"IIT - The Great Indian Pitstop". This was the title of a post that appeared on an internal newsgroup in IIT Bombay over 16 years ago. It kicked up a storm that lasted months and involved everyone - including the faculty. The post made the point that students landed up for the undergraduate program at IIT not knowing what they want to do in life. But it is seen as a great place to park yourself for four years because you exit into the world in a good place.
Now I'm not arguing for or against this statement. The interesting bit is what followed. Among the wide-ranging debates, there emerged a group which sought to understand why each individual was at IIT. This included students as well as faculty. Predictably, most students said they were there because they got the rank, because that's what their parents wanted, because that's what the best students in their schools always did. But it was the answers from faculty that were more interesting.
Which brings me to the point of this post. IIT Bombay had incredible faculty members. People who could've been in industry, making very serious sums of money. Yet they chose to be academics - pursuing research, even spending inordinate amounts of time teaching thankless undergraduates. Why?
In the discussions in the "Why I'm at IIT Bombay" group, we heard professors tell us that they were there "for the trees". In the insane city of Bombay, the IIT campus was indeed an oasis of peace. They also told us that they were there because of the brilliant peers that they had, and even some of the smartest students. Yet others said that unlike their global peers, IIT actually did not pursue a relentless agenda of publishing, which is often a treadmill not everyone rides very well.
Perhaps these answers give us some hints on how to build a thriving innovation ecosystem?
P.S. - Image credit to someone who was probably on the IIT Bombay campus in 2006-07 and who created a collection of images. If someone knows who it was, please do connect.