The Indian Institutes of Technology are the most reputed and coveted engineering institutes in India. These public engineering institutes are indeed considered a great task to crack the IIT but the graduates from these institutes work hard for achieving their personal goals as set by them.
Securing a good rank in IIT proves that you have excellent academic capabilities but does not prove that those will be used for the betterment of life in the Indian subcontinent.
A subsidy is a sum of money granted by the state or a public body to help an organization keep the cost of a service low. Subsidy for the IIT students means that the government bears the charge of the greater sum of their education. Although it takes over an average of Rs 3.4 lakh to educate an IITian per year, the students pay close to only Rs 90,000 per year. The rest of the cost is borne by the Indian government which raises this sum from the tax paid by the Indian citizens.
People continue to have a debate over the topic whether IITians deserve a subsidy in their fees or not?
There are a number of options for the IIT students to grasp financial assistance for their education such as the Merit cum Means Scholarships, collateral free loans and other scholarships, so subsidy granted to these institutes is looked upon with displeasure by many.
A number of IIT senior faculty members and officials feel that there needs to be a revision in the fees at the IITs but any such reforms have not been inculcated.
Many people believe that the IITians who go abroad send back remittances and contribute to foreign exchange reserves and add up to the economy of foreign countries leading to a kind of brain drain from India. However, it remains to be a pittance for India. Much of the IIT graduates have an assuring career to be able to repay loans or grants if taken for their education.
The low tuition fee at the IITs makes it one of the most subsided colleges in the world. The largest component of expenditure for the IITs is the salary of the faculty and officials, followed by maintenance and laboratory consumables. Most of these charges are met by the government of India from the subsidy provided to these Institutes.
In the previous years the directors of the IITs have proposed growth in the fee structure of the institutes but it has not been accepted by the HRD Ministry. Proficient experts feel that the largely growing gap between the actual cost of the IIT education and the tuition fee charged is sure to hamper the attempt of the institutes to attain financial autonomy which is greatly important for the Institutes. There had been only few revisions in the fees of the IITs since their establishment.
Subsidy, whether actually deserved or not is a debatable issue. But it should be kept in mind that students who genuinely need grants in education on the basis of their means and their attained merits should be helped first.