Candid Conversations: An Exclusive Interview with Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri [Part 2 of 2]

INFRASTRUCTURE

Q1.  There is a scarcity of space in the institute with regards to construction. What are your opinions on the deforestation and construction of new hostels and buildings? What do you think about the changing environment inside IIT Bombay?

Building new hostels is important for our college to grow, but the key policy is to generate less footprint. We need more space as more students join. We have approximately 13,500 students living inside the campus, along with faculty and staff members presently. Even though big cities like Mumbai have limited space for buildings, our campus is still quite spacious and green. If you see a photo from 1969 in the director’s conference room, you’ll see there weren’t many trees back then. But now, the campus is full of greenery, and we want to keep it that way by using as little space as possible for new buildings. More students mean more garbage and solid waste, so we also need to be careful about sustainability. We’re working on a plan to make sure our growth doesn’t harm the environment, and the Green Committee is helping us with that.

Q2. IIT Bombay has taken HEFA loans for the construction of the new hostels, the interest payments for which have increased recently. And the government had also stopped giving funds to IITs. How is IIT Bombay addressing this and managing its finances?

The government has put a halt on certain capital expenditures, but they’re still offering loans through HEFA (Higher Education Financing Agency). These loans require you to pay back the amount borrowed in 10 equal instalments. The good news is the government covers the interest on these loans, and the institute only needs to pay the principal amount. This way, the expense is spread out over 10 years. We’re managing to pay off these loans using our internal revenue generation, which comes from tuition fees. For post graduates, the net income of the  institute is negligible (as they receive stipend). Less than 40% of undergraduates have to actually pay their fees (as many avail financial assistance programmes), yet we still manage to earn around 80-85 crore from tuition fees. The institute has to pay back 2000 crores. However, we need around 200 crore each year to meet our expenses, over the period of ten years. This is where alum funds come into play. In return for their contribution, donors are now granted naming rights. When an alumnus donates a large sum of money to a school or university, the institution often honours this generosity by naming a building after them. This means the building will carry the alumnus’s name as a way of recognising and thanking them for their contribution. Or in case of funds going to specific departments or research fields, a chair professorship is established in their name.

Q3. The new hostels already built or being built currently are apartment-style buildings due to space crunch. And this may lead to the dying of old hostel culture. Students usually have a lot of senti attached with the old hostels. How do you plan to ensure that this culture doesn’t decline in the new hostels?

Change is normal, and we have to go with it. We can’t stick to how things were when IIT started. We need to keep up with new ways of doing things. The old hostel traditions shouldn’t stay the same forever; they should change as we do. If we don’t adapt, we’ll fall behind. Take the new hostel, H21, for example. It’s designed with common areas where students can hang out together. This helps everyone feel more connected and makes the hostel experience better. The different design led to the cost of construction for H21 being approximately 160 crores, which is very high compared to H17 and H18, which costed approximately 80-90 crores, even though all are good apartment-style hostels.

COMMENTS ON THE CURRENT AFFAIRS OF THE INSTITUTE

Q1. What is your broad opinion on the political ideas being discussed on campus? How can an IIT Bombay student put forward their opinions in a healthy manner?

As an intellectual person, you should be aware of politics and the things happening around you. But you need to take everything with a pinch of salt. You are welcome to have an opinion on the matter, as long as you are able to justify it. But at the same time, you all need to be responsible citizens. It’s absolutely fine if others have different opinions compared to yours. You need to be constructive in your conversations. You should consider yourself responsible for your actions and the statements that you make during these conversations. This responsibility inhibits you to a healthy extent, preventing you from misusing your freedom of speech. You need to take the consequences of your actions into consideration when engaging with others on political and sensitive topics.

Q2. Recently, last year, the interim guidelines were published after the cancellation of the lecture titled ‘Israel-Palestine: The Historical Context’ by Professor Achin Vanaik. Can you elaborate on how the students engage with other students, administrators, and faculty in discussing political ideas? Where do you see interim guidelines fitting into this?

Every day, talks and conferences on various topics are organised at IIT Bombay. There is rarely any issue with these. If there is a genuine discussion, there is never a problem. As an inviter, if I call somebody from outside for these talks or conferences, I should be responsible for anything in regard to them, as long as it is inside the IIT Bombay campus. And if that invitee makes certain comments that may not fit well with the audience, I am responsible as far as the institute is concerned. There is no mechanism for the director to hold the external person accountable for their actions, as it is outside their purview. As the director, my authority only extends to the inviter. There is no issue if the inviter says that they want to invite a certain person, and they take full responsibility for the invitee’s actions in the institute.

Q3. In December 2022, a conference to be organised by the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay was cancelled one day before the date of the event. The topic of the conference was “Cultures of the Political Left of Modern India”. Why was the conference cancelled?

I was requested to convey the decision as I was not aware. It shall be noted that a conference to be held inside IIT Bombay requires approval from the head of department, the dean, and then the director, in that order. Sometimes, as an administrator, one needs to make unpleasant decisions for the greater good of the campus.

Follow-up: How does cancelling the conferences affect the institute’s reputation?

It definitely affects the reputation negatively, and it should be avoided as much as possible. All of us should work constructively for the benefit of all stakeholders of the institute.

Q4. How do you feel about the election culture in our institute? Do you think the institute has a place to harbour and give time to this process?

Students are putting in too much effort in the elections. You come here to learn and enjoy. Getting into the dirty aspects of student elections is not the right learning.

I remember I was in my third year during my undergraduate studies. The hostel elections were being organised, and there was a call for nominations for the post of Hostel Small Area Games Secretary. My friends suggested that I should stand for the elections. I felt that it would be an interesting opportunity, and my friends nominated me. A few days later, one of my friends (who happened to be from my wing) came to me. He said that he wanted to stand for the elections, and wanted me to nominate him. He wasn’t aware that I was standing for the elections too. I agreed. I went to the warden and nominated him. 

When the final list of nominations came out, my friend noticed that my name was there as well. He came to me and said that if you had told me that you were also standing, then he wouldn’t have. I said that both of us want to run for this position, so let’s do that and let this be a fair game. We were okay with this, but on the other hand, the warden was terribly confused. He was surprised that I had nominated my friend as a candidate myself and mentioned that this was not right. So, I looked at the nomination rules document, and it was nowhere mentioned that a candidate cannot nominate another person. I convinced him. Finally, my friend and I contested, and I won by a few votes. But, we always remained good friends.

My point, in short, is that the elections are a way to showcase leadership and learn soft skills, which add to your career building. But if you get into the muddy aspects, you are ruining the campus’ atmosphere. We don’t need these complaints from candidates against other candidates, DACs, etc. The students should have this realisation that they are friends. When they graduate, these are the connections that they form in IIT that may help them in the future. These groupings and dirty politics in the institute elections are not nice. I feel bad about the multiple beating cases coming up in DAC during the elections. In our time, there used to be no such cases. We used to argue, even fiercely sometimes, but we respected each other as candidates. It is very important to realise that someone can have a counterview to your beliefs and thoughts, particularly at this young age, and that an election is supposed to be a healthy competition.

Q5. Apart from the recession going on, do you think that there were other things that went maybe right or wrong with the IITB placements this year? Is there something that you believe we should do either as an institute or students in general, in terms of how we approach placements and career prospects in the current market scenario?

I believe the way the placements happen is not good. It needs changes, and these need to come from within the students. I have seen a lot of complaints, and in general, people are unhappy. The reasons can be either the process is not transparent or the process has a lot of technical issues, and I have heard cases of names being changed in the shortlists. 

How can this be fixed? It is a good thing that the students manage the placements, but the process needs to be transparent. Secondly, all the 23 IITs doing it together creates an unhealthy competition among the institutes themselves. And these affect the final-year students. Finally, everyone loses in the process, even the academics are affected. It’s better if the students are involved in the process, as many students usually do a good job in conducting placements. But this year, somehow, it wasn’t that good. Well meaning seniors should aid in improving the process. I would prefer if the placement procedure was a little old fashioned as in the printed lists of shortlisted students would be put on a notice board, as an alternative to the current digital process with all the technical problems.

The next problem is caused by the media. The media comes and asks for the maximum package. This leads to competition. The media doesn’t tell you that if you get a one crore package, a majority of it is stuck somewhere in stocks, and you probably won’t get it because, by that time, you might have left the company. And then there is a pressure built by the family over the students. 

There is no need to tell anybody about what is happening, and the media shouldn’t get involved. All the IITs should decide not to disclose the placement statistics and details to the external public, maybe except for the percentage of people who got placed once the process is over. Thus, the public interest reduces, and the pressure on the companies reduces as well. Ultimately, the pressure on the students reduces. Students will be able to choose companies based on their interests and preferred work-life balance, rather than the packages.

Q6. How do you feel about the role of Insight in the institute?

I think it’s always good to have a student newspaper, as long as you’re doing constructive work. Your writing should be meaningful and have a positive message for your readers. You should feel free to criticise the administration or the processes that have been put in place. But a lot of the time, your writing is picked up by external media, and you should keep in mind that you are representing IIT Bombay. You need to understand that, as a youngster, you don’t have a lot of experience and that your articles can sometimes have a negative impact and can sully the name of the institute. Make sure that there isn’t anything unsubstantiated, because accuracy is of utmost importance. Only when you preserve your brand value, does it go up.

Concluding Note:

We bid farewell to our esteemed Director. The role of a director is indeed an important one, requiring the making of tough decisions and the forging of a path for future generations. We commend his unwavering dedication and commitment to excellence. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours. May his next chapter be filled with continued success and fulfilment.

Editorial Credits: Ananya Jain, Radhika Goyal, Pratham Srivastava, Vaidehi Jha

Design Credits: Anjali Baghel