In 1998, September 4, the iconic Google Inc., now Alphabet was started in Menlo Park, California by two brilliant techies from Stanford-Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
Closer home in Hyderabad on September 2, 1998 a novel Institute, with public-private partnership called the IIIT Hyderabad was founded, with Prof Raj Reddy, the renowned expert on AI, Robotics and Computing as the founder Chairman of the Governing Council.
Into their silver jubilee years in 2023, the two entities, whose comparison nearly ends with the coincidence of the month and year of founding, have created a niche for themselves. While Google’s rise is meteoric and all pervasive, IIIT Hyderabad is making an impact in the research and highly skilled manpower creation area.
Satya Nadella, Chairman of Microsoft and a Hyderabadi said, “The IIIT H has contributed 800 professionals to the Microsoft across the world,” a statement via Virtual mode to wish the Institute at its silver jubilee function on September 2 at the IIITH campus elevated the mood of the audience.
A highlight of the event was a special lecture delivered by Prof Vincent Cert, considered Co-founder of the Internet via virtual mode too. He explained the progress of the Solar System Internet, an idea &/work again coincidentally started in 1998. He appreciated, the feat achieved by India on landing on the South Pole side of the Moon on August 23.
Delivering the first Raj Reddy lecture, Dr Cerf explained how the Interplanetary network, the space data systems got a fillip with the landing on Mars by Spirit and Opportunity in 2004. Further, the International Space Station (ISS), which is 200 km from the Earth also helped in testing messages. The project is getting a boost with the collaboration of NASA, ESA, JAXA, KARI. He hoped that the ISRO too will join in the effort and contribute.
Another significant happening at the meeting was that Prof Raj Reddy handed over the baton to Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, mentor in telecom & entrepreneurship at the IIT Madras. Prof Raj Reddy, presently the Moza Bint Nasser Chair in the School of Computer Science at the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburg, US reminisced the early days of the Institute.
It was the mid 1990s, India had set into motion radical economic reforms, “IT was in the air, Silicon Valley was happening, India was hopping onto the IT bandwagon too,” recalled Prof Reddy, who steered the Institute for 25 years.
The funda was clear from the beginning. In addition to top class teaching the students and faculty at the IIIT H would be involved in research projects too. “The goal was to set up a research-oriented institution that can start new companies to start the Silicon Valley in Hyderabad,” says Prof Rajeev Sangal, the first Director.
Thus began the journey of IIIT H, the first autonomous university founded as a not-for-profit partnership between the public and private sector in Hyderabad on September 2, 1998. It was not easy to get the first batch of 50 students given the standards it set. “It was quite tough to get the initial batch of students, as they were the ‘real risk takers’ in their career with an absolutely new idea,” said Dr J P Narayanan, the Present Director in his recall at the function.
Another mood uplifted at the event was the announcement of some more funds. Srini Raju, committed Rs 5 crore per year for the next 5 years. The Telangana State government had in principle agreed for a support of Rs 7 crore for efforts related to Quantum Computing. The CGI and AT & T announced Rs 4 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively. The biggest contributor so far to the Institute has been the Rs 50 crore from TCS Foundation for setting up the Kohli Centre for Intelligent Systems, Dr Narayanan said.
In his introductory remarks, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, the new chairman of IIITH said, “India is moving very rapidly. India’s peak population is 19. Over the next 10 years the youngsters will drive the growth. If you put a little bit of spark or handholding they can make the impossible is possible. IIIT H has demonstrated a bit of it.”
A significant contribution of the IIIT H has been establishing the public private partnership (PPP) as a successful model. The Union Government, which has been pursuing the model has gone ahead to replicate the IIITH by supporting the setting up of 20 IIITs across the country.
As far as the achievements of IIITH alumni are concerned the graduates of the institute currently are heading various positions at places like Facebook Workspace, Intel, Nokia etc. They have also assumed faculty roles at University of Berkeley, Stanford, Oxford, IISc etc. Some have also got into the administrative circles becoming IAS officers.
The Back Story
From the modest beginning, the Institute quickly got a generous 65 acre land in a prime area close to the University of Hyderabad from the N Chandrababu Naidu government and built on its strengths to emerge amongst the top Institutions in its Silver Jubilee year, says Narayanan with confidence.
There was considerable praise for Naidu’s leadership and decision making as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. According to R Chandrasekhar, IT Secretary to the Government at the time said there was very strong support by Naidu who backed the whole idea of developing Hyderabad as an IT capital.
But, a major issue of those times was “The industry was complaining saying that we are not getting good quality engineers from some of our traditional universities,” says Srini Raju, member of IIITH’s governing council. Hence in 1998, the idea of having an institution to promote talent and then use that talent to attract investments was mooted.
With a nominal rent to be paid the IIITH rapidly got the ready-made buildings converted into classrooms, into laboratory spaces and also student hostels within the first few weeks.
A unique feature of the course structure was multidisciplinary in nature and innovation led. There was clear focus on technology and applied research for industry as well as society. In line with this, dedicated research centres were started.
The next major challenge came in 2002. The very first batch that graduated in the year faced tough times as it coincided with the global IT industry’s worst downturn ever. Placements were difficult. Many had to go abroad for higher studies and some for research. But by 2012-13, IIITH was ranked number one in placements among all institutes of the country, including all IITs, by Dataquest. So that’s where we came in just 10 years,” says Prof P J Narayanan.”
Setting a precedent
IIITH has had many firsts. It is the only engineering institute that allows for 60% electives – 16 courses in the Sciences, 30 in Humanities and the rest can be selected from over 200 courses offered each year. With no governmental funding for research, professors typically approach corporates for financial support.
The Human Values course spearheaded by Prof. Rajeev Sangal got the UGC to issue guidelines to incorporate Human Values and Professional Ethics in higher education institutions across India. Further, taking a cue from the practise IIITH started in 2009, the UGC has also made traditional attire – the dhotis, sarees, kurta-pyjamas and so on – mandatory during convocation ceremonies for all public and private institutions.
Societal impact of institute’s work
The goal of all research at the Institute is to develop technology and to translate it into tangible products that can benefit society. Whether it is an effort to make roads in Nagpur and Telangana safer through the predictive power of AI, or an attempt to assess the structural safety of buildings in Uttarakhand using drones, an effort to shorten the lifecycle of the typical drug discovery process through the use of computational drug discovery techniques, or an initiative to create Indian language Wikipedia content, or even a platform used by Project Tiger to conserve the big cats and their habitat, the trail leads back to the hallowed portals of the institute. There is active encouragement of the entrepreneurial spirit too through Product Labs and the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) on campus. The institute has given the world over 50 start-ups directly contributing to job creation and nation building, according to a blog on the Institute by Sarita Chebbi.
Interestingly, the Institute has a practise of organising ‘The R&D Showcase’ annually’, wherein the top developments of the year are demonstrated to the media and invited audiences.
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