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From Job Seekers to Job Creators: A New Mindset for IIT Graduates
In a recent conversation with The Indian Express, IIT Kharagpur Director Suman Chakraborty urged India’s premier engineering institutes to rethink the traditional focus on placements and cultivate a generation of creators and innovators. He reflected on how IIT Kharagpur has built a global reputation for excellence in technical education, yet emphasized that more can be done to fulfill the institute’s larger role in nation-building through education and technology.
Dr. Chakraborty called on students to transform their mindset from being job-seekers to becoming job-creators. While many alumni have gone on to found enterprises and generate employment, he noted that this remains the exception rather than the rule. Beyond fostering entrepreneurship, he highlighted the importance of holistic education. Mental health, emotional intelligence, and life skills, he said, are as critical as academic achievement. He reminded students that high technical ability without resilience and emotional maturity may leave them ill-equipped for real-world challenges.
Innovation in pedagogy is another key focus. Chakraborty pointed to initiatives like NPTEL, which have made IIT-level education accessible far beyond campus boundaries, and shared plans to offer course content in regional languages to remove barriers to learning. He also stressed the need to translate research into market-ready products. Reflecting on a diagnostic device developed during the COVID pandemic that failed to reach the market, he emphasized that commercialization requires not only technology but also mindset, infrastructure, and ecosystem support.
Prof. Chakraborty also addressed institutional culture and autonomy, noting that comfort zones often limit innovation. “We feel, in the end, we are on government salary. So we stay in our own comfort zone,” he said, calling for a more proactive approach in governance, teaching, and research.
His message is clear: the future is not just in landing a job, but in creating jobs, building ecosystems, and making meaningful impact. For students, it is a call to embrace entrepreneurship and leadership. For institutions, it signals the need to foster experimentation, value-creation, and resilience. And for policymakers, it underscores the importance of supporting faculty mobility, industry collaboration, and accessible high-quality education in regional languages.
Director Chakraborty’s vision challenges the IIT community to rethink success and cultivate a culture where innovation, leadership, and societal impact are at the heart of education.
Sources: Indian Express and IITKGP
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The IITKGP Foundation