Jairam Slams, Faculty Retorts

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday slammed the faculty of the prestigious IITs and IIMs, saying these educational institutions are "not world class" but are "excellent" because of the quality of students.

"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," Ramesh, who is himself an alumni of IIT Mumbai, told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

Ramesh, who announced his ministry's decision to set up a world-class research centre on marine biodiversity jointly with Reliance Industries, said government institutions were unable to attract young talent.

The remarks made by the environment minister prompted a retort from the teachers who termed them as "simplistic" which showed "tremendous ignorance".

"It shows that Jairam Ramesh has shown tremendous ignorance about the intellectual capabilities of these institutions. I would not deny the fact that these institutions needs to do much more," said Anil Gupta, a Professor with IIM-Ahmedabad.

However, he said, it was not right to say that the faculty was not contributing.

"But to say that faculty is not making any contribution and and it is just because of the quality of students...then people should take the CAT scores and give job to them.

(PTI)