IT hotshots propose to take over IITs

BANGALORE: A group of IT hotshots including Infosys promoter N. R. Narayana Murthy and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kanwal S. Rekhi have proposed to take over the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country.

The group, which calls itself 'Friends of IIT" includes the top guys from The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and Indian IT industry, has offered to create a $ 1 billion fund for privatization of the institutions. ''We met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee earlier this week and proposed an industry takeover of IITs and the government has agreed to the idea in principle, TiE president Mr. Rekhi said. He also added, the Prime Minister has asked the group, most of whom are IIT alumni, to submit a detailed report on the proposed takeover within the next 30 to 40 days. The group, is planning to set up a new council, comprising academicians alumni and industry leaders, to run the five IITs. ''Once we get the final go ahead from the government, we plan to put IIT alumni like Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani in the proposed council," he said. Mr. Rekhi also said, the group would work towards raising the standard of the IITs to make them comparable with world class institutes like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard and Stanford.

''The government, which is attempting to raise the level 4 of IITs to world standard, is under tremendous financial strain. It is about time successful alumni did their bit for these institutes," Mr. Rekhi said. He said the group was currently in the process of chalking out details of the proposed privatization.