Making IITs even stronger for a prosperous India

Good education is the foundation on which wellness and prosperity of a society rests. Institutions of learning carry major responsibility for this. While many things have not worked in India, many have gone right and become globally recognized. IITs top that list. Some of us have been privileged to be in an IIT for our education and reap the benefit every day of our lives. I have been in IIT Bombay, an IIT that often leads in many areas. But all privileges come with responsibilities. Challenges have grown significantly for IITs in recent times. Funding from the Government is under stress. One can argue why funding is to bereduced when India is relatively prosperous today than the period when IITs werecreated. Many of us got our education relatively free though the Country was financially poor and suffered severe shortages of essential commodities. The Government needs to think hard before doing a funding haircut. However, even the most willing Government will not have enough resources. The solution requires creative thinking and collaboration. While IIT based entrepreneurs’ incubators have made progress, there is a need to take these to a different orbit if we want to see real impact. In spite of support these days, entrepreneurs suffer seriously in India. There is little understanding of the tough terrain that lies ahead. A plethora of competitions with not so great prizes attract inexperienced entrepreneurs but distract them from real work on their startups. Here, IITBwith SINE for example, can take show the way. I have been involved with SINE entrepreneurs for years as a mentor. It has big potential. Being a top brand worldwide, much is expected from an IIT like IITB in research and taking education to colleges beyond say its own campus. IITs are often called best for bachelors’ degree college but not good enough for research. When I asked Prof Abhay Karandikar, a Professor at IITB then, he shared the number of PhD students just in electrical engineering department, quite contrary to the prevalent impression. Even if one wants to hold say IITB to a higher bar, opportunity lies for alumni to help the institute get there. I have been involved in IITB eYantra program that has helped over 1300 engineering colleges in robotics education and trained over 35000 students over past eight years. The program is now extended to colleges in neighbouring countries and a couple of African nations. eYantra program has decided to make disaster management as its core theme. The idea to do something in disasters came when Professor Kavi Arya of IITB CSE and Founder of eYantra organized a workshop in Bhutan on entrepreneurship in disaste management. I was a co-faculty along with Prof. Vinod Jain (Founder member of NDMA) and Sumit Sen, Senior Scientist in GISE Lab at IITB. These challenges are worth taking head-on given our privileged position. In today’s time, we want our military to be strong and won’t want to cut the Defence budget. If military is security today, education is securing our future. Let’s make our alma mater strong.

Walking in Mahatma Gandhi's memory

Whatever be the situation with life with Covid19, exercise and eating regime has gone up several notches since the lockdown. Of course, working from home with no choice to travel has ensured regularity, a big plus. However, this ‘post’ is not about WFH or Covid19 and not even exercise. Its about walking! For Rajani and me, August has been an extra ordinary month. I clocked ~195KM while Rajani clocked 126KM. As a comparison, my score for 2019 was a meagre 600KM. Primary reason was we registered for Oxfam Trailwalker, 10-day 50KM for Rajani and 10-day 100 KM for me. We hit the target with a day to spare. August was a wet month in Pune, so it was “walking in the rain”. While getting totally drenched many times, I maintained an average speed of 6.6KM per hour, a satisfying score. Though I love walks, it has been an appetizer for me before the main meal i.e. a good run. The only exception is on October 2, birthday Mahatma Gandhi. I walk in his memory and in deference to one of the finest humans in the history of humanity. He was an avid walker. While his Dandi march is famous, he did many walks during his seminal work while in South Africa. I have been doing this since 2012 when I accidentally won 1st prize for 10KM in a charity walk organized by FootSteps 4 Good on Oct 2. Both of us registered along with Rajani’s brother Nishikant and his wife Amita. Nishikant won a special prize for walking with a blind person. And the tradition of walking on Oct 2 continues. Last year, my walk was a lonely walk of 45KM almost encircling the city of Pune, a day before as I had a social commitment on Oct 2. Many people told me; we will join you next year. The 30-day count down begins today for a walk on Oct 2, 2020. Family and friends have committed 5Km to 21KM. So minimum target is 21KM. I may do a walking marathon (42.2KM), subject to physical condition and the time available. Route will be decided along with fellow walkers. Many will walk around the world on Oct 2 for goodwill and in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi. 