Kanpur, August 2 (ANI): Minister of State for Higher Education D. Purandeswari on Saturday inaugurated IIT, Rajasthan at the Campus of IIT, Kanpur today.

In her address Prandeswari said the idea of IIT as an institution of excellence has long been embedded the consciousness of India's educated classes.

She also said: "The U.S. television network CBS recently featured the IITs in its widely watched news programme, "60 Minutes", as "the most important university you've ever heard of." The show's co-host, Leslie Stahl, observed: "Put Harvard, MIT and Princeton together and you begin to get an idea of the status of this school in India."

She further added that "IITs have enjoyed the three basic freedoms of an educational institution: freedom to choose whom to teach, who will teach, and what to teach. The IITs also enjoy full cost budgetary support. The IITs remain successful so long as these amenities continue."

The Minister also said: "In the past few years, IITs have been ranked as the top educational institutions in India and Asia by national and international magazines. However, the only objective ranking of top 500 universities worldwide by research output has been done by Professor Nian Cai Liu and his colleagues at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China. In this list, the only institutions to make it from India are the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. This is indeed, a matter of great pride."

She has invited all the academic community to come forward to give suggestions, proposals for solving the problem of increasing quantity with quality in higher education.

Secretary, Higher Education R.P. Agarwal, Director, IIT, Kanpur and Minister of Education, Rajasthan, Prof. Sanjay Dhande, have attended the occasion. (ANI)