When Aamir Khan, in his film 3 Idi­ots, took a smart dig at the

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IIT graduates who go in for non-technological pursuits, we expected desi technocrats to hit back with something like this: “Reboot your brains, dude. Technology doesn’t have to be all nuts and bolts and chips. It’s about mindset; it’s about disruptive innovation. How does it matter to you anyway, you didn’t fund my BTech, did you?”

The point is: Who did? Let’s look at the costs at, say, IIT Bombay. It spends Rs 16 lakh on producing one BTech engineer. Of this, Rs 2.21 lakh comes as fees from the student and the balance Rs 13.79 lakh comes from the taxpayer’s pocket, which is the cash you, me and our kith and kin pay from our earnings year after year. So, don’t we have the right to point fingers at those who spend our cash arguably the wrong way?

By intent and purpose, IITs are meant to provide technological leadership to the country. But, we have a situation in which four out of 10 IITians do anything but pursue technology after graduation. Another two fly off to Silicon Valley because they would argue, in a global village, technology created in Timbuktu and Trivandrum caters to all mankind. If only the French had given us the Rafael M-MRCAs as Diwali gifts!

Almost every single dream project in India’s technology research has had a 10- to 50-year lag. We have been building the Arjun main battle tank for close to 40 years now. HAL’s Tejas light combat aircraft, sanctioned way back in 1983, is yet to take wings. We are not ready or in a position to replace the MiGs, those ageing fighters that keep crashing every now and then.

Recently, a journalist asked a CEO what he would be had he not been running the company. “I would still be a scientist at Isro,” said the gentleman. We don’t know if he too is an IIT product. But, it did give us a sense of anguish to see our indigenously developed GSLV satellite blow up and crash into the Bay of Bengal on December 26, 2011.

There isn’t much difference between the role of a CEO and a scientist. Both are visionaries; one draws plans in boardrooms, the other in an electronic or genetic circuit. The only distinction is in the rewards for their work. There would possibly be little in the form of Esops and bonuses for the scientist even for the best of achievements. The fact that we do not know much about those IIT graduates who have contributed to the technological advancement of the nation indicates how unappreciative we are of achievements and how oblivious we are to our technological backwa­rdness. A 9 per cent GDP gr­owth, and we go celebrating.

Rough estimates show one out of every 10 IITians go to IIMs with the hope of becoming CEOs and CMOs of banks and FMCG companies. They say an IIM degree with an IIT tag works like magic in ensuring a cushy corporate life at 35 or getting VC/PE funding for a startup.

The VC/PE funding pattern in India over the past few years does show that a huge chunk of money has gone to IITians trying their hand at entrepreneurship. Such a trend, if it can be called that, can only be explained as an aberration. But some of these businesses do show a mindset of disruptive innovation, even though many might just be doing conventional things in unconventional ways to make money.

Some of us may still not regret indirectly funding the education of those IITians who went on to set up own businesses. With 1.2 billion people, India needs at least 12 million enterprises to keep the engines of growth buzzing and the youth force productively employed.

But the IIT graduates who chose to sell shampoo are a waste of the taxpayer’s money. At least, they should have given the taxpayer the option to choose at the start if he or she would still like to fund them should they opt to deviate from their defined goal.

Are IITs, India’s august houses of excellence in scientific and technical education and research, failing in their mission? Or are they so confined in approach and the eco-system so discouraging that young minds don’t think technology? One wonders why these institutes can’t be turned into hubs of R&D outsourcing for private companies and, thus, made self-sustaining.

Each year, 54 students vie for every IIT seat offered through the IIT-JEE, and this ratio is growing at 5 per cent a year. It’s great injustice to the 53 who don’t make it if the IIT authorities are failing to spot the right people —whose, as Aamir Khan would say, girlfriend and wife are both pursuing technology.

The right to choose a profession is fundamental. But if the government can impose a few initial years of public service in the case of graduating doctors, why can’t it do the same with engineers?

India today offers the greatest opportunity for technocrats to do some creative thinking so as not to let technological backwardness become a drag on our growth, because they are supposed to know how technology can create economic value for a nation.

If we remain technology clients of technologically advanced countries forever, our developmental goals will continue to be set back decade after decade, with no one in particular taking the blame for it.

bijoysankar@mydigitalfc.com