Bangalore: The wait for having an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the State has got longer as the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his maiden budget on Thursday, did not include Karnataka in the five states where the coveted institutions would be set.
The announcement elicited mixed reactions from various sections. “Disappointed” and “surprised” were the words R V Deshpande, Minister for Higher Education, employed to describe his feeling.
“We are really disappointed because we had made a hard pitch for the IIT. The announcement has come as a surprise, but we will continue our efforts to establish an IIT in Karnataka,” he told Deccan Herald.
Deshpande had recently written to Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Smriti Irani, besides corresponding with Union ministers from Karnataka, H N Ananth Kumar and D V Sadananda Gowda, urging them to take up the matter with the Centre.
Academicians like B N Raghunandan, Dean, Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), also said the announcement came as “disappointment”. He felt that Karnataka had a very good chance of setting up an IIT because of such factors as a large number of engineering students and the fact that it was a big state.
“An IIT in Karnataka would have acted as a nucleus of excellence that would influence and encourage the surrounding regions and institutions to improve their quality. Other institution could collaborate on projects and learn from such interactions,” Raghunandan said. “It’s a real disappointment.”
But students said that while having an IIT in the State would have been great, it was nevertheless not that necessary. Anindya Sharma, an engineering aspirant who secured the sixth rank in the CET and 349th in JEE (Advanced), has already got a call to study electrical engineering at IIT,?Madras.
“Students usually prefer the old NITs (National Institutes of Technology) than the newly set up IITs. Factors like reputation, alumni and faculty matter more than mere location. I don’t think that an IIT in Karnataka will be instantly popular. It is not essential,” said Anindya.
