December 1, 2014
Derek O’Brien speaks on IIIT Bill | Transcript
For the last 190 days I have been trying to find at least half a reason to agree with something this HRD Ministry does, because for the last 180-190 days, their best friend has been Mr Controversy.
Whatever they have tried to do either controversy has followed them or they have followed controversy. Be it on Teachers’ Day where we are still not sure whether students were allowed to listen to the speech or they were given a choice. They have to clarify that later whether the Prime Minister’s speech was compulsory or not compulsory.
Then there was a big controversy about who had what degree or didn’t have a degree. Then there was a controversy about which third language came and which third language went. Then there was another controversy about Mr Dinanath Batra – if you remember he was the person who was responsible for banning of Doniger’s book of Penguin India – as to how many meetings he was having and what agenda he had.
Then there was a controversy and concern where Members of Vidya Bharti, the big educational network of the RSS were having meeting after meeting. Of course it’s the Minister’s prerogative to meet whoever she wants, whenever she wants. But there was a concern and these controversies…
I have mentioned this in the past and will mention it till I feel that this education system of ours is untouched at least in terms of making the majority voice the only voice. So today after all these controversies, I am delighted, that I can stand up here and say, good, with these IIITs.
It is a good move, it is a very good move and in fact different people get their inspirations from different people and that’s fair enough. So I heard the inspiration which inspired this Bill, when the Minister was speaking about it.
I also have got my inspiration from a different source. In the last three years we have not had a slogan for West Bengal, no fancy slogans, but there are three or four points in the world if Information Technology which I want to share so it may inspire everybody to move in this direction. For example, 3 years ago there were 90,000 people employed in Bengal in the IT Sector, today that figure is 1,20,000. 3 years ago IT exports out of Bengal was 8,000 today it’s 11,000. Today you all have come up with this Bill for IIIT in June, my colleague the Finance Minister Mr Amit Mitra announced in Bengal the IIIT in Bengal which started in Kalyani and now it is working in a temporary campus, the IIIT on a different mode this is on the PPP mode will now have a tie up with BESU. It is already operating on a temporary accommodation on the last 4 months and next year it will be on a 50 acre plot. So this is an inspirational story from Bengal.
Specifically to the Bill I have a couple of suggestions. One, it may be a good idea that they do in some International Universities where somes students cannot pay their fees and their hostel charges. It may be a nice idea to provide them a soft loan and then over a period of time when they get a job they give post dated cheques. So in effect they are earning their education after they get a job. This is number one.
And the second suggestion I have is again to protect these students. There are a lot of big technological ideas which will perhaps come out of these institutes. Is there a way which the Minister could kindly consider, to see that the patents created are held not only by the institution but by the young boy or the young girl who has created this?
Sir I am very very happy to note that one of the strong recommendations of the Standing Committee, of which I was part of along with Mr Mungekar and many others, that there should be some State Government representation on that main body;that has been done. We appreciate that.
The last point, Sir, before I conclude is that this is one model which is a Centrally funded model. The other model which is State, Center and PPP – there are lots of issues there especially with who gives the land. I would urge the Ministry to not rush into that because that is a pretty complicated affair to get the States on board.
So at the end of it all, everyone lives happily ever after. Thank you Sir.
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