down the controversy he had sparked through his remarks on the IIT-IIM
faculty, saying he has long association with the premier institutions
and had himself intervened to give an important project to the
consortium of seven IITs.
"My association with IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) goes back to
1963 and not many people can claim a 48-year-old association with
IIT," Ramesh told reporters here.
Ramesh said last year he pitched for IITs to be given a contract for
cleaning river Ganga.
"We brought a consortium together and they are now preparing a
comprehensive river basin management plan for Ganga River. This
contract was about to be given to an American company, but I
intervened and said let's give it to IITs," he said.
Ramesh had, on the sidelines of a function on Monday, said there was
hardly any worthwhile research done at the IITs or IIMs (Indian
Institutes of Management) and had blamed the faculty for the poor
quality of work being done there.
"There is hardly any worthwhile research from our IITs. The faculty in
the IIT is not world-class. It is the students in IITs who are
world-class. So the IITs and IIMs are excellent because of the quality
of students not because of quality of research or faculty," said
Ramesh, an alumnus of IIT-Bombay where he did his Bachelor of
Technology in Mechanical Engineering in 1975.
Objecting to Ramesh's view, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister
Kapil Sibal on Thursday said the government had "complete trust in the
creative potential" of the teaching staff in these premier institutes.
"I want to place on record complete trust in the creative potential of
faculty of IITs and IIMs. Almost 25 percent of IIT faculty comprises
students of IITs. Surely, if there are world-class students, there
must be world-class faculty," said Sibal. IANS
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