Lamenting that IITs and IIMs were lacking in research, Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday said the Centre had established 14 research universities in the country.
Briefing media on the sidelines of the 14th Graduation Day of Sri Sai Ram Engineering College in West Tambaram here, he said, higher education institutes like IITs and IIMs have been traditionally teaching universities rather than research-oriented ones.
Recalling his meeting with global ranking agencies, he pointed out that these agencies allot 60 per cent marks for research and research citations. “If you are not doing original research then would you get counted in the rankings?” Tharoor asked.
Noting that there was a huge mismatch between demand and supply of graduates in the country, he said engineering graduates work in jobs which don’t need technical expertise.
When queried about his appreciation for the Tamil Nadu government’s work in Shakshaar Bharat, Tharoor said education has to be above politics.
“If a government ruled by any other party does good I will appreciate it too. The Tamil Nadu government has done good work over the years and I congratulated the chief minister for what she has accomplished,” he said.