Engineering teaching and research in IITs and its impact on India*

This note analyses the nature of research and development (R&D) as it is practised in our premier engineering institutes and its effect on India’s development. I argue that the dominant paradigm of R&D is too abstract for it to be accessible to a wider set of students and teachers, and for it to yield developmental dividends. Furthermore, our metrics for R&D are too ‘international’ to incentivize work on our own development problems. I contend that good engineering must train students to model societal problems and solve them, and that problems coming from our development needs are good vehicles to promote it. Finally, I make some recommendations to make engineering more inclusive and outline the role of the engineering college as a regional solution provider.