So it begins...
Initially I had thought that each entry will be to tackle one small problem. However, over the last several weeks, I have been exposed to a more critical and immediate problem. This is the problem of plunging student motivation within IIT Bombay. The faculty has been very worried that the students no longer wish to study their courses and that they (atleast the undergraduate students)produce very little research. This has been a topic of ongoing debate for a while now but no clear solution is forthcoming. The solution, in my opinion, will emerge only by understanding the motivations of both, the students and the faculty, for being at IIT Bombay in the first place and then creating an incentive system that takes into account these motivations. However, understanding the motivations of 6000-odd (and I do mean odd) individuals is no mean task. Here I will attempt to put down what I make of it, and in the process, hope that atleast some of the issues get clarified.
