A couple of years ago, Outlook carried a survey of the top 50 private engineering colleges in India, and ranked the ICFAI Institute of Science and Technology, Hyderabad, a princely 24th. Based on this, hundreds of students went and joined the place. Many of them have now quit the BTech programme while others haven’t attended classes or written exams due to an ongoing strike. Why? Because the institute is neither AICTE-approved, nor UGC-recognised; it’s neither a constituent of a university nor affiliated with one, it is little better than a coaching institute! Several students have openly blamed Outlook, and a couple of newspapers even carried their quotes. But what does Outlook do? It publishes yet another survey of India’s top 75 engineering colleges and places the same institute 63rd!
Lenina Rao, Hyderabad
How is it that the National Defence Academy figures nowhere in your list of professional colleges? Is it because you do not consider it a professional college or it failed to make it to the top rankings?
Ali Ahmed, Delhi
Being an engineer myself, I found your rankings pretty comprehensive.
Utkarsh, Agra
How exactly do you define "academic excellence"?
Phani Kishan, Chennai
IIT Kharagpur is generally rated low by the IITians I know (even the required cutoff for it is lower than for Kanpur, Bombay, Delhi and Madras, at least it was in 1987, when I gave the IIT JEE). Indeed, I know Madras and Delhi are better than Kharagpur, based on the scientific journal papers in my own field: nanoelectronics. Yet, I still see Kharagpur ranked consistently as No. 1 in all surveys year after year. This is probably because the people surveyed are mostly in India. And of all the IITians who have graduated in the last 10-15 years, those from IIT KGP probably tend to stay back in India while the others move outside India for higher studies. It is very likely therefore that out of the 1,000 people polled in this survey, a disproportionate majority were from IIT KGP. To fix this flaw, you need to include professionals from all over the world.
Venkat, on e-mail
Why should selection points for different iits be different, when admissions to all of them are through the same exam?
Abhay K. Bothra, Mumbai
Outlook should learn something from the FT’s ranking of B-schools in the US. They are meant to help people.
Mayank Jain, Jammu
The standard of teaching in terms of quality of faculty, laboratories and other facilities should be the single-most important criterion for judging any university. There should also be a differentiation in grading, say, computer-related specialised institutes like IIIT, DAIICT, LNMIIT as opposed to the NITS and IITs, which offer all branches. Grading faculty on an opaque category of educational qualification is misleading as well, as institutes like daiict, IIIT, Hyderabad, have one of the finest set of PhDs in the country, with almost half the faculty having moved through some of the better-known universities around the world, say, University of California @ Berkeley. It’s not just the PhD that should count but where it’s been obtained from and the person’s research experience. Finally, student achievement should not be measured just in terms of fat pay packages they manage to obtain.
Ambuj Varshney, on e-mail
Of the categories highlighted by you, the following are also taught at the Aligarh Muslim University: engineering, medicine, dentistry, social work and law. But amu will never make the grade in any of th ese. Blame it on its administrators and faculty. While nepotism and ‘inbreeding’ have long characterised its faculty, there is also a problem in the way its administrators are chosen. It’s been a long time since any person of academic distinction was made V-C, it’s usually a retired civil servant of undistinguished professional record, selected only for the religion. The so-called leaders of the Muslim community lose no time to cry foul whenever they suspect communal discrimination. Why don’t they raise their voice against the self-destruction that’s been going on in Aligarh?
C.M. Naim, Chicago
I can only wonder at the basis of your evaluation of the Top 10 colleges in mass comm if you missed out the social communications media course at Sophia. Not only is it among the top 10, I’d go so far as to say that it may even be No. 1 given its faculty and the resources.
Megha Subramanian, Los Angeles
I was both surprised and disappointed with your list of top 15 dental colleges in India. Surprised because a number of colleges with verifiably meagre resources have figured in your rankings. Disappointed because a leading institution such as the SDM College of Dental Sciences & Hospital was overlooked. We have an excellent track record in selection processes, academics, infrastructure and research. We have one of the highest number of outpatients, providing extensive and diverse clinical experience to students. These are a few of the reasons why the institution was the first dental college in India to be accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), an autonomous body of the UGC, in 2002. We have just been reaccredited with a score of 3.77 out of 4, among the top four of the close to 3,500 accredited institutions in India. Just for the record.
Prof C. Bhasker Rao, Director, SDMCDSH, Sattur
In India, democracy is a licence for the ruling party to interfere in the working of any state-run institution. If the state government is at loggerheads with the Centre, it is a bigger nightmare. With the exception of prestigious institutions like AIIMS, AFMC or the IITs, most of the rest are in a shambles, with a glaring shortage of faculty and infrastructure alike. But this should not be taken to mean that students in these colleges lack calibre or experience. Being a student at a government medical college in Alappuzha, I feel the greatest infrastructure a medical college needs is patients willing to submit themselves to its care and in this respect no private college can hold a candle to even the least known government college! Sometimes even the lack of facilities is a blessing in disguise. To diagnose without the aid of hi-fi scans, to suture with a needle-holder that won’t close and more importantly to touch and feel and be one with the people—isn’t that more pertinent for a country where the rural poor yearn to be spared a thought?
Meenu B., Alappuzha
Right from choosing the directors of IITs and IIMs (Mr Dube at IIT Kharagpur was a personal friend of M.M. Joshi, the current IIM-A director is A.B. Bardhan’s son-in-law) to VCs of universities (the current VC of Indore University is the CA of our governor, Mr Jakhar), politicians interfere in the affairs of colleges and then ask them to produce quality. As for A.M. Naik’s piece (Grease the Nuts and Bolts), I’d like to tell the L&T CMD that companies like his and Tata (which are actually among the few professionally managed Indian companies) have work, place and a reward system for people from ITIs but not enough quality or challenging work or reward system for IIT graduates.
Anshul, Indore
What use is concentrating on higher education when the very foundation of our education system—the primary school—is so shaky? Kapil Sibal needs to visit just one such school in a village and another in an urban slum to fathom what’s wrong with our system.
Ramesh Raghuvanshi, Pune
Apropos P.M. Bhargava’s piece Blackboards to Call Our Own, it is not only the middle class which craves for western stamps but also our business world and politicians. Their kids flock to foreign universities before returning and managing their family businesses. Most of our so-called intellectuals too want a western stamp to increase their acceptance. Then why blame the middle class? It does not crave for education in foreign institutions. It just wants to migrate at any cost, and education offers a first step in that direction.
Tarang, Ahmedabad
Let successful Indians abroad create an "Escape India Fund" and help the meritorious escape the clutches of Mayawati and her ilk.
A.N. Banerjee, Newcastle, UK
Finally, the truth is out. The education the aam aadmi gets is worthless (The Art of Being Employed in the Machine Age.) Yet, the government can only think of reservations.
Dinesh Kumar, Chandigarh
I was really moved by your article When You Want it That Much More on Anand Kumar and his Super 30. How can I get in touch with him.
Devesh, Bangalore
Editor’s note: You can write to mail@super30.org
What can be better than marrying science and arts at the IITs (There is a Song in the Slide Rule)? I am all for it. Way to go.
Manav Sahay, Mumbai
Solar energy is something we should really push for (Sunforce for the Workforce). It’s one resource we have plenty of.
Varun Shekhar, Toronto
There might be no takers for Khalistan any more but the Sikhs and Hindus of Punjab will never forgive Indira Gandhi for allowing things to come to such a pass that the army had to enter the Golden Temple (Faded Star, Jun 22). Although foreign invaders like Nadir Shah and Ahmed Shah Abdali did damage the Golden Temple, the Mughals ruling India from Delhi never attacked it. The Sikhs are a brave and intelligent lot who’ve moved well beyond the troubles of the ’80s. The Muslims in Gujarat should take a cue from them.
A.K. Ghai, Mumbai
It will be in the fitness of things to clarify that Sikh groups, including the Dal Khalsa, are wedded to the struggle for Khalistan through peaceful and democratic means. But it seems the media doesn’t feel this path is enough for them to recognise the movement and the aspirations of the community. Is your magazine exhorting us to change the course of our democratic struggle?
Kanwarpal Singh, Spokesperson, Dal Khalsa
Apropos Black Marx (Jun 22), the CPI(M) castle is crumbling in Kerala. The Left survived as long as it was seen to be "fighting for the downtrodden". But now people, particularly the educated youth, are no longer enamoured of their outdated Marxist/Leninist ideology. It may be akin to asking a leopard to shed its spots but unless the Left makes a course correction and changes according to the times, it’s doomed.
P.P. Sethumadhavan, Bangalore
Any Communist worth his salt will agree that the comrades are no different when it comes to corruption, subtle or gross. Probity, it seems, is for other politicos, not for fellow comrades. Karat called Manmohan Singh dishonest and the nuclear deal a sellout. What then was the Lavalin scam about?
Harun, Chennai
The standoff between Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan came as a godsend for the grand old party of India, for it can now fix the CPI(M). The governor dutifully dispatching a report to the CBI to prosecute Pinarayi, overlooking the state cabinet’s advice, was no surprise. It’s not the first time the Congress has taken recourse to such measures to "settle matters". It reinforces the fact that governors continue to be used as tools by those in power at the Centre.
K.R. Srinivasan, Secunderabad
History will never forgive backwards and Dalits in the major political parties if the bill on reservation for women is passed without internal reservation for women from the backward and Dalit communities.
Mahfooz Alam, Gaya
Apropos of Neelabh Mishra’s piece (The Ulcer We Love to Hide, Jun 22), it was a Herculean task uniting a country stratified along so many lines—of caste, language, region—into a nation. It’s a surprise that we hang together at all. So Neelabh Mishra should realise that we are still in the process of social engineering that will ultimately do away with the evils of caste. It will take time.
B.G. Subhash, Bangalore
Certainly, homegrown racism and other forms of hate make us feel weak. What is worse is society’s willing ignorance and tacit acceptance of hate.
Diepiriye S. Kuku-Siemons, New Delhi
Our students in Australia should remember they’re in a foreign land and desist from organising protests that hamper what its government is doing to protect them. The Australian government, too, should remember that Indian students bring it revenue; it should work to prevent the attacks, or Indians would stop going there for studies. On its part, the Indian government should depute a minister to bring pressure to bear on the Australian government.
G.S. Rao, Kolhapur
The first step for us as a nation is to acknowledge the caste discrimination that is so much a part of life in India.
Reddy, on e-mail
Hardliners shouted at him: Jootey maro saley ko
And in the same breath they shouted: Jai Shri Ram
Benignly Tanvir said: Abuse me all you want,
I will not let you drag Shri Ram into it.
Beautiful minds respond in such a way.
Time never writes off such artists
As they translate unity in diversity.
Naya Theatre still throbs with his characters
Virtue versus vice will be there till the world ends
It was he who stood for the right of performing arts,
Rehearsals are on, we won’t disturb him.
Prem Nizar Hameed, Riyadh
Shama Zaidi’s tribute to Habib Tanvir brought memories flooding to my mind. Habib saheb’s greatest contribution was making the folk artist and performer believe in himself.
S. Balakrishnan, Jamshedpur
Your ‘10 Q’ with Agatha Sangma shows her up for what she is: yet another dynast.
Anil, Toronto
There’s no question of Agatha Sangma making a difference. Her father never did. Agatha, however, comes in handy for Sonia Gandhi to show Sharad Pawar his place.
Manish Banerjee, Calcutta
Isn’t it amazing that Ms Agatha has recently widened her reading to include biographies and books on development?
Aditi Bhattacharya, San Francisco
Isn’t Sheetal from the house of Mafatlals, once clothiers to the nation (Ms Rock Runner, Jun 22)? How come their ‘bahu’ was running just half-clad? Or is it the effect of the "economic meltdown"?
S.K. Bisht, Delhi
The truth is that our "dreaded grenadier" Mahendra Singh Dhoni is no longer fit to bat in the T20 version (Bring on the Ice, Jun 22). He must retire if Team India wants to do better. Dhoni himself would not deny this if he saw the replay of the England match. His timing is gone because his time is gone.
Arunodoy Bhattacharyya, Calcutta
Just one failure and already the noose is out. The Indian media and fandom really need to grow up. Right now, Team India needs our support, not post-mortems.
George Premkumar, on e-mail
One indirect advantage for losing out along with Australia could be that Oz may start empathising with India. They might even stop whupping our boys Down Under.
V. Seshadri, Chennai
As former English captain Mike Atherton said, Indian fans are yet to grow up and accept that defeat is also an essential part of the game.
V.V. Narayan, Thane
All is not lost for India’s cricket team. With their current uniform, they can join Indian Oil as petrol pump attendants.
Lalit Mohan, Gurgaon
