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he process of rebuilding in Gujarat has begun and with it has started the exercise
of reallocating existing manpower and finding jobs for people who are now bereft
of a livelihood.
As we look ahead, education will play a crucial role in the rebuilding of the state.
Using the tool of education, Gujarat will not only be able to retrain its existing
manpower in newer skill sets, it will also be able to create a fresh base of talent,
starting out at the grassroot levels. The great news is that the Center too has
accorded tremendous recognition to the area of education and the role it is going to
play in the new e-conomy. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in Budget 2001 has
created an exalted slot for education, taking care to plug some of the loopholes that
currently dog India’s systems of learning.
For one, we simply don’t have enough IITs (Indian Institute of Technology) across
the county. The IITs today are synonymous with high quality, advanced learning,
akin to what is available in some of the best engineering institutes across the globe.
The Indian government, in recognizing this requirement has upgraded the University
of Rourkee to IIIT status making it the seventh IIT in the country, and decided to
enhance its investments in the Guwahati IIT. The majority of the remaining 42
RECs also need to be upgraded.
It’s time now for Gujarat to look at its centers of higher learning as well. The state
can certainly aspire towards making its REC an IIT–level entity and can even plan
to set up IITs across its boundaries. The Government of Gujarat needs to lobby with
the Central Government to upgrade its famous LD College of Engineering in
Ahmedabad to the level of an IIT, just like Rourkee. In fact, the state should try
and move two steps ahead and either construct a new IIT or IIIT in Vadodara or
Rajkot, or then upgrade an existing engineering college.
This is naturally going to involve the influx of substantial investments in
infrastructure, more specialized faculty and more laboratories. For this purpose,
the government in Gujarat has to work closely with Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi’s
HRD Ministry.
The Times of India, Ahmedabad March 12, 2001
“
Gujarat Surely Needs An IIT,
An Institute of Advanced Learning”
