A few days ago a rather disturbing news item announced that IIT Roorkee’s recent campus placement process left many of its graduating students without any job. This is worrying. It can be quite demoralising and even worrying for the aspirants as well as the next generation of graduating students. However, this may be a good time for IIT Roorkee to examine several issues about the process of recruitments.
Our IITs could take a page or two out of the leaves of entrepreneurial traditions that have been set up in at least two of the IITs—Madras and Bombay. More than 20 years ago, IIT Madras set up a pioneering in-campus activity in the form of an entrepreneurship park. Several success stories of startups have emanated from this park. Some years ago two just-graduated students found themselves in highly unsatisfactory jobs after their on-campus placements. They got in touch with one of their former teachers and poured out their woes in terms of lack of any creative activities. Their professor realised that these two were quite good at creative thinking. He used to full advantage the facilities and opportunities that the newly established on-campus entrepreneurial park offered. He managed to secure some basic funding for the two students and gave them a free hand at experimenting through the various technological and computational facilities that had been set up at the park. Soon enough these students came up with a potentially good and rewarding idea and the upshot is that their startup to manufacture well-made and highly innovatively designed electric scooters has become quite a success. In addition, IIT Madras holds a small stake in the enterprise and so it has been a win-win situation for all concerned. I have just singled out one such project from the several stories that have grown around the successes at the park.
In a similar fashion the IIT Bombay has been quite successful in the startup arena at its own park where there is greater emphasis on the use of computers and IT for various applications. I also wish to point out that for some years now I have been observing-and tangentially working with-a marvellous initiative that was first mooted by the HRD ministry and also supported by them. This initiative has been running under the label of eYantra, and Prof. Kavi Arya of the Computer Science Department of the IIT Bombay has been its mentor. The purpose of this entire enterprise is to foster a strong viable and productive culture of robotics and related technologies leading to entrepreneurship in India’s colleges of technology. I can personally vouch for the unleashing of the creative spirits among our students in so many of these regional institutions. In fact, this project has also made connections with Bhutan where much interest and goodwill has been generated. The upshot of such activities is that the creative and entrepreneurial instincts of young minds get unleashed, and students learn how to put knowledge to practical use. Several startups have spouted through the eYantra programme and a gradual shift is beginning to take place in the mindsets of several young minds who have begun to become job creators rather that job seekers. I have now brought this project into the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir and it has begun to yield dividends. I think all our universities and colleges must take lessons out of such activities and lessen the expectations from campus placements.