IIT faculty strike over pay and autonomy

HRD Ministry meets striking IIT/IIM professors

Progress is being made in the month-long standoff between the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry and the IIT and IIM faculty. The ministry has met with representatives of the striking faculty to take stock of their demands. CNBC-TV18’s Kritika Saxena reports.

It has taken a hunger strike to get the government to listen to the demands of the professors teaching at IITs and IIMs. The hunger strike, which started on September 24, came after the HRD Ministry turned a blind eye and deaf ear to a month-long strike. Sources say that after a meeting with the striking professors, ministry officials have agreed to consider giving performance-linked incentives (PLIs) to the faculty. However, they have made it clear that a pay revision is not feasible as all available monetary resources would be devoted to developing the six new IIMs.

Here's what the faculty is learnt to have wanted:

One: Performance-linked incentives to be included as a variable component of their salary. A limit of 60% for professors and 40% for researchers has been suggested. These incentives would be based on three components: organizational, departmental and individual performances.

Two: Salary for senior faculty that has achieved the required credits must contain allowances for transport, housing and entertainment. Sources say the ministry will discuss the way forward, and forward approved demands to the Cabinet for approval.

If the performance-linked incentive scheme is approved by the cabinet, it will be effective from next year.

However, a problem arises here. Just how will the HRD ministry set forth parameters to judge performance of these faculties that have never been graded on performance before?

Peeved IIT faculty send fresh memo to Kapil Sibal

Days after it submitted a fresh memorandum to the MHRD and even observed a token hunger strike across the country on Thursday, the All India IIT Faculty Federation is yet to receive any official communication from the ministry about its demands for pay hike and more autonomy.

Faculty members across the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT)s who were requesting a working meeting with the ministry and their respective directors are still in the dark. IIT faculty circles ET spoke to are peeved with the fact that so far all reactions or statements from union HRD minister Kapil Sibal have been via media.

Federation president M Thenmozhi of IIT Madras said: “We have received no intimation whatsoever about the date of a possible working meeting. Hence, we are again sending a reminder to the ministry.”

IIT faculty members have been voicing their disagreement with the MHRD’s recent revised pay notification, even though the ministry has taken a strong stand on their demands.

On Thursday, IIT Madras faculty member Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala cited his disapproval of the hunger strike in an open letter to M Thenmozhi stating that IIT faculty members were reduced to the level of others, who with their unions, go on fast and strike.
 

Kapil Sibal says no to hike salary for IIT faculty

The stand-off between Union Human Resource Development Ministry and the on-strike IIT faculty may further aggravate as MHRD, under Mr. Kapil Sibal, ruled out any possibility of hiking salaries for IIT Professors. However, the ministry urged the faculty to come to the table for resolving all issues such as institutional autonomy and wages.

Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said: "We will be too happy to discuss anything. I am ready to give them any autonomy they want as, anyway, the ministry has never interfered in their functioning. The issue is not of autonomy but of money and because we are funding them, they need to understand that there is a resource constraint."

Mr. Sibal added that India, being a developing country, cannot imitate developed countries for paying world-class salaries to their professors. He said that a per cent cap for the promotion of professors is a sort on incentive which would no longer remain if all faculty members were covered under it.

Meanwhile, the MHRD has scrapped the idea of setting up an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Instead, two central universities would be set up in the state under the Central University Act, 2009, to fulfill the regional aspirations of the state.

In this whole protest, we are misusing autonomy

Aparna Kalra

New Delhi: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, who was listed in BusinessWeek’s 50 most powerful Indians this year for the companies he helps incubate, has raised his voice against the IIT faculty’s protests over pay. In an interview, he talks about the freedom at IITs and the road to greater independence. Edited excerpts:

You wrote a letter to the IIT Faculty Federation speaking against the issues they have raised. What about the larger issue of autonomy? IIM Bangalore director Pankaj Chandra talked about autonomy to Mint.

Freedom galore: Ashok Jhunjhunwala says compared to the money that IITs get from the government, the Centre’s interference is negligible.

First of all, you have to distinguish between IITs and IIMs (Indian Institutes of Management). IIM-A and B are in a situation where they do not need that much money. They can charge fairly high fees, which IITs cannot. There we have to depend on the government.

I have had plenty of conversations with IIT directors. In some issues, government has acted Big Brother with us—in terms of increasing number of students (because of reservations) we were not given much choice. There is some very loose kind of thing on faculty reservations. There are some national-level policy issues on which government will have a say.

I don’t think beyond this government tells IITs anything.

I really think there is significant amount of autonomy. Government gives us money, we have to have salary structure in tune with government pay. MHRD (ministry of human resource development) gives each IIT Rs120-180 crore per year. Compared to the money we get, interference is negligible. How they are run, what is the promotion policy, things are fairly flexible.

The IIT faculty has said that issues of promotion are being dictated.

There are two clauses to the revised salary structure. 10% of faculty—PhDs with no experience—to be taken on contract. Then we regularize them. This is not something that makes a huge difference. It is a guideline, we can promote them early.

Second clause is: Only 40% (of) professors can get a higher salary slot or additional grade pay. This is the creation of some kind of senior professor (level). Only if we begin looking at it can we decide that 40% needs to be changed. (Minister for HRD) Kapil Sibal has very categorically said these are guidelines.

An additional incentive based on excellence has to be limited. If we let our administration deal with MHRD, it can be resolved.

Can IITs become financially independent?

I don’t think so. I have tried to work it out in terms of fees. Some of the alumni talk big, but no IIT has been able to create that kind of corpus. Unless you are ready to charge Rs5-6 lakh per student in which case there will be a lot of problem. I don’t mind moving in that direction, but it is going to be tough. People are not used to taking this loan and then paying heavily.

We can charge this fees only to undergraduates. Even with this fees, (we will) not even come close to one-third of our budget.

You said IITs enjoy a great amount of freedom.

There is huge autonomy at the faculty level. You are required to teach one-and-a-half hours a day. There are faculty who spend three-four hours a day in office and then go back, and faculty who work 14-16 hours a day. We cannot allow autonomy to be misused, in this whole protest we have been misusing autonomy.

IIT Madras has a beautiful campus, where I have free housing. There is a hospital, which my family can use. There are two schools. My children can go to these schools. Maintainance of the house is free. Five days a month I can build consultancy capability. I am allowed to go on boards of companies and retain board fees. For 60 days a year, I can go abroad on a fellowship. After six years, I can go for a sabbatical for a year, three times in my career. Of course, we have to excel. Industry will give us consultancy only if we excel.

That autonomy is very precious to us. Nobody can force us to do anything.