No money to pay even daily bills, IITs tell govt
Hemali Chhapia | TNN
Mumbai: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are rated as the world’s third best in engineering education, but the directors of the seven elite institutions are currently trying to get the Union HRD ministry to pay their electricity bills on time.
In an indication of the fund crunch at India’s finest educational institutes, IITBombay has recently written to the HRD ministry that it is not in a position to pay next month’s salaries to its staff members. All seven institutes have complained that government allocations are not keeping pace with the rising costs being incurred in their day-to-day running.
“We have been drawing money from our corpus and we cannot continue doing that,’’ said IIT-Madras director M S Ananth. The IITs have now asked a Standing Committee headed by Union HRD minister Arjun Singh to release Rs 20 crore per year per IIT so that their money can be returned to the endowment fund, which is usually set aside for longterm use.
Since the inception of the first IITs in the 1950s, the institutes have relied entirely on government patronage. The budgetary allocation in recent years was roughly Rs 550 crore. However, over the last decade, the IITs have had to tap an extensive network of alumni here and abroad to meet their growing requirements. A large number of new initiatives is also being driven by industry partnerships.
The HRD ministry, which allocates money to the IITs for recurring expenses on routine bills for electricity, water, laboratory material and salaries, has not increased the annual grants since 2002. CD has cash register ringing at IIT Alma Mater Uses News Bulletin Format To Update Ex-Students, Raise Much-Needed Funds
Mumbai: When Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay kicked off its golden jubilee celebrations last year in September, ex-students — many of them abroad — received a package from their alma mater. It was a news capsule on the engineering college they had graduated from. Playing anchor was faculty member Deepak Phatak, who rattled off everything that had happened since they had graduated from the premier tech school.
For many, it evoked warm memories of a leafy campus where they had spent their best years. Along with the CD, the institute had also sent them details of the forthcoming celebrations and a donation form. It was like the perfect marketing pitch: the response was “phenomenal’’.
IIT-B has been snowed under with funds in the last five months. “Marketing cannot be connected to fund-raising, but the response from former students was exceptional,’’ said professor Phatak, who is spearheading the golden jubilee celebrations.
His team had sent out almost 4,000 such packages to alumni in the US and 12,000 to former students across India. Apart from immediate donations, the phone calls too haven’t stopped coming, many of them from people who have pledged for the future. “As part of golden jubilee celebrations, we want to raise Rs 100 crore for funds that we have set up for students, faculty, staff, institute and hostels,’’ added Phatak.
To acknowledge each and every donor, the institute is building a ‘Brick Wall of Fame’. The glass wall will have one lakh bricks, 30,000 for those who have passed out and 70,000 more, for students who will graduate in the years to come. Every donor of Rs 1 lakh will find his name on this wall.
“We will put up a plaque of every student who walks into the institute on this wall, and keep it turned the other way. When that student passes out and contributes to the institute, the plaque will be turned around to show his name,’’ said Phatak.
This, he said, was being done to encourage “the culture of giving back’’ among students right from the outset. The institute has even set up a call centre and 40 students, after undergoing training, are involved in alumni networking and raising funds.
DOING THEIR BIT FOR THE ALMA MATER
In the last one-and-a-half years, IIT-B has received several hefty donations from alumni:
Victor Menezes, ex-senior vice chairman of Citigroup, gave $3 mn for setting up a convention centre. Former executive vice president and CEO of TIBCO Software Raj Mashruwala donated $1.8 mn to set up a computer centre on the Powai campus Students from the class of ‘75, Syntel CEO Bharat Desai ($1.5 mn) and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Hemant Kanakia (Rs 4.8 cr) donated for a gymkhana Naushad Forbes, director, Forbes Marshall (India) and consulting professor at Stanford, contributed Rs 1 cr for an Energy Systems Engineering School.
A NEW BEGINNING: Infy chief Nandan Nilekani (class of ’78) and wife at an IIT ceremony
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