» Please enlighten us by sharing something about yourself and your association with IIIT Bangalore?

 I taught for 20+ years at IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIM Bangalore, AIT Bangkok, RUTGERS New Jersey before taking up the position of the first Director of IIIT-B in 1999.

» In these days, most of the students opt for MBA after completing their Graduation or Post Graduation and then straight away get into a job. In this scenario, how can students be encouraged to opt for research work?

MBA is a general purpose degree helps enormously in making money in the initial days. But after a few years, many are lost. Research (M Tech / PhD) offer a creative opportunities that are challenging intellectually and satisfying to the soul. Also in research, you derive value by contribution not "bossing over many". With R & D entering center-stage in many companies, research jobs will be more sought after. Research crowd is a small but focused crowd; MBA crowd is a mass crowd. The Society needs both!

» What steps should be taken to spread awareness about IT in the rural areas of the country?

Rural folks are aware; you just need more prosperity, more affordable IT and more jobs so that rural folks can benefit; mobile telecom benefits them; we need many more such "killer apps".

» How do you see Information Technology changing the country in the years to come?

IT accounts for 7% of GDP today, 2.5 million direct jobs and about 10 million indirect jobs. These jobs will not wither away (they are NOT "pet projects" of UPA government!). By 2015 it may grow to 12+ percent of GDP.

» Has the Global Economic Slowdown had an impact on the placements this year at IIIT Bangalore as well? Of course yes; no one is immune.

» Students after completing their education in India opt for developed countries as their future destination owing to better opportunities. It’s an intellectual loss to our country. Your comments on this

IMany come back too; when opportunities are there they will come back. It has been called "brain circulation" not "brain drain". We need to create exciting opportunities for talented people, not just for Indians but global citizens too. India should become the "hot" place to work on exciting "hot" areas .

» Kindly explain us about the courses offered at IIIT-B?

We are a "Graduate School" - only offer PostGraduate Courses - M Tech, MS (Research) and PhD programs.


» Does IIIT-B offer any scholarships to students?

At least five companies - ABB, Infosys, Intel, NXP and Siemens offer 5 scholarships each from 2009. SAP offered 24 Scholarships in year 2008. We expect more in the years to come.

» Any advice for new IT professionals?

They should focus on long term, dive deep and start looking at value addition rather than "compensation packages". They should not forget the saying "humility is a virtue" too.