Local Alumni Laud Prof Subbarao, a Founding Pillar of the IITs

By Jawahar Malhotra

SUGAR LAND: When he left India in 1951 to come to the US, “before some of you were even born”, he chuckled, Professor E.C. Subbarao reminisced that “the IITs were not yet born.” The Indian Institute of Technology (a name inaugurated by Mualana Abul Kalam Azad) wasn’t launched, in fact, until 1956 through an act of Parliament of India, though the idea was conceptualized by Sir Ardeshir Dalal in 1946, even before India’s independence.

Subbarao, now 90 years-old, spoke before a room full of IIT alumni, young and old, at a luncheon at the Madras Pavilion restaurant this past Saturday, July 28 afternoon. Now unofficially retired, he had come to visit his two children who live in the US as well as his younger brother Nagraj Eleswarapu who had arranged the reception in his honor. A few of the attendees fondly remembered Dr. Subbarao as their former teacher or as the Dean of IIT Kanpur for 18 years until 1981.

Subbarao was born in Narsapur, Andhra Pradesh, in 1928 and educated in a village without electricity or running water. He walked two miles to school and studied with a kerosene lamp, He excelled in studies and received his BSc. Tech degree from Banaras Hindu University.

He had come to the US to earn a Master’s degree from the University of Washington, Seattle and a PhD. from the Pennsylvania State University. He stayed on to work as a research engineer at the Westinghouse Research Laboratories, Pittsburgh, PA from 1956 to September 1963, a date set by his wife to return to India “so that our two young kids (then 3 and 4) could be raised there and adjust without difficulties,” he explained.

It wasn’t till after he returned to India in 1963 that he learned of the newly created IIT Kanpur and joined the faulty as a professor. He became the first Department Head of Metallurgical Engineering, the first Dean of Faculties, and established the Interdisciplinary Centre for Materials Science. He helped the IIT-Kanpur transform into a world class institution. His work was recognized by Fellowships from the three academies of science and engineering in India, and IIT Kanpur’s First Honorary Fellowship in 2006.

Recognizing his skills at institution building, in 1981 Tata Consultancy Services made Subbarao the Founder-Director of the first institution of its kind in India, the Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Pune, a division set up to apply science and technology for the benefit of Indian industry and people.

In the ensuing years, the IITs have grown to ten with another 6 proposed in 2016 by the Indian Parliament. But Subbarao lamented that the growth was hampered by a shortage of land, buildings and teachers. He outlined several ways that India NRIs could help, including taking time off to for a sabbatical to teach at an IIT; invite teachers to spend a summer there, make an endowment to recognize good teachers, encourage faculty to do more research, help faculty to have contact with industry and most importantly, increase the number of faculty.

Asked about the lack of patents by Indian technology schools, Subbarao acknowledged that the country’s academia and industry were not on the same wavelength. “None of the IITs have produced a Nobel Laureate,” he went on, adding that “a committee has been set up to promote the Institutes of Excellence.” He has even written a book, “Eye on Excellence”, on the subject and the IIT’s history, available on Amazon, said Eleswarapu, holding up a copy.

Among the attendees was Abhijit Gadgil, the current President of Pan-IITAGH, Mallik Putcha a retired IITian and education activist; and Dean Sidney Burrus of Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering who briefly lauded IIT’s educational prowess, noting that it needed to expand its graduate programs.