Voices will always hold a special place in my life. Special for the people I met there, the friends I made, the million things I learnt, the journey from being technologically challenged to understanding bits & pieces of it, writing editorials for issues, doing the much needed PR, the Centenary conference and the complete experience of being a Voicean!
During the course of those years, had various opportunities to interact with Prof. Balaram. Had a similar opportunity recently to interview him for the IISc Alumni Global Conference Souvenir. The conference began today. As a member of the Publicity commitee and spearheading the SMC media liaisoning during the conference, am looking forward to hectic 4 days!!
Taking a few minutes to post the interview piece with Balaram Sir.
******************************************************************************************
“Plan for the next 100 years, said
the Institute Alumni”.
-
In Conversation with Padma Bhushan Prof. P.Balaram,
Former Director, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
The infrastructural modernization
that we all have witnessed in the institute in the last few years has been made
possible with tenacious efforts on part from the administration, the faculty,
the alumni and the government. Being at the forefront of it and helping the
institute make that blueprint a reality, Prof. P.Balaram, former Director,
Indian Institute of Science shares with us his thoughts about the
infrastructural modernization and the new campus at Challakere.
The
seed for the infrastructural modernization program was sown back in 2005, when
the Finance Minister announced a grant of 100 crores to the institute during
the budget. With a team of faculty members, Prof. P. Balaram and Prof. N.
Balakrishnan set out to write an infrastructural modernization plan budgeted at
700 crores, to upgrade facilities and labs across the campus. Following several
dialogues with the government, the fund was released and it set the foundation
for the work to begin. Prof. Balaram says that what worked for the institute was
the goodwill and respect that it had earned over the years in bureaucratic and
political circles and
we must not lose that in the future days.
A
holistic approach was adopted, starting with a biodiversity study by Prof.
Rohini Balakrishnan and her students from the Centre for Ecological Sciences,
at the behest of Prof. Balaram. The new plan ensured that all heritage
buildings were left untouched; the ecological balance was maintained and new
buildings were built keeping the modern ethos in mind. The new buildings like
the Centenary Guest House also helped define the land boundaries of the campus,
to ensure that land encroachment incidents like in the 1960s and 70s were
avoided.
The
modernization plan was embraced with great vigour by several departments like
Aerospace, Physics, Biological Sciences and CeNSE; while other departments took
time to warm up to the idea. The achievement lies in the fact that perceptions
of faculty changed over time; in the last ten years, every department on campus
has modernized its facilities and labs. The trickle effect has had an overall
impact in making the campus more modern, facilities wise.
When
asked about the Challakere campus which marks a new chapter for the Institute,
Prof. Balaram shared the important role that the alumni played in this regard.
Recalling fondly the Centenary celebrations, he cites how the alumni with their
deep emotional bond to the institute want it to always be there; become bigger,
better and more famous. “Centenary is the time when the institute must plan for
the next 100 years, said the institute alumni and with their broader view of
things, they also stressed the importance of a new campus”, recalls Prof.
Balaram.
During
the centenary, the State government also got closely involved and about 1500
acres was given to the institute. Challakere will be the research campus that
will house large facilities, an air strip and also labs that require machines
that cannot be housed in the current campus. As India requires much larger
research facilities in the near future, the need is for a symbiotic existence
of a large piece of land, infrastructural strength and intellectual capacities.
In his closing remarks, Prof. Balaram states how the new campus must look at
the next 10-15 years: not inwardly, but at the world and raise the bar and
redefine the role that the Indian Institute of Science can play in the world
research arena.
