Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Pinned post for prospective faculty to IITs/IISc

This is a pinned post for prospective faculty to IITs/IISc. Please, please read this site and the old posts, herehere, herehere,  here and here, here also. There are over 5000 comments and replies to these comments in these posts. 

3,339 comments:

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Anonymous said...

Dear Prof Sriram
Many thanks for the answer.
I had got the answer in negative from the recruitment office.
So it complicates things but now I will again ask them.

@Anon
Thanks but have been asked to make tickets to first international port (Delhi/Mumbai)
and then to proceed to home town where I can take a break not more than 15 days.
And then again from break point to the IIT will be reimbursed (not from home town).
This is bit complicated with the baggage etc so I decided to drop it.

Anonymous said...

Hello!
I am currently working as postdoc abroad and will be joining IIT soon.

I have leave entitled with my current university which I plan to include in the notice period.
But then it will overlap with my commencement date at IIT.

Will it be OK with the IIT?

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Anon @November 1, 2016 at 4:21 PM
I think what you're thinking about is obviously illegal. Just think about it.

Vijay said...

To Anon wondering about leave/joining date overlap:

If your University has a policy in place for leave encashment, try availing it instead. Otherwise, you will end up working in two different places at the same time.

Vijay (AP, IISc).

Anonymous said...

Hi,
If I book international flight tickets for joining through cleartrip will there be any problem?
I do not have AirIndia flying from my city so have to take it to the city from where AI flies.
Further in case I take Air India as onward flight it is expensive than other flights.
I have been advised to select Air India if possible but it looks quite silly to pay more.

Anonymous said...

Paying more to fly Air India, does seem silly at the outset. But if you are able to see that money is moving from one government department to another, it's not that bad.

I wouldn't take the risk of taking a non Air India flight unless I'm absolutely sure about the reimbursement policy of your particular IIT. From what I understand, Air India is necessary.

Anonymous said...

For Ramanujam Scholarship what counts more-
1. Researcher credential/publications
2. Proposed research topic novelty
3. Alignment with current S&T focus

or what is the order?

Looking forward to hear about personal experiences

Thanks in advance

Anonymous said...

Thanks @ anon clarifying for the Air India stuff.

Any suggestions on what can I use to book my ticket as Air India doesn't fly from my city?

Anonymous said...

Any update on Ramanujan fellowship meeting or selection result for 2016. The website shows result for may 2016. Are they going to declare twice in a year or only once this time.

Anonymous said...

I got acknowledgement recently for my Ramanujan application submitted in April. So I think they are going to announce the second round of results shortly.

Anonymous said...

Thank u anon for the update.

Anonymous said...

Any idea when the new IITs, which began sessions in 2015-16, will start recruiting ??

Anonymous said...

@Annon above
When a new permanent director is hired! I know Govt is in the process of hiring new directors for IIT Goa and IIT Dharwad, I don't know about other new IITs.

iitmsriram said...

Director selection for all six new IITs + IIT Roorkee is under process. And, as noted by anon, faculty recruitment can be expected to start once the new directors are in place - perhaps, early in 2017.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Sir and anonymous for replying...

Anonymous said...

Regarding recruitment at IIT-Hyd...


I had applied to an engineering department some time back but have not heard from them.....

My referees have not been contacted yet.

Do they ask reco letters at the initial stage or at the final stage? Any ideas...

Thanks in advance.

Anonymous said...

Regarding recruitment at IIT-Hyderabad:

Recommendation letters are asked after the first round of departmental screening. When and in which department did you apply?

Anonymous said...

Inspire Faculty Award (July-August 2016 call)

Does someone have any idea of the application status?

Thanks in advance.

Madhu said...

To anonymous: Regarding Inspire Faculty Award (July-August 2016 call)

I have applied for the DST INSPIRE Faculty Scheme July 2016 (Session II). I submitted online on August 8th, 2016. I received an email confirmation on September 28th, 2016 from Indian National Science Academy (INSA) stating that they received the hard copy of my application. However, I have not received any interview call so far.

As its late November, I am currently in the mindset that I have not been shortlisted.

Regards,
Madhu

Anonymous said...

Dear Madhu,

Thanks for your reply.

Anonymous said...

Regarding recruitment at IIT-H......

@Anon 21 Nov 2016..

I had applied about 3 months ago. My friend (who has INSPIRE Faculty award in Engg.) had applied after me and it seems that his referees got a mail from IIT-H asking for recommendations. Does it mean that my case is not being taken further??

Thanks....

Anonymous said...

Regarding recruitment at IITH

All engineering departments conduct interviews at different time. Applications are considered at the department level around 1-2 months before the selection committee.
If you can mention the department name (not just engineering), I can provide you better information.

Thanks..

Anonymous said...

I had applied to MSME and EE departments....

Anonymous said...

Regarding IITH recruitment process:

In EE department, shortlisting was done end of August and interview in October mid. All the applications up to August were considered. If you have applied after August then you may have to wait at least up to February.

In MSME, processes were done around at the same time but I am not very sure of the exact dates.



Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot for the information....

Anonymous said...

November 22, 2016 at 11:26 AM

Any information about shortlisting in chemistry department of IITH?

Anonymous said...

Hi all...

I wanted some feedback from the readers of this blog and senior faculty members...

I am presently working as INSPIRE faculty at a CSIR Lab. My PhD is from one of the old IITs and my BTech and MTech degrees are from central govt. institutes (not IITs). Is the joining of CSIR Lab considered a downgrade compared to IITs?

Due to some personal commitments, I am unable to go abroad for post-doc in the near future. I have more than 10 publications (including 8 first author) which - to the best of my knowledge and also according to my PhD guide - are considered very good in my area of research.

What chances do I have of getting a faculty position in new IITs? I am not sure if I should apply to old IITs. I am asking this because my experiences in the past one year have been all negative - I did not get any interview calls even from new IITs, although I did appear for Skype presentation/Seminar at 3 IITs. As of date, I have 1.5 years of post-PhD experience. Would my chances improve from now on or should I expect tough times ahead?

Also, is it recommended to go for an institute like BITS if you are aiming for IIT Faculty position??


Thanks in advance.

Anonymous said...

Any news on Ramanujan Fellowship?

akp17j said...

To the anon@ramanujan fellowship. The next meeting will be held in First quarter of 2017. For those who applied after april2016 can contact to the program coordinator with their acknowledgement no.

Anonymous said...

Anyone heard about Early Career Award from SERB? They are supposed to make a decision within three months of application, which would be December for the last round.

Anonymous said...

To The Anon above @serb early career results are out last week.

Anonymous said...

@SERB: Of which stream is the result out?

Anonymous said...

Results @serb life science are out as far as i know.

Anonymous said...

Ramanujan fellowship Nov 2016 results are out.

http://www.serb.gov.in/pdfs/Results/Ramanujan%20fellows%20recommended-%20web%20site%20Dispaly%20Nov_2016.pdf

Anonymous said...

Are results out for Engineering Sciences division of Early Career Award?

Anonymous said...

Any news on Engineering Sciences division of Early Career Award?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone who got selected in Nov, 2016 Ramanujan fellowship results received the letter from SERB about their selection? When can I expect it? Thanks

Anonymous said...

Result of engineering science division of Early Career Award is out now.

Anonymous said...

Are directors appointed for new IITs (IIT Tirupati, IIT Palakkad, ...)?

See http://indianexpress.com/article/education/president-nod-for-appointment-of-5-new-iits-directors/

Anonymous said...

Dear Prof. Giri

Can you share with us if the Registrar at IISc has already sent new appointment letters for the faculty selection committee and council meetings held in December 2016?

If yes, the appointment letters are sent thro both snail mail and E-mail?

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Prof. Madras, greatly appreciate your service here. I request your advice on the following: I hold a Ph.D. in engineering, worked as a post-doc for over an year and moved on to industry where I have been developing algorithms and creating IP for 5 years now. All these in U.S. I would like to move back home and pursue a career in fundamental research. In this context, could you please comment on my prospects as a faculty candidate at IISc? Does my industry experience (in place of a post-doc experience) hurt my chances, or would it be viewed as adding diversity to my qualifications? Thank you.

Giri@iisc said...

It depends on selection committees. You have to apply and see. One IIT may take you and the other may not...no point in trying to predict.

Anonymous said...

Dear Prof. Giri

Can you share with us if the Registrar at IISc has already sent new appointment letters for the faculty selection committee and council meetings held in December 2016?

If yes, the appointment letters are sent thro both snail mail and E-mail?

Thanks

Giri@iisc said...



How would I know if the registrar has sent the letters or not? How can I ask the registrar? I am a very small (both in terms of administration and research) professor who can not enquire such things from "powerful" people. You can call and ask the registrar or ask the department chairman in which you interviewed to ask the registrar.

I am sorry to sound rude but I am not rude, just pragmatic.
In India, insignificant people can not talk to powerful people.

Anonymous said...

Dear Prof. Giri,

Thank you very much for the candid reply. I am sorry if the question was completely irrelevant to you.

I was in the impression that on-campus professors typically discuss these things and you may have known if the recent round of hiring is complete across the institute.

Regards,

Anonymous said...

Prof. Giri is correct...insignificant people can not talk to administrators.

Why would on campus professors care about recruitment ? Most of the professors do not even care about the new faculty after they join. They are given a small room and lab (if they are lucky) and ask to fend for themselves. Few years back, the materials department did not even give space to their young faculty for months. There is no mentoring or even a package explaining the rules and regulations. Some of this is found in Giri's site but some of this is outdated.

Basic rule: No one cares about you before or after you join. No one cares whether you perform or not..after all, all salaries are same independent of performance. Certainly, no one cares whether you were sent appointment letters.

Anonymous said...

Hehe, no office for new faculty is not unique case with IISc.

It is common with 'some engineering department" in 'metro IIT" in northern part of India!

Administration says it is departmental issue, Department thinks it has to be addressed by administration. ;)

Anonymous said...

People are talking about offices and here I'm writing this comment from a 'hostel-room-converted-into-faculty-office' at IIT Hyderabad.

Anonymous said...

"People are talking about offices and here I'm writing this comment from a 'hostel-room-converted-into-faculty-office' at IIT Hyderabad."

Hehe..very true..happens every where.
I am at premier IIT Delhi..300 sq ft of space for lab and office. My post doc office was bigger than this !

Even if they give you swanky offices and labs, no one cares about your performance !

Anonymous said...

Let us remember most of us came back to IIT/IISc not for doing research but for personal reasons. Certainly one knew that they will get paid more, respected higher and can do better research abroad. The reason for the return is personal (and mostly family related).

In that case, we have no right to complain..we endure these difficulties for the family. No office, no lab space, no performance..all are part of the deal.

When I met my director (in new IIT) regarding office space, he quoted Prof. Giri "Salary is your right, consider everything as a privilege"

Now when Prof. Giri says that he is insignificant in IISc and can not talk to administrators, I do not know what people like us will do !

Anonymous said...

‪Anonymous‬ @ January 23, 2017, at 7.45PM,

“300 sq ft of space for lab and office” You are lucky by IITD standards ;)

Anonymous said...

Hello everyone....

I have been asked to deliver a research and teaching seminar in an Engineering department at a new IIT.
I have previously appeared for Skype seminars and have some idea regarding the research seminar. But I don't know what to expect in a teaching seminar. A topic related to UG course of your stream seems like a reasonably good idea. Or should one choose a topic related to PhD research?

Thanks in advance.......

Anonymous said...

Anon at January 24, 2017 at 3:37 PM asking about teaching seminar.

Choose a 2nd - 3rd year UG course from your department and pick a topic from there. This can be one of the courses that you mentioned in your teaching statement.

Anonymous said...

1. I will be applying for a faculty position at various IIX coming June/July 2017. My undergrad was at one of the IIT's (graduated in 2008) and then Ph.D. from a top university in west coast (graduated in 2014) and currently I am an Asst. Prof at one of Ivy League universities on the east coast. Given that I will be completing 3.5 years as Asst. Prof, can I apply for Associate Professorship at the IIX's?

2. On talking to my friends and other faculty at IIX's, I got a good feedback on IITB, IITK, IISc, IITD (some very good feedback on IITB and IISc) but given that I am from TN, I would like to apply at IITM as well. However, there were some negative comments I got from IITM (from faculty working there) regarding the selection process and the resources/facilities provided to faculty at IITM. Faculty are given very poor offices and lab space (even though I don't do experiments, I would need some amount of lab place). Can one demand a good office and lab space before accepting the offer (in case things go well). Also, I was told that the selection process is a bit dodgy, with politics and power play affection decisions. On googling (some faculty appointments were to be investigated by CBI) and from pieces of information on this blog, this seems to be true.

Can someone throw light on both my questions?

iitmsriram said...

@TN anon,

I am not sure how to reply. First off, with 3.5 years of total experience, it would be against rules to consider you for an associate professor position at any IIX. Associate professor requires 6 years of experience including 3 at the level of assistant professor.

I think you have tapped some disgruntled IITM faculty to get your feedback (I can even venture to guess that this is likely non-core-engineering department). Yes, true, we are going through a space crunch right now, that stretches into housing also. However, there is lot of construction going on and by middle of 2017, both the housing and office / lab space crunch will be gone. 96 quarters are to come online around July and a new academic building soon after that.

If someone claims the selection process is dodgy / politics / power play, I have to wonder which "end" this came out of. We have been working to make IITM the No. 1 destination for faculty recruits, we recently commissioned a HR agency to survey IITM / IITB / IITD recent hires to understand our strengths and weaknesses and while we had other weaknesses, the recruitment process was certainly not one. It is possible that faculty members in departments feel their voice does not carry in hiring decisions, but that is how it is supposed to be, no? The selections are to be done by a selection committee with at most one (HoD) representative from the department. It is the external subject matter experts in the selection committee who swing the decisions. Giridhar has been on IITM selection committees, I am sure he can comment on this.

If you bothered to read up about court ruling asking for CBI investigation (which has been quashed, btw), you might have noticed it was for recruitments in 1995 - 2000 time frame. Why would that matter for recruitments now?

BTW, how come no one seems to have started a 7th pay commission thread? The committee has been formed, I have already formed an opinion myself of how things can be done. There may be some good suggestions that might pop up. How about it, Giridhar?

Anonymous said...

@Ivy League anon:

Given your profile, you will very easily get a position of Assistant Prof. at any IIT - unless something extraordinary happens.

Two things:

1. It is sort of immaterial worrying about whether or not would you get an Associate Prof. position directly. It won't really matter that much - and certainly zero effects in the longer term. The only advantage of being an associate, rather than being an assistant, is that you will be considered for a wider range of administrative duties and you will get marginally higher salary. When it comes to teaching courses, or getting funds/students for research - there is no difference.

2. Usually one cannot demand good office space or lab space before joining. It doesn't work here that way. However, once you are here and you get some project money - you can use a part of that to make a better furnished office for you and your students. Size of office/lab space varies widely from one IIT to other and from one department to another within the IIT.

Anonymous said...

@Ivy League anon: iitmsriram is the Dean and hence is supposed to say only nice things on IITM. The truth is far different. I have been at IITM for more than a decade and I am qualified to comment on these issues.

1. Junior faculty/new recruits have no say in the office/lab spaces he/she will get. As you can read from Giridhar's blog, the only thing you can expect is your salary. In case, you happen to get an average sized room, you will be asked to accommodate your students in the same room. Soon you will be tormented by the senior faculty to vacate the room, since they are going to renovate it. Your lab space will need to be shared with some one experimental lab and you need to squeeze your computers in between their experimental equipments.

2. The admin staff are horrible to say the least. Most of them come in on reserved quota and do not even know their duties and are not even qualified to perform their duties. Beyond a point, you will realise it is no point protesting against the system and live in the system. If you have ambitions of introducing change in the system, IITM is not the right place.

3. Junior faculty have no say in faculty meetings in departments, though they are strongly encouraged to participate. This is true especially in large departments like Mechanical Engineering. One of the new recruits was told to have samosa and tea instead of providing his view at the faculty meeting (a few months back). I had a similar experience when I joined and soon began to attend the meeting only for samosa and tea. If you just do your work without voicing your opinion, you will be let alone and will be in the good books of everyone. Don't expect to change things or get things done. Subordinates are well-treated and not capable leaders.

4. Faculty recruitment has been a disaster over the last 5 years. They dean and the director have focussed much of their energy on making the process follow the "rules" but not on attracting good faculty. One of the right metrics to look at from hiring view point is what percentage of faculty appointments are IIT undergrads? (I don't want to restart the discussion on IIT undergrads). If you look at IITB, IITK and IISc, probably they will have a much higher ratio. However at IITM, there are probably only a few hired over the last 4-5 years (and in fact one of the them (again in Mechanical Engg.) might leave soon due to two body problem and some plainly stupid hiring decisions). I know quite a number of people who have preferred IITB, IISc as opposed to IITM. You can read about some hiring controversies on this blog itself.

5. You are given a much better package at IITB, IITK and IISc. IITB has chaired professorships even for Assistant Professors, IITK tops up your salary by a significant amount, IISc offers a great start up grant even for non-experimentalists. Even after all this, if you apply at IITM, you should at least demand a PB 4 salary.

So after all this, you might question why am I still a faculty there at IITM. The only reason is my love for Chennai. Not for IIT Madras.

Anonymous said...

@Ivy League anon: iitmsriram is the Dean and hence is supposed to say only nice things on IITM. The truth is far different. I have been at IITM for more than a decade and I am qualified to comment on these issues.

1. Junior faculty/new recruits have no say in the office/lab spaces he/she will get. As you can read from Giridhar's blog, the only thing you can expect is your salary. In case, you happen to get an average sized room, you will be asked to accommodate your students in the same room. Soon you will be tormented by the senior faculty to vacate the room, since they are going to renovate it. Your lab space will need to be shared with some one experimental lab and you need to squeeze your computers in between their experimental equipments.

2. The admin staff are horrible to say the least. Most of them come in on reserved quota and do not even know their duties and are not even qualified to perform their duties. Beyond a point, you will realise it is no point protesting against the system and live in the system. If you have ambitions of introducing change in the system, IITM is not the right place.

3. Junior faculty have no say in faculty meetings in departments, though they are strongly encouraged to participate. This is true especially in large departments like Mechanical Engineering. One of the new recruits was told to have samosa and tea instead of providing his view at the faculty meeting (a few months back). I had a similar experience when I joined and soon began to attend the meeting only for samosa and tea. If you just do your work without voicing your opinion, you will be let alone and will be in the good books of everyone. Don't expect to change things or get things done. Subordinates are well-treated and not capable leaders.

4. Faculty recruitment has been a disaster over the last 5 years. They dean and the director have focussed much of their energy on making the process follow the "rules" but not on attracting good faculty. One of the right metrics to look at from hiring view point is what percentage of faculty appointments are IIT undergrads? (I don't want to restart the discussion on IIT undergrads). If you look at IITB, IITK and IISc, probably they will have a much higher ratio. However at IITM, there are probably only a few hired over the last 4-5 years (and in fact one of the them (again in Mechanical Engg.) might leave soon due to two body problem and some plainly stupid hiring decisions). I know quite a number of people who have preferred IITB, IISc as opposed to IITM. You can read about some hiring controversies on this blog itself.

5. You are given a much better package at IITB, IITK and IISc. IITB has chaired professorships even for Assistant Professors, IITK tops up your salary by a significant amount, IISc offers a great start up grant even for non-experimentalists. Even after all this, if you apply at IITM, you should at least demand a PB 4 salary.

So after all this, you might question why am I still a faculty there at IITM. The only reason is my love for Chennai. Not for IIT Madras.

Anonymous said...

@above Thanks for the detailed info! Also, can I ask for PB 4 at other IITs and IISc as well? Will there be a difference in pay for Asst Prof on PB 3 and Asst Prof on PB 4, once the new pay commission is implemented?

iitmsriram said...

@anon states "So after all this, you might question why am I still a faculty there at IITM". "I have been at IITM for more than a decade ...".

And commenting anonymously.

I believe this defines disgruntled faculty member.

I can debunk the sweeping comments with actual data, but that will not matter. Who cares about facts once the mind is made up.

And, let us not forget "The admin staff are horrible to say the least. Most of them come in on reserved quota and do not even know their duties and are not even qualified to perform their duties." Wonder what descriptor should be used to describe this ...

Anonymous said...

Suppose a person with 5 years of experience at assistant professor level (currently on PB 4)
applies for an assistant professor position, does the selection committee has the provision to hire the person at AGP of 9000 ?

Anonymous said...

You are eligible for PB4 with 3 years experience as Asst. Prof. Of course, each IIX will have its own rules in place apart from just eligibility.

Anonymous said...

If one wants to move from one IIT to another, you either get your application forwarded from your institute, or apply directly and produce an NOC at the time of the interview.

Can some senior faculty active on this forum explain the reasoning behind this concept? Is it not against the interest of an employee that they need to take permission from their employer while leaving the job? In many cases, one leaves the job because one is not happy at that institute and may have developed a bad relationship with the administration.

Is it, in any way, possible to change IITs without asking for permission?

Anonymous said...

@anon above: You really don't need a NOC to appear for interview.

iitmsriram said...

@anon wondering about forwarding application / NOC, yes, this is an archaic process that should perhaps be discontinued. As to one of the possible reasons why the process is there, the current employer gets to know that this person is actually contemplating quitting instead of suddenly receiving the quitting notice one fine day. Maybe the employer will try to redress (maybe, maybe, it could happen) or at least plan for the possible departure and find a way to deal with the gap as required. Incidentally, the forwarding (permission) cannot be declined without proper reasoning ("applications shall ordinarily be forwarded except if the employee is under suspension, has disciplinary action pending, sanction for prosecution has been issued ..." etc). Some academic institutions include a service condition that employee may not quit except at the end of the semester. The perspective of the employee and the employer will differ ...

Anonymous said...

@iitmsriram: If you happened to have read the judgement (and I am sure you would have though would not like to point it out explicitly), it doesn't say that IITM did not commit irregularities in hiring. All it said was that "the case doesn't warrant any enquiry by the CBI for the lapses committed by the institute". In fact, it pointed out saying that the selections were contrary to the advertisement and gross irregularity has been committed by the institute in the selection process. So you cannot wash off your hands saying that it was quashed by the court and hence everything is fine.

Giri@iisc said...

"Giridhar has been on IITM selection committees, I am sure he can comment on this."

I have commented on this before. This only leads to more abuse. I think most of the IIT/BITS/NIT faculty selections are fair. But they can be subjective. Recently, I served on a faculty selection. The department wanted three to be selected from around 20 shortlisted for interview from 100 applications received. After the interview, all selection committee members agreed on the top 2 but differed on XYZ who should be selected as the third candidate. Is this bias or subjectiveness ? Some members felt that X taught better, some felt Y was better as she had a better research record and some felt that Z had better research potential. Finally, we took only two. Of course, I can only say that it was the call of the selection committee members and not any departmental representative. Just like IIT Madras.

"BTW, how come no one seems to have started a 7th pay commission thread? The committee has been formed, I have already formed an opinion myself of how things can be done. There may be some good suggestions that might pop up. How about it, Giridhar?"

okay

Anonymous said...

@Giridhar: The tone of discussions above is that there is nepotism (preferring your students or your colleague's student even though there is a better candidate) and irregularities in selection (First class people hire first class people; second class people hire third class people and so on). We all know that it is easy to practice nepotism and irregularities in the name of subjectivity. Anyway this will be an endless discussion. Recruiting good faculty is the most important factor in the success of a department and institution as this immediately feeds into other things. I just wish that the selection committee takes a pledge before the recruiting season.

iitmsriram said...

@anon states, " On googling (some faculty appointments were to be investigated by CBI) and from pieces of information on this blog, this seems to be true."

So, I point out, "If you bothered to read up about court ruling asking for CBI investigation (which has been quashed, btw), you might have noticed it was for recruitments in 1995 - 2000 time frame. Why would that matter for recruitments now?".

And, @anon retorts, "So you cannot wash off your hands saying that it was quashed by the court and hence everything is fine.".

I do not believe my comment adds up to anon's inference. Why would recruitments of 1995 - 2000 mean anything about recruitments now? Like I said, if the mind is made up, facts do not matter.

And, it gets better. Giridhar recalls his recent experience that the recruitment decisions are made by the selection committee. When there was lack of unanimity in the committee, they settled at the point where there was unanimity. And this is taken to confirm that there is nepotism and irregularity. Wow. Like I said, if the mind is made up, facts do not matter. Selection committees are full of people (like our host) of highest integrity, it is rather silly to talk about taking a pledge. These people are always under "pledged" conduct.

And thanks for starting the 7th pay commission thread, I think we might have more fireworks there (going by previous experience).

Giri@iisc said...

It may be a good idea to have a conflict of interest form explicitly. DST and DBT require the committee members to explicitly sign these forms stating that we have do not have any conflict of interest with the proposals we are evaluating.

I understand this is followed implicitly in places like IIT Madras, Kharagpur, Hyderabad etc. In fact, I have not served in the last four selection committees of IIT Madras because four of my students have appeared for selection in them. Some of them have got selected while some have not been selected.

In one IIT where I served on the selection committee, the director got upset with the dean when he came to know that one of the candidates was my student. I pointed out to him that the candidate was not my student but someone who had written couple of papers with me and the dean had no way of knowing this unless he had gone through the list of publications submitted by the candidate. Nevertheless, I stepped out of the room and went outside for a good cup of coffee when the candidate was interviewed. I should mention that he was not selected eventually.

In another IIT, we interviewed four candidates, The department wanted at least three to be selected. The selection committee rejected two outright. There was lot of discussion who to select among the other two but there was no consensus. Both the director and the head of the department wanted us to select at least one so that teaching will not be affected. The head of the department is a very good friend of mine but because there was no consensus, we did not select anyone. Though the director is the chairman of the committee, he was unhappy that we did not select anyone but did not interfere in our decision.

Yes, there may be instances where there is nepotism and other factors in many places but not in the selection committees where I have served.

Anonymous said...

"The tone of discussions above is that there is nepotism (preferring your students or your colleague's student even though there is a better candidate) and irregularities in selection"

In IIT Ropar, last week, they selected four candidates in chemical engineering. These four candidates are each two students each from the two selection committee members. What is the dean and director doing ? No conflict of interest ?

Anonymous said...

At IIT Hyderabad, the director has hired one of his own PhD students in Electrical Engineering.

I agree with Prof. Madras that having an explicit form about 'conflict of interest' should be made necessary.

Anonymous said...

Since Prof. Sriram wants to talk about 7th pay commission:
Can you start by giving an estimated percentage increase in the salaries?

iitmsriram said...

@anon, separate thread has been started on the pay commission. The general factor used by the government is 2.57, but as DA is already at 132%, the real increase is from 2.32 to 2.57 or about 10%. Of course, there are other things like HRA which will decrease in percentage (from 30 to 24 in the "metro" slab), but the increase in basic will actually result in HRA going up from 30% of old to 24% of new or a little more than double. Moving to the other thread.

Anonymous said...

@Giri@iisc and @iitmsriram: In general, I see that IISc faculty receive more awards/honors (Bhatnagar, National academies, Infosys, etc.) than IIT Profs. Is it purely because IISc wields more power on these award committees or is it because IISc's hiring procedure is more stringent and hires only extremely good people in the first place?

Anonymous said...

IITs are strong in engineering not science. If you compare the number of Bhatnagar awardees in IIT Bombay or Kanpur with IISc, it will be not much different. IISc may have 10-15 awardees in engineering while IITs may have 5-10. Not much different.

Of course, IIT Madras will not have many ! Everyone knows why.

Anonymous said...

My question seems to have been deleted; why does IISc have an overwhelming awardees (Bhatnagar, national academies, Infosys) compared to all other IITs put together? Is it purely because of the fact that IISc puts in more effort to recruit the best of the faculty or is it the case of IISc having more power to wield as part of these award committees?

Anonymous said...

A few factors may be important:
- IISc faculty have a substantially lower teaching load than IITs
- Research was strongly emphasized at IISc since its inception, but IITs were focused more on teaching for the first few decades of existence.

Anonymous said...

IIT selections may be free from nepotism. Everything is subjective and on a case by case basis. Recently, there was a hire in IIT Bombay where the wife of a faculty in chemical engineering was hired by the same department. Her original department was IIT Guwahati physics. So if you are the wife of a department faculty member, you can walk no questions asked about your degree. If this happens at arguably the best IIT in the country, what of the newer ones.

Anonymous said...

Look for spouse hirings in IIT Mandi...Then you know the best malpractices happen in hiring...again some professors will come and argue that for remote IITs such things are common..

Rahul said...

It is sad people view spouse hirings in such light. I am pretty sure the hiring committees maintain the quality.

The universities who help capable spouses to be at the same place must be encouraged, and subjected to such criticism.

Rahul said...

I meant not subjected to such criticism.

Anonymous said...

"If this happens at arguably the best IIT in the country"

Based on the top JEE ranks joining this place?

IIT Bombay, Gandhinagar, Mandi is full of nepotism and favoritism. IIT KGP is not nepotism but regionalism.

Vijay said...

I agree with Rahul, especially if both of them are working in two different old IIX's, it makes sense to address this issue.

Anonymous said...

Hello,
Can anyone help me in the eligibility norms regarding varied degrees for assistant professor in physics or materials science in IIT/NIT/CU? I have BE mech engg., MSc materials science & engg. and PhD natural sciences (mostly related to physics and chemistry, physical chemistry). My MSc and PhD are from German universities.
I am now a postdoc in a good research institute.
Please share your experience who got a job with qualification similar to me.
Thanks and regards for you reply.

Anonymous said...

Since your base degree is in mechanical engineering. I suggest you apply to mechanical and/or material science departments.

Anonymous said...

The housing conditions in the IITB is pathetic for new faculties. I had offers from all big three IITs, but I selected IITB based on its liberal work culture and less bureaucracy. While I am pretty much satisfied with the work environment, the living conditions are terrible. New faculties get something called a "transit accommodation", which lasts for at least 3 years. The transit accommodation is 1 BHK apartment in a very old staff building not even meant for faculties. The renovation works are going for months now and it makes the place unlivable. Faculties with family and kids practically living with all the construction laborers and staff, who are there 24x7. You wake up to drilling and construction machines sound along with laborers shouting all around you.
Hiring new faculties and providing them a decent living space is the responsibility of an institute. You should not hire people if you can't provide them decent living space.
It would interesting to know from new faculties in other IITs/IISc about their housing conditions.

Anonymous said...

I think information on housing conditions can be very useful information for many people. Thanks anon for starting this thread.

At IIT Hyderabad, the faculty accommodation are still under construction and it might be another 2 years before people start moving there. Until then the institute provides tiny 2 BHK apartments in an ordinance factory campus (that is extremely far from the city and has no facilities). You can forget about some decent market - even vegetables can only be purchased twice a week in the market there.
Thus most faculty live in the city (approx. 30 km from the institute) and spend about 2-2.5 hours in traffic everyday. The upside is that you can get really good quality apartments in the city in the range of 15-25k and you are entitled to the HRA portion of the salary that is normally gone if you live on campus.

Anonymous said...

Any info on housing conditions in Kharagpur and Roorkee (For New Faculty)?

Anonymous said...

A few years back, the assistant registrar in charge of housing said to many new faculty "Do not complain about housing. You should be in the lab and working hard."

Anonymous said...

Does Assistant Professor on Contract at IIT need NoC
for appearing in interview at another IIT/NIT?

Bhaskar said...

@Rahul and @Vijay who are unhappy about the spousal hiring post.
I have written after knowing the background to the hiring. The spouse was from the physics department working in the area of biophysics/MD simulations. Neither the physics nor the bioengineering departments hired her during her interview. Only the chemical engineering department did where her husband is already working.
I did not know IIT Guwahati is now known to be an old IIT?
Please read what I said in that everything is subjective in the hiring process at IIT and on a case by case basis. It's just my two cents anyway.

Anonymous said...

Reposting
Does Assistant Professor on Contract at IIT need NoC
for appearing in interview at another IIT/NIT?

Any link to official document will be appreciated.

Anonymous said...

Hi Prof. Sriram and Prof. Madras,

A few days ago I received an offer of AP (on contract) from an IIX (let's call it IIX1). The deadline of accepting the offer is 10 days. I will be interviewing with another IIX (which is near my home) after 3 weeks (let's call it IIX2). I have a few questions that require your suggestions:
1. Should I inform the administrators of IIX1 that I am accepting the offer while letting them know that I am interviewing with IIX2 after 3 weeks?
2. Is it going to be a problem if I accept the offer of IIX1 and later decide not to join it in case I receive an offer from IIX2?

As I do not have the offer of IIX2 in my hand right now, I do not wish to reject the offer of IIX1. Please advise me what to do.

Thanks,
VN

Anonymous said...

10 days? That's too early. Typically your offer is valid for 6 months even if you do not inform that IIT. It's just a good practice to inform. I will suggest you to accept the offer and wait for the other one. No need to explain circumstances. It's a perfectly valid reason. I have done this.

KM@TUDelft said...

Hello everyone,

Nowadays I read news articles mentioning that some of the IITs directors went abroad to recruit faculty members. Does anyone here know why we do this? Do we not get enough faculty applications? Anybody knows how many faculty applications do an old or new IIT typically receive for an engineering department?

Regards,
KM@TUDelft

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous at February 24 2017 at 11.17 AM

Thanks for the suggestion.
VN

iitmsriram said...

@VN, I would suggest you be open about it. Tell IIX1 that you are expecting an offer from another institution in about a month and you will let them know at that point whether you are accepting or not. IITM offers expect acceptance within a month, you could take a year or even more to actually join. If acceptance is not received (or at least a deferral request), the offer is liable to be cancelled. By letting IIX1 know your intention, you are giving them an opportunity to work on alternates if required. This also lets you gracefully drop out of IIX1 later if required.

@KM, it is typically new IIT directors who go abroad to recruit. They are hoping to capture some good candidates before they get snagged by an old IIT. Applications are received in plenty. IITM is doing twice annual now, the main one in July attracts well over 1000 applications and about 30 offers are made. The supplementary year-end round receives a few hundred applications.

Anonymous said...

Sorry for Reposting
Does Assistant Professor on Contract at IIT need NoC
for appearing in interview at another IIT/NIT?

KM@TUDelft said...

@iitmsriram, Thanks for the information. I appreciate it.

@VN, I agree with iitmsriram. I do understand that it is a difficult situation. Still I believe it is better to be honest and responsible because it would help us prosper in the long-term.

Regards,
KM@TUDelft

Anonymous said...

Prof. Sriram is in administrative position, so ofcourse he will give such advice. You are the only one who has the safeguard your interest. I don't think it's fair that Prof. Sriram is thinking from institute point of view without mentioning what would be best for you as a candidate. There are always delays and many factor comes in, do you have gurantee that other institute will offer you position? Many times it happens that when department is not very sure about the candidate, or if there is internal politics at play, this would be used as an argument against you. Nobody would admit this on paper, but it does happen. Most of the times that's not the case, but why take chances? Just think about how the institute is going to benefit from your information? If the really need a person in your area then they would like to hedge their risk agaist the candidate who is going to join. It's not like they are going to start preparing for you before you join, such office and kab space. No IIT is that proactive.
KM@TUDelft Where did the question of honesty came from? It's not revealing unnecessary information that might jeoperdize your interest. The first thing you will learn in IIT system is not to provide any information tbat is not required, definitely not in writing.

Anonymous said...

@Anon
10 days is too short a time for deciding on the offer. Most IITs give at least a month and if you talk to them they might wait for some more time before you accept the offer. It is perfectly legitimate to wait for offer from multiple places before making up your mind.
My advice is to talk to your HoD on phone and tell them that you'll take one month to decide. Things work better on phone than on email.

Anonymous said...

@Prof. Sriram and others,

Thanks for your suggestions. I decided to take the approach highlighted by Prof. Sriram. I have asked IIX1 for an extension stating that I am interviewing with IIX2. I am yet to receive a response from the administrators. Personally, I believe that us, academicians, need to be upfront in our approach. While I do not disagree with what Anonymous@February 27, 2017 at 10.02AM has written, things do NEED to change, and I think these simple steps towards a more transparent system will definitely be beneficial in the long run.

Thanks for all your inputs,
VN

Anonymous said...

Dear Prof Sriram
I have joined a new IIT as Assistant Prof on Contract.
When my offer letter was issued I was offered 1 year contract
as I had completed 2 year post PhD.
However I extended my joining by 6 months.
So my question is will I be given a regular position
after completion of 3 years from PhD or on 1 year of my joining?
Regards

iitmsriram said...

@anon-on-contract, different institutions are doing this differently. Mostly old IITs are not actually giving a contract for candidates short of 3 years experience; the offer is termed contractual but no time period is mentioned in the offer. As and when 3 years experience point is reached, the status is quietly administratively changed to assistant professor, 8000 AGP. I understand some new IITs and other institutions (NITs, IIITDMs etc) are actually offering a contract upto the 3 year experience point. If this is done, there will have to be an interview or assessment (based on the local procedure as approved by the Board) at the three year experience point and a fresh offer issued for 8000 AGP.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know when to expect the next faculty recruitment advertisement of IIT Madras? Would it get delayed to April?

Thank you.

iitmsriram said...

@anon, why ask "anyone", I am right here. As AP interviews from previous ad are still going on, next advertisement is slightly delayed, it will come out around March 20 (usual schedule is March first week). Offers are expected to be issued on July 21.

Anonymous said...

Thank you @iitmsirram.

Anonymous said...

I have received an invitation to have discussion with faculty search team of an old IIT. I would like to know if it will be followed by interview or this is the final interview? I have been asked to present my research and also teaching interests to them.

Anonymous said...

Any news on IIT Kharagpur Electronics and Electrical Communication recruitment schedule?
I was informed at the end of Jan. about the applications shortlisting but did not hear anything from them afterwards.

Anonymous said...

@Anon on 3March, In some of old IITs (Roorkee, Mumbai), they usually ask to come for presentations after the department level shortlisting. If the faculty candidature is further considered then they call for the interviews separately. You are supposed to present in person at least one time (seminars or interview).

Anonymous said...

Hi, I would like to know if it is normal to hire a MSc/PhD science guy for engineering department? For example a MSc/PhD chemistry in a chemical engineering department?

Anonymous said...

Let us (IIScian's) pat ourselves on our back for making it to the top 10 small universities in the world and hope that we soon reach number 1.

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/worlds-best-small-universities-2017

Pravin said...

Candidates seeking faculty positions please note that IIT Delhi is looking to hire candidates with engineering backgrounds currently. Please apply on the institute site directly. Good luck to all!

Anonymous said...

@iitmsirram, do you know when the shortlisting for IIT Palakkad faculty recruitment, against the advertisement in January 2017, would be over?

Anonymous said...

@iitmsriram
Currently I am 38 years old and working as Assistant Professor at a new IIT.
Can I apply at other IITs or will I be rejected by 35 years rule?
What about age criteria at IIT Madras?

iitmsriram said...

@anon, don't know about IITPKD, not actively engaged with them now.

@38_year_old_anon, 35 is a "preferable" condition only. At IITM, it depends on department, some are fine, some are rigid. Same in other IITs also, I believe.

Anonymous said...

@38_year_old_anon, In some IITs, this is unwritten rule and they goes by this. Others, I believe, depends on requirement.

Anonymous said...

After interview at an IIT, whom should a candidate approach to know the result and when should one do this (3-4 weeks or more after interview)?

It has been mentioned earlier on this blog that IITs don't inform the candidates who have not been selected. Does this hold true nowadays also?

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know if there is any DST/other funding scheme
for Engineering (Mechanical) that is open through out the year?

Also can anyone comment on the success rate in Extramural scheme under DST?
What are the other options than early grant and extra mural?
Thanks in advance
New AP

Anonymous said...

Need some info regarding references sought for Assistant Professor positions at a new IIT (say IIT-X). The application form requires "at least three referees", and I had provided four references. However only two referees have received the reference request from IIT-X, while the other two have not received any requests. Is this normal? More importantly, are two references sufficient to decide whether I will be shortlisted for an interview at IIT-X?
Any inputs / opinions would be very helpful. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

@ Prof Sriram/Giri
I have joined as Assistant professor at new IIT.
The institute is not giving seed grant neither does it have
adequate computational facility.
Project/grants will take time to come.

If I buy access to cloud computing (mostly outside India)
can i reimburse it from CPDA?

Regards

iitmsriram said...

@new IIT AP anon, pl. check with your institution. If they are not giving you seed grant and don't have adequate computational facilities, it would appear they have some other mode of operation; perhaps, someone needs to talk to the director ...

Anonymous said...

@iitmsriram
Thanks for your reply.
I agree with you that someone needs to talk to the director.
But who? There is not a single professor!
Just few Assistant professors where most are on Contract.

Will be good to hear if anyone explored if cloud computing can be paid from CPDA

iitmsriram said...

@new_IIT_AP, pl. contact me off line (iitmsriram@gmail). If this were at IITM, I would say yes, pl. go ahead; but then, I would turn around and ask why? If you want to use cloud resources because that is the best option, OK. If you have to use cloud because no other solution is available, that needs fixing.

Anonymous said...

Recently, a new IIT mailed selected candidates for seminar presentations. I am sure the department must have had some criteria for not choosing me. My question: is it okay to politely enquire the HoD on why I am not called for the seminar?

I was least expecting to clear the first stage of selection based on my research profile (>20 journal papers with one Nature, 5 patents) and teaching experience. The thing over which I am losing my sleep is that may be my application has not reached them (it was an offline application process) or may be I missed some documents. Please suggest.

Thanks,
KD

iit.fac said...

@new_IIT_AP.
If you are not getting any seed grant for research, it is better to start looking at other IITs. Do not waste your time and energy in settling there.
For faculties in new IITs, seed grant is the most important and it should be very attractive (high).

Anonymous said...

@KD

I think you applied to a new IIT in a relatively small town of India. Or I may be wrong also... Anyways, they might have thought that you would not stay there for too long and move to a better place at the next given opportunity.

Another (more plausible) theory is that they are not looking for people in your particular area of research/teaching at the moment.

I have faced this situation earlier (with 15 papers and INSPIRE Faculty award) when my application was rejected in the first phase itself by new IITs. I applied again after 6-8 months and was shortlisted for seminars etc. at new IITs.

Best of luck...

iit.fac said...

When I was looking for faculty position after my PhD, I did my homework of almost all new IITs. I found that new IITs are director dominated as Nobody is there to oppose anything. If you do Director does not spare you as long as you are there or he is there. While searching, I found 2 link connected to one of the new IITs which are shocking revelation by their Ex-employees who are forced to resign or they left themselves before the Director throw them out. Many comments give detailed explanation of the system which I believe completely true based on my experience.

https://www.quora.com/What-is-your-review-of-Indian-Institute-of-Technology-Gandhinagar-IITGN
https://www.quora.com/What-is-typical-working-style-of-IIT-Gandhinagar-IITGN-administration

Anonymous said...

How dare you complain about IIT GN when IIT ropar is there

https://www.quora.com/How-good-is-the-work-culture-in-new-IITs-from-a-facultys-perspective

Joining a new IIT over BITS, Shiv Nadar etc. is foolish

Anonymous said...

Not wanting to create any controversy here, but the directors of IIT-GN and IIT-Jodhpur have some things in common: they are IIT-K professors of the same department with brilliant academic credentials. But it seems that both of them have given new meaning to the term dictatorship in academia....
A lot is written on the net about these two institutes(mostly negative). I hope someone in HRD takes note..

Anonymous said...

Sir, when you say brilliant academic credentials: check whether they have won Bhatnagar award or published 500 papers like the blog host?

iitmsriram said...

@anons, just to correct the record, IITJ director went from IITM (shifted from IITK to IITM).

iit.fac said...

MHRD should not give 2nd term to any director. When a new director is appointed, his/her work is also focused on what to do to get 2nd term. So, he/she does lots of changes. Many changes are good but equally bad also.

2nd rule should be No director should be appointed from the same IIT where he/she is working. This is very important for fair selection of different internal positions (Deans, HoDs, Chairmans, etc.). Most of the times, local Director selects near and dear for such posts to smoothly execute his ill ideas without any resistance.
If a Director is coming from other institute, he/she can sense weak points of the institute where changes are required without any delay. Local director never feels that sense.

If you want to work at IIT peacefully, these 2 points are very much needed in the present scenario.

Anonymous said...

iit.fac says " new IITs are director dominated..." of course they will be. How else do you suppose a new IIT should be when not many experienced people want to join in the initial period? The difference between various new IITs lies in the fact that what the director has done to put proper systems and procedures in places rather than staying as a central controlling authority. These were a startup some 8 years ago and are now in a transition phase towards becoming relatively big universities. Key thing to see is how many directors have invested in developing new faculty as able administrators.

Instead of reading anonymous answers on Quora, I'd rather go and talk to people there to find out what's going on. Please understand this essential and fundamental difference between India and western countries. You won't find exhaustive and reliable information on the internet here. You will have to do the groundwork yourself.

Whether or not should the director come from the same institute or whether or not should they be given two terms is a debatable issue. You can find both types of procedures giving good results if you look at the functioning of several North American and European universities.

P.S.: I'm not denying that some of these directors behave like dictators. Probably they do. But let me be clear to say that culture in the top new IITs is still much better compared to big NITs or private universities.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone comment on the next consideration date of Ramanujan Fellowship?

Anonymous said...

I am an Assistant Prof at IITJ joined couple of months back.
I still don't even have a printer.
I was very reluctantly given a laptop as I demanded for teaching.
Not even a mouse or keyboard!

The furniture was left back from a faculty who moved recently.
Otherwise...
:)

Anonymous said...

Someone talked about IIT Ropar recently..

During my recent visits I found the place to be far more positive and welcoming than is described on Quora.

Under the new director the institute is doing good I believe.
The new campus is coming up at a fast pace and the new faculty have proper rooms and furniture. They also have provision for top-up pay.

Information on quora is outdated.

I believe all the new IITs will improve with time and the Govt. would do away with dictatorial directors and appoint better candidates as Director.

Anonymous said...

After interview at an IIT, whom should a candidate approach to know the result and when should one do this (3-4 weeks or more after interview)?

Do the admin people at IITs inform the candidates who have not been selected??

AP@newIIT said...

"These were a startup some 8 years ago and are now in a transition phase towards becoming relatively big universities" - Which new IITs are we talking about?

"MHRD should not give 2nd term to any director."
Absolutely agree unless the director is doing really good on all fronts!

"IIT-GN and IIT-Jodhpur have some things in common: they are IIT-K professors of the same department with brilliant academic credentials. But it seems that both of them have given new meaning to the term dictatorship in academia...."
Could not agree more!

"Instead of reading anonymous answers on Quora, I'd rather go and talk to people there to find out what's going on."
Why would people trust you to reveal the true picture? Its easier to come out with the truth as anon on Quora or this blog.

"I believe all the new IITs will improve with time and the Govt. would do away with dictatorial directors and appoint better candidates as Director."
Thats too much to hope! We are just praying that the next one should not worse than the present one.

Anonymous said...

@Prof Sriram
you are correct " IITJ director went from IITM (shifted from IITK to IITM)."

Can you please get him back to IITM?

:)

Anonymous said...

Has anyone got offer letters from IIT-Ropar against the interviews held during Jan-Mar 2017?



Anonymous said...

"Someone talked about IIT Ropar recently..

During my recent visits I found the place to be far more positive and welcoming than is described on Quora.

Under the new director the institute is doing good I believe. "

Ha ha good joke. Recently iit ropar started chemical engineering. put a 75 year old professor in charge of syllabus, selection committee. two selection committee members came. one from iit kanpur, one from iit delhi. selected two each of their own students. DONE.

No conflict of interest, no one to question on what basis were selections done etc.

Of course, no one will talk about all this unless they can be anonymous.

Anonymous said...

""IIT-GN and IIT-Jodhpur have some things in common: both of them have given new meaning to the term dictatorship in academia...."

Hey, don't leave out IIT Ropar..the current director also has excellent credentials and the term dictatorship or nepotism in recruitment etc is rampant.

Anonymous said...

IIT Gandhinagar director is a big dictator. He even asks in the interview about himself where you are supposed to praise him. If you do this part of selection process nicely then you may get a job offer immediately.

Anonymous said...

Can anyone comment about IIT Roorkee.
There is a rumour that as it moved from university system to IIT system, a lot of bureaucracy still remains. How true is that?

Anonymous said...

Dear Prof Sriram/Giri
We will have to move our new IIT permanent campus soon
where the living conditions are really pathetic.

Now it is rumored that in order to force faculty to move in there will be either
no HRA or HRA at a lesser rate (at the lowest rate as it is quite far from the city where HRA is 2nd slab).

Can you please share if this appropriate as per rules?

Anonymous said...

Has anyone received seminar/interview call from IIT-Hyderabad in the past 1-2 months?

If no, any ideas when the calls are expected in Engineering disciplines?

Thanks

Anonymous said...

IITH Mechanical engineering had selection committee meeting and interviews just a few weeks back. So the next round should be expected by the end of this year.

iitmsriram said...

@anon wondering about HRA, I don't think they can say no HRA. HRA rate will be fixed based on where the institution is located, if it is located outside the "urban agglomeration", then it will be treated as such, there will be no way to beat that.

Anonymous said...

Prof Sriram Thanks for sharing your opinion on HRA.

Anonymous said...

Latest NIRF rankings

https://www.nirfindia.org/EngineeringRanking.html

How logical is the ranking methodology?

iitmsriram said...

Dear NIRF anon, the methodology was published last September; if you did not question the logic then, now is not quite the right time, after the results are out. If there is some distortion of ranking due to some unforeseen data, I think the issue can be raised and the NIRF committee will be happy to look at it. The methodology used in 2017 was tweaked after the 2016 rankings were published as people raised issues.

I am going to raise an issue, as I have raised in my letter published elsewhere (doi 10.1038/522419b). After my letter was published, both QS and THES have made changes to their methodology (not sure if I can claim credit for it). THES decided in October 2015 to exclude papers with more than 1000 authors from their publication and citation metrics. QS has gone further and is dropping publications and citations if the author affiliation institute count is more than 10. I am asking NIRF to do something similar (actually, I have already asked them, don't know if they will do).

Not really relevant to the topic of this blog ...

Anonymous said...

usually, iitmsriram is clear in his answer. His 'NIRF anon' is very confusing and no idea what he meant by "THES decided in October 2015 to exclude papers with more than 1000 authors from their publication and citation metrics. QS has gone further and is dropping publications and citations if the author affiliation institute count is more than 10". May be, if he gives any link for what his letter (doi 10.1038/522419b), then I hope something will be clear.

iitmsriram said...

@anon, the doi is the link. One can google for "doi 10.1038/522419b" or go to doi.org and enter "10.1038/522419b". My letter is about how large groups like the CMS collaboration at CERN publish papers with hundreds (sometimes thousands) of authors which receive large number of citations. Such papers and citations cannot be simply taken as accomplishments of the individual authors or their home institutions (or can they?). THES and QS seem to agree.

Anonymous said...

Just wondering
If the current (fall in) NIRF rankings will have any impact on incumbent directors?

Will MHRD wake up and take any notice?

Anonymous said...

I am reading these comments about IITs for a long time. I am just wondering if it is possible to go back to Academics (specially to IITs) at the age of 39. I have been in Industries since last 5 years and doing good in microscopy development field. As I grow older I feel the pressure of working in private industry. Just wondering if I have got any chance to go back to teaching and doing some academic research :).
Publications 10 + 6 Industrial application notes and more than 100s of seminar presentations to show :).. Am I eligible or too old :)?

Anonymous said...

You are too old for asst. professor. I also doubt you will be considered for associate. 10 Publications may not be sufficient at all. Also, they expect Ph.D. guidance and you have no/less teaching experience. But, IITsriram can give a better opinion on this.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous. Thanks for your honest response :). Any chance of going back to other Universities?
@IITSriram, I will wait to see your response :). Industrial experience counts for nothing :)?

iit.fac said...

@Anon looking to enter IIT.
Industry experience does count but it should have research intensive and not just routine work. IITKgp recruits good candidates with research oriented industry experience. If your age and experience have crossed the Assistant position. You will get Associate position. There are many cases in Kgp and I support it.

Anonymous said...

Does anybody know if the selection for the Assistant Professor position in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering of IIT Bhubaneswar have already been announced or not? The seminars and the interviews were held on March 30 and 31, 2017, respectively.

Anonymous said...

What is the waiting time period to get a response after applying for a position at IIT Bhubaneswar? @Anonymous IIT Bhubaneswar

Anonymous said...

@ Anonymous at 11:04 PM:
I applied formally in September last year. Heard from them about the possible seminar and interview in late November. However, later they informed that they are unable to conduct the seminar and interview due to some problems. Then I did not hear from them for three months. I heard from them again in the second week of March about the seminar and the interview.

iitmsriram said...

@industrial experience anon, IITM recruits such candidates to assistant professor level generally, though some have been taken in as associate prof. In the last year, IITM has recruited candidates from Qualcomm and IBM with sufficient increments to reflect the relevant industrial experience. If you plan to switch to academics to do some teaching and some academic research and to get out of the pressure of working in private industry, you need to be very careful in projecting yourself. If you project that you want to step off the gas and switch to academics, that will be seen very poorly (and will also work out very poorly). If you project that you want to have a different path and want to spend more time on things that arouse scientific curiosity and a little less time to solve yesterday's shop floor problem, that is likely to be seen more positively.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone received Seminar/Interview calls from IIT-Hyderabad for Engineering departments?

Anonymous said...

Is it advisable to apply to an IIT again where you were not selected in the final interview?

Anonymous said...

To Anon above,
In principle as long as you satisfy in the eligibility conditions (qualifications, age,...), you can apply. Personally, I would not do that...

Anonymous said...

@ Industrial experience anon, you can try research-oriented private universities such as BITS Pilani and Shiv Nadar University.

Anonymous said...

I would like to mention two things that came to my attention
1. There would be a centralized recruitment for all state universities in Karnataka proposed by Govt of Karnataka. This is to curb corruption and nepotism
2. A petition is being circulated by research scholars of India for centralized recruitment for faculties in every institute (research institute, universities etc) to bring transparency.
Can IITs/IISERs follow centralized recruitment to bring more transparency? This point is not to debate whether recruitment is fair in IITs or not. There were many arguments/ discussions done in this platform. Why not centralized recruitment be followed everywhere? Technical difficulties may exist however UGC faculty recharge programme is similar to centralized recruitment for UGC supported state and central universities.


Anonymous said...

@Anonymous who mentioned about Karnataka: I qualify to comment as I am from Karnataka and well aware of the situation here.
1. Do you know how the karnataka administrative service officers are selected? If you are not the topper in the qualifying exam, then the personal interview score helps you get in and every score is 'sold' at a price by the committee members. Well, sometimes, if the candidate belongs to a particular caste, the 'cost' is lower. So, contrary to the claim, centralized, committee based selections increase nepotism and corruption.
2. Autonomy at an IIT is what makes them great institutes. Ideally, for institutes to grow such that India in strong in several technologies, every dept. pan-IIT must be able set goals for themselves to strengthen in a certain area of research. It is very hard for a centralized committee to look at individual requirements of these departments. However, a well-guided and focused department can do this well. Well, it is true that in practice many unworthy candidates may get in, but I feel this freedom of IITs should never be curbed for any reason. Such freedom create great universities. Moreover, committee-level recruitment leads to too much power in the hands of a few, which will definitely lead to the corruption that is, right now, unheard of in IITs.

AP@newIIT said...

@anon above What do you mean by autonomy?
Please look into few of the new IITs.
There is rampant corruption in recruitment/promotion, procurements
and wherever there is a scope.
Even basic things like printer, Desktops, decent furniture are not provided.
Not to talk about basic UG teaching labs.
Research is a luxury unheard of!
I wonder when someone will take note of these broken systems.
I strongly request people in authority to please do something
and save from irreparable damage.

Anonymous said...

AP from new IIT my sympathies are with you.

@Prof Sriram/Giri
Why can't we have an annual feedback of the director from faculty?
As we have feedback of a teacher from the students.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone receive interview call letters from IIT Palakkad?

The website says: The shortlisting of applications for positions of Assistant Professor and Associate Professor is being done now. Tentative dates for the interview of shortlisted candidates is between mid May and Mid June 2017. The interview calls will be sent out by the last week of April 2017.

iitmsriram said...

@anon asking for feedback on directors, the IIT Council has already mandated BoG to annually review the performance of directors (see 47th and 48th council item 47.1 (i) and 48.2 (i)). Some BoG's are asking feedback from a cross section of faculty members as a part of this process, it is upto the BoG to decide how to do this and expand as it feels appropriate.

Anonymous said...

@ Anonymous --- April 25, 2017 at 1:32 PM

I had applied to one of the Engineering departments at IIT-Palakkad. I have not received any information/letter so far.


Anonymous said...

@anonymous April 26th 2017

Thanks for your response

venkat said...

When will IITM conduct interviews for its current round of recruitment?

iitmsriram said...

@venkat, I have returned to department after completing 6 years as dean, I cannot comment authoritatively any more. The planned schedule is for interviews in late May and all of June, perhaps some going into early July.

Anonymous said...

Dear Prof. Sriram,

Congrats on your successful completion of your tenure as the Dean of Administration!

One among the main reasons to join IIT-M is the efficiency of the recruitment process at IIT-M, in particular, the transparency you portrayed in this forum.

The person who appointed you as a Dean of administration seem to have followed what the below thirukural says:

இதனை இதனால் இவன்முடிக்கும் என்றாய்ந்து
அதனை அவன்கண் விடல்.

After having considered, "this man can accomplish this, by these means", let (the king) leave with him the discharge of that duty.

Thanks again,

Anonymous said...

@ Prof Sriram
"Some BoG's are asking feedback from a cross section of faculty members as a part of this process, it is upto the BoG to decide how to do this and expand as it feels appropriate."

What if the BoG is defunct? No meetings, no feedback?

Anonymous said...

Feedback for higher levels...... Does it work in India?

KM@Delft said...

Congratulations Prof. Sriram and thank you for all the inputs you provided here.

Anonymous said...

If and when any of you receives an interview call from IIT Tirupati or Palakkad, kindly share the information. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Prof Sriram
Thanks for your valuable advice and guidance!

BTW
The term of the current director at IIT Jodhpur ends next year.

Anonymous said...

How long do old IIT's take to process TA bill of the faculty candidates? Is three weeks too early to enquire with them?

Anonymous said...

Congrats @iitmsriram on your tenure. The recruitment process has definitely become more streamlined, though there is still a lot of scope for improvement. There should also be more transparency and openness in the system to get rid of nepotism and recruiting good candidates. We should also offer attractive offers (higher top ups to salaries/Chaired Asst. Prof etc) to younger faculty (like what IITK, IISc, IITB does) instead of losing them to other IIX's. In fact, we should have lesser number of chaired positions to full Prof., and convert some of them to newer faculty. This will definitely increase our intake quality and will propagate down the line as well. I hope Varghese takes forward your good work and implements at least some of the above mentioned suggestions.

Anonymous said...

IIT-Pkd website says that -- Interview call letters have been sent to shortlisted candidates in Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, and Electrical Engineering . In other departments the shortlisting process is nearing completion. The Assistant and Associate Professor interviews in all departments will be completed by the middle of June 2017 ....


I have not received any e-mail, so I am assuming that I have not been shortlisted. Other candidates may kindly check.

It seems IIT-Tirupati is yet to complete the shortlisting procedure.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing @annon:IIT Palakkad. Good luck with your other applications.

I had applied to the Department of Electrical Engineering and Department of Mechanical Engineering. I did not receive any email from the Department of Electrical Engineering. Fingers crossed for the other department!

Anonymous said...

@Anon IIT Palakkad, I too did not receive any E-mail from IIT Palakkad. Are letters sent via E-mail/Post? the update could have resolved this ambiguity. I applied for Computer Science and Engineering Department and Electrical Engineering Department.

Anonymous said...

@Anon:IIT Palakkad, thanks for sharing the information. I also do not know whether the interview calls are sent via email or post. Perhaps someone here, who received a call, could clarify.

Good luck with your other applications mate.

Anonymous said...

Someone who has received interview call from IIT-Pkd may please clarify whether the call letter was sent by e-mail or speed-post.

The website information is a bit confusing. Normally, a scanned copy of the letter is sent via e-mail. I don't know what method IIT-Pkd Administration is employing.

Anonymous said...

Any updates on IIT-Tirupati recruitment? Any information on when the interviews are going to be held? Are the shortlisting for Computer Science and Engineering complete?

Anonymous said...

Can we expect the faculty recruitment website for IIT Madras to let us know the departments for which the shortlisting is complete?

iitmsriram said...

@anon, I expect the website will get updated as shortlisting progresses.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for letting us know Prof. Sriram

Anonymous said...

Today I got interview call letter from IIT-pkd through email.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Today I got interview call letter from IIT-pkd through email.

Congrats, which dept? and when + where is the interview?

Anonymous said...

Can anyone write an update on the IIT-GOA and IIT-DWD Faculty applications ?
Thanks in advance.

Anonymous said...

Congrats Anon@May 8, 2017 at 9:59 AM, Kindly let us know for which department you received Interview Call Letter?

Anonymous said...

Interview call letter from IIT-pkd in Physics dept. to be held in Palakkad.

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