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Journalism of Courage
Shouri Chatterjee comes across as a regular guy from Kolkata, fond of reading and meaningful cinema. Every morning while cycling his way to his tiny office at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi IIT-D, he mingles with his students. In fact, he8217;s often mistaken for one. But he dispels the impression with a firm, 8220;I8217;m here to teach.8221;
And if you ask his seniors at the institute, this simple statement from the US-returned electrical engineer means a lot to IIT-D these days.
He is not alone. The 38 other men and women who have filled up faculty positions at IIT-D in the last 18 months, would agree. The new recruits, many of them under 35, reflect a trend that is slowly picking up across all the IITs. Most of those who have joined are either first-time teachers or have taken to teaching after a few years of experience in the industry.
For 32-year-old Anirban Mahanti, for example, teaching at IIT-D is a job change for the better. The shift from a three-year-stint as an assistant professor at the University of Calgary in Canada to teaching at IIT-D may have meant a 8220;big downer8221; financially but in terms of freedom in research work, the gain, he says, cannot be translated into monetary terms. 8220;In industry-based research, you just do what the company wants you to do. Here at IIT, we set our own pace and do what we want to do,8221; he adds.
While Prof Bijendra N Jain, Deputy Director Faculty at IIT-D, insists that the emphasis on recruiting young faculty is not new, he admits much is being done to 8220;incentivise8221; the lot.
This month, IIT-D introduced the Outstanding Young Faculty Fellowships. The fellowships, currently numbering 26, offer Rs 1 lakh per annum to the select faculty for a period of five years. Jain says IIT-D hopes to launch about 500 such fellowships in the next five years.
8220;Creating fellowships are most important to us now than anything else. Return on money invested in a young faculty usually exceeds everything else. They are young, enthusiastic and several of them have left lucrative jobs abroad to join us,8221; says Prof Jain.
The institute has also asked the Department of Science of Technology under the Ministry of Science and Technology to launch at least a thousand fellowships for young science teachers across the country.
Similar efforts were made at IIT-Bombay when the institute announced a signing bonus of Rs 3 lakh for its new faculty with help from its alumni. It even significantly increased seed research grants to Rs 10 lakh to new faculty members from Rs 3 lakh in previous years.
Educationists say compensation packages are the need of the hour to build a pool of young teachers as a large number of faculties across IITs, hired at a time they were being set up in the 1950s and 1960s in anticipation of excellence in science and engineering education, are nearing retirement.
8220;The faculty was recruited some 30 years ago. Only a few years ago, we realised the fact that many of them would be retiring,8221; explains MS Ananth, director, IIT-Madras.
While IIT-Bombay has a faculty strength of 420 with about 100 vacant positions, it is not alone. Figures at the seven IITs reveals an estimated, cumulative shortage of at least 900 faculty members.
At IIT-D, about 20 percent of faculty positions are vacant. Further, according to a report prepared by its alumni association in 2004, more than 20 per cent of its most experienced faculty would retire in the next seven years.
The shortage is most acute in IIT Roorkee, which has a sanctioned strength of 575 but only 345 on the rolls.
So, IIT-D, along with IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Madras, has standing advertisements for faculty positions in all departments. And, the progress has been 8220;good8221; as against a 8220;dull response8221;8217; until a couple of years ago. 8220;About 50 per cent of the applications we receive now are from teachers settled abroad. They all want to teach at IITs,8221; says Prof Jain of IIT-D.
The recent recruitments have pushed the number of teachers aged under 35 from 15 to over 30 at IIT-D and 8216;Brand India8217; is one of the reasons behind the rising numbers.
In the 1990s, Prof K Achuta Rao, now 43, would come looking for research jobs in the field of climate change in vain. 8220;Two things have happened since. First, the Government is encouraging quality research and second, a great research pool is being created here with the advent of big research labs setting up shop here. This is the time to be in India and be part of the changes it is undergoing,8221;8217; says Rao who joined IIT-D this June after working in the US for over two decades.
While Rao8217;s decision to come back to India took two decades, young IITians have decided pretty early. Statistics show that only three of IIT-Kanpur8217;s 273 BTech students and two from the integrated MSc course went abroad last year. All others8212;267 MTech students, two-year MSc grads and MBA8212;-stayed back in the country. In Delhi, of the 1,000-odd job seekers, only one student went abroad to join a financial consulting firm. At IIT Mumbai, 95 per cent of the students were placed in India while in Madras, only two BTech students went abroad.
But the lot willing to take up teaching and research is 8220;still a faraway dream,8221; says Mahanti. 8220;You can8217;t say that the US hangover is over. But there has been some sort of reverse drain. That doesn8217;t mean we should no longer be worrying about brain drain,8221; he cautions.
While teaching at IITs continues to be a low-paying job compared to positions at MNCs and international labs, Prof Surendra Prasad, director, IIT-D, believes IITs offer a lot more than pay scales. 8220;We are learning the tricks of the trade. I admit we offer little compared to the MNCs, but many don8217;t even know what we can offer,8221; adds Prasad.
The IITs are now spreading the message. From underlining incentives of free housing on its safe campuses and quality research, they are even helping its faculty settle down. IIT-D recently uploaded a web page to help its new faculty negotiate the trivia about a gas connection, maidservants and schools for their kids. 8220;When we hire them, we need to be conscious of the fact that they will be living with their families. We are now making them feel comfortable by helping them settle through our contacts and support system,8221; says Prof Jain.
The comfort factor appears to be what8217;s getting many techies to the IITs, this time as teachers.
Sreedevi Upadhyayula, 37
Sreedevi Upadhyayula was 34 when she began teaching at IIT-Kharagpur in 2004, three years after she had got her PhD from the institute.
In the intervening period, she worked as a design engineer and even joined the University of Notre Dame in Indiana on a post-doctoral fellowship.
8216;8216;8217;My family used to joke that if I studied any further, it would be difficult for them to find a husband for me,8217;8217; she grins.
She married a chemical engineer and moved to Delhi last April where she joined IIT.
8216;8216;This job doesn8217;t involve travelling and it8217;s quite peaceful. In the calm and intellectually stimulating environment, you can do good research with least interference from anyone,8217;8217; she says.
An assistant professor with IIT-D for over a year now, Upadhyayula works in the area of catalysis and firmly believes that teaching and research 8216;8216;can8217;t go with a lot of commuting8217;8217;.
8216;8216;If you are in a job, you travel for hours just to and fro from office. Hours of travelling robs you of your mental peace. How can you give quality time to your research?8217;8217; she asks.
Shouri Chatterjee, 29
Shouri Chatterjee8217;s vocation at IIT is not a matter of chance. It8217;s all about making the 8220;right choices8221;.
When he was at the Silicon Laboratories in the US where he worked on cell-phone technologies, he longed to get back home. 8220;I can vouch for myself and my friends that we all wanted to come back,8221; he says.
The time was right too, he says. An advertisement for faculty positions at IIT-D was all he needed to get out of the stressful industry-driven research and become his own master. 8220;It8217;s a world-recognised institute so I am not losing out on my global positioning as a researcher. Besides, I am now working on my own terms and setting my own pace. Working with industry is always commercial,8221; he says. Today, at IIT-D, Chatterjee, an IIT-Madras and Columbia University alumnus, is among the youngest of faculty members who have joined the institute in the last 18 months. And, while he doesn8217;t find any financial incentives in coming back, it8217;s the joy of teaching and research that keeps him happy. 8220;I have some cool ideas and I would like to work them out,8221; he says.
His leisure time is spent in reading, trekking or watching a movie with his wife. But it8217;s the campus that he loves most. 8220;I like to stay indoors. The city is maddening,8221; he says.
Anirban Mahanti, 32
Anirban Mahanti finds research in India exciting. And more so at IIT-Delhi. When he joined IIT-D in May this year, teaching and research were on top of his mind. 8220;If you do a PhD, the most obvious choice is a research job,8221; he says. So, the BE from Birla Institute of Technology-Mesra and a PhD from University of Saskatchewan in Canada, Mahanti chose to teach after a short stint as assistant professor at the University of Calgary in Canada. The fact that his wife works as a doctor at AIIMS only helped. After nearly a decade in US, he decided to come back, excited at the 8220;prospect of working in India8221;.
8220;A trend has begun to develop among people living in the US that they must come back. Things have changed. With a lot of industrialisation happening, a formidably critical mass of a research community is taking shape here,8221; he says.
While a teaching job at IIT-D is not very 8220;lucrative8221;, the experience of being part of the IIT fraternity 8220;can8217;t be translated in monetary terms,8221; says Mahanti.8220;I want to teach and also see that we build a great pool of students graduating to research. Once that happens, everything will be fine,8221; he says.
Mahanti has been working on developing sharper software applications and at IIT-D, he insists, the experience has just gotten better.
Vinay Joseph Ribeiro, 31
After a year of research assistantship at Rice University in Houston, Vinay Joseph Ribeiro8217;s next stop was IIT-Delhi. And, like most of his lot, he wanted to do research on his own terms. 8220;I always wanted to work in India and IIT is the best place,8221; he says.
He zeroed in on Delhi, after he realised that he could also work for Opus Dei, a Catholic community of which he is a member, while teaching.
At IIT, the assistant professor at Computer Science Department says there8217;s more to teaching than just delivering lectures. 8220;The students here are extremely intelligent. They absorb concepts quickly and make teaching an enjoyable experience,8221; he says.
And now Ribeiro has company. His brother Rahul Ribeiro too joined IIT a few months ago as assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department.
S. janardan, 28
A BE from Madras University and a PhD from IIT-Bombay, S Janardan graduated in 2006 with dreams of taking up teaching. 8220;I have been clear in my head: I want to teach,8221; he says.
So, after a year-long research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore that followed soon after his PhD, Janardan joined IIT-D as an assistant professor this May.
8220;I had tried for jobs in industry but while giving job interviews, I realised I was not cut out for such posts. At IIT, I find more freedom and prestige, whereas in the industry I will be tied down by company rules,8221; he says.
In his eight months at IIT-D, research work is yet to come by but Janardan is ready with a couple of proposals. 8220;I can suggest these to the government and ask for sponsorships,8221; he says.
