Date:27/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/27/stories/2006052702481400.htm

National

Focus on research, M.G.K. Menon to IITs

Sushanta Talukdar

Advocates cooperative programmes

Prof. M.G.K. Menon

GUWAHATI: Eminent scientist M.G. K. Menon on Friday said the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) system had not taken the advantage of its potential of experimental research in science of the highest order.

Delivering the convocation address at the eighth convocation of the IIT here, Prof. Menon said the IIT had to aspire to be a major research institution where new knowledge was generated.

"It would also be necessary to get the best amongst the young to come into science, and to take up research as a career. For this, there has to be a sustained campaign to point to the excitement of science, and of the discoveries that come through it," he said.

Prof. Menon, a former Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and former Scientific Adviser to the former Prime Minster Rajiv Gandhi, stressed the need for cooperative research programmes between various areas and departments within an IIT and also between IITs.

Prof. Menon, who is also the chairman of the Board of Governors, IIT Delhi, said the principle of social responsibility must be deeply ingrained in the conscience and actions of everyone. "This applies equally to the Government, to the corporate sector, to institutions such as the IITs and to the students to be privileged to be here."

Altogether, 379 students were awarded B.Tech, M.Tech, M.Sc and Ph.D degrees at the convocation.

Director Gautom Barua in his report expressed the hope that IIT students who have got admission in top institutions abroad would return to India to tackle the research problems that the country had to offer.