IT chiefs bid for taking over IITs
New Delhi
12 DECEMBER -ET
A GROUP of infotech bigwigs including Infosys promoter NR Narayana Murthy and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kanwal Rekhi have made a concerted bid to take over the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). The group, which includes hotshots from The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) and Indian IT industry, has offered to create a $1bn fund for privatisation of the country?s premier technology institutions.
"We met PM Atal Behari Vajpayee and proposed an industry take-over of IITs and the government has agreed to the idea in-principle," Kanwal Rekhi, president of TIE said here. Mr Rekhi said the PM has asked the group, most of whom are IIT alumni, to submit a detailed report within the next 30 to 40 days.
The group, which calls itself 'Friends of IIT', is planning to set up a new council, comprising academicians, alumni and industry leaders, to run the five IITs. "Once we get the final go ahead from the government, we plan to put IIT alumni like Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani in the proposed council," he said.
Mr Rekhi said the core group would work towards raising the level of IITs to make them comparable with world-class institutes like Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and Stanford. "The government which is attempting to raise the level of IITs to world standard, is under tremendous financial strain. It is about time successful alumni did their bit for these institutes," he said. ? PTI |
