April 8, 2015
Kakodkar Committee
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RECOMMENDATIONS
TO TAKE IITs FORWARD
Kakodkar Committee set up by MHRD
Anil Kakodkar, Mohandas Pai, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Mohandas, Hari Bhartia, Ashok Thakur
Invited: M. Anandakrishnan, Timothy Gonsalves, Gautam Barua
Co-opted: K. Sudhakar and Ramesh Babu
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Outline
• Recommendations
• Enhanced Research focus
• Autonomy
• Faculty, Staff, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Scaling Engineering
Education
• Summary
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Enhanced Research Focus
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Going forward, IITs
• Have to become world-class Research Institutions
• While retaining its position as best teaching institutions
• IITs to have significantly Enhanced Research funding
• Have substantially enhanced Industrial collaboration
• Focus on technology development in Indian context
• Each IIT should grow to have 1200 faculty (from around 500 today)
and closer to 12000 students
• With most growth coming from enhanced PhD students
• Number of IIT PhDs graduates per year to be scaled up to 10000
• while continuously enhancing quality
• Make a mark in Indian Engineering Education
• Help 70 Centrally funded institutions (including IITs) graduate 100,000
high quality engineering graduates every year
• ensure availability of quality human resource for India’s needs
• Feeder to critical areas as well as into PhD programs
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Some target numbers by 2020
• 20 IITs (typically one in each state)
• Faculty Strength: 16000
• established IITs may have 1200 faculty each
• Ratios: Faculty:student = 1:10; PG:UG = 1:1 or higher
• IITs to strive to have one PhD graduate per year for each full time faculty
• Student Strength: 160000
• 40000 PhDs + 40000 Masters and 80000 UG Students
• Admissions per year
• 10000 PhDs (average 4 years to graduate)
• 20000 Masters (2 years to graduate)
• 20000 Undergraduates (4 years to graduate)
• Enhancing Industry’s Knowledge capabilities
• About 10000 Executive M.Techs educated per year using live video-classes
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Where will PhD Students Come from?
• Approximately a fourth each from
• Existing Stream: M.Tech / Masters graduates joining for PhD
• UG students in any Indian engineering institution selected at the
end of their third year for direct PhD admissions
• to complete their B.Tech and carry out PhD at IIT
• Teachers from various engineering colleges comes to IIT for three
years for a PhD (Faculty Improvement program)
• Industry personnel pursuing PhDs (part-time)
• IITs require to aggressively pursue candidates to join PhD
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Comprehensive Research Infrastructure
• Significantly Enhanced Research funding for
• Large collaborative focused program
• Multiple faculty from multiple disciplines and multiple institutions
• IITs to aim to become the World’s Best in a few areas: massively
funded
• areas selected on the basis of demonstrated high level capability
• Industry to set up their R&D Labs at Research Parks adjacent to IITs to
enable industry-academia collaborations and build Research and
Innovation eco-system
• Government Ministries to set up their R&D Labs at IITs
• Each Ministry/ PSU reserves 2% of its budget for R&D
• Towards industry acquiring technology leadership in the area
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Kakodkar Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS
Autonomy
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IITs today have
• Total Academic autonomy
• Significant Administrative autonomy
• Limited Financial autonomy as over 80% of its budget comes from
MHRD (limited by government financial rules)
• IITs can not become World-Class institutions without total autonomy
• In future, IITs to be totally self-reliant in terms of its operational (non-plan)
budget
• funding from government only to students for scholarship
• and legacy pension
• MHRD will continue to fund IITs for its Capital Expenses, Research and Core
Infrastructure (Plan budget)
• augmented infrastructure necessary to support projected scale-up
• refurbishing of ageing infrastructure and to clear the current backlog
• Enhanced research support for research at IIT by MHRD and other funding agencies
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Funding its Operational Budget
• IITs to recover its operational expenses through tuition fees
• Estimated at Rs 2 lakhs per year (up from Rs 0.5 lakhs today)
• MHRD to fully provide fees for
• All research students (Masters and PhD): fees plus fellowship
• Weaker section UG students
• other UG students with parental income below a threshold (say < Rs 4.5 l / annum)
• Hassle-free government / bank loan to be a part of admissions process
• create incentives for B.Tech students to pursue research and teaching career
• Industrial and Consultancy programs and Royalties
• Enhanced R&D projects
• all government ministries must provide a minimum of 20% overheads without
ceiling
• Most US Universities have this over 50%
• Continuing Education Programs
• Excecutive M.Tech.
• Alumni and Industrial Grants
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Current Financial Estimates
• Fees Rs2 lakhs per year per student
• Retirement Benefits (old pension scheme) costs around Rs250 Crore
for all IITs
• Plus scholarships
• Expansion Budget (one-time)
• Rs20 lakhs per student
• Rs5 lakhs per existing student in established IITs for regeneration
• Oversight-related expansion costs: Rs15 lakhs instead of Rs10 lakhs per
student
• Capital Grants
• Rs1.5 lakhs/student per year plan grant
• current amount Rs 70C for 6000 students
• Rs10Crores / year per new IIT as seed endowment over next five years
• Rs200Crores for each IIT for setting Research Park in line with IITMRP
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Towards excellence through autonomy
• Institute to be fully governed by its Board of Governors
• Including Financial planning and Expenditure rules, faculty remuneration, fees,
number of faculty and staff
• But in accordance with Government’s overall policy directives in terms of affirmative action,
technology directions
• Board to constitute of
• One representative each from MHRD and state Government
• Others from panels (panels approved by council) prepared by S&T academies and Industry
associations; alumni and faculty to be represented; one eminent citizen
• Board to select chairperson and approved by the council
• Board Nomination committee to select director and next set of board members
• Comprehensive Institution review duly monitored by the IIT Council every
5 years and made public: focus on quality and size
• Annual MOU between Government and each IIT with Council oversight
and guidance
• Visitor to retain emergency powers
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Others
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Faculty
• Attracting Best faculty to IITs is key
• Strong academic culture and transparency
• Drive by Director and faculty to attract faculty
• Start-up funds to attract faculty
• Faculty remuneration decided by BOG
• Differentiated faculty remuneration based on performance based
assessment
• Five-axis Faculty assessment: Teaching, Research, Technology
Development and Industrial Consultancy, Policy Research, Service
• Examine tenure-system for faculty
• Enable and Encourage some mid-career faculty from
established IITs to shift to newer IITs
• Special Scheme for overseas faculty to join IIT
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Staff
• All decisions including numbers, remuneration to be
decided by BOG
• Suggest outsourcing of all support activities
• Most scientific staff on project mode
• Flexibility of salaries for these temporary staff
• Technical Staff: insource staff where possible
• Use PhD students
• Administrative Staff: computerize as much as possible
• Hire some mid-career staff, watch for a few years before regularisation
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Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Nurture Industry–Academia relationship to make India a world leader
in knowledge economy
• Significant give and take required on both sides
• will change teaching and research at IITs and will train IIT graduates to take India to
leadership position
• Encourage R&D personnel to become adjunct faculty
• Enable large number of industry persons to do PhD
• IITs need to have special focus on Innovation and entrepreneurship
• Important to bring students, faculty and industry R&D personnel together
• Research Park creates the right eco-system
• IITs need to learn that
• Success in entrepreneurship comes only after multiple failures
• Substantial benefits only if pursued over long periods
• Have to make special efforts to learn to evaluate faculty focusing on
product development
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Towards becoming Technology Superpower
Graduating 100,000 high Quality Students / year
• Identify 50 centrally funded Science and engineering institutions (like
NITs, IIITs, IISER, NISER) to be nurtured
• 5 bright young IIT faculty members and 3 industry persons for each
such institute
• Invite them to be members of BOG and senate of the institute
• Task them to build relationship to enhance quality and to
• Enable Research collaboration between the institute and their IITs
• These youngsters would be thereby trained to be future leaders
• Get these start graduating 80K high quality UGs over ten years
• Along with IITs, central government funded institutions to have 100K high
quality UG seats
• Hopefully state government /private institutions creates 200K quality seats
• Will create the Science and Engineering pool for India’s future
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Way Forward
• Recommendations need to be accepted as a
whole to realise the intended objectives
• needs some changes in IIT Act
• Task an Empowered Implementation Committee
to make this transition happen over three years
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SUMMING UP
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Major recommendations and views
1. Enhancing PhD students: 40K, MS: 40K, faculty to 16K
• General unanimity amongst IIT directors, faculty, alumni, industry
• Some skepticism about getting enough students
1a. Enhancing B.Tech students to 80K
• Some opposition amongst IIT faculty; support from alumni, industry
• Not a significant increase for 20 IITs
• Constraints of campus space at some places
2. Autonomy of Board, selection of Director / Chairman
• All faculty / directors/ alumni / industry want autonomy
• But some directors somewhat apprehensive of board functioning,
taking responsibility -- right now comfort of being MHRD baby
• Will require very careful selection of transition board and
handholding by Implementation committee
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3. Fee increase to Rs 2 lakhs per year
• Significant apprehension amongst some faculty / directors
• Supported by alumni / industry
• Implementation committee has to manage transition
• Weaker section students, rural and poor students (parental income of less
than 4.5 lakhs) provided complete scholarships
• Hassle free government / bank loans for others
• Would require working and some persuasion
• As capital cost is Rs 6 -8 l/yr, fees are still less than 25% of total cost
• Government loans for fees being increased proposed
4. Independent of MHRD for operational budget
• Some apprehension amongst some faculty and directors
• Industry / alumni agree that it is the route to autonomy
• Requires Implementation committee to spend time at each IIT
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5. Faculty remuneration independent of government scales
• Welcome by faculty, directors, alumni, industry
6. Differentiated performance based faculty remuneration
• Faculty / directors opinion divided
• Enabling clause -- to be decided by each board
• Innovative faculty appraisal process suggested
• implementation committee may have to spend time at each IITs
7. Enhancement of Capital Expenses, R&D focus, Research Park,
Entrepreneurship,
• All support it
8. Will we be able to really help other Centrally funded institutions?
•
•
•
•
It is a un-traversed path
Will require change in ACT governing centrally funded institutions
And their cooperation
MHRD and Implementation Committee has to work on it
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Finally
9. General Apprehensions
• Will IITs really get autonomy after all this?
• Or will the command and control mindset in finance prevail?
10. Will all this really make IITs world’s top institutions?
• Will our research become world class?
• We will need to continuously work on quality
• Require leadership emerging at each IITs
• Have to create a nationalistic fervor -- raw material is there
• Implementation committee need to work on it
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ADDITIONAL SLIDES
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Kakodkar Committee
Financial Implications of Recommendations I
• Capital Expenditure: 100% to be met by MHRD
• OSC expansion cost: Rs 10 lakhs  Rs 15 lakhs per student
• Future Student Expansion: Rs 20 lakhs / student
• One time rejuvenation: Rs 5 lakh per existing student for estab. IITs
• Rs 200 Crore per established IIT for Research Park
• Yearly Capital grants: Rs 1.5 l / student (current Rs 70 Cr for 6000
students)
Capital cost Rs Cr
FY 10
FY 11
FY 12
FY 13
FY 14
FY 15
2026
2264
2713
3731
4491
5219
979
979
979
979
Rejun grants + RP+new IIT
No of students
41000 45116 50974
57084 65288
74313
Capital Cost/student (Rs l)
4.94
6.53
7.02
5.02
5.32
6.87
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Financial Implications of Recommendations II
• Operational Expenditure
• Today MHRD provides
• Old pension related expenses (Rs 250 to 300 Crores per year)
• Plus 80% of all other expenses (estimated as Rs 2 lakhs per student per
year)
• Rs 900 Crores per year
• This will become ZERO
• Scholarships: currently only fellowship + Rs 50K fees per student
• For all Masters and PhD student: now will include Rs 2 lakh fees
• For weaker section students: now will include Rs 2 lakh fee per student
• For 25% of other B.Tech students (rural and lower parental income):
now will include Rs 2 lakh fees
• For current student strength this will be less than Rs 700 Crores
• No net increase in Government expenditure