JOIN US"I would like to place on record (my) complete trust in the creative potential of the faculty of the IITs and IIMs. Almost 25 per cent of the IIT faculties are students of IITs who have done B Tech. Surely, if there are world-class students, there must be world-class faculty," he said.
Jairam, an alumnus of IIT Mumbai, had on Monday slammed the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) for not being “world class”. He had also said that IITs and IIMs were excellent because of the quality of students, not because of the quality of research. Their faculties were surviving because of their world class students and there was hardly any worthwhile research from the IITs.
Reacting to this, Sibal said that there has been a general impression that the calibre of contributions by the scientific community does not really match world standards. “The comments made by minister (Jairam Ramesh) must be seen in the light of that generality.”
The HRD Minister underlined that the premier technical institutes in the country rank among the top 50 in the global index, saying any discourses on these institutes should be based on "evidence and not on perceptions".In the global index, IIT Bombay has been ranked at 21, IIT Delhi at 24, IIT Kanpur at 37 and IIT Madras at 39. “If you really talk about IITs we are right up there,” he maintained.In terms of publication too, he said, the rate was 15 to 17 per cent in the IITs as against the global rate of 4 per cent.
‘Gujarat riots probe too slow’
Asserting that the government is committed to Communal Violence Bill, Union Minister Kapil Sibal attacked Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for the delay in justice to the victims of 2002 Gujarat communal riots. “It has been nine years and SIT is yet to decide whether FIR should be filed or not….. The cases have been going on for nine years. How long will people wait for justice?” Sibal said commenting about the ongoing nine-year-long investigation in communal violence that erupted in Gujarat in 2009 after the Godhra train burning incident.