Q. Kindly describe in brief your journey from being established in 2003 till date?
A. Drawing its inspiration, guidance, nourishment, energy, and resources directly from AMMA, AMRITA Vishwa Vidyapeetham has now grown into a dynamic, 5-campus, multi-disciplinary, University with over 15 schools, 109 programmes (undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral), 1500 faculty, and 12000 students. In the past five years, Amrita has been on a steep trajectory to quickly achieve a world-class status. In its second year itself (2004), AMRITA became the Nation’s First Multi-Campus University to be inter-networked via satellite, enabling live interactive inter-campus classrooms. One of the most valuable aspects of AMRITA is its environment and ambience for inter-disciplinary research, between its schools of biotechnology (including life sciences), engineering, and medicine. Amrita’s flagship colleges of engineering have attracted reputed faculty from all over the world, who have moved permanently from prestigious schools such as Illinois, UT Austin, Purdue, Harvard, Pacific Bell, Berkeley, Rutgers, Simon Fraser, Ohio State, and IIT Madras.

Amrita has been catapulted into global research initiatives: WINSOC that aims to create and deploy new wireless sensor networks environmental monitoring (such as, landslide detection) jointly with 10 European partners; and signing of a landmark research agreement with one of the largest Universities of the world, namely, the University of California System, in which joint research projects have the potential to receive bilateral funding of up to a total of $10 million per year.

AMRITA University also architected and lead a consortium of Indian organisations including the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to sign a landmark Indo-US University Initiative, first with five top-ranked US Universities namely, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Cornell, CMU, and SUNY Buffalo, during the visit of the Indian Prime Minister on July 20, 2005, to Washington, DC, and subsequently with fifteen top-ranked universities including Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Purdue, UT Austin, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. This was followed by distinguished academic leaders from these Universities, including the deans of engineering at Harvard and Princeton calling on AMMA at our Amritapuri campus.

Q. What do you think are the differentiating qualities of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University vis-à-vis other universities which offer diversified courses in areas of engineering, science, humanities, management etc? Do you think that a holistic background is one of these and has played an important role in your development so far? Kindly elaborate.

A. The main differentiating quality of Amrita vis a vis any other university is that we have direct guidance in all matters from our Chancellor, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi. The importance that AMMA has given to research and a multi disciplinary approach to education is one of the mainstays of AMRITA. We believe that research and teaching enrich and upgrade each other, and when directed toward societal benefit, can be the most effective instrument for the holistic development of both students and faculty into leadership roles.

Q. As per Premchand Palety’s observation, director of Centre for Forecasting and Research (livemint.com -2008-09-02), the Coimbatore Business School does not have seem to have management development programmes and consulting assignments. What are your views on marketing the university in this direction? Are you planning to use your incubation centres for this purpose?

A. We have held various management development programmes and consulting assignments, but our faculty has been largely focused on full time MBA and the dual degree management programme MITES with the two US universities. We are presently adding to the strength of the management school for devoting more resources towards consulting and research.

Q. Gross enrolment ratio in India is hardly 11% which is low as compared to the other developed and developing countries. What could be the possible reasons for low GER and potential solutions for it?

A. There are larger reasons for this, which include language, economic issues, income level, pressure on children to earn income to supplement their parents income too early, and a host of other reasons. However as we develop, GER will increase.

Q. Private investment in higher education can improve the infrastructure, quality, examination reforms. What is your take on this? Private investment in university education in negligible, what is the remedy?

A. Private investment is definitely necessary, but this has to stem from genuine desire to improve the education system, not just for seeking profits. Indian multinationals should be encouraged to participate in this education reform and maybe more can be done to make this attractive.

Q. During 2000-01 around 45,004 Ph.D. and D.Sc. scholars were pursuing research in the country whereas by 2005-06, this number had dropped to 36,519. What are your views on the declining scenario in the research field? What steps have you taken to maintain the level of research scholars in your numerous research centres for cyber security, nano sciences, digital health, biomedical technology etc?

A. One of the main objectives of Amrita university is to create climate and ambience suitable for research. In the last few years the economy has done pretty well, and there has been an obvious temptation for graduates to join the well paying IT industry. Under AMMA’s guidance we have encouraged the faculty and students to undertake research and have established centres of research in the various areas that you mentioned, with primary focus in research. We have signed research agreements with the best universities in the world, such as the WINSOC project, which gives us access to world class experts and researchers.

Q. Do you really feel the need for establishment of 8 new IITs and 7 IIMs or would you rather prefer the government developing the existing universities?

A. It is indeed a positive development. The more high quality institutions we have the better.

Q. What are your views on allowing foreign universities to enter India through collaborations? Conversely, are you planning to set up your campuses abroad in the near future?

A. We need the help of world class institutions to help us develop much quicker to achieve world class standards. As for setting up campuses abroad, we may do it in the future once the government allows, as AMMA’s family is truly global and we have lots of eminent personalities all around the world wanting to contribute.

Q. As a signatory of the India-US MOU between Amrita University and five leading American Universities, ISRO, and Department of Science and Technology, how has the experience been so far?

A. In fact the MoU includes twenty of the top universities in the US. The experience has been very positive with over a hundred distinguished visitors from these universities visiting Amrita . We have launched India’s first of its kind full-fledged dual MS programme in IT and IT enabled services (“MITES”) jointly with SUNY Buffalo, New York; a School of Social Work in collaboration with Cleveland State University, Ohio; and in collaboration with University of Massachusetts-Amherst, a multimillion dollar nanotechnology centre with a unique focus on nano-bio materials for tissue engineering.

Q. Its interesting to note that your exchange programmes involve students on a pan-global arena of the US, Europe, Asia etc; example - Dolphin Imaging in Los Angeles; Fujita Labs, Dept. of EE, University of Tokyo, Japan; University of Trento, Italy etc. Is this a planned strategy for gaining inter-cultural experiences all
over the world? Please elaborate.

A. Yes, in addition to enriching the learning environment, student can also better prepare themselves for the multinational tasks of the future.

Q. Does accreditation of universities really help in providing better quality education? If not, please suggest other innovative ways to improve the quality of education.

A. Accreditation is necessary as it helps to reflect and document our processes and achievements.

Q. In today’s competitive world do you think it is acceptable by universities to follow the profit making ideology, especially for universities such as yours which has strong charitable linkages?

A. Profit making ideology is absolutely unacceptable but at the same time enough investment should go into giving proper infrastructure and societally relevant research and development

Q. What could be the steps taken in plugging the demand-supply gap between the availability of the skilled professionals and the actual need of the industry?

Massive investment into education, in both faculty and infrastructure, to allow much larger intakes.

Q. If you were to bring reforms in higher education; what strategies would you adopt?
A. Provide more incentive, encourage public private partnership to increase both the quality and the quantity.

Q. Kindly highlight in detail your journey from that of a private self-financing engineering college in 1986 to a deemed university in 2004. What are the differentiating qualities of Karunya University vis-à-vis other universities which offer diversified courses in areas of engineering, science, humanities etc?

A. Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences (KITS) was established as a self financing engineering college affiliated to Bharathiar University in 1986. Initially, the degrees offered were limited to undergraduate programmes in the three main branches of engineering and later expanded to include electronics & instrumentation engineering, computer science & engineering and IT. KITS was the first self financing engineering college to receive autonomous status in the country in 1999. When Anna University became an affiliating University in 2001, KITS affiliation was approved from Bharathiar University to Anna University. After UGC granted KITS Deemed to be University status in 2004, the name was changed to Karunya University. Karunya University formulates its own curriculum and testing system and award degrees from B.E/B.Tech to Ph.D. The focus has shifted from primarily undergraduate programmes to post graduate programmes and research. Karunya University has now adopted the credit framework for the undergraduate Karunya engineering curriculum recommended by AICTE in line with international benchmarks following the Washington Accord. Under the new framework, students can take free electives for credit in any department of the University. Karunya‘s NBA accreditation for its engineering and management programmes due in 2009. Karunya earned the A-grade from NAAC in 2003 and is due for re-accreditation in 2009. The syllabus is industry savvy and credits are provided for practical application projects taken up by students.

Q. Initiatives taken by Karunya University promote interaction between the industry and institutes?

A. We are now offering several add-on courses particularly in IT (CISCO, Oracle etc) which will increase the employability of our graduates. Our faculty are first trained after which they are able to train our students. Siemens has set up a Training Centre in Drives and Automation in our campus. Siemens will organise to market the training courses, which will be on a revenue sharing basis. Training courses will also be offered to our students (for a fee) and to our staff. Most of the industries have come forward to have these collaborations, in some cases as industry academic partnership or as part of their corporate social responsibility. The key to successful collaboration is to sustain the relationship. Faculty play a key role in implementing the MoU once it has been signed by the administration. Some of the our initiatives include - value added courses set up with assistance from industries, projects commissioned by industries, audio and video studios which can be used to produce programmes for tv and reorienting the syllabus to meet industry needs.

Q. What are the possible reasons for low GER as compared to other developed and developing countries?

A. We have to keep in mind that India has a huge population (more than 1.1 bn) and a relatively young population with more than 50% below the age of 25. It would be very difficult to provide good higher education for a sizeable per cent of the college age group. Already, we are facing an acute faculty shortage in many areas of engineering and science. There is no point in starting colleges with poorly qualified faculty which is already the case. Clearly there is a much greater need for community colleges, vocational education and distance education. Many young people would prefer to work and study in the evenings as they do in developed countries. Here again, we need to monitor quality, otherwise the diplomas/degrees will become meaningless.

Q. What are your views about the role of private investment in higher education?

Even in a market economy like the US, higher education and research is largely financed by the public sector. In the US, the land grant (state) universities set up by the State governments have done remarkably well as well as the State university systems in California and New York. Higher Education in European countries, Australia and Japan are largely public sector with a few exceptions like Oxford and Cambridge in UK. In other words, higher education and research is a “public good” because of the externalities (benefits) that they generate. Private Universities will cater only to those courses which have a market demand. Hence the enormous increase in professional courses like engineering, commerce and law, while there is comparatively less interest in liberal arts, humanities and sciences. This has led to skewed development of higher education in the country. Infrastructure, quality and examination reforms have nothing to do with public or private investment. The best institutions in the country such as the Indian Institute of Science, IITs, IIMs, NITs are all in the public sector. Public universities have deteriorated due to political interference in administration and not because they are in the public sector.

Q. What are your views on the declining numbers of research scholars in the country?

A. It is unfortunate that few good students are opting for basic science and humanities. Market pressure has diverted good students to professional courses. Only a small percentage of those enrolled in professional courses will go on to earn doctorates, since a Ph.D. degree is unnecessary in most engineering fields except biotechnology. As many as 4 Japanese have won Nobel prizes in sciences this year because Japan did not neglect basis sciences. China is also investing heavily in attracting scientists of Chinese origin to their universities.

Q. What has been your experience in building a platform for consultation in an academic environment?

A. Karunya has taken a few initiatives in the area of consultancy in the past in the departments of civil and mechanical engineering. We have a Food Processing Training Centre which offers training courses to various groups, such as students, self help groups etc. We are planning to set up Centre of Relevance and Excellence (TIFAC CORE) in the area of intelligent buildings. The School of Management is planning to offer consultancy services in marketing. We plan to have testing facilities including a NABL accredited lab in food processing as well as a Central Instrumentation facility.

Q. Do you rather prefer the GOI developing the existing universities or establishing 8 new IITs and 7 IIMs?

A. IITs and IIMs provide largely professional education. We can build up basic Sciences and Humanities only through the University system. However, without substantive reforms in higher education, increased financing alone will not ensure results.

Q. Should foreign universities be allowed to enter India and your plans for promoting Karunya abroad?

A. Offering joint programmes with foreign universities will benefit our institutions. However, permitting foreign universities to set up campuses in India will be detrimental to the higher education system, which in some ways in still in its infancy. Economists generally agree that “infant industries” need protection from foreign competition. Karunya is working on collaborations with two universities in the UK, one in the US and one in Canada. In some cases we may be able to offer dual degrees. Other options include semester / year abroad, exchange programmes and so on.

Q. Does accreditation of universities really help in providing better quality education?

A. Accreditation puts more pressure on administrations and faculty to think about the goals of the institution, quality assessment procedures, best management practices etc. It is not the grade per se which is important, but the degree of introspection done by the institution. Once India is a full member of the Washington Accord, NBA accreditation of engineering courses will be necessary, if our degrees are to be recognised abroad. But the accreditation process and criteria will have to be totally revamped consistent with international benchmarks. The accrediting agencies NAAC, NBA etc will have to be totally autonomous outside the purview of the government if they are to maintain credibility. Accrediting agencies in developed countries generally have nothing to do with government and are independent professional bodies.

Q. In today’s competitive world is it acceptable by universities to follow the profit making ideology?

A. As mentioned earlier, higher education and research is a “public good”. While private institutions can provide a public good, it should be considered a stewardship or trust and not for profit. A researcher can always take leave from the University and set up a consultancy or firm but the institution per se should be non-profit. Surplus if any should be put back in the institution.

Q. Reducing demand-supply gap between availability of skilled professionals and actual industry need?/p>

A. The “demand - supply gap” is not really one of quantity but of quality. Increasing numbers will not help if the graduates are not found to be employable. Industry now says that soft skills are not enough, they also have to have good conceptual knowledge, and better exposure to the industrial environment. Industrial training, sandwich courses, etc. may be necessary, particularly in the case of engineering industry. Requirements of IT firms which were the large employers in the past are not the same as for consultancy or manufacturing firms.

Q. If you were to bring reforms in higher education; what strategies would you adopt?

A. Reforms in higher education is a large subject. But the bottom line is that academic excellence can be achieved only if academic institutions have autonomy. It does not really matter if the institution is public or private. Public institutions IITs and IIMs succeeded because they were autonomous. Regulation has been used as an excuse for interference, leading to ruin of good universities and colleges. The focus of regulatory reform has to be on removing the shackles of government control. Accrediting agencies, universities and colleges have to be totally independent of the government. On the other hand, government should continue to fund higher education through block grants and research grants if higher education, particularly sciences and humanities are to prosper.

Q. What do you think are the differentiating qualities of Manipal University vis-à-vis other universities?

A. Manipal is just unique. It is a small hamlet on a hillock that has become a “Mecca of education”, a global education village “or as some say “Harvard of the East”. It was started by the visionary Dr TMA Pai and was the first non religious private medical college in the country. Dr Ramdas Pai with the help of dedicated teachers, innovative methods, supportive parents and focused students has converted this once barren hill to a haven of academic excellence, research and health care. The infrastructure and lab facilities are world class and there is a “mini United Nations” in Manipal with regular students from 53 countries and visiting or exchange students from more than a hundred. New programmes to bridge urban- rural gap, research and educational programmes directed at the BOP (Base of the Pyramid) and holistic training to make our students kind, compassionate and caring professionals differentiates us from many run of the mill programmes. We are proud that our children become truly “children of the world” and grow into “global citizens”.

Q. Describe the significant development you have undertaken over the last 2 - 3 years?

A. No single person other than the founder can take credit for all the development and progress that happens on daily basis at Manipal. We are a team committed to provide value based education in an effective manner to all while promoting research. Our current projects include: Centre for comprehensive care of Diabetes in medicine; Life Sciences Centre for epigenetics of cancer, ageing research, diabetes; designer drugs, nanotechnology in pharmacy; computer sciences in engineering; Trauma centre and ER Medicine programme, Palliative care programme, and Women and Children’s Hospital among others. There is also Philip BOP research projects with various centres. Ex: Laser spectroscopy in the early diagnosis of oral cancer. We also hold large number of national and international meets on various issues. Our institutes are constantly reinventing themselves and doing innovative things to make a mark in their arenas.

Q. What are your views on industry-institute interaction?

A. Manipal University is one of the earliest and finest examples of Govt- Private Partnerships. Dr TMA Pai had the vision to request the erstwhile Madras Govt to let us use the existing govt hospitals for our teaching and research purposes. In return we offered specialty staff and clinics and lab tests that couldn’t be done in most district hospitals. We have long standing and close ties with many industries that work with our Pharmacy, Engineering, Dental and Medical schools as well as Life Sciences centre. We have incubation centres where projects can be carried out by multidisciplinary teams for discovering and developing drugs, new treatments, equipment etc. The Philips BOP project is a fine example of this industry - institute collaboration and has led to several practical inventions to help the underprivileged.

Q. What benefits does an overseas campus bring for a university?

A. Manipal has several campuses abroad in Malaysia, Dubai, Antigua and dual programmes with Universities in USA, Netherlands, France, UK, Australia and other countries. We have an engineering programme called ICAS that is specifically designed for Indian students to do 2 years in at MIT in Manipal and then do the next 2 in USA with the degree coming from the US schools. We have had students doing this with Illinois Institute of Technology, University Of Michigan and other prestigious schools. Our medical campus in Melaka, Malaysia and our technology campus in Dubai are fully functional and expanding to accommodate new streams. We have always had students from as many as 53 countries studying full time while many more have come for short experiences in medicine, engineering etc as exchange students.;

Q. What are your views on the declining scenario in the research field?

A. Decrease in number of research scholars and students are very worrisome. They have long and arduous study programmes and yet are rewarded much less than an MBA! Grants and soft money are becoming difficult and are very competitive. We as academicians have to fight for better remuneration and infra structure for teachers, researchers and university staff and faculty. A driver in a private company makes more than a post doc in most labs!! . Mentors, good research labs and seed money for youngsters to develop preliminary data for grants is needed too.

Q. Do you really feel the need for establishment of 8 new IITs and 7 IIMs or would you rather prefer the government developing the existing universities?

A. Fortunately for the nation the IITs and IIMs are well run with little interference from governmental groups. More of them are fine as long as quality of faculty, teaching and admissions by merit are maintained. There are very few well run government programmes and running a good programme requires money, infrastructure and a lot of dedicated people. If the government can do it good luck to them. We need many more well run higher education programmes and anyone who can do a good job should be allowed to do it!.

Q. What are your views on allowing foreign universities to enter India through collaborations?

A. There is a misconception in India that anything foreign especially Western is better than us! There are bad and good schools everywhere and we should not allow fly by night programmes to set foot and destroy our students’ lives. Only reputed universities with a good track record should be allowed to come under proper rules and guidelines and they should follow the same rules as we have to do.

Q. Wont entry of foreign universities benefit both countries in terms of sharing education?

A. Yes I agree on that, but the main thing is that the quality of education should be maintained. Secondly foreign universities should not get any other privilege or benefits that our national universities such as Manipal University don’t get. For example: foreign universities should not be allowed to charge higher fees, or given free land, and should be allowed to compete and run the way local universities are run. As long as these foreign universities are strictly regulated in terms of quality and fees, they would be most welcome as both national and international institutes will be on equal footing competing at par with each other.

Q. Does accreditation of universities really help in providing better quality education?

A. I am an ”yellow dog liberal” and strongly feel that academic institutions should be given a lot of freedom and be allowed to patrol itself. A free standing non governmental agency comprised of upright , forward thinking academicians and educationists should be the monitors and licensing authority. Their aim should be to help us develop better programmes and not put people down for some measly administrative reason. The accreditation group should be progressive, transparent, objective and with no prejudice or pre judgement of people and programmes.

Q. In today’s competitive world do you think it is acceptable by universities to follow the profit making ideology?

A. Universities should be non profit but should be able to recover the costs and make a profit ( by good judgements and proper management ) that should be plowed back In to the system to improve infrastructure, faculty development and develop new programmes etc.

Q. What could be the steps taken in plugging the demand-supply gap between the availability of the skilled professionals and the actual need of the industry?

A. We hear a lot of critical statements from financial institutions such as banks that many graduates come out with theoretical knowledge which are not directly applicable in the industry immediately. The school should work closely with industry, in terms of talent requirements and the desired skill sets for appropriate output from the industry. In this context, the University has got a finishing programme for the ICICI where ICICI hires people for banking jobs and Manipal University trains them for a period of six months to one year to make them appropriate on the job. The main thing is to develop a programme that makes the student not only knowledgeable about the subject; but also adaptable to the industry.

Q. If you were to bring reforms in higher education; what strategies would you adopt?

A. Our country with its very large number of young people does not have the capability to offer higher education to all those who desire to do so. We have to work long and hard to be able to provide this in some form - vocational, distance education, private or governmental, technical or humanities etc. Let us hope for the day when our educational system will offer anyone who wants to pursue higher education an opportunity to do it. Let us have all our youngsters turn in to educated, compassionate, kind, knowledgeable team players and world citizens with the zeal to get involved in the problems facing our country and the world today.

Q. Kindly highlight in detail your journey from that of a Regional Engineering College in 1977 to National Institute of Technology, Silchar in 2002. Please elaborate on the benefits associated with the acquired status of NIT?

A. The Regional Engineering College, Silchar was established in 1968. However, classes could start only in 1977. Till it was converted into NIT, it was a traditional teaching institute, headed by a principal. The college was offering only B.Tech. programmes, which were affiliated to a university. After it has attained the status of NIT, it became an autonomous body. The course curriculum and syllabi were revised keeping pace with current requirement of industries. Recently, all NITs have become Institutes of National Importance by an Act of Parliament. Hence the responsibility of the Institute has become more for the development of our country. We have become a brand name.

Q. What are your views on industry-institute interaction in the area of engineering and technology? What initiatives have National Institute of Technology, Silchar taken to promote interaction between the industry and institutes?

A. Industry-institute interaction is a must for an institution like NIT. Our faculty members should bring real life enginnering problems into class rooms. This can be possible only by interacting with the industry. Otherwise, teaching-learning becomes theoretical without any relevance to industrial requirement. Our institute is encouraging faculty members to take up industry sponsored projects. Our departmental heads have been empowered to invite experienced personnel from the industry for the benefit of our faculty and students. We have started construction of Continuing Education Centre in our campus. Once the complex will be ready we shall offer various Executive Development Programmes as per requirement of the industry.

Q. What do you think are the differentiating qualities of National Institute of Technology, Silchar vis-à-vis other engineering institutions?

A. The first and foremost differentiating quality of NIT, Silchar vis-à-vis other engineering institutions is its academic ambience. Here our teachers and students are involved in their academic activities round the clock. Apart from this, we have M.Tech and Ph.D. programmes. As a result, research and project oriented activities are visible in all departments.

Q. What challenges do you foresee for partnering with MNCs and other technology based companies to undertake joint laboratory research and collaboration for testing and developing technologies within the university?

A. I do not see any challenge for partnering with MNCs and other technology based companies to undertake joint laboratory research and collaboration for testing and developing technologies, except for mindset of the people in the system and confidence level of majority of faculty.

Q. Please mention the role of National Institute of Technology, Silchar to promote incubation parks within the institution?

A. We have a long way to go to start promoting incubation parks within the institution.

Q. If you were to bring reforms in the area of technical education (engineering and technology); what strategies would you adopt?

A. Firstly, faculty members must be exposed to best institutions of the country and abroad. Secondly, laboratories must be upgraded with state-of-art equipment. The third issue is to expose all faculty members to industry in stages.

Q. Private investment in higher education can improve the infrastructure, quality, education reforms. What is your take on this? Private investment in university education in negligible, what is the remedy?

A. I fully agree. Definitely, private investment can improve the infrastructure, quality and education reform in NIT, Silchar. One of the reasons for negligible amount of investment is lack of confidence of the industry on institutes. Of course, there is a reason for this lack of confidence.

Q. During 2000-01 around 45,004 Ph.D. and D.Sc. scholars were pursuing research in the country whereas by 2005-06, this number had dropped to 36,519. What are your views on the declining scenario in the research field?

A. The profession of teaching is not socially or financially lucrative. This is the main reason for decline in number of Ph.D. scholars.

Q. Do you really feel the need for establishment of 8 new IITs and 7 IIMs or would you rather prefer the government developing the existing universities?

A. We need many more such institutes looking at the industrial growth rate in our country. But the problem lies in quality of these institutes.

Q. What are your views on allowing foreign universities to enter India through collaborations?

A. Yes, foreign universities should enter India. But quality control will be the main issue.

Q. Are you planning to promote your university abroad? What are the measures undertaken for the same?

Not now.

In today’s competitive world do you think it is acceptable by universities to follow the profit making ideology?

We are governed by MHRD guidelines and hence there is no scope to follow profit making ideology.

Q. What could be the steps taken in plugging the demand-supply gap between the availability of the skilled professionals and the actual need of the industry?

A. Not all products of technical institutes of the country are employable. Hence quality of product should be our main focus, instead of increasing number of institutes. More dedication and productivity is required from our teaching community for ensuring the quality of product. Here lies the main difference between education scenario in India and other developed countries. Also the ratio of teachers and students is an important factor for the quality. Hence we cannot go on adding number of students without increasing no. of teachers and other service personnel,laboratories and other infrastructure.

Q. India is known for its technical manpower; but in spite of having technical expertise, it lags behind other countries in terms of home grown products and technology innovation?

A. Again the same answer. We have number, but not the quality.