, you have been focussing on students in rural areas. Is there any special reason?

The reason why my focus has been on this is because I am blessed to come from a family that has been running a rural school for the past 108 years. The kids in rural areas are extremely talented and they should be given an opportunity. My efforts are nothing but democratization of the opportunities.