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Kanwal Rekhi on the Indian Institutes of Technology

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(CNN) Mr. Kanwal Rekhi graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai and received a master's degree in engineering from Michigan Technology University. He is a co-founder of Excelan, a maker of add-on boards... See more » (CNN) Mr. Kanwal Rekhi graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai and received a master's degree in engineering from Michigan Technology University. He is a co-founder of Excelan, a maker of add-on boards for desktops. Rekhi served as executive vice president and chief technology officer for Novell, until he branched out into venture capital investing and mentoring for start-up companies such as Exodus Communications, CyberMedia, and Xpede. The companies he helped found and The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE), an organization that works to foster and nurture entrepreneurs, are having a profound effect on the technical world. He has donated millions of dollars to IIT to help build a new school of information technology. Chat Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Kanwal Rekhi, and welcome. Kanwal Rekhi: Greetings to everybody. It's an honor to be here. Chat Moderator: Can you give us some background on the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT)? Kanwal Rekhi: The IIT was conceived in the 1940s when India was on the threshold of achieving independence. There was a debate on the future of technology and the future of science. And there was a sense that India would have to develop its own base of expertise in science and technology and train its people, if it was to achieve economic growth. Under that part, they planned five centers of excellence in science and technology. That's how the IITs were conceived. I should also mention that five IITs were set up in collaboration with five different countries. The IIT in Bombay was set up with Russian help. IIT in Delhi was set up with British help, IIT in Madras with German help, IIT in Kampur with American help --thirteen U.S. universities helped with setting that up -- and, IIT in Kharagpur was set up with help from various countries, including the U.S. Many, many countries have been helping. Question from Vinay: How does the research area get decided at IIT? Kanwal Rekhi: IIT is not a research institute. By and large, they train undergraduates. And there's not much graduate work or research at IITs. Question from Jude: Can you name a few instances where collaboration between the IITs and the industry paid off? Kanwal Rekhi: Until recently, about 1996 or 1997, there wasn't much cooperation between IITs and industries. It's only in the last three to four years that there has been more collaboration. I don't know of situations where IITs have done any major research for the industry yet. They were designed to train undergraduates that the industry needed. Question from Agni: About the IITs, I have heard a lot of complaints that IITs would be on par with the worlds best technical institutes, if only they had the resources. Are the IITs facing a lack of resources? If they are, how can it be tackled? Kanwal Rekhi: IITs are poorly resourced. When I went to IIT in 1994, for the first time since I left in 1967, I discovered the buildings had not been painted in 30 years, and plaster was coming off the buildings. It was falling apart. I remember them to be brand new, vibrant campuses. Now there was overgrowth of vegetation and buildings were falling apart. I discovered they'd been given no maintenance money in four years. I understood they had been starved of resources. Labs had no money to upgrade. Overall, funding was very poor. At that time, I felt it was time to help with private funding from IIT alumni. That's what we've been doing the last three years. The typical IIT budget is about $25 million a year, and that's it. A typical U.S. university will spend about five times as much for the same sized school. Question from Mjacob: Is it justified to train a few engineers who end up in the U.S. with the money of the poor people, who are still working in the same conditions as 50 years back? Kanwal Rekhi: This is hard to answer, the notion of people being trained at government expense and leaving India. What has happened recently, in the last five years, has been a flow of resources back to IITs. I personally gave $5 million, and others have done more than that. In See less »

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Kanwal Rekhi on the Indian Institutes of Technology

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