IIT ex-student alleges discrimination
By Kim
 
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi has been accused of racial discrimination by one of its students. A scheduled caste undergraduate at IIT Delhi has alleged discrimination after he and 11 other SC and Scheduled Tribe students were asked to leave this month. IIT Delhi's Director, Prof Surendra Prasad has also been summoned by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, the apex body for redressing the grievances of such groups, after the student lodged a complaint.
 
Twenty students in all, including eight from the general category, were asked to leave in the first week of this month through letters that cited unsatisfactory performance as the reason. All are either completing their first or second year.
 
"The IITs have a minimum benchmark that all students are expected to meet. We tried to help these students but they did not respond to attempts to help them improve their performance. We have only the followed rules," said SR Kale, dean of undergraduate studies at IIT Delhi.
 
Kale confirmed having received the summons.
 
IIT students are marked on a cumulative grade point scale where scores range from zero to 10. Marks are awarded after each of the two semesters in a year. If the average — the weighted mean over all semesters — is less than 4 in a year, a pupil can be asked to leave. Students in the final two years of their four-year undergraduate course can appeal against the order, but not those in their first two years.

(Techgoss ran the following article on May 5, 2008)

IITs face resource crunch
By Bijoy Kumar

The seven existing Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), considered globally as centers of excellence, have opposed the starting of three new IITs from this year. In a letter written to Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh, the seven directors had cited lack of faculty and infrastructure as the major reasons.

“We would have preferred the new IITs to have begun next year as the government has asked us to help in setting them up,” said Prof Surendra Prasad, director, IIT Delhi. Although he did not elaborate further, sources said that implementing 27 per cent OBC quota would take up all the available resources at the existing IITs.

IITs are already grappling with a faculty shortage. “At IIT Delhi we have a sanctioned strength of 556 faculty positions and roughly 420 are filled,” said Prasad. “If we plan to implement 27 per cent OBC quota by 2010 we will need to double faculty strength in the next two years.”

Moreover, the three new IITs, to come up in Rajasthan, Bihar and Hyderabad, do not have any infrastructure and students will have to be accommodated in existing IITs.

“The 360 students from the three new IITs will be distributed among three existing ones. This will definitely affect the quality of education since we have neither the infrastructure nor the adequate number of teachers,” said a highly placed source at IIT Delhi.

There have been talks that IIT Hyderabad might function out of a rented accommodation to begin with. “Nothing is finalized yet. But the government is determined to begin the functioning of the three IITs from this year,” said the source.

IIT Delhi is already giving SC/ST category students special tutorials to help them come up to the standards of general category students. “Once the OBC category is added many of them will require extra tutorials. Add to that the charge of teaching students from the new IITs,” the official said.