NRM on education

I was reading an article by Infosys Technologies chairman and chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy, in which he has said about freeing higher education and making it accessible to all. He's given suggestions of tripling capacity of the IIT's etc. Usually one hears people refererring to doubling of capacity - but perhaps in order to differentiate, NRM used the word "tripling". It was good, though none of the suggestions were extraordinary. The suggestions become extraordinary when NRM says so, not when you or me do so. (Unless the "you" is NRM himself, and if so, im privileged that NRM read this - "Hello Sir, How are you ?")

Allright, this apart, there was something that didnt go down well. And this was when he's mentioned that all the hot shot's join the software industry and the laggards go elsewhere to the other general industries. Now considers this - of the biggest hotshots that we have (lets for the moment assume that these kinds are the AIR-1 rankers or the 9+ CPI ones at the end of the IIT graduation) , how many join an IT company or go into software ? Youd find that most get into higher research and probably in diverse areas such as Physics and Mathematics - but not IT and software. Yes, many do go into Computer Science, but then thats different from what the IT and software industry does. How many Dijkstra's or Knuth's or Feynman's has India produced ? Ans : ZERO. What we excel in is, IT and software - and thats the part that comes into play after its decided whats to be done - we just go around doing whats to be done - we dont figure out in original terms as to whats to be done or how its to be done. This part is handled by the Dijkstra's or Knuth's or Feynman's.

If NRM thinks that all the hot shots get into software and the laggards do other things, then he is mistaken. You do fine hoards of IITians who study civil and metallurgical engineering (the so called laggards of the IITs) and then do software jobs.

We are not even considering the biggest drain that results from the IIT system - kids learn here (lakhs being spent on spoonfeeding them) and then go on to serve other nationalities. India thus becomes a labour supplier, that only benefits the kids, their families, and the administration who came up with these policies in the first place. To some extent, NRM has realised this when he says that higher education should not be subsidised and that higher education should be freed form the shackles of the state.

Perhaps, NRM wants all the hot shot kids to join his industry. The better the kids, the better the output. The better the output, the more the profits, and subsequently more sops and grants and favours from the government. After all who wouldnt want to hire or want the very best of whats available ? However, in order to sound appreciative and considerate of other "general industries" he's gone on to mention that the hot shots should look at jobs in the general industry too. This too works in the favor of the IT and software boys - for essentially IT and software are "services" to other main and more important "nation building industries". If tomorrow, everyone starts coding and crunching superficial excel sheets, then who will build the nation ?