The PAN IIT Conference 2006, attracting over 5000 participants and featuring a host of high profile panelists, was a resounding success. The event was held in Mumbai on Dec. 23, 24 and 25 at a temporary convention center created expressly for this purpose at the MMRDA grounds at the Bandra-Kurla complex.

The event program designed based on the survey questionnaire sent to thousands of  IITians was based on the three themes – Inspire, Involve and Transform.  The president of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam inaugurated the event with a speech which he termed as “mixed” in terms of identifying the positives and negatives of the IIT system. He urged the alumni to identify ways of making IITs more inclusive and emphasized the need for IIT alumni to expand the spirit of IIT to touch every technical university in the country. He identified specific opportunities in different areas of technology that could help push development in India. The session included a host of other leading speakers including Shahi Tharoor, George Soros and Sri Sri RaviShankar.  In a riveting speech, Tharoor pointed out the dichotomy of India’s unity in diversity by highlighting the harmony of the nation’s identity despite several fissiparous and divisive tendencies and though processes of the Indians. Soros felt that in the next three years there would be tremendous opportunities in India. He also felt that there are many challenges the major one being   education and meeting the human resource need. “India must focus more on education. It must ensure that more children get elementary education,” said Soros.

The IIT directors who took active part in the conference expressed their deep concern at  the severe faculty crisis expected  from the next academic year at their institutes with the implementation of 27 percent OBC reservation.  The directors urged the alumni to come up with creative solutions to attract quality faculty to the institutes.

Quality of education in India was on the mind of many panelists. They expressed their discontent over the depleting standard of education in renowned institutes like IITs. Professor M Balakrishnan, IIT-Delhi, said: “In comparison to global educational scenario, IITs have failed to produce sufficient number of research scholars. Every year IIT-Bombay produces just 60 PhDs. This is due to the paucity of technical expertise required to maintain the infrastructure.

Many felt that government interference in education was problematic. Mphasis CEO Jaithirth Rao said: “No government interference will pave the way for more innovation in premium institutes in the country. It will lead to the creation of a competitive environment. The Government of India has passed several laws that have caused a decline in the standard of education offered at the IITs. It is the role models that will help the country to produce world-class IITians and not the laws. The IIT alumni held the government responsible for the failure to upgrade technical institutes and making them appear as though they belong to the 1950s. To improve the quality of education available to the poor, the alumni suggested the introduction of a system that allows choice.

Elaborating on various measures to be introduced in IITs to bring it on a par with foreign universities, Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of Infosys, said all IITs need to be equipped with the “incubation centers’’ to enhance entrepreneurship among the IITians. He also expressed the need to involve curriculum based on finance, accounts and market in IITs instead of providing conventional technical education through subjects like chemistry and physics.

The second day featured several tracks the focused on different aspect of nation building. Sessions focused on, Building India into a Knowledge Economy, Lifting 260 million people out of poverty in one generation, Sustainable development through decentralized services,  Getting the Governance You want, Use of Technology for nation building, Learning  from successful entrepreneurs and Shakti with a focus on women’s issues featured leading speakers like Sam Pitroda, Nandan Nilekeni Dr. Ashok Jhunjunwala, Pradman Kaul, Arvind Kejriwal and others brought forth several issues and actively engaged the Alumni in thinking about various aspects of nation building. http://www.nostaljigs.com/ has some very intersting blogs that address different aspects of these sessions. There are also videos of the different sessions.

The Shakti track brought awareness about an infamous abuse of technology in India where identifying the sex in the womb has led to female feticide. Lara Dutta, the former Miss Universe acted as a spokesperson for UNFPA, an organization that has worked to prevent this terrible tragedy.  There was also a panel discussion featuring IIT women alumni that discussed the value of an IIT education for empowering women and identified strategies to help increase number of women at IIT which continues to be dismally low.

As promised, the conference was not just all talk. Many working groups led by distinguished alumni of the various IITs emerged with a charge to have a time bound action plan addressing different issues.  It is of interest to note that the PAN IIT group was proactive in including many people who are differently-abled and use their skills as part of their organizing team. They trained men and women who are blind to act as telemarketers and help desk operators. President Kalam applauded this effort and invited the blind members of the team to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.  “We are glad that IITians thought of creative ways to use our abilities. This experience has given us a new skill which we hope to se effectively in our career,” said Anandi Vishwathan , who acted as the group leader.

Chariman Ashank Desai and the action group that coordinated the event should be congratulated for pulling together a wonderful event which sowed some seeds that we hope will transform India. PAN IIT 2007 will be held in July at the Santa Clara Convention Center in the Bay area. 

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