Premier institutes IITs and IIMs are in a “bad position” as they only contribute to transfer of capital to developed nations, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Murli Manohar Joshi said on Wednesday, claiming that the country’s youth is being reduced to “tailors” rather than “textile makers”.
The former Union HRD minister also suggested that the government should assess the country’s technological power before introducing development schemes. “The IITs and IIMs are in a bad position... they are only contributing to transfer of capital to developed countries. We are not creating opportunities here and the students who pass out from these institutes are only contributing to management of multinational companies of other countries,” he said.
Joshi, MP from Kanpur, was addressing the 5th National Summit on Instituionalising Academia-Industry interface organised by PHD chamber. He said the country is focusing more on borrowing technology rather than creating technology which is reducing educated youth into “tailors” rather than “textile makers”.
“Vajpayeeji had mooted a wonderful idea of quadrangle roads. But even before the concept plan for how the roads will be constructed was worked out, Volvo came up with buses that can be run on those roads. It is good to borrow technology but ultimately our projects don’t generate employment and revenue for our youth but become a profit making ground for others,” Joshi said.
“Governments need to realise that they need to assess technological power of the country before progressing on such schemes so they do not cause long term loss to the country,” he said. Joshi also slammed the previous UPA government for having granted university status to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
“We were exploring how research can be encouraged in institutions. Then the government changed and they converted CSIR into a university thereby destroying a perfect platform for research. Labs and universities have different mandates and two cannot serve the same purpose,” he said.
Joshi said the industry’s focus has always been on the higher education institutions while secondary as well as primary sectors have been ignored.