Prof. Giridhar Madras of IISc, Bangalore maintains a nice blog. There was something on this ‘Pay Scale’ issue. Interestingly, in the comment section one IITB alumnus raised a similar point. To this some IITkgp Prof., and Prof. Giridhar himself responded like this.

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I follow this blog regularly and for quite some time. I believe that many of my colleagues at IITkgp or other IITs also do so. My sincere thanks to Prof. Giridhar.

Since there are many like me who benefit from this blog from India and abroad, some of them are aspiring faculty members of the IITs, I think I should respond to one observation of an alumnus of IITB.

—- Quote —-
IITs may be slightly better. But many IIT faculty would not have got admitted there as a student. When I studied in IIT-Bombay, we have a quotation,

“If you can not become a B.Tech student, then become a M.Tech student; If you are not able to become a M.Tech student, then become a Ph.D student; If you are not able to even become a Ph.D student, become a faculty; Worse, if you are unable to become a faculty, then become the director”
—- Unquote —-

I did my BTech in one of the IITs (1986-1990). I had many friends who did not crack IIT-JEE when I did but they were no less good and doing quite well in their career. I am now teaching in a IIT for more than seven years. Before that I taught in a Pvt. Engg. College of India for about three years. I have seen many IIT-BTech.s and nonIIT-BTech.s. My humble observation is : The top 10 percent BTechs in any other college is definitely better than bottom 10 percent of IITs. For better managed other colleges even the top 50 percent are better than bottom 50 percent of IITs or more.

As a research faculty I am handling IIT BTechs (final year project), MTech, MS and PhD students. The last three categories are filled up definitely not by IIT BTechs who look for greener pastures. I must say that I am impressed by these non-IITians (mostly MS & PhD) dedication, thirst for knowledge, perseverance. These qualities are largely absent in most of the IIT BTechs who are looking for a short cut to success.

I remember an old adage : It is not important where you stand but the direction you go.

IIT BTechs are good as long as their direction is right. Non IIT BTechs deserve more kudos as they are the ones living up to the challenge and need of the country which their IIT counterpart largely avoids. And this includes the responsibility of raising/educating IIT BTech.s.

I hope I have not offended anyone – just wanted to comment on some well preserved myths. If any IIT BTech student/guardian is reading this comment, my request would be to consider the following – (1)Please treat that the admission to an IIT is beginning of the journey, not the end of it. I have seen many IIT BTechs spoiling themselves in my batch and more now. (2)Please don’t pay attention to somebody preaching you that IIT faculty members are sub-standard (since most of them have not cracked IIT-JEE as one IIT-JEE doesn’t make or break one’s life). IITs have stringent quality checks in faculty recruitment (3)Compared to their counter parts in advanced countries who get the toppers from India, China, South Korea, … IIT faculty usually gets 5th level students of India (not IIT BTech, not NIT BTech, not IIT MTech, not toppers from Pvt. College) for their research Lab.s. They still manage to do international level work. The students (whom a faculty in a good university abroad will not dare to admit in his group) raise themselves so well in four years – it is wonderful to watch that transformation as a faculty guide (4)Finally, please remember, ‘Shraddhaban labhate Jnanam’ – ‘The one who respects, learns’. Respect your teacher, parents, country – you will do well in life.

Regarding 6PC, I have nothing to add. I am happy with what I am getting or whatever is finally offered.
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Dear Krishnan,

I am not going to comment in detail regarding your post. Prof. GS has already done a wonderful job in that.

In IISc, we hardly recruit anyone who has not studied in IIT/IISc/top 20 schools in USA. To claim that JEE is the holy grail in ridiculous. JEE does not judge research skills. To succeed in research requires not only intelligence but also motivation, hard work and perseverance.

Regarding money, your point is well taken that government can not increase pay for everyone. It can only provide a base salary in which one can lead a comfortable life. If any faculty wants to earn more than that, there are several options, as you point out.

Thanks

Giridhar

One needs to realize that nothing is sacrosanct about the JEE system any more. Any one can get through JEE these days, if they go to Kota, and forget two years of their life there. Students who go to NITs are equally good, it is the system that exists in NITs which spoils them, unlike what happens in IITs. IITs survive because of the culture that exists there and because of the faculty who maintain this culture. At many IITs, B.Techs form just about 30-40% of the total student strength, so they are only the byproducts of the system right now, not the main products. It is the M.Techs & Ph.Ds who are the custodians of quality research that the IITs are becoming known for, who help so many high tech industries strive and flourish in Bangalore & else where. Every thing that the MHRD has done in the last 6 years is towards destroying the IIT system. Reservations among students & faculty, pay revisions, mushrooming of so many new IITs with no planning what so ever, etc. etc.

The reality is that with the process of privatization and the globalization of Indian education sector, there are no holy cows anymore in education including the IITs and IIMs. In fact, the big private players in the market have all the money, resources, contacts and intention to poach the best talent from the IITs and IIMs in order to make their ventures successful. You will be surprised to know that many of these players are themselves B.Techs or M.Techs from IITs.In fact, an M.Tech student from any of the IITs at Kanpur, Bombay, Madras and Delhi can easily make around 3-4 lac p.a. just by teaching part-time at private Engineering colleges during weekends. This is more money than an Associate Professor at an IIT would make in a year. On passing out, the very same colleges and deemed universities are ready to shell out anything between 40-60,000 per month in order to afford the services of these students as full-time faculty. In Maharashtra, you do not even need to be a full-time faculty and you can make 1-2 lac per month easily by teaching simultaneously in 4-5 colleges/deemed universities and many people have made it their vocation to be freelance Professors. And mind you , this does not require any more hard work than preparing your lecture notes, binding them in a copy, and teaching the same stuff in every college. There is absolutely no pressure to be ‘brilliant’ and publish research papers like in IITs and IIMs in order to get the next salary raise/promotion, it’s just your stamina to stand and lecture for hours that is the key.

Now with the world class universities like Harvard,Oxford, Georgia Tech etc set to start their campuses in India from next year onwards, they would like to poach the ‘research’ faculty from IITs and IIMs and rest assured that they will not only offer good pay packages but also the freedom to research and consult, which is now available only in IITs and IIMs which will make it too tempting for the ’10%’ faculty you talk about in your post, to leave IITs and IIMs for good for greener pastures.

It is a genuine fear amongst the IIT faculty that such a poor pay hike as has been proposed by the MHRD has been done under the pressure of these big Indian and Foreign universities/players so that not only are the best professors tempted to leave but also that they would accept much lesser pay packages than they would have got if the salaries at IITs were higher. This is not an issue of the students or the JEE or anything that you think Mr. IITian, rather, it is an issue of an Indian citizen’s fundamental right to get the appropriate livelihood commensurate with his/her talent. This is an issue of the fundamental rights of the intellectual worker and not of any IIT student or ex-student.

You harp on the maintenance of quality of the JEE exam but forget that nobody from heaven comes and organizes the JEE but it is only the faculty and staff of IITs who organize JEE smoothly and efficiently from year to year. And now with the UG infrastructure at the best private universities in India matching (and even surpassing the IITs in some respects, especially residential and mess facilities), the IITs are at the top only because that the faculty here is still the best available in the country (whatever might be your opinion on them but this is the best faculty that we have in India, period) and that there is a strong culture of research here.

Take away this faculty and I guarantee that within five years you will feel ashamed to call yourself an IITian because the market respects nobody. Even Harvard and Stanford survive because they pay their faculty very well and allow them to teach at other universities also, and they also give the faculty full freedom for research and consulting assignments so that they do not leave. Still the faculty attrition rate is very high there (I know because my relatives have taught in these universities as faculty at some point of time or the other and they all left for greener pastures when they got the opportunity). India, like the US, is now a big education market. And if you want to maintain your standing in this market you would have to create your own space and USP. Otherwise, as I said earlier, with the current schemes of the MHRD, you will be ashamed to call yourself an IITian within the next few years.

(1) All the tech teachers should be placed above the UGC scales, as envisaged in G Mehta Report.

(2) NITs should be placed above the General Tech Colleges.

(3) IITs (Including IIITs and ISM Dhanbad) should be placed at the super scales.
(4) Downgrading of any Institute without any valid reason or because of degradation in the quality of academic activites of the institute should not be done only by the ‘sweet will’ of the babus of MHRD. The upgrading or downgrading of any institute should be based only on the assesement by proper and consecutively (at least for 3 years) conducted academic audit by proper committees of renouned academicians of the technical fields. So the present downgrading of IIITs and ISM Dhanbad is ILLIGLE and UNCALLED FOR and should immediately be withdrawn unconditionally by MHRD as their first step. Today it is IIITs and ISM Dhanbad,, and tomorrow if this continues, (who knows) may be the axe falls on any established IIT if it does not ‘conform’ the great MHRD?

(5) The scales given given to all CFIs ( IITs/ IIMs, IIITs, ISM, IISC NITs etc. ) should be respecable.

(6) The lenght of service of the existing faculty needs be recognised and should reflect in their basic pay. Look at the proposed pay which reminds of the saying which best fits to MHRD bosses:

‘ANDHER NAGREE CHUPATT RAJA, TAKKEY SEAR BHAAJEE TAKKYE SEAR KHAJA’

for example:
(a) A new entrant (basic pay in old scale -12000) as Assistant Professor will get 30,000 as basic pay and an existing Asst Professor with 10 years of service with basic pay of 16200 will get 30140 – a mere Rs 140 for his 10 years experince all of which gets washed for the ‘WISDOM’ of MHRD officials sitting in DELHI in their AC rooms!!

(b) A new entrant as Associate professor (Basic pay in old scale 16400) will get 42800 as new basic pay and an existing Associate Professor for 6 years, whose basic pay is 19100 (may be with a total about 27 years teaching experince0 will get Rs 43390 – a mere Rs 590 for his experince and service rendered to the institute for so many years.- All because of the ‘POWER AND JUDGEMENT OF SOME MHRD JARGONS’ sitting in DELHI in ther AC Rooms!!

(c)A newly appointed Professor will get basic pay of Rs 48000 on joining but a serving old (may not be so old) Professor who has devoted his life in the profession and with 6 years experince as Professor will get a basic pay of Rs 48870 just Rs 870 being the price of all what he has over the fresh person who has not given anything to the institute and may be very new in teaching. All his experince, knowledge, control over the subject and pedagogy will fetch him Rs 870 only over a brand new Professor, ‘COURTESY’ again to the ‘HARD WORK, EFFORTS, DELIBERATIONS, THINKING, AND THE CONFIDENTIALTY MAINTAINED’ by great MHRD babus again sitting ….!!

THIS MEANS MHRD WANTS TO LURE NEW PEOPLE TO JOIN IITs/IIMs, BUT DOES NOT WANT TO RETAIN THE ALREADY EXISTING FACULTY.

This can be said in other words:
For new entrants ‘Welcome’ at the Gate ,
And ‘Humiliation’ for the already inmates.

JAI HO!!!

In the current mess made by our political class, the only remedy for the IITs and IIMs is corporatization of their respective boards with full autonomy regarding pay and curriculum. The boards must have a strong representation from the alumni and the faculty as well as from the government and industry but should be independent of the control of the Ministry of HRD and the politicians who have made the best institutions of the country a cheap tool for narrow political gains.