August 8: Over half of the final year undergraduate students of IIT this year, including almost all from the computer science and electrical engineering department, have opted to go abroad for further studies.

The 35th convocation of the premier institution was a sad witness to the flight of some of the best talents in India. The training and placement office sources in IIT revealed that most among this year's 19 medal winners have already got admitted to one of the top universities in the United States, while most final year undergraduates who stayed back are opting for multinational jobs rather than academics. This despite the prestigious institutes like Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science etc offering better incentives to the young scientists and engineers than what they offered to their predecessors. Dean of Student Affairs, Dipan K Ghosh observed that the government's attitude has changed only on paper. ``Some of my students are earning 3-4 times more salary (working abroad) than what I get after my 25-years' stint with IIT.''

No matter how wide the gates of prestigious Indian institutes are opened, they stand nowhere compared to the best in the US, observed Ghosh. ``Again, thanks to the liberalisation process, the students staying back would prefer to join a multi-national than an academic institution,'' he pointed out.

Even well settled Indian scientists would prefer to get their research works published in foreign journals. Consequently, Indian journals get a backseat in foreign universities, observed a professor.

The President's gold medal winner this year, Amit Chakrabarti from computer science and engineering, has opted for Princeton University. The Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma gold medal winner, Abhishek Agarwal from the same department, chose to go to John Hopkins University. They were least apologetic in their preference for the West.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.